Can Businesses Be Liable for Third-Party Violence?

Violence happens in places we trust. A parking garage after a late shift. A hotel hallway. A bar where security does nothing while a situation escalates. In those moments, the last thing on your mind is legal theory. But when the dust settles and the injuries are real, a critical question emerges: did the business where this happened play a role in letting it happen?

The answer, in many cases, is yes. Property owners and businesses have a legal obligation to protect the people who walk through their doors. When they ignore warning signs, cut corners on security, or fail to act on known dangers, they can bear real legal responsibility for the violence that follows. That is not a loophole. It is the law.

At Marko Law, we represent people who were hurt on someone else's property and were told they just had to live with it. We disagree. If a business's negligence made you a target, or made an attack more likely, or made it impossible for you to get away, you may have a claim worth fighting for. This page explains how these cases work in Michigan and what we look for when someone comes to us with this kind of story.

What Is Premises Liability

Premises liability is the area of law that holds property owners and businesses responsible for injuries that happen on their property due to unsafe conditions. Most people associate it with slip and fall cases, but it extends well beyond wet floors and broken steps. It also covers foreseeable violence carried out by third parties when the property owner failed to take reasonable precautions.

In Michigan, property owners owe a duty of care to people who visit their premises, and that duty includes addressing known or reasonably foreseeable dangers. When a business knows, or should know, that violence is a real possibility and does nothing meaningful about it, that failure can create legal liability even if the person who committed the act was not an employee.

The Legal Concept of "Foreseeable Harm"

Foreseeability is usually the central issue in a third-party violence case. Courts want to know whether a reasonable business owner should have anticipated that violence was a real risk on that property. If the answer is yes, and the business still did nothing, liability becomes much easier to establish.

How do courts evaluate foreseeability? Several factors come into play:

• Prior criminal incidents on or near the property, including assaults, robberies, or harassment
• Police reports or incident logs from the area that the business had or should have had access to
• Complaints from tenants, employees, or previous customers that were ignored
• The general nature of the business (a bar or nightclub, for example, carries a different risk profile than a bookstore)
• Prior warnings or requests for better security that were dismissed

What Duty of Care Do Businesses Owe Visitors in Michigan?

Invitees

Customers, shoppers, tenants, hotel guests, and most people who enter a business for commercial purposes are classified as invitees. Businesses owe invitees the highest duty of care. That means actively inspecting for dangers, taking steps to address known hazards, and maintaining a reasonably safe environment.

Licensees

Social guests and others who enter with permission but not for a business purpose are licensees. The duty owed here is lower, but property owners must still warn of known dangers they are aware of.

Trespassers

Trespassers generally receive the least protection, with some exceptions for children under the attractive nuisance doctrine.

Types of Businesses and Properties Most Commonly Involved

While any business can potentially be held liable for third-party violence, certain types of properties carry higher risks and have a stronger obligation to address them proactively. These include:

• Bars and nightclubs, where alcohol, crowds, and tension routinely intersect
• Parking lots and parking garages, which are isolated, poorly lit, and frequently the site of crimes against persons
• Hotels and motels, where guests are often unfamiliar with the area and may be in vulnerable situations
• Shopping centers and retail stores, where high foot traffic and inconsistent security create gaps
• Apartment complexes, where property management has ongoing responsibilities to resident safety
• Hospitals and healthcare facilities, which can attract volatile situations and must manage access carefully
• Schools and childcare facilities, which hold a heightened duty when it comes to protecting the people in their care

What Security Failures Can Make a Business Liable?

Not every violent incident on a business's property translates to a viable lawsuit. What matters is whether the business failed to take steps that a reasonable property owner would have taken. Common security failures we investigate include:

• Broken or inadequate lighting in parking areas, stairwells, and common spaces
• Missing or nonfunctional surveillance cameras
• Broken locks, gates, door closers, or access controls that were left unrepaired
• Failure to hire or station security personnel in areas where threats were known
• Ignoring previous complaints from customers, tenants, or employees about safety
• Failure to train staff on how to identify and respond to escalating situations
• No protocol for calling law enforcement when incidents occur

What You Need to Prove in a Third-Party Violence Claim

To succeed in a premises liability claim based on third-party violence, we generally need to establish four things:

• Duty: The business owed you a legal duty to maintain a safe environment
• Breach: The business failed to meet that duty through inadequate security or ignoring known risks
• Causation: That failure was a contributing cause of your injuries
• Damages: You suffered real, compensable harm as a result

Evidence matters enormously in these cases. Surveillance footage, incident reports, maintenance records, prior police calls to the property, and witness statements can all be pivotal. One important reason to act quickly is that some of this evidence is lost over time. Security footage gets overwritten. Records go missing. The sooner an attorney can work to preserve that evidence, the better positioned your case will be.

Common Defenses Businesses Use and How We Counter Them

"The violence was completely unforeseeable."

This is the most common defense, and it rarely holds up when we dig into the property's history. Prior incidents, police reports, and unaddressed complaints often tell a very different story than what management claims in litigation.

"The victim assumed the risk."

Simply being in a public place or a commercial property does not mean you accepted the risk of being assaulted. This argument misrepresents what assumption of risk actually requires under Michigan law.

"We had adequate security."

Businesses sometimes point to a single security guard or a token camera as proof of reasonable precautions. We push back hard on whether those measures were actually adequate given the known risk level of the property.

"The attacker was a stranger, not our employee."

This is exactly the point. Premises liability for third-party violence is designed for situations where the business did not cause the harm directly but created the conditions for it. The fact that a stranger committed the act does not automatically insulate the property owner from responsibility.

What Compensation May Be Available to Victims

If you have a viable claim, you may be entitled to compensation for a range of losses, including:

• Medical expenses, both current and future, including rehabilitation and mental health treatment
• Lost wages and reduced earning capacity if your injuries have affected your ability to work
• Pain and suffering
• Emotional distress and psychological trauma, which can be severe after a violent attack
• Wrongful death damages if a family member was killed due to negligent security

You Didn't Choose to Be There When It Happened

Being hurt somewhere you thought was safe is a particular kind of violation. You were not reckless. You were not in the wrong place at the wrong time through any fault of your own. You were at a hotel, a parking lot, an apartment building, or a bar, and someone failed in their responsibility to protect you. That failure has consequences under the law.

These cases are not easy. Businesses resist accountability, and their insurance carriers have experienced legal teams whose job is to minimize what they pay. What you need on your side is a firm that has been through that fight before and knows how to win it. At Marko Law, we have secured some of the largest verdicts in Michigan history. We do not shy away from hard cases, and we do not fold when a corporation pushes back.

Take the First Step Toward Accountability: Contact Marko Law

If you've been injured or your rights have been violated, you don't have to face this alone. Contact Marko Law today for a free case evaluation.

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At Marko Law, we fight hard. We don't back down.