Maison Law represents the victims of premises liability negligence in California, including those hurt at colleges and universities due to negligent security. Our negligent security lawyers help the victims of criminal acts occurring in dorms to earn the support they need to make a full recovery. Please contact us for a free, no-obligation consultation. It’s a no-risk opportunity to find out what your injury and terrifying ordeal should be worth and how to hold a college or university fully responsible.
Do I Need a Lawyer After Becoming the Victim of an Attack on Campus?
If you or a loved one were seriously hurt during a criminal attack on campus and inside dorms, you should stay informed of how a college or university could be held financially responsible. You should speak to a California negligent security lawyer about your options.
California empowers the victims of physical assaults and sexual assaults to hold those who allowed an attack to occur liable. This would include the boards of trustees and religious groups that own and operate private colleges. This liability may also apply to the State of California which runs statewide universities. Their lawyers will work hard to keep these educational institutions from having to accept financial responsibility. Your lawyer is your safeguard against their tactics and works to maximize the settlement money you receive for your suffering.
What Is Negligent Security?
Negligent security falls under California’s premises liability laws. Basically, if you are the victim of a criminal attack while on someone’s property, you may be able to hold that property owner liable for the damages. As long as the property owner could have foreseen the danger and did nothing to prevent it, victims can ask the property owner, or an institution like a school, for help in recovery.
You or your college-aged child could seek full reimbursement for their medical bills while in recovery. You could also seek support for non-economic damages such as emotional trauma suffered in the attack.
College and University Liability for Negligent Security Injuries
Colleges and universities are held responsible for more than providing education and cashing checks from the parents of students. They are legally required to show a “duty of care” towards all students, faculty, staff, and visitors. They must act to keep everyone safe while on school property and in campus living quarters.
With dorm life especially, students must be protected as much as possible from criminal attacks such as physical assaults and sexual assaults. That means safeguarding students and their guests as they travel from parking lots and parking garages, into dormitories. They must remain totally safe while they are in their rooms and bathrooms.
When the carelessness or inaction of the dormitory staff or campus police allows someone to get hurt, the suspect will hopefully be apprehended and face criminal charges. However, the institution itself can also be held liable for the victim’s injuries if they were guilty of negligent security that permitted the criminal to gain access to the victim.
These and other acts of negligence can leave schools fully liable when criminal activity causes students harm:
- Open doors and unlocked windows. Broken locks.
- Broken alarms on doors.
- Malfunctioning security cameras.
- Not enough lighting in parking lots, along sidewalks between buildings, and outside entrances.
- Inadequate staff on front desks allowing non-residents in.
- Untrained security guards.
- Inadequate number of security and campus police officers.
- Inadequate measures to keep students safe from other students. The possibility of physical attacks and sexual assault by the staff, faculty, and visitors.
- Failure to warn students and parents of known safety hazards in high-crime areas or recent criminal attacks.
- Exposing students to a roommate with a violent past, missed in a background check.
These and other failures on the part of the school would leave a school board, a religious organization, or the state government responsible for the hardships victims faced in recovery. Those damages can include every medical bill the victim receives or will receive in the future. The lost income the victim may have lost while in recovery should be reimbursed. The victim must also receive support for the physical pain endured and the emotional trauma that may linger after a frightening encounter and attack.
What Should You Do If Your Child is Hurt in an Accident Involving Negligent Security While Away at College?
Having a child who is the victim of an attack in a dorm or on campus can be an especially difficult situation if you are the child’s parent. You may not be able to be there for your child immediately after an incident. The student may be far away from home.
If you are nearby when a negligent security situation occurs you should try to gather a bit of evidence on your own before a college staff is able to fix or repair obvious security issues. If you can’t be there with your child soon afterward, you should advise your student to collect this and other evidence.
- Report the incident – Notify the school, campus police, and dorm leaders about the incident. Police will construct a police report and school leaders may want to prepare an incident report. Hopefully, your or your child’s statements lead to an arrest. Provide officers with details of what happened and express your concerns about the negligent security measures. Those problems should be fixed before anyone else gets hurt.
- Seek medical attention – Call for an ambulance if you are hurt. Get checked out fully by paramedics and go to the hospital if necessary. If you must leave, have someone with you or a friend collect details on the scene for you.
- Take photos of the scene – Show evidence of negligent security like a broken door or window, or a non-functioning surveillance camera. Take photos of any visible injuries.
- Get witness contact information – You will turn witness phone numbers and addresses over to your personal injury lawyer so your lawyer can obtain testimony.
- Cooperate with the school – Cooperate with any investigations or procedures the school initiates. Ask to be informed of their internal protocols for addressing such incidents.
- See your family doctor – Go to your own doctor, even if you’ve been to the emergency room. Get any new pain that arises in the days after an incident checked out. Follow your doctor’s recommendations for seeing specialists and attending physical therapy.
- Reach out to a California negligent security lawyer – You can sign away your rights to get yourself or a child support during a difficult recovery. It’s important to have a legal representative on your side to make sure a negligent school is held fully accountable for its recklessness towards students and guests.
Complexity of Filing Negligent Security Claims Against Universities
The process to sue a state school or a public school can be very tricky. Government-operated universities and schools that receive government funding are usually protected by special laws that make it harder to file claims.
In many cases, you’d have to send a letter of intent to the State of California announcing your desire to file a lawsuit. Then, in some cases, you’d only be able to file the lawsuit if the school permitted you to file.
The other factor making a lawsuit more difficult is that there may be a shorter statute of limitations on your claim. You may have to file within months instead of the two-year deadline that applies to most normal personal injury claims. It’s important to speak with a skilled California premises liability lawyer about your case so you don’t go past these deadlines and lose your chance to seek compensation.
You should also be aware that a big college or university will be able to afford a team of lawyers. They’ll work to find ways to downgrade your case and your injuries. It’s an effort so the school’s liability insurance provider has to pay out as little as possible or nothing at all. It’s critical to have a lawyer working on your side who is not afraid to take on large entities like colleges to secure what is fair for clients.
Will My Negligent Security Case Have to Wait Until a Criminal Court Decision?
No. The suspect will be facing a criminal trial at some point, but you don’t have to wait on a verdict to file your claim against a college. Your negligent security lawsuit against a university will be a civil case and it won’t depend on the criminal trial.
You and your lawyer can file a claim as soon as all the evidence is in place. The criminal trial will be separate and doesn’t need to have been resolved for you to win a civil case and get the support you need.
Contact Maison Law After a California Negligent Security Accident at College
If you or your child are the victims of a criminal attack while in a dorm or anywhere else on campus, Contact Maison Law to understand your rights after such a traumatic incident. We offer a free case consultation to students and their families. It’s a no-risk way to find out how to hold an educational institution responsible for negligent security that leads to an attack. There’s no obligation for this free case review, but if you decide we can help you hold a school responsible, you won’t need any upfront money. We work on a contingency basis. It means we don’t get paid unless we win your case for you. Then our fee comes out of the settlement check a university provides to you and your family.
