Justice for Violated Privacy: $50K Settlement for Peeping Tom Victim

This video features Tyler D. Bailey, Esq., a Criminal Law attorney based in South Carolina.

Attorney Tyler D. Bailey, Esq. | 888-981-0034 | Free Consult

When you’re visiting a department store and trying on clothes, you should feel safe and secure doing so. As a recent settlement shows, the store can be held liable when it fails to uphold those protections.

Tyler Bailey is the founder of Bailey Law Firm, which is based in Columbia, South Carolina. He can be reached by calling 888-981-0034 or by submitting a contact form on this page.

What happened in this case?

A woman was visiting a major department store and she decided to try on some clothes. While changing, she noticed that a man had snuck his phone under the changing room door to snap some photos. He immediately fled the scene. The woman felt traumatized, and the peeping tom who photographed her was never caught.

She enlisted the help of Tyler Bailey, and with the help of him and his firm, she obtained a $50,000 settlement from the store.

Are stores responsible for preventing Peeping Toms?

In general, yes. Department stores with changing rooms must take precautions to prevent this type of behavior. If the victim suffered harm, and the store knew or should have known that the risk was present and failed to stop it, then the victim can seek justice against the store for the trauma incurred by the incident.

Getting spied on by a peeping Tom in the dressing room is just one example of a business failing to prevent harm to a guest. Other examples might include:

  • Failing to remove obstacles from walkways
  • Failing to properly light a dark area, potentially resulting in a fall
  • Failing to clean or warn about a slick area on the floor, resulting in a slip and fall injury
  • Failing to repair or block a broken floorboard or staircase
  • Any other condition that led to someone’s physical or emotional harm

What can I do if someone spied on me in the dressing room?

The first thing you should do is immediately document the incident. Make sure you tell someone at the store so that they have a record of it. However, you don’t want to provide a full statement to an attorney for the store just yet. Just enough of a report so that the store has it on record. If you don’t, it can be hard to prove that the incident ever occurred.

If any witnesses were near the dressing room, be they other shoppers or employers, get their name and contact information. Their account of the incident could be very helpful later on.

Lastly, contact an attorney near you and explain what happened. Most attorneys offer free consultations so you can discuss the merits of a potential case. When a store invites guests to the property, it is their responsibility to make sure that the guest suffers no physical or emotional harm. A breach of this responsibility could be due to negligence.

To learn more, contact attorney Tyler Bailey. He can be reached by calling 888-981-0034 or by submitting a contact form on this page.

Video Transcript:

I'm Rob Rosenthal and this is an AskTheLawyers.com legal brief. A woman whose privacy was violated when a peeping tom photographed her with a cell phone in her dressing room at a big box retailer has been awarded a $50,000 settlement, thanks to the efforts of the Bailey Law Firm based in South Carolina. The perpetrator placed his phone under the door of the dressing room, took photographs, and then fled the scene. He was never identified or caught, but the woman suffered from emotional distress and harm.

Attorney Tyler Bailey is the founder of Bailey Law Firm and he says this case shows how important it is for businesses to ensure the safety of their customers.

He says, "This case is important because far too often, business owners attempt to evade any responsibility when third parties commit crimes that harm their patrons, despite having knowledge that their patrons are at risk."

He continues: "Results like this demonstrate that business and property owners can be held accountable in South Carolina if it can be established that they knew or should have known that they created an unreasonable risk of harm that the victim suffered."

Attorney Bailey and his staff at Bailey Law Firm are devoted to pursuing justice and accountability for those who have been injured or harmed due to the misconduct and negligence of others. To get the best information and choose a lawyer that lawyers choose, visit AskTheLawyers.com. This has been an AskTheLawyers.com legal brief. I'm Rob Rosenthal.

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