After getting injured at a strip club, you may wonder whether you can sue for your injury. To make a legal claim, you must demonstrate that the club’s negligence or intentional behavior caused your injuries. In Nevada, you are entitled to claim both economic damages, such as medical bills and lost wages, and damages for your pain and suffering.
The steps you take after your accident can impact your claim. George Bochanis Injury Law Offices can be contacted at (702) 388-2005 to help you obtain compensation for your injuries.
Can You Sue a Strip Club for Injuries?
Under Nevada law, you can sue a strip club for injuries. Typically, if you sustain injuries due to someone else’s wrongful act, you can sue the responsible person.
Strip club injuries may fall under premises liability laws, which is one of the kind of cases that personal injury lawyers handle. The strip club may be held liable for the actions of its staff, including bouncers, bartenders, and dancers. The theory of premises liability is based on the principle of negligence. According to the law, people and establishments must act within certain standards to prevent harm. If they fail to do so and cause injury to someone, they are required to compensate the injured person.
Therefore, patrons can sue strip clubs that cause their injuries due to negligence. To hold a strip club liable for your injuries, you and your personal injury lawyer must prove the following elements of negligence:
Duty of Care
A duty of care requires reasonable care and caution to prevent harm to others. Strip club patrons in Nevada are considered invitees, and every strip club owes them the highest duty of care. To fulfill this obligation, strip clubs must inspect their premises, repair or post warning signs about known defects, and ensure that employees are properly trained and monitored.
Breach of the Duty of Care
Strip clubs are responsible for preventing harm to their patrons by avoiding foreseeable injuries. They should keep their premises safe by not serving alcohol to severely intoxicated individuals, maintaining fixtures and furniture, and promptly clearing spills and tripping hazards. Adequate security, maintenance of elevators and escalators, and providing emergency aid are also crucial.
To hold a strip club accountable for your injury, you must prove that the employee or owner was negligent at the time of your injury. Additionally, if the strip club failed to perform appropriate background checks or supervise its employees after discovering the employee posed a danger, you may be able to hold them accountable.
The Breach Resulted in Your Injury
When seeking compensation for an injury, it must be a documented harm caused by the strip club’s breach of duty of care. If your injury was due to some other cause, like your own negligence, you cannot hold the strip club liable as there is no link between their negligence and the harm you suffered.
You Suffered Damages as a Result of Your Injury
To pursue compensation against a strip club, you must have suffered financial or non-financial damages. Financial damages, known as economic damages, include expenses you incurred because of the incident, including:
- Medical bills
- Future medical expenses
- Lost wages
- Reduced earnings capacity
Non-economic damages are losses that cannot be measured in money, such as physical and emotional pain, mental distress, loss of companionship, loss of consortium, and loss of enjoyment of life.
If you have not suffered any damages, you do not have a valid claim.
Common Scenarios Where a Strip Club May be Liable for Your Injuries
As of 2023, around 3,965 strip clubs were operating in the United States. Nevada has a high concentration of strip clubs, with 0.96 strip clubs per 100,000 people in Las Vegas alone. This large number of strip clubs creates plenty of opportunities for accidents to occur. Common examples where a strip club may be liable include:
Low Lighting
Although a strip club’s atmosphere is often characterized by its energy and lighting, the operation must prioritize safety measures. This includes ensuring that there is adequate lighting for both patrons and employees to navigate high-traffic areas.
Overcrowding
A strip club should only allow as many people as its capacity permits at one time to avoid overcrowding. Overcrowding can lead to accidents such as shoving and slip-and-fall incidents and dangerous situations, including difficulty evacuating the premises during emergencies.
Inadequate Security
It is not uncommon for patrons to become unruly at a strip club, especially when alcohol is involved. Therefore, it is essential for a strip club to have adequate personnel to ensure the safety of its guests, including protection against other patrons. If a Las Vegas strip club fails to provide sufficient security, and you become a victim of another guest, this may be a valid reason for compensation.
Fights
Strip club owners may be held responsible for fights in their establishments. Factors such as insufficient security, overcrowding, and negligent hiring can all contribute to the strip club’s liability in the event of an assault and battery. In Las Vegas, a strip club could be held accountable for the actions of another guest if those actions were foreseeable and preventable by the club.
Failure to Clean Spills
Maintaining a clean and safe environment is crucial for a strip club. This includes cleaning up spills or other hazards as soon as possible. The strip club’s owners and employees are responsible for noticing spills or hazards and cleaning them up promptly. If you slip and fall on a spilled drink or other slippery substance on the floor, the strip club may be held liable for your injuries.
Other circumstances where a strip club owner may be liable for your injuries include:
- An employee of the strip club behaves negligently while performing job duties, such as a bouncer assaulting a patron before ejecting them from the club.
- The strip club failed to hire or supervise its staff properly.
- The strip club engages in illegal activities like a dancer drugging a patron with drinks or over-serving patrons to increase their spending.
What to Do After You’re Injured at a Strip Club
After getting injured at a strip club, you may be eligible to sue the owner or operator for compensation. The steps you take in the immediate aftermath of your accident can impact your path to compensation. To increase your chances of success, follow these steps:
Seek Medical Attention
You should seek medical help immediately after an accident, regardless of whether you think your injuries are severe. Injuries that seem minor at first may worsen over time. Visiting a doctor will ensure that your injuries are properly diagnosed and treated, allowing faster recovery.
Seeking medical attention after an accident is important for building a strong case. It establishes a clear link between the accident and your injuries and documents them in your medical report. The report may contain important details about your injuries’ extent, cause, and symptoms.
If you delay seeking medical help, it can become more difficult to establish a link between your injuries and the accident. Additionally, the party responsible for the accident may claim that you were negligent and contributed to your own damages by failing to seek timely medical attention. This can weaken your claim.
Report the Accident to Management
You should report the accident to the club’s management immediately. This will help document the accident and your injuries. The club’s management team may create an accident report that will include important details about the nature and cause of the accident, what injuries were immediately apparent, and other useful information. To ensure you have a record of this report, record the name of the person you spoke to, the day and time you spoke with them, and request a copy of the accident report.
Collect Evidence
Taking photos of the accident scene and your injuries is crucial. The photos can serve as evidence of any hazardous conditions and document the extent of your injuries. Timely photography is essential to preserve evidence before it disappears, such as cleaning up spilled liquids.
Surveillance cameras may be installed in the strip club, which can contain video evidence of your fall. Therefore, you should request this footage from the strip club management as soon as possible.
Collecting the names and contact information of any witnesses to your accident is equally important. They can provide witness evidence to strengthen your claim.
Speak to an Attorney
Is it worth hiring a personal injury lawyer? After suffering injuries, a lawyer can help you determine if you have a valid claim and assist with gathering evidence to support your case. Additionally, an attorney can estimate the value of your claim. Contact us at George Bochanis Injury Law Offices to find out how personal injury lawyers get paid, provide guidance on how to file your lawsuit, and negotiate a settlement on your behalf.
