When someone is killed in a shooting, stabbing, or assault on commercial property, the family watches one case begin immediately: the State’s prosecution of the killer. This page is about the second case, the one the family has to start themselves, and the one that actually provides for the people left behind: a wrongful death claim against the property owner whose security failures made the killing possible.
Two cases, two different jobs
The criminal case exists to punish. Even when it ends in a life sentence, it pays the family nothing beyond restitution that defendants rarely have the means to satisfy. The civil wrongful death case exists to compensate, and it aims at a defendant who can actually answer: the apartment complex that ignored years of gunfire calls, the gas station with dead cameras and no lighting, the bar that kept overserving while fights spilled into its lot. Florida’s Wrongful Death Act exists precisely so that a death caused by negligence, including the negligent failure to secure a dangerous property, does not go unanswered.
Who brings the case, and who it provides for
A Florida wrongful death case is filed by the personal representative of the estate, on behalf of the survivors the Act protects: a spouse, children, parents, and certain dependent relatives. Survivors can recover for lost support and services, lost companionship and guidance, and mental pain and suffering, and the estate can recover its own losses. Which survivors qualify and what each can claim follows detailed statutory rules, and getting that structure right at the start prevents painful surprises later.
Proving the property’s share of responsibility
The heart of the case is the same foreseeability question that runs through all negligent security law: did this owner know, or should it have known, that violence was a real risk here, and did it take reasonable steps? The proof is documentary. Police calls-for-service to the address, prior incident reports, security staffing and budget records, camera maintenance logs, and internal emails tell the story of what the owner knew. A homicide adds a rich additional source: the criminal investigation itself, whose detectives, witness statements, and physical evidence become powerful material for the civil case when handled correctly.
The deadline trap families need to see
Here is a distinction that catches families every year. Florida law removes the filing deadline for a wrongful death claim against the killer personally when the death was caused by murder or manslaughter. But the claim against the property owner is a negligence claim against a business, and it runs on the ordinary wrongful death clock, generally two years. Families sometimes wait for the criminal case to finish, believing the civil case can always come later. Against the killer, perhaps. Against the property that made it possible, and whose insurance is usually the only real source of recovery, the deadline is short and unforgiving.
The prosecution and the civil case, side by side
The two cases can and usually should run in parallel. The family holds victim rights in the prosecution, including notice and the right to be heard. The civil case sends preservation letters immediately, because the property’s video and records erode long before any trial. Coordination matters: what is said in one case echoes in the other, and a lawyer fluent in both criminal and civil practice keeps the family from being whipsawed between them.
Why this is my kind of case
I began my career as an Assistant Public Defender in Tampa, inside homicide and violent crime files, and I bring that fluency to the civil side of these losses: reading the investigation, deposing the people who built it, and turning what the State proves about the killer into what a jury needs to see about the property. Families in these cases deserve both halves handled by someone who speaks both languages. Learn more about my background.
The book
Hurt on Someone Else’s Property
My plain-English book on Florida premises cases has a full chapter on negligent security: what property owners owe you, the records that prove what they knew, and the evidence race that starts the day you are hurt. Free to Tampa Bay residents, with the digital edition to read the moment you ask.
Common Questions
Can we sue the property even though someone else pulled the trigger?
Yes. Florida negligent security law holds property owners responsible for foreseeable criminal violence they failed to reasonably guard against. The killer’s guilt does not erase the owner’s share, and juries apportion responsibility between them.
Do we have to wait for the criminal case to end?
No, and waiting can be dangerous. The civil claim against the property owner generally must be filed within two years, and the property’s cameras and records need preserving immediately. The two cases can run side by side.
What if the killer was never caught?
The civil case can still proceed. The claim against the owner turns on foreseeability and security failures, not on the identity or conviction of the attacker, and it is decided on the greater weight of the evidence.
Who receives what the case recovers?
The Wrongful Death Act directs recovery to the statutory survivors, typically the spouse, children, and in some cases parents, plus the estate itself, each with defined categories of damages. The personal representative brings one case on behalf of everyone.
Is there really no deadline for suing the killer?
When a death was caused by murder or manslaughter, Florida law allows the wrongful death claim against that person to be brought at any time. That exception applies to the killer personally, not to the negligence claim against the property, which runs on the ordinary clock.
Related: Negligent security overview, Foreseeability and prior crime, Apartment assaults and shootings, Your attacker’s criminal case, and About Rory Safir.
Free guide No. 23
Attacked on Someone Else’s Property
The civil case nobody tells crime victims they have: foreseeability, the apartment presumption, the evidence race, and the deadlines, in plain English. Free, and one request unlocks the whole Safir Guides library.
This page is general information about Florida negligent security law, not legal advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Foreseeability and causation in Florida negligent security claims are governed by case law, including Sanders v. ERP Operating Ltd. Partnership, 157 So. 3d 273 (Fla. 2015), applied with Fla. Stat. 768.81 and 95.11. The duty arises from special relationships recognized in Florida tort law. Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. The hiring of a lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely on advertisements.
