If you were assaulted, robbed, or attacked on someone else’s property in Kansas City, you may have more legal options than you realize. Property owners have a legal duty to protect the people on their property from foreseeable criminal acts, and when they fail to provide adequate security, they can be held financially responsible for your injuries. Many victims do not know they can hold the property owner liable, not just the person who attacked them. You can pursue a negligent security claim even if the attacker was never identified or prosecuted. Call Bretz Injury Law at (913) 361-5510 for a free, confidential consultation.
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Bretz Injury Law represents victims of negligent security across Kansas City, KS and throughout Wyandotte County. Our Kansas City office is located at 748 Ann Ave, Suite 114, and our attorneys have experience handling cases where property owners failed to protect tenants, customers, and visitors from violent crime. We take cases involving assaults at apartment complexes, attacks in parking garages, robberies at gas stations and convenience stores, and violence at hotels, bars, and nightclubs.
Wyandotte County ranks in the 15th percentile nationally for violent crime safety, earning a D- grade, with a violent crime rate of 6.19 per 1,000 residents and the highest crime index rate in the state of Kansas in 2024. Property owners operating in a county with these numbers have a heightened obligation to anticipate criminal activity on their premises. Our negligent security lawyers hold property owners accountable when they fail to take those steps.
Property owners and their insurance companies will work to shift blame away from the security failure and onto you. Defense attorneys in negligent security cases frequently argue that the criminal act was unforeseeable, that the security measures in place were reasonable, or that you were partly at fault for your own injuries. Kansas law gives them a powerful tool to do it, which is why they invest so heavily in arguments like “you should not have been there at that hour.”
Victims who try to handle these claims alone often accept a low settlement before accounting for the true cost of long-term PTSD treatment, lost earning capacity, and the lasting emotional harm that violent crime causes. A negligent security lawyer from our firm can obtain prior incident reports, local crime data, and internal security records that prove the security failure was preventable.
Our firm handles negligent security cases involving assaults, robberies, shootings, and sexual assaults that occur on private and commercial property throughout the Kansas City metro. Apartment complex assaults are among the most common cases we see, often caused by broken locks, missing surveillance cameras, poor hallway and stairwell lighting, and a failure to screen tenants with violent histories.
Parking garage and parking lot attacks frequently involve inadequate lighting, broken access gates, and absent security patrols that leave visitors exposed in isolated areas. We also represent victims of hotel and motel assaults where unsecured rooms, broken door locks, and missing hallway surveillance allowed an attacker to reach a guest. Our caseload extends to bar and nightclub violence, gas station and convenience store robberies, workplace assaults involving employees on late shifts or handling cash, and school or campus security failures where access control was missing or ignored.
Kansas premises liability law requires property owners to protect lawful visitors from foreseeable harm, including the foreseeable risk of criminal violence on their property. Unlike other premises liability claims where the hazard is a physical condition like a wet floor or broken railing, negligent security cases center on the property owner’s failure to mitigate a known risk of criminal activity through reasonable security measures, and inadequate security is what transforms that failure into a viable legal claim.
The level of protection a property owner must provide depends on your legal status on the property at the time of the incident, which Kansas law classifies into three categories: invitee, licensee, or trespasser. You have a two-year statute of limitations under K.S.A. 60-513 to file a negligent security claim in Kansas, so acting quickly protects your ability to pursue compensation. Claims involving government-owned property such as public housing, parks, or government buildings require a separate notice under the Kansas Tort Claims Act before you can file suit.
Foreseeability is the most important element in a Kansas negligent security case, because it determines whether the property owner had reason to anticipate the criminal act that harmed you. Prior similar criminal incidents on the same property are the strongest piece of evidence, but they are not the only factor courts consider. Neighborhood crime rates, including Wyandotte County’s violent crime data, can also establish that a reasonable property owner should have expected criminal activity on their premises. Prior complaints from tenants, employees, or visitors about broken locks, missing security cameras, or unsafe lighting conditions further support the argument that the property owner knew about the risk and failed to respond.
Kansas law assigns different levels of duty based on your legal status on the property at the time of the incident. Invitees, which includes customers, hotel guests, and tenants, are owed the highest duty of care, meaning the property owner must take active steps to protect them from foreseeable harm. Licensees such as social guests are owed a moderate duty that requires the owner to warn of known dangers. Under K.S.A. 58-821, trespassers are owed only the minimal duty that existed at common law, which generally means the property owner must avoid causing intentional or willful harm but has no obligation to provide security.
Kansas follows a modified comparative fault system under K.S.A. 60-258a, and defense attorneys in negligent security cases rely on this rule heavily. They will argue that you were partly responsible for what happened by being in a certain location at a certain time, by not taking precautions, or by failing to leave when you felt unsafe. Being present on a property at night does not make you responsible for being attacked, and our attorneys push back against this kind of blame-shifting aggressively. Your compensation is reduced by your assigned percentage of fault, and at 50 percent or above, your claim is barred entirely.
