Negligent security claims arise when a person is injured because a property owner failed to provide reasonable protection against foreseeable criminal activity. These cases often involve assaults, robberies, shootings, attacks in parking lots, apartment building incidents, hotel crimes, bar or nightclub violence, and injuries at shopping centers.
In New Jersey, a property owner is not automatically responsible for every crime that happens on the property. The key question is whether the danger was reasonably foreseeable and whether the owner failed to take reasonable steps to reduce that risk. In Clohesy v. Food Circus Supermarkets, the New Jersey Supreme Court recognized that a business may have a duty to provide some measure of security when criminal harm to customers is foreseeable under the totality of the circumstances.
What Negligent Security Can Look Like
Negligent security may involve poor lighting, broken locks, missing security cameras, unlocked entrances, lack of security guards, failure to monitor parking lots, broken gates, ignored complaints, or failure to warn visitors about known dangers. For example, if an apartment building has repeated break-ins and the landlord fails to repair an exterior door lock, that may support a negligent security claim if a tenant is later attacked.
The required security depends on the property and the risk. A small store, a nightclub, a large parking garage, and an apartment complex may all have different security needs. The law generally looks at what was reasonable under the circumstances, not whether the property owner could have prevented every possible crime.
Foreseeability Is the Central Issue
Foreseeability is often the most disputed part of a negligent security case. An injured person may need to show that the property owner knew or should have known about a risk of criminal activity. Evidence may include prior crimes on the property, police calls, tenant complaints, employee reports, broken security equipment, neighborhood crime patterns, or prior similar incidents.
A property owner may argue that the crime was sudden, unexpected, or impossible to prevent. The injured person may respond by showing that warning signs existed before the incident and that the owner failed to act.
Evidence That Can Help a Claim
Strong evidence is important in negligent security cases. Useful evidence may include police reports, surveillance footage, photos of lighting or broken locks, maintenance records, security logs, prior complaints, witness statements, incident reports, and records of earlier crimes. It is also important to preserve video quickly because many businesses delete or overwrite surveillance footage after a short period.
Medical records are also necessary to connect the attack to the injuries being claimed. These claims may involve physical injuries, emotional trauma, lost wages, and long-term medical treatment.
Comparative Negligence in New Jersey
New Jersey follows a modified comparative negligence rule. An injured person may still recover compensation if their own negligence was not greater than the negligence of the defendant or defendants, but any recovery can be reduced by the injured person’s share of fault.
Final Thoughts
Negligent security claims in New Jersey can be complex because they involve both premises liability and criminal conduct by a third party. The main issue is usually whether the property owner had enough warning of the danger and failed to take reasonable security measures.