Archive for the ‘Unsafe Premise’ Category
Other Attorneys Refused the Case Hausmann-McNally Recovers $310,000
August 30th, 2010 | 
Author: In November of 2005, a young man was helping an individual who was repairing his home. He was mounting a ladder when it slipped and he fell to the ground head first. As a result, he suffered serious brain injury.
He lost much of his memory and thought-processing ability. Doctors could not promise full recovery. He was unable to work for an extended period and felt pretty hopeless about his future.
The first two attorneys he contacted flatly refused to take the case. They felt it was hopeless because it appeared most difficult to establish liability in the situation.
Charles Hausmann, president of Hausmann-McNally, S.C., felt this man deserved his day in court. Hausmann-McNally agreed to take the case. The firm’s attorneys and investigators thoroughly examined the circumstances of the incident. The firm located and retained the services of a noted ladder expert, who reported to them that the specific ladder used was clearly meant to be tied down and braced as outlined by the OSHA instructions. The process to bring the matter to justice included numerous depositions and motions by the defendant’s insurance company to avoid its responsibility for paying the claim. After a complicated series of procedures, the injured man agreed to accept a settlement in the amount of $310,000. He is now taking college-level courses and rebuilding his life after the accident.
The case was settled before it went to trial in Dane County Circuit Court. Attorney William Smoler represented the young man and worked to help assemble the case. Smoler is the head of the Madison office for Hausmann-McNally, S.C.
Posted in Unsafe Premise | 
Tags: Charles Hausmann, Hausmann McNally, Personal Injury, Unsafe Premise | 
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The Police Can’t Do It Alone- Businesses Have To Do Their Part says Attorney Charles Hausmann
MILWAUKEE, WI- Every week I read stories about shootings at bars and gas stations, beatings in business parking lots, sexual assaults in apartment buildings and a variety of violent actions perpetrated upon our citizenry. Try as they may the police cannot be everywhere and be the sole solution to the surge of violence and assaults that permeate our society.
We live in an era of insecurity where citizens are clamoring for and demanding security. We are willing to wait through long lines at airports to be screened by the TSA and demand that our government increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the no fly list. There is a national debate about the security of our borders and the dangers of criminal elements illegally entering our country. While all these security issues make national headlines we as citizens are much more likely to be killed on the streets of our cities, assaulted in a neighborhood grocery store parking lot, beaten in our local bar or mugged at an ATM machine making a cash withdrawal than harmed by an international terrorist.
Recently our firm, Hausmann-McNally, S.C., has taken up the cause of premises security and has successfully resolved cases where individuals were unnecessarily harmed as a result of inadequate and insufficient security at local businesses.
In an effort to assist local businesses in planning and instituting proper security to protect their patrons and visitors, Attorney Charles J. Hausmann of Hausmann-McNally, S.C. in conjunction with security consultant Jon C. Paul, CPP (Board Certified in Security Management) developed a security checklist and outline to assist business owners meet their security responsibilities to keep their patrons as safe as the premises reasonably permit. Businesses should consider the following suggestions as a good start in helping to keep patrons safe in these turbulent-violent times, Attorney Charles J. Hausmann recommends:
- Businesses should partake of a formalized security assessment process, to identify reasonably foreseeable threats and risks and serve as the basis for determining reasonable security measures – one of the methods for determining the types of problems that can be reasonably anticipated at any particular place of business is a review of security-related problems and criminal offenses reported both at the specific place in question and in the immediate geographic area surrounding the place of business.
- Business premises should be properly maintained and kept in good general repair to provide an inviting environment for legitimate patrons and to discourage opportunities for criminal or inappropriate behaviors- in too many situations premises remain unkempt, have unsecured trash areas and excess liter, have non-functioning lighting, and generally create and allow an environment suitable for criminal and inappropriate behaviors.
- The business premise should have adequate and sufficient lighting, to provide an area bright enough to deter criminal or inappropriate activity, to make accurate observations and identifications, and/or to facilitate appropriate use of surveillance cameras- premises should have adequate lighting so that criminals cannot lurk in darkness and lighting should be bright enough that security cameras will create images that will be useful in making identifications of criminal actors.
