PARKING LOT SECURITY CLAIM

PARKING LOT SECURITY CLAIMS

A. Incidence of Parking Lot Security Claims

"A study conducted by Liability Consultants, Inc. of Sudbury, Massachusetts. The study of more than 1,000 premises liability lawsuits between 1992 and 2001 revealed that in almost one-third of all the cases reviewed the basis of the suit was a murder, rape, robbery or assault that occurred in a parking lot or garage. Those lots and garages included those such as might be found at an office building, plant, retail establishment, and also pay-for-park lots and garages open to the public." www.security-expert.org/parkinglots.htm

B. Legal Standard

The standard in New Jersey is as follows.

The owner/operator of a business owes a duty of reasonable care to its customers. to provide a reasonably safe place to use the premises, i.e. shop, conduct business, and enter the building. It is a duty to take steps that are reasonable and prudent under all the circumstances The duty owed requires the owner/operator to exercise ordinary care to protect customers from potential injury inflicted by individuals that the owner/operator could have reasonably foreseen might be present on the premises. This legal duty of care does not make the owner guarantors of a patron’s, safety. However, if criminal activity on the premises is reasonably foreseeable, then the business has a duty to take reasonable steps to protect its customers from that danger.

When determining whether or not criminal activity on defendant’s property was reasonably foreseeable, you may consider the following factors: prior criminal acts that occurred on or around defendant’s property even if not as bad as the one committed against the plaintiff; the property’s size and location; the absence of adequate security; the architectural design of the building in relation to the area where the crime occurred (for example: the size of the parking lot); the type of business defendant operates; the nature and circumstances of nearby businesses; and the increasing level of crime in the general neighborhood. You, the jury, must look at the totality of the circumstances to decide whether or not the defendant should have reasonably foreseen the danger. New Jersey Model Jury Charge.

To summarize: if the place or character of the defendant’s business, including notice of prior criminal activity in the area, is such that a reasonably prudent e of business would anticipate criminal actions by third persons against a patron then defendant had a duty to take reasonable precautions against that danger. A failure to take such measures would constitute negligence.

C. Security Precautions

1. Closed circuit television monitoring and Ppersonal surveillance :

"In many garages, access to the garage can be controlled or closely monitored. A parking attendant can view the occupants of cars entering and leaving, and a closed circuit television (CCTV) camera can record license numbers and drivers' faces … both major deterrents to criminals.To limit access to garages, ground-level doors away from any parking attendant must not be accessible from the exterior of the building, nor should there be any openings in the building walls within 15 feet of the ground through which a person could enter. Where possible, vehicle entry and exit should be limited to a single entry, or adjacent entry points.

The threat to persons and property in covered/enclosed parking garages can be very high. Isolated floors and locations often make effective surveillance or monitoring difficult; however, live and recorded CCTV monitoring can reduce the risk (Note: If the CCTV cameras are not monitored live and instead only recorded for later review and prosecution, prominent signage should state this so that customers do not rely, to their detriment, on cameras which they think are being monitored and will produce immediate help)." www.security-expert.org/parkinglots.htm

2. Emergency Call Boxes

3. Proper lighting, Adequate lighting not only helps people recognize and avoid dangers, but also in many cases it deters criminals by creating in them the fear of detection, identification and apprehension." "Interior garage lighting should be a minimum of six foot-candles (measured both vertically and horizontally) throughout the garage, 24 hours per day. Sunlight seldom enters garage interiors, and cannot be relied upon for lighting." www.security-expert.org/parkinglots.htm

D. Potential Defendants

The owner of the premises is the first defendant. Sometimes a separate company is assigned security and will also have responsibility and liability for failures.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE OF THIS LAW OFFICE

Howard A. Gutman has been handling personal injury claims and other types of litigation for over 15 years. Prior to establishing his practice, Mr. Gutman was employed by one of the leading law firms in New Jersey and a prominent international law firm located in the Wall Street area. He has appeared on Good Day New Jersey been interviewed by NBC Nightly News and Newsday, and his cases have been profiled in the Star Ledger, Bureau of National Affairs Magazine, and New York Times.

HOW DO I CONTACT YOU

Law Offices of Howard A. Gutman,
230 Route 206 (near Routes 80 and 46)
Mount Olive, New Jersey 07836 Directions to our office
(973) 598-1980,
E-mail Howian@aol.com Fax (973)209-4091

New York Office
305 Madison Avenue, Suite 449
New York, New York 10165 (212) 886-4838 (please call our NJ office for initial consultations)

FREE INITIAL CONSULTATION

We offer a free initial telephone consultation to discuss your case. Please feel free to call or e-mail our office.

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