Attacked in a
Parking Lot
Injury Law Made Personal®
The shops stay open late, the lot takes your money, and by the time you walk back with your bags the gate is unattended and half the lights are out. When somebody is waiting in the dark corner of that lot, Illinois asks the people who own and run it 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 Parking Lot Attack Is Not Your Fault
The Walk Back With Your Bags
A long day of shopping, a bag in each hand, and a car at the far end of the lot. The lot charged you to park. It chose how bright to keep it, whether anyone would sit in the booth and how late the gate would be watched.
Lights Out, Nobody at the Gate
Burnt-out lamps and an empty attendant booth are not bad luck. They are decisions about money and maintenance, and they leave long stretches of a lot where nobody can see what happens and nobody is there to help.
Somebody Watching
He has been standing where the light does not reach. What the owner knew — earlier robberies in that lot, lights reported out and never fixed, an attendant cut from the evening shift — is what decides whether this could have been prevented.
Is a Free Consultation Really Free?
Howard Ankin answers your questions directly.
What Illinois Law Says About Parking Lot Security
Under the Premises Liability Act an owner or operator owes everyone it invites onto its property reasonable care under the circumstances. A lot that charges you to park, or a store that gives you a place to park, is inviting you in
No owner is an insurer of your safety. What creates the duty is notice: earlier attacks or robberies in the lot or around it, lights reported out and never replaced, a gate left unattended, complaints that went nowhere
is the Illinois deadline for an injury lawsuit — shorter, with its own notice rules, if the lot 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 lot and the company paid to run it both answer for the lighting, the cameras, the gate and the attendant. Their incident logs, their maintenance records and their staffing schedules are the first things Ankin Law asks for.
The Stores It Serves
Illinois holds you to what you actually undertook. A shopping center that provides the lot, a security contractor hired to patrol it, a company paid to watch the cameras — 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 back to your 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 Parking Lot Attack
The Footage Overwrites Itself
Lot cameras record on a loop, often for only days. Gate and payment records show who came in and when. Reports of lights out and schedules that left the booth empty 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 shopped so late. You were walking to your car in a lot 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 lot? 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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