- Video surveillance equipment should be properly utilized to assure that all premise areas are covered by cameras, to assure that cameras are routinely monitored by employees so they can quickly and accurately detect criminal or inappropriate activity in order to provide appropriate and timely response, and to assure that cameras and monitoring equipment are highly visible to serve as a deterrent to criminal or inappropriate activity.
- Appropriate signage should be prominently displayed to advise patrons and others of the kinds of behaviors that will not be tolerated, to publish the security measures in place to serve as a deterrent to criminal or inappropriate activity and to warn of the penalties for engaging in criminal or inappropriate activity on the business premises.
- Security personnel should be adequately screened, trained, supervised and deployed to serve as a visible deterrent, to provide appropriate, timely and efficient response to problems which may occur and to provide a source of credible information to police officers who respond to problems.
There is no single measure or strategy that in and of itself provides adequate and significant security. Rather, it is a comprehensive and integrated security plan that identifies threats and risks and employs a variety of countermeasures and strategies commensurate with those threats and risks that are needed to create an environment that does not invite criminal or inappropriate activities. Business owners who advertise, invite and solicit customers and patrons to visit their place of business and spend their hard earned money have a responsibility to know the dangers and threats of the neighborhood and their premises to adequately and appropriately provide security to protect their patrons from reasonably anticipated risks of harm.
Posted in Community Service, Hausmann McNally, Unsafe Premise |
Tags: Charles Hausmann, Hausmann McNally, Jon C. Paul, Local Businesses, Unsafe Premise |
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Businesses May be Responsible for Violence on their Premises says Attorney Charles Hausmann
MILWAUKEE, WI–The Milwaukee law firm of Hausmann-McNally, S.C. is currently working with clients whose loved ones were injured or killed in places where there was no security or inadequate or inept security.
The law is clear, says firm President Attorney Charles J. Hausmann, “If a business invites you to spend money there, shop, eat, drink or use its services, it also has a responsibility to take reasonable care that you are safe. Customers minding their own business have been victims of robberies, shootings, rapes, attacks and homicides.” Business owners need to take reasonable care to ensure against foreseeable events, Hausmann contends.
One way to determine if a violent event was foreseeable is to check police records to see if there have been incidents in or around that business before. But that can be deceiving because some businesses avoid calling the police, even when it is warranted, because they are trying to keep a “clean” record. A better measure of the safety of an area is looking at the overall crime statistics for the neighborhood and the district.
Hausmann-McNally advises: What you don’t know can hurt you
Business and property owners need to understand that contracting someone to do security does not absolve them from responsibility for death and injuries on their property. Hiring someone big and burly to stand at the door is not adequate. All security firms are not alike. Proper selection of employees, adequate training and the establishment of meticulous procedures for searching customers as they enter (if the business location is dangerous) are all called for. If security is lax, a property or business owner may be found negligent in a civil injury or wrongful death suit which often carries a large financial penalty for them and/or their insurance carrier.
In a recent suits brought or investigated by Hausmann-McNally, some facts became evident.
- Many central city business owners—especially rough taverns in rough neighborhoods–do not provide adequate security for their customers
- Customers’ safety is at risk if the neighborhood or the establishment itself has a history of violence
- Some taverns do not call police when they should in order to keep their record clean
- Some tavern owners look the other way when patrons use drugs, abuse alcohol or carry weapons.
- Sometimes the door guard accepts a “tip” for skipping the search.
- Security guards—if not property screened and trained–do not necessarily provide adequate security
- Some guards do not check patrons carefully, they assume that regular customers are OK or give favors to “special” people
- Police and civic actions do not seem to be able to stem the violence in and around problematic central-city taverns. It is up to customers to take their business where they are safe, and for owners and managers to institute and maintain their own business security personnel and procedures.
What to watch out for
- Taverns or establishments that have a history of violence
- Gas stations where the guards watch over the owner’s property but not people outside at the pump and parking areas.
- ATM machines that are not in public view and well-lit
- Store parking lots that are dark and unattended
- Any commercial building where there are hazards to customers
In addition to criminal action against those that commit violent acts, there are financial penalties for negligent business owners who disregard their customers’ safety. A judgment in favor of the injured or deceased sends a message that citizens will no longer tolerate businesses that offer inadequate security.
“If the police don’t scare business owners into providing adequate security, perhaps hitting them in the pocketbook will,” says Charles Hausmann, president of Hausmann-McNally, S.C. The firm has been serving the community for over 35 years.