Attacked in a
Parking Garage
Injury Law Made Personal®
You paid to park there. The garage took your money, lit the level however it chose to, put the cameras where it chose to, and decided how many people would be watching — very often none. When somebody is waiting behind a pillar on the walk back to your car, Illinois asks the people who own and run that garage a fair question: was this foreseeable, and was the security reasonable? Ankin Law has fought for injured Chicagoans for over 35 years.
Call 312.600.0000 Free Case ReviewWhy a Garage Attack Is Not Your Fault
The Walk Back to Your Car
End of the day, keys in your hand, one level down. It is the same walk you make every day, past the same pillars, under lights that were never quite bright enough. There is nobody at a booth and nobody on the level.
Nobody on the Level
A garage is a place the operator designs: the lighting, the sight lines, the call boxes, the patrols. A long empty level with a row of pillars you cannot see behind is a known risk, and the people who run garages know it better than anyone.
Behind the Pillar
He has been waiting where the camera does not reach. What the garage knew — earlier incidents, complaints about the lights, a patrol cut from the schedule — is what decides whether this was a crime nobody could have seen coming, or one somebody allowed.
Is a Free Consultation Really Free?
Howard Ankin answers your questions directly.
What Illinois Law Says About Garage Security
Under the Premises Liability Act an owner or operator owes everyone it invites onto its property reasonable care under the circumstances. A garage that charges you to park is inviting you in
No operator is an insurer of your safety. What creates the duty is notice: earlier break-ins or attacks in that garage or around it, lights reported out and never replaced, cameras that did not work, complaints that went nowhere
is the Illinois deadline for an injury lawsuit — shorter, with its own notice rules, if the garage belongs to a city or another public body, and longer only for a minor
Who Pays — and What You Can Recover
The Owner and the Operator
The company that owns the garage and the company paid to run it both answer for the lighting, the cameras, the call boxes and the patrols. Their incident logs, their maintenance records and their staffing schedules are the first things Ankin Law asks for.
Anyone Who Took On the Security
Illinois holds you to what you actually undertook. A security contractor on the payroll, a company hired to monitor the cameras, a building that promised its tenants a patrolled garage — once they take the job on, it has to be done with reasonable care.
What You Can Recover
Medical and psychological treatment, lost earnings, and what an attack on the walk to your own car actually costs you — pain and suffering, disfigurement and loss of a normal life. Illinois reduces a recovery for your own share of fault, which is exactly why that share gets fought.
Why Ankin Law Is the Right Call After a Garage Attack
The Footage Overwrites Itself
Garage cameras record on a loop, often for only days. Gate and ticket records show who came in and when. Complaints about the lights and emails about a patrol that was cut are what turn a bad night into a case with notice.
Expect to Hear It Was Your Fault
You will be asked why you parked there, why you were alone, why you did not look behind you. You were walking to your car in a garage you paid for. Those questions are a strategy, not an investigation.
No Fee Unless You Win
You pay nothing to start and nothing unless Ankin Law recovers for you. The consultation is free and confidential, and there is no obligation to hire anyone. Howard Ankin has been doing this for over 40 years.
Get Your Free Case Review
Improper security in a parking garage? If you were harmed because the lighting, the cameras or the security where you parked were poor or missing, the footage is already counting down. Contact us today for a free, confidential consultation with no obligation.
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