Yes, if the property owner owed you a duty of care and failed to provide reasonable security measures against a foreseeable risk of criminal harm. The attacker committed the crime, but the property owner made it possible by failing to secure the premises. These are two separate legal actions with different purposes: the criminal prosecution seeks to punish the person who committed the crime, while the civil negligent security claim seeks financial compensation from the property owner whose security failures contributed to your injuries.
You do not need to wait for the criminal case to conclude, and you do not need a criminal conviction, before pursuing your civil claim against the property owner. The two cases operate on different legal standards and proceed independently of each other. Our lawyers can begin investigating your negligent security claim immediately, even while the criminal case is still pending or if charges were never filed.
Yes. A negligent security claim is filed against the property owner, not the person who attacked you. The civil claim is built entirely around the property owner’s failure to provide adequate security, so the identity of the attacker does not determine whether you have a viable case. Many victims assume that if the person who hurt them was never found, arrested, or charged, their only legal option has disappeared. That is not true.
Police reports documenting the incident, surveillance footage from the property or surrounding businesses, witness statements, and physical evidence from the scene all support your claim without requiring the attacker to be identified. What matters in a negligent security case is whether the property owner knew or should have known about the risk of criminal activity and whether they took reasonable steps to prevent it. If they did not, you have a claim regardless of whether the attacker was ever caught.
Negligent security victims can recover damages for physical injuries, emotional trauma, and financial losses caused by the property owner’s failure to protect them. These cases often produce higher damage awards than typical premises liability claims because the injuries involve both physical harm and severe psychological consequences that can last for years or permanently alter the victim’s quality of life.
PTSD resulting from violent crime is one of the most well-documented and long-lasting conditions our clients face, and it significantly affects the value of your claim. Victims of assaults, robberies, and sexual assaults frequently report anxiety, depression, sleep disturbances, hypervigilance, and an inability to feel safe in public spaces long after the physical injuries have healed. The full cost of treating those conditions, combined with the income you have lost and the ways your daily life has changed, all factor into the compensation you can pursue.
Economic damages in a negligent security case cover your medical expenses, emergency treatment, surgery, hospitalization, prescription medications, and ongoing rehabilitation costs. If your injuries prevent you from working, you can also recover lost wages and diminished future earning capacity. Non-economic damages compensate you for pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of life, which is especially significant for victims who can no longer go to certain places or feel safe in environments that remind them of the attack. Scarring, disfigurement, and permanent physical disability all increase the total value of your claim.
Surviving family members may file a wrongful death claim when a negligent security failure results in a fatal assault, shooting, or other act of violence on someone else’s property. Wrongful death damages in Kansas cover funeral and burial expenses, the loss of financial support the deceased would have provided, and loss of companionship and parental guidance for surviving spouses and children. Kansas law allows spouses, children, and next of kin to bring these claims, and the same two-year statute of limitations under K.S.A. 60-513 applies to wrongful death cases as well.
Kansas courts may award punitive damages when a property owner’s conduct goes beyond ordinary negligence into willful or wanton disregard for safety. A property owner who received repeated complaints about violent incidents on their premises and refused to install cameras, hire security, or repair broken locks may face punitive liability on top of compensatory damages. Punitive damages are not tied to the victim’s specific losses but instead serve to punish the property owner for their conscious decision to ignore a known danger and to discourage other property owners from making the same choice.
Property owners are the primary defendants in most negligent security cases, but they are not always the only party responsible for the security failure. Property management companies that were hired to oversee a building’s operations and make security decisions can be held accountable when those decisions left tenants and visitors exposed to foreseeable criminal activity. Landlords of apartment complexes with documented histories of break-ins, assaults, or tenant complaints about unsafe conditions are frequently named in these claims.
Business owners who operate late-night establishments, cash-heavy businesses, or properties in high-crime areas carry their own independent duty to protect customers. If a private security company was hired to patrol a property and failed to perform those duties, the security company itself may share liability. Government entities responsible for public housing, municipal parks, or government buildings can also be held liable under the Kansas Tort Claims Act, K.S.A. 75-6101 et seq., though specific notice requirements apply before a claim can be filed.
Bretz Injury Law has recovered over $300 million for injured clients across Kansas, and our attorneys bring more than 30 years of experience to every negligent security case we handle. Attorney Matthew Bretz built this firm to provide focused, personal attention to every client, and our intentionally small team ensures that victims of violent crime receive the sensitivity and confidentiality they deserve.
We work on a contingency fee basis, so you pay nothing unless we win your case. Our firm also offers bilingual services for Spanish-speaking clients throughout Wyandotte County. Call us at (913) 361-5510 or contact our team online to schedule a free, confidential consultation today.
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