August 31, 2022 | By Greene Broillet & Wheeler
When attending an event, such as a concert or festival, guests can assume that the venue has taken the necessary precautions to ensure guest safety.
In this blog post, we will discuss whether or not event security has a duty to keep attendees safe. If an event organizer does not take reasonable steps to prevent physical injuries, then you may have a premises liability case against them.
Whenever you are invited on to a property for an event (whether you paid a ticket or are an invited guest), California law imposes a duty on the people who own the property and who run the event to take reasonable steps to keep you safe. If they do not take these steps, and you are injured as a result, then you may have a case against them.
To win a premises liability case, you must prove that the organizer or landowner knew or should have known about the hazardous condition that caused your injury. For example, if there is a hole in the floor and you fall and are injured, the landowner and the organizer can be held liable if they knew about the hole and did nothing to fix it. (The steps might include discovering the hole, repairing the hole, guarding the hole, and/or warning about the hole.)
Event organizers and property owners are required to take reasonable steps to prevent your injury. For example, if an organizer knows that there will be a large crowd at an event, they should take steps to ensure that the crowd does not become unruly and injure someone. They should also take steps to make sure there is an effective safety/evacuation plan in place. There are many steps that a reasonable owner or organizer should take, so it is important to talk to an experienced attorney to assess everything that could have and should have been done.
One of the ways in which organizers can ensure attendees’ safety is by hiring adequate security and make sure they are properly trained and re-trained. If there are not enough security guards or they are not properly trained, then attendees may be injured as a result.
For example, if a fight breaks out, then security guards have a duty to take all reasonable steps to stop the fight and prevent injury to bystanders if they are able to. Or, if the organizers know from past events that the set up of the event allows criminal activity to take place and does nothing to stop it, they can be held liable if you are injured by that criminal activity.
While we hope that events are always safe and fun for everyone involved, sometimes injuries happen. If you were injured at an event, and you believe that it was due to inadequate security, you should contact an attorney with experience dealing with injuries on properties and event from Greene Broillet & Wheeler, LLP. Oftentimes landowners and event organizers will try to claim that they acted reasonably, or the people attending the events signed a waiver, or that there was no duty for the property owner to act. Oftentimes that is not the case and a skilled attorney knowledgeable in the law can help you navigate around such claims. We will review your case and let you know if you have a valid claim against the organizer of the event.