You Survived. Now What?
It happens more than you think. Women (men too) are targets for assailants on property that lacks “reasonable” security, like working lights, security cameras, locks on gates and doors. The double tragedy is that survivors are often reluctant to seek justice for a trauma that might have easily been discouraged.
“I don’t even know if I can do anything about this.”
That’s unfortunately the response of too many women – a misguided sentiment of swaths of survivors, especially women. Many of us don’t realize property owners, managers, landlords have a legal duty to protect people who live, shop, drink, visit, work (etc.) on their property.1 Too often women believe an attack may have “just happened” to them, when it may have been preventable!
If you were hurt in a situation like this, we want to help you fight back via a civil lawsuit. The negligent security lawsuit seeks justice for potentially avoidable assaults that may have derailed you for entire chapters of your life.
It’s Not Just About Who Attacked You.
To any of you who haven’t yet come forward: This is a tragedy of not knowing more, not knowing better. In most women’s minds, the crime = the attacker. Nope, not always. A third party – landlord, property owner, or manager – could be held accountable.2 If you didn’t know you could speak up, now you do and you are definitely not alone!
“Verdicts in the tens of millions of dollars are increasingly common in cases involving organizations’ physical spaces, and the trend is likely to persist,”3 expert digital security analysts say.
Property owners are legally ordered to provide tenants, shoppers, patrons, and guests with reasonable preventive measures. Here are some obvious ones:4
- keeping common areas (hallways, stairwells, parking lots and garages) reasonably safe.
- complying with state and local building and housing codes.
- updating + maintaining repairs.
- providing adequate security, such as working locks, sufficient lighting, and security cams to protect against “foreseeable criminal acts.”5
- providing security personnel where needed – aka, in neighborhoods already flagged for high crime.
What Is Negligent Security?
It’s a specific subset of premises liability. Premises liability refers to all accidents occurring on someone else’s property, including slips or falls, whereas negligent security deals with assaults happening as a result of an unsafe environment. Negligent security looks like the hotel with broken locks, the apartment complex with dim or no lighting, the parking garage or parking lot with dim or broken lighting, or broken security cameras.6
“The litigation landscape is becoming increasingly complex, with courts expanding the scope of liability and often awarding significant damages to injured parties.”7
A negligent security lawsuit argues that if the place where a crime occurred was unsafe, and the owner knew (or should have known), you may have a case. Our negligent security attorneys specialize in this particular litigation.8
Sidenote: Property owners are not expected to prevent every crime — but they are expected to take reasonable steps to protect people.
What to Do If This Happened to You (And How A Case for Women Can Help).
ACFW was founded, first off, to inform women of dangers that are known (or not yet widely known) and, second, to help women who are already hurt use their voices and seek justice for harm resulting from negligence (greed) of companies and institutions.
Always working to put a stop to wrongdoing, we have embedded ourselves in national cases across the board fighting through legal channels against wrongdoing and wrongdoers that hurt you: sex trafficking (think the Alexander Brothers, Jeffrey Epstein, rideshare, Roblox sextortion), doctor sexual assault, and others. None of these lawsuits would hold water without your courage to come forward and say that you were hurt. Say that what happened to you was wrong!
Since our number #1 mission is to empower women, we must be willing to know and share the pain and confusion you feel. So when you ask us for help, we do more than hear what you have to say – we listen.
Sources
1 Staff, “Premises Liability Law,” Justia, current.
2 Staff, “Premises Liability Law.”
3 Robert Freedman, “Big verdicts in premises liability cases put spotlight on facilities managers,” FACILITIESDIVE, May 19, 2025.
4 Henry Campbell Black, “NEGLIGENT,” Black’s Law Dictionary, 1968.
5 Staff, “Premises Liability,” RAA/ Reinsurance Association of America, current.
6 Henry Campbell Black, M.A., “FORESEEABILITY,” Black’s Law Dictionary, 1968.
7 Staff, “Premises Liability,” RAA/ Reinsurance Association of America, current.
