Were you hurt due to the negligence of a business or property owner in Florida? Check out our negligent security injury tips, then call us.
Mistakes After a Negligent Security Claim
A common mistake that someone may make if they have a negligent security case in Florida is not really realizing they have a negligent security case. A negligent security case is where a property owner, whether it be a gas station or some sort of big-box retailer, know that there are some issues on their property, say with crime. They have violent crimes where they’ve had people mugged or they’ve had shootings, and then they don’t appropriately protect the people that are coming on their property. If they don’t appropriately protect someone and that person is injured, then there’s a case. You see these sort of things happen all the time and the person just thinks, “Well, the person that assaulted me is really the at-fault party,” but, no, the at-fault party can be the actual place of business that you’re going to, where you have an expectation that you’re going to be safe. That’s what a negligent security case is.
Another common mistake is not hiring an attorney right away. In a negligent security case, oftentimes there will be video that will show the incident, if you’re at some sort of business premises where they have video cameras, and the person doesn’t hire an attorney, so we can’t get the appropriate evidence, can’t get the witnesses and statements from them, so we can’t build your case appropriately. You really need to hire an attorney right away that knows what they’re doing.
Case Value
That comes down to multiple factors. First of all, you have to prove that the defendant was in some way negligent; that’s called liability. The way you do that is, say if there’s an assault that happens on a property or if there’s a shooting that happens on a property, you need to look at the history on that property. There are different call logs through different police departments where you can find if there were similar crimes in the past, and that’s kind of how you build your negligent security case. You need an attorney, first of all, that can show you how to do that, that can pull the right documents to be able to prove that the defendant was negligent in some way, that they should have had security on the property because there’s a history of bad behavior on the property.
The second part of that is damages. Damages can be lost wages, pain and suffering, loss of the capacity of the enjoyment of life, and medical bills. All of those factor into determining the value of a case, and the damages portion is a lot about the attorney’s skill in maximizing each of those elements of damages and understanding the history of what has happened in similar cases around the state.
Case Timeline
If we have someone that comes to us with a negligent security case where they were hurt on a property, because the property owner didn’t have proper security and there was an assault or a shooting, something to that effect, they want to know how long that negligent security case is going to take. We tell them that that really depends on a lot of things. First of all, it depends on if the insurance company is going to deny, defend and delay in the case or if they’re going to come with reasonable money quickly, and sometimes they do.
As your attorneys, we can act quickly. We can preserve all the evidence. We can get statements, so we can put together a special damages letter within the first few months after the accident, and we can settle the case. Even when we do that, at times, the insurance company will just deny the case or defend it because they know sometimes attorneys will not put the case into lawsuit or go the next step to recover for their client.
Have you or a loved one been hurt due to the negligence of a business or property owner in Florida and have questions about negligent security injury tips? Contact our experienced Southwest Florida Negligent Security lawyers today for a free consultation and case evaluation.
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