Georgia Cases Show Need, Benefit of Negligent Security Laws

Our Atlanta-based lawyers often handle apartment complex negligent security claims. They say negligent security laws help provide accountability for bad actors and make communities safer.

News reports today often involve stories of people injured or killed by gun violence in apartment complexes, especially in major cities like Atlanta. Unfortunately, shootings occur so frequently that people sometimes shrug them off. In Atlanta this past spring, violent incidents at apartment complexes included the shooting of a one-month-old, a man gunned down in his car, a shooting event that killed one person and injured another, an April shooting that killed one and injured three and several May shootings.     

Violence like this tends to take place in apartment complexes funded partly by the government. The government helps cover part or all of the rent for people who have trouble paying, like those who are disabled or poor. Residents often include single mothers, veterans and the elderly. 

Government money should provide a safe place for these residents to live. Funds should also be used to ensure surrounding communities are safe, but that is frequently not the case.  

Complex managers may use the money to fix up the apartments in the beginning. As nice as this sounds, they raise the rent, collect more money from the government and then fail to maintain the apartments. Management raises the rent higher and higher while ignoring problems with the property, including crime.

When investigating cases at apartment complexes, Beasley Allen lawyers from our Atlanta office have seen people living in terrible conditions. Some units have no running water, water leaks, no heating and air, exposed electric wires, dangerous electric systems, black mold, ceilings falling in, no fire alarms, carbon monoxide hazards and rats and bugs crawling everywhere. These complexes draw criminals because they assume no one is paying attention.

As crime increases, residents, visitors and the surrounding community face danger. Criminals injure people and sometimes take their lives. Drug and gang activity also keeps new businesses from opening near these complexes. 

Crime often begins when apartment management fails to fix problems. That’s why our lawyers handle negligent security cases, securing millions for victims and their families. Recently, our Atlanta lawyers secured a $160 million verdict and a $26 million settlement, among others, in Georgia negligent security cases.

Making apartment management answer for unsafe complexes decreases crime and saves lives. We will continue our effort to keep apartment residents and surrounding communities safe.