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Texas Premises Liability Lawyers
When a Property Owner's Neglect Causes the Injury
Texas property owners owe the people they invite in a premises kept reasonably safe.
When an owner knows about a danger, or should know, and lets it stand, Texas law makes the owner answer for the harm.
That duty covers far more than wet floors: broken stairs, collapsing shelves, unfenced pools, and crimes a property invited by ignoring security.
Lawsuit Legal's Texas trial lawyers handle premises cases statewide from our Houston office, backed by 40,000+ cases handled and more than $100 million recovered.
Call (888) 713-6653 for a free, confidential review of your Texas premises liability claim. You Win or It's Free.
Texas Premises Liability Claims at a Glance
- A Texas premises case turns on the owner's actual or constructive knowledge of the danger (Corbin v. Safeway)
- Customers and invited guests are owed the highest duty; trespassers the least
- Falls, falling merchandise, pool drownings, and negligent security are all premises claims
- Your recovery survives shared blame only if your fault stays at 50 percent or less
- Two years to file, and the inspection records that prove the case disappear far sooner
- Free case review, and no attorney fee unless we win
The Four Things a Texas Premises Case Must Prove
Texas premises law was shaped by a grape on a grocery store floor. In Corbin v. Safeway Stores, the Texas Supreme Court set the framework that still governs: an injured customer must show the owner had actual or constructive knowledge of a condition, that the condition posed an unreasonable risk, that the owner failed to use reasonable care to reduce or eliminate it, and that the failure caused the injury.[1]
Actual knowledge means an employee saw the hazard or created it. Constructive knowledge means the danger sat there long enough that reasonable inspection would have found it. Corbin added a third path that still matters: a store's own method of operation, like a self-serve display that predictably drops produce on the floor, can itself be the unreasonable risk the owner knew about.
The duty scales with your status. Customers and invited guests are owed reasonable care to keep the premises safe. Social guests are owed warnings about known hidden dangers. Trespassers are owed little more than freedom from intentional harm, with a narrow exception protecting children drawn to hazards like unfenced pools.
Premises Liability Cases We Handle Across Texas
Slip, trip, and fall. The most common premises claim and the heart of our Texas slip and fall practice, from grocery spills to broken apartment stairs.
Falling merchandise. Warehouse-style stores stack heavy inventory overhead, and a mis-stacked pallet or box becomes a projectile.
Negligent security. An assault or robbery on a property that ignored known crime risks, from apartment complexes with broken gates to poorly lit parking structures.
Swimming pool incidents. Texas's long pool season produces drownings and near-drownings where barriers, latches, or supervision failed.
Inadequate maintenance. Collapsed balconies, loose railings, and walkway defects an owner deferred one budget cycle too long.
Amusement and event injuries. Venues, fairs, and attractions owe the same duty at scale.
How Texas's 51 Percent Fault Bar Shapes a Premises Case
Texas follows proportionate responsibility under Chapter 33 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code. Your recovery shrinks by your percentage of fault and disappears if a jury puts more than half of it on you.[2]
Owners lean on that rule hard. The standard defense in every premises case is that the danger was open and obvious and you should have avoided it. Answering it means proving what the owner knew and when, so the fault conversation stays anchored to the party who let the hazard stand. The mechanics of the 51 percent bar live on our page about Texas proportionate responsibility.
What Is a Texas Premises Liability Case Worth?
Value is set by proof, not by a chart. Four things move it most.
- The severity and permanence of the injury. Texas places no cap on compensatory damages in an ordinary premises case, so a catastrophic injury is valued on its lifetime cost.
- The knowledge evidence. Inspection logs, prior incident reports, and maintenance requests that show the owner knew. This is the spine of the claim.
- Your assigned share of fault, because every point matters under the 51 percent bar.
- The defendant and its coverage. A national chain, an apartment REIT, and a small landlord defend and pay very differently.
Every number you see advertised is someone else's facts. A claim is valued on its own record, and building that record early is most of the work.
The Two-Year Deadline and the Records That Vanish First
A Texas premises claim generally must be filed within two years of the injury under Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 16.003.[3] Claims against a city or other government unit carry shorter notice deadlines under the Texas Tort Claims Act, sometimes measured in weeks under a city charter, and our page on suing a Texas city or county covers them.
The statute is the last deadline that matters. Surveillance loops overwrite in days, sweep sheets get tossed on schedule, and the employee who knew about the leak changes jobs. A preservation letter in the first week is worth more than a year of waiting ever costs.
How a Texas Premises Liability Lawyer Proves the Owner Knew
The owner's knowledge rarely announces itself. It gets reconstructed from the property's own records, measured against the timeline of your injury, and from the testimony of employees who reported the problem up the chain.
We pair that record with the medical proof of what the injury costs, and we prepare each case for a Texas jury rather than for a quick file-closing offer. Insurers price claims on the difference.
In a Texas premises case, we assume the owner's file knows more than the owner admits, and we have rarely been wrong. The investigation usually reveals a hazard that was known, documented, or complained about long before anyone was hurt by it.