Premises liability is the legal term for the financial and legal responsibilities a business has to visitors that get hurt on their property. When a business does not maintain a space appropriately, it may become unnecessarily dangerous for visitors.
Premises liability claims often start when someone slips and falls at a store, but they can arise for all sorts of issues. Inadequate security can also be a form of negligence that leads to premises liability claims when people experience crime at or just outside of a business.
Reasonable foreseeability plays a role in negligence claims
Some crimes would be impossible to prevent, as the criminals go to extreme measures to steal or assault a specific person. Other times, criminals commit what is essentially a crime of convenience, and such offenses are predictable. They will occur at places where there are large numbers of people and lax security measures.
Criminals might target parking lots without security cameras and properties without lighting. Especially in neighborhoods where there is already a notable crime rate, opportunistic crimes are reasonably predictable. Businesses that fail to account for reasonably predictable risks may be negligent and could be liable for the negative impact of their failings on their visitors and customers.
If you believe that better security group practices would have prevented the crime you experienced, you may have grounds for a premises liability claim. So long as other reasonable people agree that the business should have done something more to ensure safety, you may have a claim for negligent security. Learning more about the basics of premises liability claims can help you get compensation when you do get hurt.