When a business or landlord invites the public onto its property, it takes on a duty to keep that property reasonably safe — and that duty does not stop at wet floors and broken stairs. If an apartment complex, parking garage, hotel, bar, or shopping center knows that violent crime is a foreseeable risk on its premises and does nothing about it, the people who are hurt there have a claim. In Texas, that claim is called security negligence, or negligent security.
Inadequate lighting, broken gates and locks, cameras that no one monitors, and absent or untrained security staff turn a predictable danger into a preventable tragedy. Have you or a loved one been assaulted, robbed, or seriously injured on someone else’s property? If so, you may qualify for compensation for your medical bills, lost wages, and the lasting physical and emotional effects of what happened. The attorneys at Fielding Law hold property owners accountable for the harm they had the power to prevent.
What Is Security Negligence In Texas?
Security negligence is a branch of premises liability. The question is not whether a crime occurred — it is whether the owner or manager of the property knew, or reasonably should have known, that a crime like it was likely to happen, and then failed to take reasonable steps to protect the people it invited in.
Texas courts look closely at foreseeability. Prior assaults, robberies, or break-ins at the same address, a documented pattern of police calls to the property, warnings from tenants or employees that went unanswered, and the crime history of the surrounding area all bear on what a reasonable owner should have anticipated. Where the risk was foreseeable and the response was inadequate, liability can follow — even though someone else committed the crime.
Where Security Negligence Claims Arise
Any property that invites the public in, or houses residents, can be the subject of a claim. The most common include:
- Apartment complexes, gated communities, and student housing
- Hotels, motels, and short-term rentals
- Bars, nightclubs, and restaurants
- Parking lots, parking garages, and transit stops
- Shopping centers, retail stores, and gas stations
- Office buildings and business campuses
- Concerts, festivals, stadiums, and other large events
- Hospitals, nursing homes, schools, and daycare centers
What Inadequate Security Looks Like
Security negligence rarely comes down to a single oversight. More often it is a pattern of deferred maintenance and cost-cutting that a property owner was warned about. In our cases we regularly find:
- Burned-out, broken, or absent exterior and stairwell lighting
- Gates, doors, and locks that were broken, propped open, or never repaired
- Security cameras that were decorative, unplugged, or recording to no one
- No security personnel on a property whose history clearly called for them
- Guards who were understaffed, untrained, or not where they were supposed to be
- Tenant and employee complaints about safety that management ignored
- Overgrown landscaping, blind corners, and unsecured entry points
- No controlled access to buildings, garages, or stairwells
How A Texas Security Negligence Lawyer Can Help
These cases are won and lost on evidence that disappears quickly. Surveillance footage is often overwritten within days. Incident reports get filed away. Security contractors change, and the guards who were on duty move on. Acting early matters.
Fielding Law moves immediately to preserve what the property owner would rather lose: we send legal preservation letters for video and access logs, obtain the full police call history for the address, pull prior incident and repair records, identify and locate former employees and tenants, and work with security experts who can explain what a reasonable owner in that location would have done differently. We then build the record that connects those failures to the injuries our client suffered.
Why You Need a Security Negligence Attorney
Property owners and their insurers have a well-rehearsed defense: the attack was unforeseeable, the criminal alone is to blame, and the victim should have been more careful. Under Texas comparative fault rules, any share of blame they can shift onto you reduces what you recover. These arguments are answerable, but answering them takes investigation and a firm willing to try the case.
Texas generally gives you two years from the date of the injury to file a personal injury lawsuit, and the evidence in a security negligence case erodes long before that. If you or someone you love was hurt because a property owner failed to provide the security the situation demanded, contact Fielding Law for a free, confidential case review. You pay nothing unless we win.
