Your home should be a safe place. Tenants pay rent, and an apartment complex has a legal duty to provide a safe place to live. When a complex fails to act on crime it already knew about, a shooting victim has a claim against the owner and the management company.
Our firm obtained a $2.2 million settlement in an apartment shooting case, one of the largest of its kind in Georgia.
Do You Have a Negligent Security Case?
These claims do not turn on the shooting itself. They turn on what the property knew beforehand. Work through these five questions:
You do not need the shooter to have been caught or convicted. That question is handled by police and prosecutors, and it does not control your claim.
Call (678) 935-6000How Liability Works in a Negligent Security Case
Property owners and management companies must keep their premises safe for tenants and guests under O.C.G.A. § 51-3-1, and crime is one of the dangers that duty covers.
If crime routinely occurs in or around a complex, the owner and manager must take appropriate steps: hiring security, adding lighting, and repairing broken gates or fencing.
The legal question is almost never whether the shooting was terrible. It is whether the complex knew or should have known this kind of violence was likely, and chose not to spend the money to prevent it.
Foreseeability is proven with the property's own history, not with the shooting that injured you. A complex with years of documented armed robberies cannot credibly claim surprise.
A property with no prior violent crime is a much harder case, and we will tell you that early.
Who Actually Pays an Apartment Shooting Claim
Commercial liability policies, usually more than one. Apartment complexes are rarely owned and operated by the same entity, and each may carry separate coverage.
| Party | Role |
|---|---|
| The property owner | Often an LLC or real estate investment entity holding the asset |
| The management company | Runs day-to-day operations and makes the security decisions. Frequently carries its own policy. |
| A contracted security company | Where patrols were hired but were inadequate, absent, or untrained |
| Excess or umbrella carriers | Layered above the primary in serious-injury and fatality cases |
Identifying the true ownership structure is real work. These properties are often held through layered entities, and naming the wrong one costs time you may not have.
What Drives the Value of These Claims
Gunshot injuries are among the most serious we handle, and the property's own record often decides how the insurer values the file.
Why Our Investigation Is Different
We pull every police report and 9-1-1 call for service at the complex going back ten years. It often produces thousands of pages of records, which we organize and analyze to show whether the complex knew how rampant the crime was.
| Evidence | What it proves | How long you have |
|---|---|---|
| Ten years of police calls for service | The property's true crime history, the foundation of foreseeability | Public records, but they take time to obtain and analyze |
| Prior incident and offense reports | Specific violent crimes the complex knew about | Same as above |
| Tenant complaints to management | Direct, documented notice | Obtained in discovery. Get witness names early. |
| Lease and marketing materials | Security the complex promised and charged for | Keep your lease and any brochures |
| Gate, lighting, and camera condition | The specific failure that let the shooter in | Days. Complexes repair gates and add lighting right after a shooting. |
| Complex surveillance footage | The incident and the security failures | Often overwritten in weeks |
| Internal management emails and budgets | That security was requested and denied on cost | Discovery only. Requires filing suit. |
Then we interview witnesses and neighbors about complaints made to the complex. Together, that is what turns "this was a tragedy" into "this was foreseeable, and they did nothing."
"Most apartment complexes in Georgia are represented by the same few defense lawyers, and they know us and our reputation for results."
R. Michael Coker
What the Apartment Complex Will Argue
Apartment shooting cases are unique, and very few lawyers actually handle them. Expect these:
The central defense in every negligent security case, and the reason the ten-year records pull matters more than anything else we do.
The argument that the shooter, not the property, is responsible. It fails where the property's own failures made the crime likely.
A gate that was broken for months, a camera that was not recording, or a patrol that came once a week. Having something is not the same as having something reasonable.
Suggesting you knew the shooter, were involved, or invited the danger. It is ugly, it is common, and it has to be anticipated rather than reacted to.
Aimed at guests, and usually wrong. A property owner's duty generally extends to invited guests.
These cases can take years and require multiple witness statements, court appearances, and experts. You need a firm with the financial resources to go head-to-head with the complex.
How an Apartment Shooting Case Proceeds
After a shooting, protect the claim. Call the police and let them complete a full investigation. Get the names of neighbors who witnessed it. Once police finish, photograph where it happened, including any bullet holes from this or earlier incidents. Do not speak with complex managers or their insurer, who may be recording the conversation.
If the victim died, a lawyer can help appoint the representative responsible for bringing the case.
Coker Accident Lawyers handles apartment shooting and negligent security claims throughout metro Atlanta and Georgia, from offices in Lawrenceville, Mulberry, and Winder. Related: wrongful death, premises liability, and Georgia personal injury claims.
