What to do if my wife, daughter and I were assaulted by a club owner and regular patrons as security and police did nothing to stop the incident?

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What to do if my wife, daughter and I were assaulted by a club owner and regular patrons as security and police did nothing to stop the incident?

What are my steps to filing charges and suing against all parties, including the police? I have witnesses who called for extra police since the police on staff did nothing.

Asked on February 2, 2015 under Personal Injury, Georgia

Answers:

SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 9 years ago | Contributor

You most likely cannot sue the police--they have considerable insulation from liability unless they affirmatively did something wrong (e.g. they were the attackers); it very hard to sue them for not acting strongly or quickly enough, especially if the officers there were off-duty (e.g. "on staff"--presumably, moonlighting) at the time.

You can, of course, sue all the attackers, including the club owner. You can also sue the club itself if its security was not maintaining a reasonably staff environment for patrons.

However, you do not indicate what your family's injuries were. You can only recover compensation for actual injuries, damages, costs, or losses (e.g. out-of-pocket medical costs). If, as we hope, your famly escaped relatively unscathed, there is no point in suing; you would likely spend more on the lawsuit than you'd be able to recover.

You may sue seek to press charges against anyone who attacked your family. There is no criminal liability for simply failing to act (people are not required by law to intervene), so there are no charges for not helping.

If you feel any police were unprofessional or unresponsive, you could try to file a complaint against them with the police.


IMPORTANT NOTICE: The Answer(s) provided above are for general information only. The attorney providing the answer was not serving as the attorney for the person submitting the question or in any attorney-client relationship with such person. Laws may vary from state to state, and sometimes change. Tiny variations in the facts, or a fact not set forth in a question, often can change a legal outcome or an attorney's conclusion. Although AttorneyPages.com has verified the attorney was admitted to practice law in at least one jurisdiction, he or she may not be authorized to practice law in the jurisdiction referred to in the question, nor is he or she necessarily experienced in the area of the law involved. Unlike the information in the Answer(s) above, upon which you should NOT rely, for personal advice you can rely upon we suggest you retain an attorney to represent you.

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