Can you sue a property owner after being attacked on their premises in Georgia?

Georgia’s 2025 negligent security law, O.C.G.A. §§ 51-3-50 through 51-3-57, governs claims against a property owner when you were attacked by a third person on their premises. You must now prove the crime was foreseeable from a specific warning or prior similar incidents, that a known physical condition raised the risk, and that the owner failed to fix it.

What do O.C.G.A. §§ 51-3-50 to 51-3-57 say?

These eight sections make up Article 5 of Chapter 3 of Title 51, created by Senate Bill 68 in 2025. Section 51-3-51 lists what an invitee must prove, including that the owner:

failed to exercise ordinary care to remedy or mitigate such specific and known physical condition of the premises

Section 51-3-50 defines the terms, including “particularized warning” (credible information the owner actually had about a specific person likely to commit a specific crime) and “prior occurrences of substantially similar wrongful conduct.” Section 51-3-51 requires an invitee to prove foreseeability from a particularized warning or prior similar incidents on the premises or within 500 yards, exploitation of a known physical condition, failure of ordinary care, and causation. Section 51-3-52 sets a narrower rule for licensees. Section 51-3-54 bars claims by trespassers, for injuries off the premises, for crimes by tenants already in eviction, and where the owner reported a warning to police. Section 51-3-55 says owners need not exercise extraordinary care or act as law enforcement. Section 51-3-56 requires the jury to apportion fault to the criminal and orders a retrial if it does not assign that person a reasonable share. Section 51-3-57 extends the same limits to security contractors. The Act was signed April 21, 2025, and this article applies to causes of action arising on or after that date. Earlier claims remain under prior law.

What does it mean for you?

“Negligent security” is the claim you bring when you were assaulted, robbed, or shot on someone else’s property and the owner could have prevented it. A dark apartment complex parking lot with a broken gate and a history of carjackings. A gas station where the clerk has called 911 about the same group five weekends running. A hotel that let a known stalker through the lobby. Before 2025, these cases were decided under the general premises liability duty of ordinary care. The new article replaces that for any attack after April 21, 2025, and it makes the claim harder to prove.

The practical changes are specific. You now have to show the owner had a reason to expect this kind of crime, either a particularized warning about a specific person or prior similar crimes on the property or within 500 yards. You have to tie the crime to a specific physical condition, like the broken gate or the dead lighting, that made the property more dangerous than the surrounding area. And the jury must assign a share of the fault to the attacker, which reduces the owner’s share under the comparative negligence rule.

Harder is not impossible. The cases that remain strong are the ones with a documented history: police calls, prior incident reports, complaints to management, and a physical hazard that was reported and left alone. That evidence exists in property management files and police records, and it has to be preserved early. If you were attacked on commercial or apartment property, the date of the attack decides which law applies, and the evidence decides whether the claim survives.

Related Georgia laws

• O.C.G.A. § 51-3-1: the general premises liability duty, which governed these cases before 2025 and still governs attacks before April 21, 2025
• O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33: the apportionment rule the new article requires juries to apply to the attacker
• O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33: the two year deadline to file an injury lawsuit

Sources

• Georgia General Assembly on legis.ga.gov (official)
• Senate Bill 68 (2025), Act 9, Georgia General Assembly, Sections 6 and 7 (Act signed April 21, 2025)
• Text verified against the published source on 2026-10-16. Statute text is public record. Nothing on this page is legal advice about your specific case.

What should you do next?

If you were attacked on someone else’s property, the law that applies depends on the date, and the evidence that wins the case is in files that get cleaned out. Call us before either of those problems becomes permanent.

Call Kenneth S. Nugent, P.C. at 770-820-0711, any hour, any day. The call is free, the case review is free, and there is zero fee unless we win. Nine offices across Georgia, and we come to you if you cannot come to us.

One more thing. Don’t sign anything from an insurance company before you talk to a lawyer. A signature on the wrong form can give away rights you did not know you had.