Negligent Security Lawsuit in Indiana: Your Rights When a Property Isn’t Kept Safe

If you were attacked in an apartment complex, a parking garage, or a bar, the person who hurt you is not the only one who may owe you compensation. A negligent security lawsuit is a premises liability claim against the property owner whose poor lighting, broken locks, or missing cameras made the attack possible. It often matters more than any claim against the attacker, because the attacker rarely has insurance or money to collect.

What Is Negligent Security?

Negligent security is a branch of premises liability, the same area of Indiana law that covers slip and fall injuries. Property owners owe reasonable care to the people they invite onto their property, including tenants, hotel guests, and customers. Sometimes an owner knows crime is a real risk and still provides inadequate security. If someone is assaulted or robbed because of that, the injured person can sue the owner.

So yes, you can sue a business for an assault that happened on its property. The claim is not that the owner committed the crime. The claim is that the crime was preventable and the owner failed to prevent it. These cases come up in predictable places: apartment complexes, hotels, parking lots and garages, bars, gas stations, and shopping centers. What those places share is an owner who invites people in and controls how safe the property is.

The Two Questions That Decide Negligent Security Cases

Most negligent security cases come down to two questions, and you can apply them to your own situation. First, was the crime foreseeable? Courts look at prior crimes on the property, police calls to the address, and crime in the surrounding area. A landlord who has had three break-ins reported in a year is on notice in a way a first-time owner is not.

Second, did the owner take reasonable steps? What counts as reasonable depends on the property. The common failures are concrete: burned-out lights in a parking lot, a gate that stays propped open, locks that were reported broken and never fixed, and cameras that do not record. Sometimes the failure is simply no staff on site when the risk called for one.

If the crime was foreseeable and reasonable steps were missing, you may have a claim. As a general rule, Indiana allows two years to file most injury lawsuits. But the deadline differs by claim type and by who the defendant is, and government-owned property involves separate, much shorter notice requirements. Confirm your own deadline with a lawyer rather than relying on the general rule.

What Is Indiana’s Dram Shop Law?

Many assaults start with alcohol, and that can add a second responsible party. Indiana’s dram shop law holds a bar, restaurant, or store accountable when it serves alcohol to a person it actually knows is visibly intoxicated, and that person then hurts someone. Dram shop liability runs alongside a negligent security claim rather than replacing it.

Picture a fight in a nightclub parking lot. The club may face a negligent security claim over the dark lot and missing staff. Serving a visibly drunk patron all night brings dram shop liability into the same case. Finding every responsible party matters, because each one carries its own insurance. Evidence in both claims fades fast. Surveillance footage is often overwritten within days or weeks, and witnesses scatter, so acting early protects the proof.

Your Indianapolis Personal Injury Attorneys

Crossen Law Firm is an Indiana personal injury firm whose work includes premises liability claims. Its published case results include a $350,000 settlement in a negligent security shooting case and a six-figure settlement in a dram shop assault case. Those results are facts about work the firm has done, not a prediction for any other case.

Founder Trevor J. Crossen built the firm on taking on insurers that underpay, and it works on contingency. No Fee Unless We Win means you pay nothing unless you win a settlement. Consultations are free, and phones are answered 24/7.

From offices in Carmel and Indianapolis, the firm serves clients across the state, including Fishers, Greenwood, Avon, Brownsburg, Plainfield, and Zionsville, and farther out in Fort Wayne, Evansville, South Bend, Bloomington, and Terre Haute.

If something about the attack keeps nagging at you, the broken gate, the dark walkway, the camera that never worked, that instinct is worth a conversation. If you were hurt in an accident in Indiana, call Crossen Law Firm at (317) 939-6800 for a free consultation. You pay nothing unless we win.