Criminal and Civil Liability, Negligence, and Use of Force
Criminal and Civil Liability, Negligence, and Use of Force
This domain tests your ability to spot when a guard’s action creates criminal exposure, civil liability, or both. The exam favors fact patterns where force, restraint, or a failure to act causes harm.
Core rules
- Negligence requires duty, breach, causation, and damages. A guard’s duty may arise from undertaking the task, contract, or special relationship; failing to follow a reasonable standard can be negligent.
- Intentional torts include battery (unlawful touching), assault (apprehension of imminent touching), false imprisonment (intentional confinement without legal authority), and defamation.
- New Mexico’s self-defense statute, NMSA 1978, § 30-2-7, permits reasonable force to defend self or another against an imminent threat. Deadly force is generally limited to imminent death or serious bodily harm.
- Force must be necessary, proportional, and stopped when resistance stops. Property alone generally does not justify deadly force.
Worked example
A drunk patron shoves a guard in a Santa Fe bar. The guard pushes back and the patron retreats. The guard then strikes the patron with a baton. The first push may be defensible self-defense; the baton strike after retreat is likely excessive and could support criminal battery and civil damages. The guard’s report should separate the initial threat from the later force.
Traps
Treating a “force continuum” as a rigid ladder; using force to punish disrespect; confusing civil negligence with criminal intent; assuming client consent excuses battery; writing reports that admit unnecessary force.
Key points
- Negligence: duty, breach, causation, damages.
- False imprisonment requires confinement without authority.
- Deadly force only for imminent death or serious harm.
- Stop force when the threat stops.
- Report force factually and promptly.