By Francis M. Smith

When most people hear the phrase, “premises liability suit,” they tend to think of slippery floors and cracked sidewalks resulting in patrons falling and being injured. The deliberate criminal actions of another private individual seldom conjure the notion of liability on the part of the property owner in an observer’s mind. However, every property owner has a duty of care toward visitors and patrons to maintain the premises in a reasonably safe condition to minimize the risk of foreseeable harm, and that includes providing adequate security measures in locations where patrons and visitors might be vulnerable to crime.

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By Francis M. Smith

Business owners have a duty of care toward their visitors: they must take steps to remedy any dangerous conditions on their property that they know about, as well as any dangerous conditions that they should know about as a result of reasonably careful maintenance of the property. Sometimes, however, the dangers that threaten to injure visitors to the property are not just slippery floors or icy steps. Some of the more devastating injuries that can befall visitors are suffered at the hands of other people in acts of violent crime – and for premises liability purposes, reasonably foreseeable criminal activity committed by a third party may count as a dangerous condition that a property owner has a duty to rectify through implementing reasonable security measures.

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By Francis M. Smith

When you sustain injuries on a premises owned or controlled by someone else, there are specific circumstances under which that person or organization may be held liable for the costs of your injuries. The duty of care that property managers owe to invitees who are on their property for legitimate purposes is high: if the property manager knows about, or should reasonably know about, a hazardous condition or situation on their property, they are obligated to take steps to reduce or eliminate the danger. If they fail to do this, they could be found negligent and forced to pay damages to a visitor who trusted the property manager to keep the premises safe and was injured as a result. The archetypal example of negligence involves a slip and fall accident due to a section of cracked pavement or a spill that was not cleaned up in a timely manner, but these are not the only dangers that a visitor to a property might face.

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