Fort Worth Premises Liability Lawyers
When a property owner's negligence injures you, Texas law holds them accountable. Our attorneys have spent decades making sure they pay.
Call (817) 784-2000 — Free ConsultationWhat Is Premises Liability in Texas?
Premises liability is a branch of Texas personal injury law that holds property owners and occupiers legally responsible for injuries that occur on their property due to unsafe conditions. When a business, landlord, homeowner, or government entity fails to maintain their property in a reasonably safe condition — and a visitor is injured as a result — that property owner can be held liable for the full scope of the injured person's damages.
Premises liability cases arise in countless everyday settings: grocery stores with wet floors, apartment complexes with broken staircases, restaurants with inadequate lighting, parking garages with known criminal activity, and construction sites with unsecured hazards. The common thread in every case is a property owner who knew — or should have known — about a dangerous condition and failed to take reasonable action to protect visitors from it.
These cases are often more legally complex than they appear on the surface. Property owners and their insurance companies have sophisticated defenses at their disposal, and the law distinguishes between different types of visitors in ways that affect what the owner owed you. Patterson Law Group's Fort Worth premises liability attorneys have the legal knowledge, investigative resources, and trial experience to build strong cases and deliver results for injured clients throughout Tarrant County.
Texas Duty of Care: Invitees, Licensees, and Trespassers
One of the most important and often misunderstood aspects of Texas premises liability law is that the duty of care a property owner owes you depends on your legal status as a visitor. Texas recognizes three categories of visitors, each entitled to a different level of protection.
Invitees — Highest Duty of Care
An invitee is a person who enters property with the owner's express or implied invitation for a purpose connected to the owner's business or for which the property is open to the public. Customers in a retail store, patients in a medical office, diners in a restaurant, and visitors to a shopping mall are all invitees. Property owners owe invitees the highest duty under Texas law: they must not only warn of known hazards but must also actively inspect the premises for dangerous conditions and take reasonable steps to repair or correct them. This duty to inspect and remedy — not just warn — is what distinguishes the invitee relationship from others.
Licensees — Duty to Warn of Known Hazards
A licensee is someone who enters property with the owner's permission but not as part of a business transaction — typically social guests or friends visiting a private home. Property owners owe licensees a duty to warn of dangerous conditions that the owner knows about and that the licensee would not reasonably discover on their own. There is no duty to inspect for unknown hazards; the duty applies only to conditions the owner actually knows about.
Trespassers — Limited Duty
Trespassers enter property without permission, and Texas law generally limits the property owner's duty to avoiding willful or wanton injury. However, important exceptions apply — particularly when the trespasser is a child. Under the attractive nuisance doctrine codified in Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code §75.002 and related case law, property owners may be liable when a dangerous artificial condition on their property (such as an unfenced swimming pool or construction equipment) attracts and injures child trespassers, provided the owner knew children were likely to trespass and the injury risk outweighed the burden of remedying the condition.
Correctly identifying your visitor status — and demonstrating why the property owner's duty required them to act — is foundational to building a successful premises liability case. Our attorneys analyze the specific facts of your situation to determine the applicable duty and how it was breached.
Common Types of Premises Liability Cases
Our Fort Worth premises liability attorneys handle the full spectrum of cases involving injuries on others' property. While every case is unique, the most common types we handle include:
Negligent security cases deserve special mention because they are frequently complex and involve substantial damages. When a property owner — particularly the operator of an apartment complex, hotel, parking garage, or bar — knows that the area has a history of criminal activity and fails to take reasonable security measures, they can be held liable when a visitor is assaulted, robbed, or otherwise harmed. These cases require establishing the property owner's knowledge of prior crimes and the foreseeability of the attack.
Proving a Premises Liability Case in Texas
To succeed on a premises liability claim in Texas, your attorney must establish four essential elements — the same elements required in any negligence claim, applied to the specific context of property ownership. Each element must be proven by a preponderance of the evidence (meaning it is more likely true than not).
- 1 DutyThe property owner owed you a legal duty of care. The scope of this duty is determined by your visitor status as an invitee, licensee, or trespasser. For invitees — the most common category in business-related cases — the duty includes both warning of known hazards and inspecting for and correcting unknown ones.
- 2 BreachThe property owner breached that duty. This requires showing either that the owner created the hazardous condition, knew about it and failed to address it, or should have known about it through reasonable inspection and failed to act. The "knew or should have known" standard is often the central battleground in premises liability cases.
- 3 CausationThe property owner's breach of duty caused your injury. This means establishing a direct causal link between the dangerous condition and your accident — and between the accident and the specific injuries you claim. Insurance companies routinely challenge causation, arguing that pre-existing conditions or intervening events caused your injuries.
- 4 DamagesYou suffered actual, compensable losses as a result of the accident. Medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, and other documented losses are the basis for your damages claim.
Our attorneys build cases systematically around each of these elements. We obtain maintenance logs, incident reports, prior complaint records, and surveillance footage to establish notice. We work with liability experts and, where necessary, building code specialists to establish what the owner's duty required and exactly how they fell short.
Common Injuries in Premises Liability Cases
The severity of injuries in premises liability cases varies widely depending on the type of accident involved. Our attorneys represent clients with a full range of injuries, from painful recoverable conditions to catastrophic permanent harm.
Statute of Limitations for Premises Liability Claims in Texas
In Texas, you generally have two years from the date of your injury to file a premises liability lawsuit (Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code §16.003). Missing this deadline almost always means permanently losing your right to recover compensation, regardless of how strong your underlying case may be. There are limited exceptions — for example, when the injured party is a minor, the clock may be tolled until the child turns 18 — but these exceptions are narrow.
If your accident occurred on property owned or operated by a government entity — a city building, public school, or government agency — different and shorter notice requirements apply under the Texas Tort Claims Act. You may be required to provide formal written notice of your claim within six months of the incident as a condition of preserving your right to sue. Failure to provide timely notice can bar your claim entirely.
Beyond legal deadlines, the practical reality is that evidence in premises liability cases disappears quickly. Surveillance footage is routinely overwritten within 30 to 90 days. Incident reports may be altered or lost. Witnesses move or forget. Hazardous conditions are repaired and go undocumented. The sooner you contact an attorney, the better your chances of preserving the evidence your case requires.
Damages Available in Premises Liability Cases
Victims of premises liability accidents can recover compensation for both their economic and non-economic losses. Our attorneys work to document and present the full scope of your damages — not just what you've paid so far, but everything the accident will cost you in the future.
Why Choose Patterson Law Group for Your Premises Liability Case
Patterson Law Group has represented injured Texans in premises liability cases for more than 30 years. We understand how property owners and their insurers defend these claims, and we know how to build cases that overcome those defenses. Our record of more than $100 million recovered for clients reflects our ability to go beyond surface-level demand letters and truly fight for the compensation our clients deserve.
We approach every case as though it will go to trial — because the willingness to try cases is ultimately what drives insurance companies to pay fair value. We invest in expert witnesses, accident reconstructionists, and life care planners when the case warrants it. We send evidence preservation letters the day we are retained. We fight the comparative fault arguments that insurers use to reduce their exposure.
We handle all premises liability cases on a contingency fee basis — you pay absolutely nothing unless we win your case. Your initial consultation is always free. If you were injured on someone else's property anywhere in Fort Worth or Tarrant County, call us at (817) 784-2000 or reach out online today. The sooner you call, the sooner we can begin protecting your rights.
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