Premises liability is about more than a wet floor — it can also mean a property owner who failed to keep people safe. In this video, Keith E. Galliher, Jr., founder and principal attorney of The Galliher Law Firm in Las Vegas, explains how negligent security cases fit within this area of law.
Using a real case involving an elderly tenant attacked at an under-secured apartment complex, Galliher shows how a property owner’s choice to cut corners on security can leave residents exposed to serious harm. With decades of Nevada personal injury experience, he explains why these cases are more common than many people realize — and how The Galliher Law Firm holds property owners accountable when profit is put ahead of safety.
Transcript
Well, we won’t talk about slip and fall — that is a premises liability case, as you correctly pointed out. Premises liability cases can also be negligent security cases, or lack-of-security cases. For example, I have one right now where I have an elderly woman who was beaten up by a group of juveniles from a high school, because they congregated in her apartment complex — jumping up and down on picnic benches, disturbing the neighbors, throwing rocks, and being generally disruptive. She, of course, called them on it, said, “You guys need to settle down,” at which time they attacked her.
Well, they felt free to do that because there was no security. The apartment complex had 340 units. They charged a lot of money for their units. They spent $1,500 a month on security, which was simply, “Let’s drive by a couple of times a day — not enter the premises, just drive by, and that’s all we’re going to do.” So these young people that beat her up, they didn’t have anything to fear. There was nobody on the premises. There was no security guard with a taser, or with some type of a camera, or whatever it may be, to shoo them off the property. As a result, this woman suffered some very severe injuries. That’s the result of an apartment complex that does not consider the safety of its tenants — they’re more interested in their own profits. So that’s a different type of premises liability case, but believe it or not, even in Las Vegas, these are a lot more common than you might think.
