Negligent Security Lawyer in Denver, CO
Attacked at a property that should have protected you? Lionheart Injury Law wins negligent security cases in Denver, one of our core specialties.
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What Can You Recover in a Denver Negligent Security Case?
Negligent security cases at our firm typically settle for $500,000 to $10 million, and the catastrophic ones define the top of that range. The attacker rarely has assets; the property owner's insurance is where accountability lives.
Bigger and faster settlements come from trial preparation that starts the day you sign, and from a firm that, so far, has never lost.
With us, you speak directly with your attorney, we help you get immediate medical care, regardless whether you have insurance, and there's no fee unless we win. Contact us now for a free consultation.
What Is a Negligent Security Claim in Colorado?
Negligent security is a form of premises liability. Under Colorado's Premises Liability Act (C.R.S. § 13-21-115), a property owner owes the people lawfully on the property, tenants, customers, hotel guests, patrons, a duty to protect them against dangers it knew about or should have known about. When the danger is a foreseeable crime and the owner failed to take reasonable security measures, the owner can answer for the harm that followed. How much protection you are owed scales with your status on the property: an invitee, a tenant, hotel guest, or paying patron, is owed the highest duty, and that is who most negligent security victims are. Negligent security is one branch of premises liability, alongside slip-and-fall and dog bite claims.
It runs both directions. Sometimes the failure is too little security, no working locks, dark stairwells, a camera that has not recorded in months, no guard where one was plainly needed. And sometimes it is bad security, an untrained or over-aggressive bouncer who escalates instead of de-escalates and injures the very patron they were supposed to protect. Both are negligent security, and we handle both.
Why Hire a Denver Negligent Security Lawyer?
Because the owner's entire defense is to hide behind the criminal, and Colorado's fault rules give them a real tool to do it. Without a lawyer building the other side of the story, the foreseeability evidence never gets gathered, the surveillance is taped over, and the claim quietly dies.
A lawyer changes that. We pull the property's crime history and the police calls for service that prove the owner knew the risk, we lock down the video and the security records before they disappear, and we keep the fault where it belongs, on the company that controlled the premises and cut corners. Then we value the claim, including the lasting psychological harm these cases carry, and hold that number. There is a local edge too: a Denver County jury weighs a negligent landlord or nightclub differently than an Arapahoe or Adams County jury, and where the case lands shapes its worth.
What You Get When You Hire Lionheart Injury Law
- A firm that builds these cases for trial. Negligent security is one of the hardest areas of injury law, and only a few firms in the country know how to prove it. We gather the evidence, hire the right experts, and develop the trial testimony that turns corporate neglect into accountability.
- Direct attorney access and a confidential, respectful process. You talk to your lawyer, and we handle these sensitive matters, including assault and sexual-assault cases, with discretion and care.
- No bills unless we win. Contingency fee only. We advance the case costs. Free consultations, always.
- Community-rooted representation. Lionheart Injury Law is the only law firm in Denver specifically serving the Ethiopian, East African, and broader African community in the metro area. We understand the particular reluctance many immigrant and first-generation crime victims feel about coming forward, and we make the process safe, private, and in your corner.
How Much Does It Cost to Hire a Denver Negligent Security Lawyer?
Nothing up front. We take negligent security cases on contingency; our fee is a percentage of what we recover, and if we recover nothing, you owe nothing. No hourly bills.
We advance the costs of building the case, the security expert, the records, the investigation, and recoup them only out of a win. We also connect you with physicians and mental-health providers who treat now and bill from the settlement. The consultation is free and confidential. Call (720) 763-5207.
What Should I Do After a Negligent Security Injury in Denver?
A few steps protect both your health and your claim.
Get Medical Attention Right Away
Even if you do not feel badly hurt, get checked. Adrenaline masks injuries, and a head strike or internal injury can surface the next day. Denver Health and the UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital on the Anschutz campus are among the region's top trauma centers.
Report the Crime
Report it to police and, if you can, to the property, and get the report number. The Denver Police Department report becomes part of the record that establishes what happened and when.
