Can I Sue a Bar Owner for being Beaten Up at a Bar?

Were you injured from an assault at a bar, nightclub, restaurant, or similar business in the state of California? You have the right to expect a certain level of safety while you are on someone else’s property. Under California’s law on premises liability, you may be entitled to monetary compensation, which you can recover by filing an assault and battery lawsuit against the bar owner.

In this article, we will go over various subjects about your rights and legal options if you were beaten up at a bar or outside the bar (in the parking lot, on the sidewalk, etc.). As the victim of assault and battery at a bar, you may be eligible to receive monetary damages, such as lost wages, medical expenses, emotional distress, and pain and suffering.

Please note that we can only give general information, so you will need to speak with an assault and battery lawyer to verify whether you have a legal case against the business owner. With decades of experience in lawsuits for physical attacks outside bars and nightclubs, our attorneys are more than ready to assist. Contact Normandie Law Firm and schedule a free case evaluation.

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Can I Sue a Bar Owner for being Beaten Up at the Bar?

Yes, if the bar owner failed to provide you with a reasonably safe environment, you may have the right to sue them for monetary compensation. For example, a failure to provide adequate lighting in the parking lot can result in someone being attacked while they were leaving the bar. Alternatively, you may have been assaulted by another patron, who was clearly out of control with their behavior. If staff at the bar failed to remove the unruly patron and you were assaulted by this person, you may have a case to sue the business.

There are also incidents where bar patrons are beaten up by security guards and other employees. Here, looking into the business’s employment practices (hiring, training, firing etc.) is the best strategy for a lawsuit:

• Did the owner complete a background check on the employee?
• Was there information from the background check that should have kept the worker from being employed?
• Were there signs of aggressive behavior and other red flags that were ignored by the business?
• Did the owner fail to fire someone after they assaulted another patron or staff member?
• Were employees at the bar properly trained in how to defuse potentially violent situations?

What is I was Assaulted Outside the Bar?

Assault and battery at a bar doesn’t just happen inside the property. You can also be assaulted in a bar parking lot or some other outdoor area that is owned / maintained by the business owners. Security in these areas is exceptionally important, considering the increased potential for violence when people have been drinking. Many criminals also take advantage of people who are staggering out of bars, as they are easy targets for muggings, robbery, and other crimes.

In many of the cases we investigate, we find that there has been a history of criminal incidents on the property, yet the owner failed to improve security measures that could have kept prevented another attack. Other places fail to keep up with security methods, like replacing burnt out bulbs in the parking lot or fixing a surveillance camera that isn’t working properly.

Whatever the issue, you can count on our legal team to uncover the truth and bring you justice if you qualify for an assault and battery lawsuit.

How Long Do I have to Sue for Assault and Battery at a Bar?

For incidents of physical assault, you normally have 2 years from the incident date to file a lawsuit. As there is a definitive deadline, please speak with a lawyer right away who is experienced with assault and battery incidents at nightlife establishments. Your lawyer can take immediate action to investigate what happened to you and ensure that a claim is filed before the deadline of 2 years. If you don’t file a lawsuit by this time, the courts will most likely take away your right to sue altogether, so you must take action on an injury claim as soon as possible.

Assault and Battery Lawsuit Case Values

Compensation claims for assault and battery are generally worth between 6 and 7 figures, so even on the lower end, these cases usually result in payouts of $100,000 to $250,000. Many of our clients who were assaulted at nightclubs and bars have received far more – around $400,000 to $3,000,000 based on the physical and emotional harm they endured and the level of negligence by the owner / workers at the bar. At the end of the day, there are many issues that contribute to how much you can ask for in a lawsuit for assault and battery. It’s important that you get this right, as the insurance company will try to pressure you into a lowball settlement that only covers your immediate losses. To discuss how much your lawsuit for assault and battery against a bar owner is worth, please contact our office.

How Long Do these Cases Take to Settle?

An assault and battery lawsuit can take between 6 and 24 months to settle, depending on the injuries you sustained, the amount of compensation you are seeking, the cause of the incident, and many other factors. As most of these are high value cases, they generally take between 1 and 2 years to resolve. Of course, how fast your case will settle may be just a matter of months, but it’s safe to say that owners of bars and nightclubs are hit with quite a lot of these lawsuits. As a result, their insurance company has agents that are skilled at denying liability, trying to blame the victim for what happened, and wearing down the claimant until the give up and accept much less than what they deserve.

With a skilled physical assault at a bar lawsuit lawyer, you can fight back against these tactics and obtain the payment you are entitled to as a victim of assault and battery.

Talk to an Assault and Battery Lawsuit Attorney

No one should have to endure the physical and emotional trauma of being assaulted, but these incidents are very common in nightlife establishments. If the bar owner or their employees failed in their duty of care to you as someone on the property, please talk to a lawyer at our office about the possibility of filing a lawsuit.

Our legal team works on contingency, so you won’t have to worry about how much it will cost you to hire a California assault and battery lawyer. We will add the cost of legal fees on to the settlement you are expected to receive, which means we get our payment at the same time you do. If we are unsuccessful in obtaining your settlement, there is a Zero Fee Guarantee, so you owe us $0 for the cost of legal services.

Contact our law firm today and schedule a free consultation if you were beaten up in at a bar or any other type of commercial property.