Crime victims and their families should be aware they can recover from businesses on whose premises they or a loved one is assaulted or murdered. These lawsuits can be brought against many types of establishments, including apartment buildings, hotels, shopping malls, convenience stores, concert arenas, or amusement parks. The law requires any business that is open to the public to exercise reasonable care to protect patrons from violent criminals. This often means business owners need to provide adequate security, including guards, metal detectors, or surveillance cameras. If, for example, a shopping mall fails to monitor an unlit parking garage, and a patron is murdered or raped there, the shopping mall’s owner may be liable. Before an inadequate security lawsuit against a business will succeed, however, the plaintiff often must show the owner should have reasonably anticipated the crime. In practice, this means a crime victim’s lawsuit against a business owner is more likely to succeed if there is a history of crime on the premises. If a convenience store is repeatedly robbed, yet the owner fails to install cameras or hire security guards, and a patron is later shot in the store, the patron’s subsequent lawsuit is more likely to succeed.