Complete Negligent Security Guide

You were assaulted, robbed or attacked at an apartment complex, a parking lot, a hotel, a bar or a store, or someone you love was hurt or killed there. If you’re still shaken, angry or unsure what to do first, that’s a normal response to something no one should go through, and the attack was not your fault.

Here’s the plain answer. The person who committed the crime is responsible for it, but sometimes the business or landlord that controlled the property is responsible too. This is a negligent security claim, a kind of premises liability claim. Owners aren’t insurers of everyone’s safety, so the claim usually turns on whether the owner failed to take reasonable steps against a crime it could foresee, which states measure differently. Michigan’s rule is narrow: a business or landlord must make a reasonable effort to get the police involved once it knows of a specific, imminent threat, but it doesn’t have to hire guards. Michigan’s rules are in the boxes marked “In Michigan,” and Florida’s 2023 changes have a box of their own.

The hard part is usually the proof. The owner’s insurer will look for reasons the attack couldn’t have been foreseen or stopped, and much of the evidence, like video and security logs, is in the owner’s hands.

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When is a property owner responsible for someone else’s crime?

Courts start from the rule that “there is generally no duty to protect others from the criminal activities of third persons” (Posecai v. Wal-Mart Stores, Louisiana Supreme Court, 1999). But by 1999, most state supreme courts to consider the question had agreed that business owners must “take reasonable precautions to protect invitees from foreseeable criminal attacks,” though they “are not the insurers of their patrons’ safety” (Posecai). Invitees are customers and others there on the owner’s business.

The key question is usually foreseeability: could the owner reasonably have seen this kind of crime coming? Posecai described four tests:

• Specific harm: a duty only if the owner knew of specific, imminent harm. Posecai called this rule “somewhat outdated.”
• Prior similar incidents: earlier crimes on or near the property, judged by their nature and extent, how recent and frequent they were, and how similar they were to this one.
• Totality of the circumstances, then the most common test: everything relevant, including the property’s nature, condition and location and crime in the area.
• Balancing: how foreseeable and serious the harm was, against the burden of preventing it. Under Louisiana’s version, “A very high degree of foreseeability is required to give rise to a duty to post security guards, but a lower degree of foreseeability may support a duty to implement lesser security measures such as using surveillance cameras, installing improved lighting or fencing, or trimming shrubbery.”

States differ and can change their approach, so the current law where the attack happened is what counts. If a car hit you in a parking lot, see who is at fault in a parking lot accident.

What do Michigan businesses and landlords have to do?

Michigan’s rule looks most like the first test, with a limit: once the duty is triggered, it requires only a reasonable effort to get the police involved.

So a Michigan claim under this rule needs evidence that the business or landlord, or its staff or guards, knew of an ongoing threat to you or people near you, such as a fight, a weapon or open threats, and didn’t reasonably try to get the police there. Whether you were “readily identifiable as being foreseeably endangered” can be a question for the jury (MacDonald).

Can the owner blame the attacker?

It can try, and states handle this differently. In 1997, Florida’s Supreme Court held that a lawsuit over a shooting in a store parking lot was an action based on an intentional tort, so the comparative fault statute didn’t apply and leaving the gunman off the verdict form wasn’t an error: “the intervening intentional tort is exactly what the security measures are supposed to protect against” (Merrill Crossings Associates v. McDonald). Florida changed the rule in 2023 (below).

A made-up example: a jury finds $400,000 in damages and assigns 75% of the fault to an attacker who isn’t in the lawsuit and 25% to the landlord. The landlord owes $100,000; the attacker’s $300,000 share can’t be collected from the landlord, and because the attacker isn’t a party, the verdict doesn’t make the attacker liable for it either (MCL 600.2957(3); 600.6304(4)).

What changed in Florida in 2023?

What evidence helps prove a negligent security claim?

Much of the proof sits with the owner, the police and any security company, and some of it disappears. Collect or preserve:

• What happened just before: who saw the attacker, any fight, weapon or threats, whether staff or security were told, and when anyone called 911. In Michigan, this is usually the heart of the case.
• Video from the property and nearby businesses. Ask the owner or manager in writing, right away, to keep all footage from before, during and after the attack; systems can record over it.
• Police records: the incident report, earlier calls to the address and nearby crime reports.
• The scene: photos of broken locks and gates, doors that don’t latch, dark lights and camera angles, at the same time of day if you can.
• Security records: the security contract, guards’ written post orders, patrol logs and incident reports. In Bailey, a resident testified that management had told residents to call security to report crimes (n 64).
• Complaints and repair requests about crime, locks or lights.
• Your injuries: medical and counseling records, bills and lost pay.

Who can be held responsible?

