When you get hurt because of dangerous conditions on someone’s property, they are often responsible. This is true in casinos as much as it is anywhere else. However, other dangers in the casino can also be the casino’s fault, even other patrons.
If you were hurt in a casino, work with our lawyers. We can help you pursue damages for anything from slip and falls to assault by casino staff. Even assault and sexual assault by other patrons might be the casino’s responsibility.
For a free review of your injury case, call our casino injury lawyers at Schoenfeld Law Firm at (504) 688-7760 today.
Accidental Injuries in a Casino in New Orleans
When an accident in a casino leaves you injured, you can hold the casino itself liable in many cases.
Who is Responsible?
As the property owner/operator, the casino is responsible for keeping conditions safe. This means that slippery floors, dark staircases, missing handrails, and similar dangers would be their fault.
Unsafe operations, such as food poisoning or broken glass in your drink, would also be their fault.
How Do You Get Compensation?
To win a case against the casino, you usually need to prove that they were negligent. This means showing they violated a legal duty that they owed you, which resulted in your injury.
You do not need to say that they injured you on purpose, but rather that they did so by accident.
Knowledge of Danger
Casinos cannot be responsible for dangers they could not have known about or had time to repair. With property injuries, you also must typically show that they knew about the danger or had enough time to learn about it through due diligence, yet they did not take adequate steps to warn about or repair the danger.
Injuries Caused By Casino Staff
When staff members are responsible for an injury, you can often hold the casino responsible.
Employer Liability for Employee Actions
When an employee commits an act of negligence within the scope of their job duties, the employer can be held responsible. This only works if
- The worker is an employee (not a contractor)
- The actor committed negligence (breached a legal duty, resulting in injury)
- The acts were within the scope of their job.
For injuries the employee caused you while off duty, the casino might not be liable.
Direct Liability for Casinos
Casinos can also be liable for their own mistakes in putting you at risk from a dangerous staff member, often through these issues:
- Failing to investigate past instances of abuse or violence
- Negligent hiring of workers with a criminal record, past abuses, or lacking qualifications (especially security personnel)
- Negligent retention after past violence or abuse.
Assault and Sexual Assault
Assault and sexual assault are illegal, and casinos will often try to claim that their worker was working outside the scope of their job duties if they assaulted you. However, this kind of argument does not always make sense. After all, causing an injury of any kind is usually outside the scope of any job, yet employers are held liable all the time.
If you were assaulted, drugged, or overserved while your assailant was working, or if those acts led to assault, sexual assault, or attempted sexual assault later, that could be the casino’s responsibility.
Negligent Security and Assault or Sexual Assault by Others
Property owners take steps to secure the premises and keep people safe. If they fail to act reasonably in taking those steps, they can be responsible for other people’s acts of violence in some cases.
Standards for Negligent Security Claims
Casinos usually have policies against weapons, unruly behavior, and violence. If they allow things to slip through the cracks or intentionally ignore violations, then those issues injure patrons, they are responsible.
How Casinos Face Liability
The casino’s lacking security must be the cause of your injury for the casino to be responsible. Otherwise, just the individual actor who injured you would be liable.
For example, if a bouncer was being assaulted by a drunk patron, but the bouncer just told them off and let them continue to the casino floor, then the bouncer/casino could be liable for that drunk patron assaulting you. In this situation, they clearly failed to uphold reasonable security standards.
What Damages Can You Get for an Injury at a Casino?
Medical Bills
The cost of treating any injuries sustained in a casino should be the casino’s responsibility. This can include hospital stays, ongoing care, and even mental health care, e.g., after an unreasonable assault by casino security.
Lost Wages
Our casino injury lawyers can also calculate the value of lost wages resulting from your injury now and into the future and claim those values as damages.
Non-Economic Damages
The cost of your pain, emotional distress, and other intangible harms can also be calculated, though we have no bills or receipts to use. There are, instead, various calculation methods we can turn to.
Holding Casinos Responsible for Drunk Patrons
In some situations, the casino can be responsible for overserving patrons alcohol.
No Dram Shop Liability in Louisiana
Some states allow for “dram shop liability,” which says that a bar or other establishment that overserves a patron can be liable for a DUI accident if that driver later gets in the car while drunk. Louisiana law explicitly bars this kind of liability for the bar.
On-Premises Liability
However, it does not block liability for injuries on the premises of the bar/restaurant/casino. That means that if they overserve a patron at the casino who gets drunk and belligerent, the casino might be partially liable for the patron’s actions on the premises (e.g., assault).
Underage Drinking
If the casino serves underage patrons, these bans on liability do not apply; the casino might be liable for injuries on or off premises caused by the underage patron.
However, the law still presumes the individual is primarily responsible, so holding the casino responsible is still difficult.
FAQs for Casino Injuries in New Orleans and Throughout Louisiana
Can Bouncers Put Their Hands on You?
Sometimes police are present at casinos, but casino security are not on-duty police (even if they work as police officers during the day). Security can only use reasonable force to protect themselves or others.
They cannot assault or arrest you for other causes, though they may be able to touch you reasonably while escorting you to the door. Injury above and beyond that may count as assault and battery.
What if You Were Drunk When You Were Injured?
The fact that you were drunk could be used to say you were partially at fault for your own injuries.
What if You Were Partially at Fault?
If you contributed to your own injuries, it can reduce your damages by your percentage of fault. If you were more than 50% at fault for your own accident, you cannot sue.
How Long Do You Have to File?
You have 2 years to file an injury claim for most injuries under Louisiana law.
Call Our Casino Injury Lawyers in New Orleans and Louisiana Today
For help with your case in New Orleans or anywhere else in Louisiana, call the casino injury attorneys of Schoenfeld Law Firm at (504) 688-7760.
