Yes, negligent security claims still exist in Georgia, but two major changes now shape what victims must prove. Senate Bill 68, effective April 21, 2025, rewrote O.C.G.A. §§ 51-3-50 through 51-3-57 with tighter statutory tests for property owners. Meanwhile, the Georgia Supreme Court’s rulings in Georgia CVS Pharmacy v. Carmichael and Welch v. Pappas made foreseeability easier to argue before a jury. If you were hurt in an attack on someone else’s property, preserve every scrap of evidence now and talk to a Georgia attorney before deadlines close in.

TL;DR:

  • Evidence of prior criminal incidents near the property, especially recent and similar crimes, now carries greater weight in arguing foreseeability of attack.
  • Courts are increasingly favoring jury consideration of total circumstances, allowing more prior incidents and security failures to be admissible in negligent security claims.
  • Security contractors performing negligently can be held liable under Georgia law if they voluntarily assume and breach security duties, even without direct contracts with victims.
  • The statute of limitations for filing negligent security claims in Georgia is two years, so victims should act quickly to preserve evidence and consult an attorney.
  • Property owners can gain immunity if they report suspicious activity to law enforcement, but certain claims are excluded, such as injuries to trespassers or on residential properties.

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Negligent Security Georgia Law: What SB 68 Actually Says

Negligent security is a form of premises liability built on a simple idea: property owners who invite the public onto their land owe a duty to keep it reasonably safe, and that duty extends to protecting visitors from foreseeable criminal acts by third parties. O.C.G.A. § 51-3-1 has long set the baseline duty owed to invitees. SB 68 layered new statutory tests on top of that baseline, and the details matter more than most victims realize.

The law splits liability standards depending on whether the injured person was an invitee (someone on the property for the owner’s business benefit, like a shopper or tenant) or a licensee (someone there for their own purposes, like a social guest). Invitees generally get stronger protection because owners profit from their presence.

SB 68 also introduced a specific evidentiary anchor: prior criminal incidents occurring on or near the property now carry particular weight when courts assess whether an attack was foreseeable. Property owners who report suspicious activity to law enforcement can also gain statutory immunity protections tied to that reporting, which is why security consultants now push clients to document every call to police.

The statute carves out several situations where negligent security claims don’t apply:

  • Injuries suffered by trespassers, with narrow exceptions
  • Single-family residential properties, which face a different liability framework than commercial or multifamily sites
  • Claims arising entirely before the law’s April 21, 2025 effective date, though pending cases can still be affected by procedural provisions
  • Situations where the owner had no practical ability to control the third party’s conduct

Commentary from firms tracking the 2025 tort reform package notes SB 68 narrows the statutory window for these claims generally, even as it leaves the door open for well-documented cases.

Proving Fault: The Four Elements and the Foreseeability Test

Every negligent security claim in Georgia still rests on the same four negligence elements, just applied to a security context. You must show the property owner owed a duty of care, breached that duty through inadequate security, and that the breach caused your injury, resulting in real damages.

Foreseeability is where most cases actually get won or lost. Georgia courts now apply a totality-of-the-circumstances test, meaning judges and juries weigh multiple factors together rather than requiring an identical past crime:

  1. Proximity — how close prior incidents occurred to the location of your injury
  2. Timing — how recently those incidents happened relative to your attack
  3. Frequency — how often crime occurred on or near the property
  4. Similarity — whether the type of crime, not necessarily every detail, resembled what happened to you

That last point is critical. Prior crimes don’t need to be identical to establish foreseeability. A property with a history of armed robberies can support a claim involving an assault, because both point to inadequate security response in a pattern of violence, according to Mercer Law Review’s analysis of the court’s approach.

Strong evidence in these cases usually includes incident logs from the property, police reports for the address and surrounding blocks, contracts with security companies (including staffing levels actually provided versus promised), surveillance footage, and maintenance records showing broken locks, lighting, or gates.

Pro Tip: Request surveillance footage preservation in writing within days of the incident. Most commercial security systems overwrite footage on a 30 to 90 day cycle, and once it’s gone, you’ve lost your strongest evidence.

Carmichael and Welch: How the Georgia Supreme Court Shifted Foreseeability

Two consolidated Georgia Supreme Court decisions reshaped how negligent security cases get litigated, and both favor keeping evidence in front of juries rather than letting judges dismiss cases early.

In Georgia CVS Pharmacy, LLC v. Carmichael, the Georgia Supreme Court held that reasonable foreseeability of third-party criminal acts is determined from the totality of the circumstances and is generally a question for the jury, not something a judge should decide on summary judgment. That single holding matters enormously for victims, because it means:

  • Cases survive longer instead of getting dismissed before trial
  • Prior crimes don’t need to match your incident exactly to be admissible
  • Judges must consider proximity, timing, frequency, and overall context together rather than looking for one perfect precedent

In Welch v. Pappas, the court addressed a related question: when do security contractors themselves owe a duty to visitors? The ruling found that security companies can be held liable under Restatement (Second) of Torts § 324A when they voluntarily undertake security duties and perform them negligently, even without a direct contract with the injured person.