• Whoever owned or controlled the property: the owner, a landlord, a business leasing the space or a company running it. In Bailey, the plaintiff sued the complex, the management company that owned and operated it, and its security contractor.
• A security company. Whether a guard company owes you a duty of its own depends on state law. In Bailey, the claim against the guard company was dismissed because the plaintiff, who wasn’t a party to its contract, didn’t allege it breached a duty “separate and distinct” from that contract, such as by creating a new hazard or making the danger worse. The landlord’s own claim went ahead (Bailey v Schaaf (On Remand), 2014; the Supreme Court declined to review those rulings in 2014).
• A bar that served the attacker. In Michigan, if a licensee served alcohol to a minor or a visibly intoxicated person who then hurt you, the dramshop law is the only way to recover money from the licensee for serving it. You must name that person as a defendant and keep them in the case, give all defendants written notice within 120 days after hiring a lawyer for the claim, and sue within 2 years (MCL 436.1801(2)–(4), (9)). An assault can support a dramshop claim, but only with evidence that serving the alcohol was a proximate cause of the violence; in Auto-Owners Ins Co v Seils (2015), the claim failed because nothing showed the seller could have foreseen the drinker’s later attacks.
• The attacker. You can sue the attacker, as the Bailey plaintiff did. In Michigan, if the attacker is convicted, the court must order full restitution, including medical and counseling costs and after-tax lost income. The order is enforceable like a civil judgment, and what you receive is credited against a later civil award (MCL 780.766(2), (4), (9), (13)).

Other guides cover injury claims against hotels, sexual abuse lawsuits (including Michigan’s longer deadlines for criminal sexual conduct), elder and nursing home abuse and, for publicly owned property, claims against the government.

Not sure what the owner knew before the attack? Get a free case review. Four quick questions, no cost, no obligation.

What can a claim pay for, and what help is there now?

A claim can seek money for medical bills, lost pay and harm that comes without a receipt. Michigan’s jury instructions include the reasonable expenses of necessary medical care, loss of earning capacity, physical pain and suffering, mental anguish, fright and shock, denial of social pleasure and enjoyments, and embarrassment, humiliation or mortification (M Civ JI 50.01, 50.02, 50.05, 50.06). No one can honestly tell you in advance what a claim is worth; see how pain and suffering damages work.

A lawsuit takes time, so apply for crime victim compensation if you have out-of-pocket costs. In Michigan, within the $45,000 limit, it can also pay up to $3,800 for moving to protect your safety and up to $1,000 for home security such as new locks. It doesn’t pay for pain and suffering, and awards are reduced by payments from the offender, insurance or public funds. If one of those later pays an expense the program covered, you must repay the program to the extent your total payments exceeded that expense (MCL 18.361(1), (2), (7), (10); MDHHS).

What if a family member was killed?

The family may have a wrongful death claim against the owner and the attacker.

How long do you have to file?

Each state sets its own deadlines, and a claim against the attacker can have a different one from a claim against the owner. For other states, see injury deadlines in every state.

What to do next

1. Get safe and get care. See a doctor, and a counselor if it helps, and tell each provider how you were hurt.
2. Report the crime and keep the report number. Michigan’s compensation program generally requires a police report (MCL 18.360(c); MDHHS).
3. Ask the owner or manager in writing to keep video and records. Photograph the scene, and note witnesses’ names and what you remember, with times.
4. Apply for crime victim compensation if you have out-of-pocket costs, and be careful with the owner’s insurer; see talking to an insurance adjuster.
5. Talk to a lawyer before the first deadline. Get a free case review, or compare Michigan injury lawyers. For every Michigan rule in one place, see the Michigan personal injury law reference.

What waiting can cost

• The video. Footage can be recorded over before anyone asks for it.
• A claim against a bar. In Michigan, dramshop notice is due within 120 days after you hire a lawyer for the claim (MCL 436.1801(3)).
• A claim against the attacker. Michigan allows 2 years for most assault and battery claims, a year less than for a negligence claim against the owner (MCL 600.5805(2), (3)).
• Help with bills. Michigan compensation claims are generally due within 5 years (MCL 18.355(2)).

What a good outcome looks like

You’re safe and getting care, and your bills and lost pay are covered. If the owner, landlord, bar or security company fell short of what the law required, it answers for its share, the attacker answers for theirs, and every deadline is met. From wondering whether anyone besides the attacker can be held responsible to knowing what the owner knew, which deadlines apply to you and what your claim needs.

For more guides on injuries caused by unsafe property, browse slip, fall and unsafe property claims.

Updated September 28, 2026

This guide is general information, not legal advice, and laws change. For advice about your situation, talk to a lawyer licensed in your state. Reading this page or contacting us does not create an attorney-client relationship.