Understanding Insurance Terminology

Premises Liability: How Does It Affect Your Parking Garage Attack Case?

19 October 2015 by Vilma Maki

Your job should be a safe place to work, but when someone attacks you in the company's dark parking garage and leaves you battered, bruised and unable to work, fight back with a personal injury attorney. Although assault and battery are criminal cases, you can also bring a case against your employer for premises liability. Premises liability is a branch of personal injury law that deals with the negligent actions of businesses and property owners that lead to some type of injury, such as a physical assault by a criminal or worse. If the personal injury lawyer proves that your employer failed to add the proper security, lighting and other protective measures to the parking garage before your attack, you can win compensation for your injuries.

What's Premises Liability?

Premises liability is one of the toughest areas of personal injury law, because you must prove that someone else caused your injuries and not you. In most cases, the injured party is alone during the time of the attack or accident. However, in your case, you received injuries as a result of your employer's unsafe parking garage. Because of inadequate lighting and security protection, someone was able to attack and injure you at work. 

Proving that your employer's lack of consideration for their employees' safety won't be easy. The attorney will need to request legal permission to examine the parking lot, as well as subpoena camera footage from the garage. If your employer didn't install cameras in the parking garage, your attorney can document this fact in your case file and present it to the court and to the employer's insurance company. 

In most cases, the employer's insurance company is responsible for settling or compensating you for your injuries. One of the things you should understand is that the employer's insurance company may do all it can to avoid compensating you for your injuries. For example, the insurer can say that you entered the parking garage without adequate backup, such as walking with another employee or parking your vehicle closer to the building.

The company can also say that you knew the risks of entering a dark parking garage, which means that you're at fault for your own attack. It's the personal injury attorney's job to prove otherwise and place the blame on the responsible party, which is your negligent employer.

Is Your Employer Negligent for Your Injuries?

Employers should make every effort to provide a safe workplace environment for their employees, including the appropriate lighting for dark areas of the property. Employers should also provide security, such as licensed and trained officers, to patrol the property during all working hours. If your employer doesn't provide a safe working environment inside and outside the building, they're negligent, especially if there's a history of crime, theft or assault on the property.

One of the things the personal injury attorney can do is request police records of any past and present criminal acts that occurred on your job's property. If the attorney finds that the attacks or acts happened due to unsafe situations, such as the dark parking garage or unsupervised parking lot, they can present the evidence in court. The company's insurance company may back down and compensate you, because there's substantial evidence against the employer.

The attorney may also look at a few other things and ask these questions:

• How long has the employer lacked the proper security protection for their employees?
• Is there a workplace violence and protection program in place?
• Are there cameras installed around the grounds, in the building and inside all connecting structures, such as the parking garage? If not, are steps in place to install the proper security measures in the near future?

If the employer can't provide the answers to the questions above, the personal injury attorney will most likely win your case right away. But you must speak to the attorney for more information about your case, including how long it takes to win your case.

For more assistance about your premises liability case, consult a personal injury attorney, such as J D'Agostino & Associates, P.C., immediately.

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