Preserve What You Can
Get the names of witnesses and take photos of the scene and the conditions, the broken lock, the dark lot, the absent guard, the propped-open gate. These conditions get fixed quickly once a crime draws attention.
Call a Lawyer Fast
The single most important piece of evidence, the property's surveillance footage, is often overwritten within days, and only a quick preservation demand from a lawyer stops it. The sooner you call, the more proof survives.
Foreseeability: The Heart of a Negligent Security Case
Every negligent security case turns on one question: was the crime foreseeable? A property owner is not an insurer against all crime, but it must guard against the dangers it knew about or reasonably should have, knowledge that can be actual (a manager who saw the threat) or constructive (a risk so plain that reasonable attention would have caught it). Foreseeability is built from evidence:
- Prior similar crimes on the property or nearby, assaults, robberies, or shootings in the months before yours.
- The property's call-for-service history: how many times police were summoned, and for what.
- The character of the area and the business, a late-night bar, a poorly lit complex, an ATM in a high-crime corridor.
- Specific warnings the owner ignored, tenant complaints, a known threat, a broken gate reported and never fixed.
- A security assessment the owner commissioned and ignored, an audit that recommended lights, cameras, or guards the owner never paid for.
We assemble that record from police data, including the Denver Police Department crime maps and calls-for-service data, incident reports, and the property's own files, because foreseeability is what separates a tragic act of random violence from a preventable one the owner should have stopped.
Common Security Failures Behind These Claims
The same shortcuts turn up again and again, across the places Denverites gather, apartments and hotels, bars and parking garages, shopping centers and gas stations, and higher-duty settings like hospitals, nursing homes, and college campuses.
Inadequate Lighting, Locks, and Gates
Dark parking garages and lots, broken or propped exterior doors, failed gate access, and unlit stairwells invite exactly the crime that follows.
Too Few or Untrained Guards
Late-night, high-traffic spots, the bars and clubs of LoDo and Glendale, concert and game crowds around Ball Arena and Empower Field at Mile High, busy hotels near the convention center, need vigilant, trained security. Where a venue runs short-staffed, a minor fight escalates into a stabbing or a shooting that a present guard would have stopped.
When the Bouncer or Guard Is the Problem
Security itself can cause the injury. An untrained or over-aggressive bouncer who uses an unsafe restraint, throws a patron out by force, or skips de-escalation entirely can break bones, cause a brain injury, or worse. The venue and its security company answer for negligent hiring and training and for the guard's conduct.
Broken Cameras and No Access Control
Cameras that do not record, key-card systems that do not work, and no check on who comes and goes leave a property blind, and leave victims without the footage that would prove their case.
The Crimes That Give Rise to a Claim
Negligent security claims follow violent crime: physical assault and battery, robbery and mugging, shootings and stabbings, sexual assault in apartments and hotels, carjacking in garages and lots, and, too often, crimes that end in wrongful death. The claim is never about excusing the person who did it. It is about the separate, additional failure of the business that made the harm possible and preventable.
Where the attack happened shapes the case, because each property type fails in its own way. We cover the three most common settings in depth: assaults at apartment complexes, where broken gates and ignored crime histories create landlord liability; bar and nightclub violence, including bouncer misconduct and Colorado's one-year dram shop claim; and attacks in parking lots and garages, where lighting audits and operator contracts decide who answers. And when an institution's security failure harms a child, our child abuse practice takes the case with the added protections children's cases demand.
How We Build a Negligent Security Case
These cases are won on evidence the property would rather you never see, and it disappears fast. We move on day one.
- Preservation letters sent immediately to lock down surveillance footage before the system overwrites it, often within days.
- Guard logs and incident reports, the security contract and staffing schedules, and camera-maintenance records that show whether the property's own systems actually worked.
- Tenant and customer complaints that put the owner on notice of the danger before your injury.
- Police calls for service and crime reports for the property and the surrounding blocks, to establish foreseeability.
- Witness interviews conducted before memories fade.
- A premises-security expert who measures the property's measures against the industry standard of care.
