A security consultant can help attorneys resolve difficult cases through a variety of solutions.  A consultant can interpret video recordings for frame by frame analysis, examine service records to confirm that security equipment has been properly maintained; these and other resources are available to the attorney when seeking the services of a security consultant.

The most used and useful security consulting resource is to define “reasonable care”.  What is “reasonable care”, SDS uses the following definition:

Reasonable care is the degree of caution and concern an ordinarily prudent and rational person would use in similar circumstances. It is a standard used to determine a legal duty and whether such duty was fulfilled.

To assess reasonable care, the consultant must begin with “Foreseeability”.  That is defined as:

The consequences of a parties action or inaction could reasonably result in the injury. In such cases, the resultant injury was reasonably predictable by a person of ordinary intelligence and circumspection as in the case of throwing a heavy object at someone.

The evidence of foreseeability can sometimes be subtle, it always begins with the perception of the occupants of the facility being protected.  From this subjective perspective we move to more objective information such as incident reports maintained by the facility management.  If this information is insufficient we can move to outside sources, usually police reports and finally examinations of other types of businesses in the same area and similar businesses in other areas.

Once the potential for criminal activity is established, the criteria for determining reasonable care is to compare the security measures required in the situation against those that are in place.  Within reason, the differences in needs and performance will define reasonable care.

If you have a case involving injury or death and suspect that a lack of security led to these consequences, contact an SDS security consultant to help you determine if the organization took reasonable care in protecting the safety and security of the staff, customers and visitors.