When a criminal act happens on someone else’s property, the attacker is responsible, but Pennsylvania law also lets you hold the property owner accountable when their failure to provide reasonable security made the attack possible. Think of a parking garage with lights burned out for months, an apartment complex whose gate code has been broken for a year, or a nightclub that cut its security staff to save money.
A negligent security attorney at The Slocum Firm can evaluate whether your case fits this standard. Call (570) 209-7376 any hour of the day and speak directly with an attorney, not a call center, for a free consultation. You pay no fee unless we recover for you.
What Negligent Security Actually Means Under Pennsylvania Law
Negligent security falls under Pennsylvania’s broader premises liability framework, which requires property owners to maintain reasonably safe conditions for the people they invite onto their property. Unlike a slip and fall involving a physical hazard, negligent security cases involve a third party’s criminal act, which adds an extra layer of analysis courts call foreseeability.
You’re not just proving the property was unsafe. You’re proving the owner should have reasonably anticipated criminal activity and failed to take reasonable steps to prevent it.
This distinction shapes how these cases get built from the ground up. A property owner generally isn’t liable simply because a crime happened on their property. They become liable when prior incidents, known crime patterns in the area, or obvious security gaps made an attack foreseeable, and they failed to respond with reasonable precautions like adequate lighting, functioning locks, security cameras, or staffed security where warranted.
How Pennsylvania Courts Determine Foreseeability
Pennsylvania courts determine foreseeability by considering all the surrounding circumstances rather than requiring the exact same crime to have occurred previously. Evidence may include prior criminal activity on the property, neighborhood crime patterns, police calls, tenant or employee complaints, and the nature of the business.
For example, repeated vehicle break-ins and an earlier assault in the same parking garage may show that a later attack was reasonably foreseeable. Courts also compare the property’s security measures with what is reasonable for similar businesses. While security expectations vary by property type, every owner has a duty to take reasonable steps to protect lawful visitors from foreseeable harm.
Foreseeability is the heart of a negligent security case, and the evidence for it fades fast.
Types of Properties Where These Cases Commonly Arise
Apartment complexes generate a significant share of negligent security claims in Pennsylvania, often involving broken gate access systems, non-functioning exterior lighting, or a pattern of break-ins that management failed to address despite repeated tenant complaints. Hotels and motels face similar claims when room locks fail, hallway cameras don’t work, or front desk staff allow unauthorized individuals into secured areas without verification.
Nightclubs, bars, and entertainment venues carry an elevated duty, given the combination of alcohol service and large crowds, particularly when a venue is aware of prior fights or assaults and fails to adjust staffing or security accordingly.
Shopping centers, parking garages, and gas stations round out the most common settings, often tied to inadequate lighting in isolated areas or a documented history of robberies that management chose not to address with more security presence or camera coverage.
Read about how to safeguard your claim in our practical overview of steps to take after a premises liability incident in Pennsylvania.
Multiple Defendants in a Negligent Security Case
A negligent security claim frequently involves more than one potentially liable party. The property owner bears primary responsibility for safe conditions, but a separate management company hired to run the property day to day may share liability if it failed to implement security measures the owner authorized or budgeted for.
And if the property contracted a third-party security company, that company can face liability on its own if its guards failed to perform reasonable patrols, ignored obvious hazards, or were inadequately trained for the specific risks the property presented.
Sorting out which entity controlled which aspect of security, the budget, the staffing decisions, and the maintenance of locks and lighting requires reviewing management contracts, security service agreements, and internal communications between these parties.
Our attorneys identify every potentially responsible party early, since a property owner who shifted security responsibility to a management company sometimes tries to deflect blame entirely rather than acknowledge their own role in the underlying decisions.
This multi-party structure also affects how a case gets litigated and resolved. Each defendant typically retains separate counsel and separate insurance coverage, which can mean negotiating with several adjusters at once rather than a single point of contact.
Property owners and management companies sometimes point fingers at each other during litigation, each arguing the other bore primary responsibility. Our attorneys account for that by building evidence against every potentially liable party rather than relying on a single theory of the case.
Proving Causation Between the Security Failure and Your Attack
To succeed in a negligent security claim, you must show not only that inadequate security existed but also that it contributed to the attack or made your injuries worse. This often requires testimony from security professionals who evaluate lighting, surveillance, staffing, access controls, and other safety measures against accepted industry standards.
Our attorneys work with these professionals to explain how the property’s failures increased the risk of harm. By comparing the property’s security with similar locations facing comparable risks, they help establish that the owner failed to take reasonable steps to protect lawful visitors.
Comparative Negligence Defenses Insurance Companies Raise
Property owners and their insurers frequently argue that the victim’s own conduct contributed to the attack, suggesting you were in an area you shouldn’t have been, ignored posted warnings, or behaved in a way that invited the confrontation. Pennsylvania’s modified comparative negligence rule with a 51% bar means these arguments carry real financial consequences if an insurer succeeds in shifting blame onto you.
An insurer might argue that walking to your car alone late at night through a known high-crime area was unreasonably risky, even when the property’s own inadequate lighting and absent security made that walk far more dangerous than it should have been.
Our attorneys push back directly against these arguments, since they often shift focus away from the property owner’s documented failures and onto circumstances the victim had little practical ability to avoid.