- A criminologist or crime-data analyst who frames the foreseeability, and a lighting or CPTED (crime prevention through environmental design) expert who shows what reasonable design would have prevented.
- Treating physicians and mental-health experts who document the full injury, including the psychological toll these cases carry.
Who Can Be Held Liable for Negligent Security in Denver?
More than one party usually shares responsibility.
Property Owners and Landlords
The owner and the landlord who control the premises carry the core duty to keep them reasonably safe and to fix known dangers.
Business Operators and Management Companies
The bar, store, hotel, or apartment-management company running the space owes its patrons and tenants the invitee duty, even when it leases rather than owns. And when the attacker is the property's own employee, a maintenance worker, valet, or staffer, negligent hiring and retention put the business directly on the hook.
Security Companies
A contracted security firm that under-staffed the site, hired or trained guards poorly, or whose guard used excessive force can be liable on its own, and a bar that overserved a patron who then turned violent can face dram-shop liability under C.R.S. § 44-3-801.
Government Entities
When the property is public, public housing, an RTD transit station, a government building, the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act applies, and a written notice of claim is due within 182 days under C.R.S. § 24-10-109.
Why the Criminal Isn't the Only One Responsible
Here is the hardest part of these cases, and the reason they need a lawyer. Colorado is a several-liability state: the owner can formally designate the criminal as a "non-party at fault" under C.R.S. § 13-21-111.5, and ask the jury to put most of the blame on the attacker, who has no money and will never be found. Because each defendant generally pays only its own percentage of fault, a high share assigned to the criminal can gut the recovery.
Beating that move is the core of the work. The owner's whole duty was to protect against this exact foreseeable crime, so we build the case to keep a substantial share of fault on the business that ignored it, the prior incidents, the broken systems, the cost-cutting. We make the jury see that the criminal pulled the trigger, but the owner left the door unlocked. And you do not need the attacker caught or convicted, this is a civil claim against the property, separate from any criminal case and decided by the lower "more likely than not" standard.
Common Injuries in Negligent Security Cases
These are violent crimes, so the injuries are severe, and the psychological harm is often the largest part of the claim.
- Gunshot and stab wounds, requiring emergency surgery, long recovery, and often permanent impairment.
- Traumatic brain injuries, from beatings or from falls during an assault.
- Broken bones and internal injuries, from physical attacks and excessive-force restraints.
- The lasting harm of sexual assault, handled with discretion and care, both physically and emotionally.
- PTSD, anxiety, depression, and the loss of a sense of safety, frequently the heart of the claim, and which we document with mental-health experts. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD notes that assault is among the most common causes of post-traumatic stress disorder.
- Wrongful death, far too many negligent security cases end in a fatality, and we handle those claims with the gravity they demand.
What Types of Damages Are Available?
Colorado splits your recovery into distinct categories. Some are uncapped, some are capped, and the caps rose significantly in 2025 under HB24-1472.
Economic Damages
Your hard losses, which Colorado does not cap: past and future medical and psychological treatment, lost wages, lost earning capacity, and out-of-pocket costs. We project the future losses with physicians and economists, and in these cases, future mental-health treatment is a real and substantial line.
Non-Economic Damages
Pain and suffering, emotional distress, disfigurement and scarring, loss of consortium, and loss of enjoyment of life. In negligent security cases the emotional and psychological harm is frequently the heart of the claim. Under HB24-1472, effective January 1, 2025, Colorado raised the general non-economic cap from approximately $642,000 to $1.5 million and scrapped the old rule that let defendants argue it down. The cap holds through 2027, then adjusts for inflation every two years from 2028.
How Colorado Courts Evaluate Pain and Suffering
There is no formula in the statute. Lawyers and adjusters lean on two recognized working methods to put a value on suffering.
The Multiplier Method
Take the total economic damages and multiply by a figure, commonly 1.5 to 5, scaled to severity and permanence. A permanent injury or lasting trauma pulls a higher multiplier than a quick-healing one.
The Per Diem Method
Assign a daily dollar value to your suffering and multiply by the days you are affected. We use whichever method, or combination, drives the larger fully supported number.