The practical effect is a split landscape. It’s harder for defendants to win dismissal before trial, and more evidence of prior incidents now reaches the jury. At the same time, SB 68’s narrower statutory tests mean some claims that would have survived a decade ago now face a higher bar to even get filed, according to Swift Currie’s summary of the reform package.

What to Do After a Negligent Security Injury in Georgia

The steps you take in the first 72 hours often determine whether your case survives contact with defense attorneys months later.

  1. Get medical care immediately and make sure the treating provider documents the injury as resulting from an assault or attack, not a vague “fall.”
  2. Call police to the scene and get the incident report number along with the responding officer’s name and badge number.
  3. Photograph everything — the location, any broken locks or lighting, the general layout, and your visible injuries.
  4. Collect witness information on the spot. Names and phone numbers disappear fast once people leave.
  5. Send a written preservation request to the property owner demanding they retain surveillance footage, security logs, and maintenance records.
  6. Request copies of any lease, security contract, or staffing schedule tied to the property.
  7. Track every expense and lost workday connected to your recovery, including mileage to appointments and prescription costs.

Georgia’s statute of limitations for personal injury claims, including negligent security, is generally two years from the date of injury. Miss that window and you likely lose the right to sue entirely, regardless of how strong your evidence is.

Pro Tip: Ask the responding officer directly whether the location has prior calls for service. Some departments will confirm a pattern verbally even before the written report is finalized, giving your attorney an early lead on discovery requests.

Damages in these cases typically include medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, and in the most severe cases, punitive damages if the owner’s conduct was willful or showed conscious disregard for safety. Defendants commonly argue the crime was unforeseeable, that an intervening criminal act breaks the chain of causation, or that fault should be apportioned to other parties, including the criminal attacker. Georgia’s premises liability rules intersect closely with these defenses, which is part of why negligent security cases run more complicated than a typical slip and fall claim.

How a Georgia Attorney Builds a Negligent Security Case

Negligent security cases hinge on evidence victims usually can’t access alone. An attorney can subpoena surveillance footage before it’s overwritten, pull the property’s history of police calls, and hire security experts to testify about what reasonable lighting, staffing, or access control should have looked like given the site’s crime history.

That expert testimony matters because it connects a specific vulnerability, a broken gate, a dead security light, an unstaffed entrance, to the actual method of the attack. It’s the kind of proof Mercer Law Review identifies as central to winning cases under the totality test Carmichael established.

Attorneys also handle apportionment fights, where defense teams try to shift blame onto the criminal, a security contractor, or even the victim. Untangling who owed what duty, especially now that Welch opens the door to contractor liability, takes someone who understands both premises law and how insurance carriers evaluate these claims.

The Jewkes Firm represents injury victims across South Atlanta and surrounding Georgia counties on a contingency fee basis, meaning clients pay nothing unless the firm wins their case. Free consultations let victims understand their options before committing to anything, and the firm’s blog and podcast resources give the public plain-language explanations of premises liability, negligence, and related property hazard issues without a sales pitch attached.

How a Georgia Attorney Builds a Negligent Security Case — overview diagram

Where to Read the Primary Sources

For readers who want to verify the law directly: the SB 68 statutory text is available through the Georgia General Assembly, and the Carmichael opinion is published in full through Justia’s court records. Firm-level analyses from Arnall Golden Gregory and industry commentary from ASIS International offer additional context on how the reform is playing out in practice.

Get a Free Case Review From The Jewkes Firm

If you or someone you love was hurt because a property owner ignored a known danger, you don’t have to sort through SB 68’s statutory language or Supreme Court precedent alone. The Jewkes Firm is the local option for negligent security victims in South Atlanta and surrounding Georgia counties who need someone to handle the investigation while they focus on healing.

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The firm’s attorneys pursue negligent security claims on a contingency fee basis, so there’s no upfront cost and no fee unless they win your case. That structure matters most in negligent security litigation specifically, where cases often require expert witnesses and extensive discovery that most victims can’t afford to front themselves. The firm also handles related accident injury cases throughout the region, so victims dealing with overlapping injuries from a single incident get one team instead of juggling multiple firms.

Call for a free consultation or start your case review with The Jewkes Firm today. The sooner evidence gets preserved, the stronger your case stands.

This article is general information, not a substitute for advice from a qualified lawyer. Consult a qualified legal professional about your own circumstances before acting on anything here.

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