Texas Premises Liability Lawyer

How does your status on the property affect a Texas claim?

Texas sorts visitors into invitees, licensees and trespassers, and the owner's duty depends on which one you were. Getting this classification right is often the most important part of the case.

An invitee enters for the owner's business benefit, like a shopper, a restaurant customer or a paying hotel guest. The owner must use reasonable care to make the property safe, which includes inspecting for hazards. A licensee enters with permission but for their own purposes, such as a social guest. The owner must warn of or fix dangerous conditions it actually knows about that the guest does not. A trespasser is owed far less, mainly protection from intentional or grossly negligent harm.

What does an invitee have to prove after a slip and fall?

An invitee generally must show a condition posed an unreasonable risk of harm, that the owner knew or reasonably should have known about it, that the owner failed to use reasonable care to fix or warn of it, and that this caused the injury.

The knowledge element is where many Texas cases are won or lost. Courts often look for evidence of how long a spill or hazard existed. A temporal element, such as a melted ice cube puddle with cart tracks through it, can show the store had time to find it. Without proof of timing, a claim can fail even when the fall was clearly caused by the hazard.

Texas courts have also held that an owner often has no duty to warn about dangers that are open and obvious or already known to the visitor, although exceptions exist, such as when a person must face the danger to do their job.

How does fault sharing work in a premises case?

Texas reduces your recovery by your share of fault and bars it if you are more than 50 percent responsible. Owners commonly argue that you were not watching where you were going.

A shopper in a Houston grocery store slips in a puddle from a leaking freezer that employees had reported earlier that morning. Her damages are 70,000 dollars. The store argues she was looking at her phone.

• If the jury assigns her 20 percent, she recovers 56,000 dollars.
• If the jury assigns her 51 percent, she recovers nothing.

The earlier employee report is powerful proof that the store knew of the hazard, which keeps the focus on the store's failure to act.

Can an apartment complex or business be liable for a crime on its property?

Sometimes. Texas allows negligent security claims when criminal conduct was foreseeable and the owner failed to take reasonable steps to prevent it. Foreseeability usually depends on prior similar crimes on or near the property.

Courts consider how close, recent, frequent and similar the earlier crimes were, and whether the owner knew about them. Broken gates, burned-out lights, nonfunctioning cameras and ignored tenant complaints are common facts in these cases. Our premises liability page covers negligent security more broadly.

Do different rules apply to public property and recreational land?

Yes. Claims against Texas government entities fall under the Texas Tort Claims Act, which generally treats the injured person as a licensee unless they paid to use the property. Notice is generally due within 6 months.

That means the injured person often must show the government actually knew of the hazard, a demanding standard. Special defects, such as an excavation in a roadway, may be treated differently. Texas also has a recreational use statute that limits the liability of landowners who allow recreation on their property, generally requiring proof of gross negligence or worse. Our government and public property injury claims page explains these rules in more detail.

What should you do after a property injury in Texas?

Document the hazard and the owner's knowledge before evidence disappears. Most Texas premises lawsuits must be filed within 2 years.

1. Photograph the hazard, the area around it and any warning signs.
2. Report the injury and ask for a copy of the incident report.
3. Get names of employees and witnesses, and note what they said about the hazard.
4. Send a written request to preserve surveillance video.
5. Keep your shoes and clothing as evidence.

If a dog attacked you on someone's property, see our dog bites and animal attacks page. If you were hurt by a vehicle in a parking lot, our Texas car accident page may fit better. For broader rules, visit our Texas injury law hub. We offer a free case review and no fee unless we win.