In Florida, the law requires business and apartment owners and operators to take precautions to protect their business invitees, that is, their paying customers, from crime which is foreseeable. Basically this means, businesses must keep abreast of crime on and around their property; and, depending upon that level of crime over the past couple of years, take reasonable measures to deter and prevent future crime from occurring. One of the most valuable tools for business owners is the FBI crime report, which is based upon actual police reports from every police department across the United States. Also, in Miami and the surrounding communities of Fort Lauderdale, Pembroke Pines and Hollywood, most local police departments have readily accessible on-line instant crime data.

While a responsible business owner will regularly monitor the crime reports, so as to change the level of protection they provide for their customers, too many businesses bury their head in the sand and purposefully ignore the crime report and their customers’ safety. By reviewing nearby crime, a business owner who is concerned about the customers may justifiably install additional lighting, add video surveillance cameras, locked gates, fencing and armed guards. Florida law does not require every business to enact all of the various types of crime prevention techniques, but only those which are reasonable for their property based upon the history of crime on and around their premises. Also, the law does not require a small mom and pop type business to have the same level of crime prevention as a large apartment complex, such as a government subsidized section 8 type property, or a large gas station. Larger businesses generally have more resources to provide a higher level of crime deterrence than small less profitable ones.

Just as the rising number of murders and other violent crimes should be a warning to business owners, the U.S. Justice Department is understandably concerned with the rising crime rate. Understandably, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch voiced her concerns about how growing violent crime “tears at the fabric of our common life.”

Given the timing of the release of this report, on the eve of the first presidential debate, we have no doubt that each candidate will try to politicize the rising violent crime rate. However, to personal injury attorney Joseph Lipsky, who has helped dozens of innocent victims of violent crime hold business and apartment owners accountable for placing their profits over people, by failing to provide adequate security, this report should be a wake-up call for business owners.

An intruder attacked our client while she was on the apartment’s property. The intruder was able to access the apartment complex due to their failure to have the appropriate deterring fences, failing to have a security guard on the property 24 hours a day, and by failing to inform the residents that there had been over 150 incidents of crime or police activity on the property for the prior three years.

After litigating the case for over two years, we went to trial because the apartment company failed to make an offer on the case. After hearing all of the evidence, including the multiple failures of the management company’s employees to follow their company’s internal policies and procedures, the jury determined that the management company negligent.

This case shows why hard work and faith in the jury system pays off.

It seems the attacks began once the casino stopped using off-duty Broward County Sheriff’s deputies to provide security. Not surprisingly, none of the attacks were captured by any of the casino’s security cameras. As we too often see, the casino purposefully chose to only meet the requirements of their state licensing agreement, which only spell out a minimum level of security.

Too often in our practice we see businesses doing the bare minimum to protect their customers, rather than doing something which may cost slightly more, but would certainly add an extra measure of necessary protection to their patron. Certainly casinos who not only invite their customers to their properties, but encourage them to bring money to gamble, should do more to protect those customers.

Unfortunately, these types of incidents occur frequently at clubs and bars that negligently disregard their responsibility to provide proper security. In our practice we have seen too many premises liability cases in which club owners, looking to make a quick buck, disregard the safety of their paying patrons by failing to hire enough or properly qualified security guards.

Florida Law provides recourse to such injured customers, and their surviving family members, by requiring businesses to take reasonable steps to protect their customers from known or likely dangers. These dangers include attacks by other patrons and from people who are looking to rob customers as they enter or leave the businesses or use ATMs. In many situations, a review of the criminal history of a particular location will reveal that the business disregarded past criminal attacks and subjected their customers to a foreseeable criminal attack.

We can only hope that those businesses who benefit from their customers, will use some of their profits to take the necessary steps to deter these types of tragedies in the future.