How Can a Hotel Negligence Attorney Help Crime Victims?

Our hotel negligence attorneys can help crime victims hold hotel and motel operators liable for inadequate security for their guests. Learn more.

Ghost in the Hallway

When you are traveling, your hotel room becomes your temporary home. You have the right to expect to be safe from attack by criminals at this temporary home.

Criminals can easily harm hotel guests if the owner has failed to take steps to keep the property safe. All too often parking decks, hallways, and other common areas are poorly lit, inviting in a criminal who depends on darkness. There are often no security guards – or the guards are not properly trained. Security cameras aren’t monitored, or exterior locks or fences are inadequate to keep out intruders.

We help crime victims hold hotel and motel operators liable for inadequate security for their guests. We have helped many victims obtain some of the highest verdicts and settlements in the State of Georgia and the Southeast. If you or a loved one has been the victim of assault, rape or other violent crime while staying in a hotel or motel, contact our firm today or call us at (770) 394-9000 to learn more about your legal rights.

When is a Hotel Liable

Hotels and motels are expected to be safe places where you can rest and relax during your travel. Unfortunately, staying in a hotel room can often be the most dangerous part of the trip.

Hotels can be held liable when their guests are injured on hotel property. These civil claims are often called premises liability. Under Georgia law, property owners can be held liable for injuries caused by criminal activity on the hotel premises.

In these cases, when a guest brings a claim against a motel or hotel, it is typically for negligence. That means the motel or the hotel failed act reasonably to protect their guests from crime.

Hotel Security Measures

Hotels and motels have to take measures and provide adequate security to ensure their guests’ safety. Some of these measures include:

  • Keeping the premises safe from dangers including criminal attack
  • Ensuring their guests can enter and exit the hotel safely
  • Setting up and monitoring security cameras
  • Hiring a third party security company to patrol
  • Installing controlled access systems including door prop alarms
  • Establishing policies and procedures for hotel staff that include:
    • Frequently inspecting all areas of the hotel
    • Monitoring all entry points
    • Maintaining a key control system
    • Enforcing criminal trespass warnings

However, many hotels and motels fail to keep their guests safe. Inadequate security measures often put hotel or motel guests at a greater risk of becoming a victim of criminal activity and being injured.

Proving Hotel Negligence and Liability

If a hotel doesn’t provide safe conditions for their guests and their negligence results in injury to a guest, they might be liable for negligence in a personal injury case under a premises liability theory of liability. That means victims can pursue compensation for suffered injuries and resulting damages.

For a personal injury premises liability claim to be successful, the victim needs a hotel negligence lawyer who is experienced in discovering facts that can be used as evidence to prove all the elements of the negligence claim.

In order to succeed on a claim, the victim must prove that the hotel or the motel had or should have had knowledge of the dangerous condition and could have prevented or reduced the

likelihood of the criminal attack by implementing safety measures, which sometimes may have been as simple as warning the victim of the danger known to the premises owner. It also must be shown that the injuries and damages suffered were caused by the hotel’s failure to exercise reasonable care to keep the premises safe, such as preventive safety measures.

There are many ways a hotel or a motel can be responsible for criminal attacks resulting in injuries and damages to their guests. If the facts support a claim of negligence, then a guest who was the victim of a criminal attack, or their surviving loved one, can file a civil lawsuit and pursue monetary compensation for their injuries and damages. Our hotel negligence attorneys can help.

 

See how we can help today.

Please call (770) 394-9000 to schedule a free initial consultation, or contact our lawyers directly through the email form.



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