Exemplary (Punitive) Damages
When a business cut corners on safety it knew were dangerous, ignored a string of prior assaults, killed the security budget, left a known broken lock, that willful and wanton conduct can support exemplary damages under C.R.S. § 13-21-102, capped at an amount equal to your actual damages. They are added by amendment after initial disclosures, and we build the record to support them.
Wrongful Death Damages
When negligent security ends in death, Colorado's wrongful death cap rose to $2,125,000 for claims accruing on or after January 1, 2025, and economic losses stay uncapped. How a family brings that claim is explained in our guide to Colorado wrongful death cases.
Medical Liens and Subrogation
Health insurers, hospitals, and Medicare or Medicaid can assert liens to recoup what they paid, and any provider who treated you on a letter of protection gets paid from the recovery. We map and negotiate them down so more lands in your pocket.
How Much Is My Denver Negligent Security Case Worth?
No honest lawyer hands you a number before reviewing the file. Value runs on the severity and permanence of your injuries, physical and psychological, the strength of the foreseeability evidence, how much fault we can keep on the owner rather than the criminal, and the available insurance. A property with a documented history of ignored violence and a serious injury anchors a far larger claim than the surface facts suggest.
We value the case against real Colorado outcomes, then build it to back the number up. In a premises case where the insurer offered nothing, we recovered $2.4 million. That is what building a case for trial can do against a company betting you will walk away.
How Colorado's Comparative Negligence Rule Affects Your Claim
Colorado's modified comparative negligence rule (C.R.S. § 13-21-111), the 50% bar, reduces your recovery by your share of fault and erases it if you are 50% or more at fault. Expect the defense to argue you "provoked it," "should have known the area," or should not have been there, or that the crime was an unforeseeable, superseding act no one could have prevented. Paired with the non-party designation of the criminal, comparative fault is the owner's whole playbook. We answer it with the foreseeability record and the owner's own failures, so the blame lands where it should.
Should I Accept the Insurance Company's First Offer?
No. The first offer is an anchor, not a value, and in these cases it comes wrapped in the suggestion that the crime was nobody's fault but the criminal's. Take it, and you sign away the claim before the psychological harm and future treatment are ever counted. The adjuster will push a recorded statement and a broad records release to dig for anything to blame you with. We shut it down and do not engage on a number until the case is built.
Do not give a recorded statement or sign a records release before talking to a lawyer. In negligent security cases especially, the insurer is hunting for any way to shift blame onto you or write the crime off as unforeseeable. The consultation is free and confidential; call first.
How Long Do I Have to File a Negligent Security Claim in Colorado?
Generally two years from the date of the injury under C.R.S. § 13-80-102. The exceptions matter:
- Government-owned property (public housing, an RTD station, a government building): a written notice of claim is due within 182 days under the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act.
- Minors: the deadline can be paused (tolled) in certain circumstances.
Because the deadlines are firm and the evidence is perishable, surveillance video often vanishes in days, the safest move is to call early.
When Should I Hire a Denver Negligent Security Lawyer?
As soon as you safely can. Surveillance footage, the proof that often makes these cases, is frequently erased within days, and the police call-for-service history and witness memories degrade from there. Hiring early lets us preserve the video, gather the foreseeability evidence while it is fresh, and get between you and the insurer before a recorded statement can be used against you.
Will My Denver Negligent Security Case Go to Trial?
Many negligent security cases settle, but the ones that settle well are built for trial, an owner that sees a file ready for a Denver jury, with a documented history of ignored crime, pays very differently than one that senses a victim hoping to avoid court. Venue matters too: a case in the city is tried in Denver District Court, one near our office in Arapahoe County at Centennial or Adams County at Brighton. If trial is what it takes to get full value, we are ready for it.
Talk to a Denver Negligent Security Lawyer
If you were hurt by a crime, or by a guard, at a property that cut corners on safety, you do not have to carry it alone, and you do not have to take the insurer's word that no one but the attacker is to blame. The consultation is free and confidential, and you pay nothing unless we win.
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