Negligent security cases ask a property owner to answer for a crime someone else committed. Florida law changed substantially on that question in 2023, and the current framework gives defendants two tools they did not have before. The criminal actor can now be placed on the verdict form, and owners of qualifying multifamily properties can earn a statutory presumption against liability by implementing specified security measures.
Topkin Law defends retailers, hotels and resorts, restaurants and bars, multifamily and apartment owners, condominium and homeowners associations, parking facility operators, and commercial landlords, along with the carriers and third-party administrators behind them, in claims arising from assaults, shootings, robberies, and other criminal acts on their premises.
The threshold question in most of these cases is whether the criminal act was foreseeable to this defendant, at this location, at this time. We develop the record on prior incidents at the property and in the area, the nature and specificity of what was actually reported to the owner, and the difference between a neighborhood’s general crime statistics and knowledge that would put a reasonable operator on notice. Plaintiffs’ counsel work hard to blur that distinction, and much of the defense consists of restoring it.
Section 768.0701, Florida Statutes, enacted in 2023, provides that in an action against the owner, lessor, operator, or manager of commercial or real property brought by a person lawfully on the property who was injured by the criminal act of a third party, the trier of fact must consider the fault of all persons who contributed to the injury. That changed the arithmetic of these cases. We plead and prove the apportionment, and we develop the evidence about the assailant that supports it.
Section 768.0706 gives the owner or principal operator of a qualifying multifamily residential property a presumption against liability for third-party criminal acts where specified security measures have been substantially implemented. The measures include camera coverage at entry and exit points with footage retrievable for at least thirty days, lighting standards for parking areas and common spaces, door hardware requirements, a crime prevention through environmental design assessment, and employee crime deterrence and safety training on a defined schedule. The burden of demonstrating substantial implementation sits with the owner. We evaluate whether a property qualifies, build the evidentiary record for the presumption, and advise operators on closing the gaps before a claim arrives.
These cases are fought through experts on both sides, covering security practices, crime analysis, lighting and camera adequacy, and staffing. We retain and prepare the defense experts and challenge plaintiff experts whose opinions rest on hindsight, on standards no property in the market actually meets, or on crime data unconnected to this location.
Security is usually contracted out, and the security services agreement typically contains indemnity, defense, and additional-insured obligations that the owner is entitled to enforce. We read those contracts at intake, tender to the security vendor and its carrier, and litigate the tender when it is refused. This is often the highest-value work on the file.
Retailers and shopping center owners, hotels and resorts, restaurants, bars, and nightclubs, apartment and multifamily owners and managers, condominium and homeowners associations, parking operators, commercial landlords, and the insurers, third-party administrators, and self-insured companies responsible for the exposure.
Our clients include physician practices across specialties, PIP clinics, surgery centers, diagnostic providers, and the management companies that support them. The firm represents providers in clawback and recoupment matters arising from the full range of carriers operating in Florida, including major P&C carriers such as Allstate, State Farm, Progressive, GEICO, USAA, Liberty Mutual, and Travelers, and commercial health and managed care payers such as UnitedHealthcare, Aetna, Cigna, Humana, and Florida Blue. The firm also handles matters involving Medicare administrative contractors, Medicare Advantage plans, Medicaid managed care organizations, and AHCA.
The defense is built on three fronts at once. Foreseeability comes first, then apportionment to the person who committed the crime, then whatever statutory protection the property qualifies for. Any one of them can decide the case, and they are developed in parallel rather than in sequence.
A good deal of the useful work happens before there is a lawsuit. Operators who understand what the multifamily presumption requires, and who document their compliance, are in a better position when a claim arrives than operators who first hear about the statute from defense counsel.
