A property owner is responsible for maintaining adequate lighting to discourage assaults

In most cases property owners are required to provide reasonable security measures to people who are lawfully on their property; however, they are not compelled to provide specific types of security unless they are required to do so by government regulations, private contracts, or other specific requirements.

What is reasonable when it comes to negligent security depends on many factors, including but not limited to:

  • The location of the property.
  • How the property is used.
  • The cost of specific security measures.
  • What other similarly used properties in similar locations are doing to provide security.

It is also important to consider all of the security measures together to determine if reasonable security was in place at the time that an attack or an assault occurred.

Lighting Is Often Important

While we can’t tell you that lack of adequate lighting is always proof of negligent security, it may be relevant to your claim and it should be discussed with your attorney as soon as possible. Adequate lighting is often part of a reasonable security plan because it is a low-cost measure that deters would-be criminals from attacking or assaulting people.

If you have been attacked or assaulted, then you need to know what type of lighting was in place—and functioning properly—at the time that you were hurt. You do not want to give the property owner time to install new lighting or to fix lighting that was not working at the time that you were hurt.

Accordingly, we encourage you to save any photographs or video that you have from the time of your attack and to act quickly so that your lawyer can preserve any relevant evidence and find out the state of lighting on the property at the time that you were injured.

You can reach an experienced negligent security lawyer at any time by calling us directly at 1-800-800-5678 or by starting a live chat with us on this website.

Jason F. Abraham
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Helping car accident and personal injury victims throughout Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa since 1993.