Properties often upgrade lighting and locks within weeks of an attack, erasing the very evidence your claim needs. Call The Slocum Firm at (570) 209-7376 any hour of the day to speak directly with an attorney. The review is free, and you owe no fee unless we recover for you.
Insurance Coverage in Negligent Security Cases
Commercial general liability insurance typically covers a property owner’s negligent security exposure, though policy limits vary widely depending on the size and type of property. Larger commercial properties, hotels, and apartment complexes generally carry higher coverage limits than a small independent business, which can significantly affect how much compensation is realistically available even after liability is clearly established.
Some properties also carry separate umbrella policies that extend coverage beyond the base commercial liability limits, which matters most in catastrophic-injury cases where medical costs and long-term care needs exceed what a standard policy provides.
Our attorneys identify every applicable policy connected to a property early, including policies held by the management company or any third-party security contractor, since assuming only one source of coverage exists can leave significant compensation on the table.
How Settlement Negotiations Typically Proceed
Negligent security cases often take longer to resolve because proving foreseeability and causation requires extensive evidence. Insurers are generally more willing to negotiate once prior incidents, inadequate security measures, and the property owner’s knowledge of safety risks have been documented.
When that evidence is limited, additional investigation and litigation may be necessary, including depositions of property managers, security personnel, and company representatives. Our attorneys prepare every negligent security case for trial, an approach that often leads to stronger settlement offers.
Documentation That Strengthens a Negligent Security Claim
Police reports from your specific incident establish the baseline facts, but prior incident reports involving the same property carry even more weight in proving foreseeability. Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law and standard discovery procedures allow attorneys to request police call logs tied to a specific address, which often reveal a pattern of prior incidents the property owner never disclosed voluntarily.
Maintenance records showing how long a broken light or lock went unrepaired, tenant or guest complaints submitted through email or a property management portal, and any internal security audits conducted by the property itself all become valuable evidence. Our attorneys send preservation letters early in every case, specifically to stop these records from disappearing through routine document retention schedules before litigation formally begins.
What to Do After an Attack on Someone Else’s Property
Seek medical treatment immediately and report the incident to the police, since this creates the official record your claim will rely on. Photograph the area where the attack happened, including any broken lighting, malfunctioning locks, absent security cameras, or other conditions that may have contributed to the incident, before the property has a chance to repair or alter the scene.
Request a copy of the full police report once available, and if you’re physically able to do so, write down details about the attack while your memory remains clear. Avoid discussing the incident’s specifics with the property’s insurance representative before speaking with an attorney, since these conversations often get used later to minimize the property owner’s responsibility for what happened.
Pennsylvania’s Statute of Limitations
You generally have two years from the date of the attack to file a personal injury lawsuit against a negligent property owner in Pennsylvania, under 42 Pa. Cons. Stat. Section 5524.
These cases often require extensive investigation into prior incidents, security contracts, and maintenance history, all of which get harder to obtain the longer a case sits, since records get purged and personnel familiar with the property’s security history sometimes leave.
Acting promptly also matters because the property itself may change physically before litigation begins. Lighting gets upgraded, locks get replaced, and cameras get installed in response to the very incident that injured you, sometimes within weeks. Documenting the conditions exactly as they existed at the time of your attack, before any of these changes occur, preserves evidence that becomes nearly impossible to recreate once the property has already been modified.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I sue the property owner even though the person who attacked me was never caught?
Yes. Your claim against the property owner is separate from any criminal case against your attacker, and identifying or convicting the attacker isn’t required to pursue a negligent security claim.
What if the property argues my attack was completely unpredictable and unforeseeable?
This becomes the central fight in many of these cases. Our attorneys investigate prior incidents, crime statistics, and complaint history to build evidence that the property should have reasonably anticipated this type of attack.
Does it matter if I was a paying customer or just a visitor on the property?
It can affect the legal standard applied to your case, since Pennsylvania generally extends a higher duty of care to invitees like paying customers than to certain other categories of visitors, though most lawful visitors still receive meaningful legal protection.
How do I find out if there were prior crimes at the same location?
Our attorneys request police call logs and incident reports tied to the specific address, through formal discovery and Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law. Those records often reveal a documented history of prior incidents the property never disclosed publicly, which is frequently the strongest evidence that the attack was foreseeable.
Can a negligent security claim include both the property owner and a separate security company they hired?
Yes, when applicable. If a third-party security company failed to perform its contracted duties reasonably, that company can face liability alongside the property owner, depending on how its responsibilities were divided.
Working With The Slocum Firm on Your Negligent Security Claim
Our attorneys have handled negligent security cases across Pennsylvania, from apartment complex assaults to nightclub violence and parking garage attacks. Our recovery rate is above 95 percent, and most cases resolve in under a year.
Results may vary. Prior case outcomes do not guarantee similar results. You can call or text one of our lawyers directly, any hour of the day, instead of waiting on a case manager you’ve never spoken with.
We take negligent security cases on contingency, so you owe nothing upfront and nothing at all unless we recover compensation on your behalf. With over 50 years of combined experience, we know how to investigate a property’s full history, identify every responsible party, and build the kind of foreseeability evidence insurance companies struggle to dispute.
Call (570) 209-7376 right now to speak directly with a Pennsylvania negligent security lawyer about your situation. Consultations are always free, available any time of day by phone or text, and our bilingual staff can walk Spanish-speaking callers through every step in their preferred language.
