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Houston Premises Liability Lawyer
Injured on someone else’s property due to negligence? We want to help.
Have You Suffered an Injury on Someone Else’s Property?
You walked into a store, an apartment complex, or a parking garage expecting it to be safe, and instead a hidden hazard put you in the hospital. A Houston premises liability lawyer holds property owners responsible when their carelessness turns an ordinary errand into a serious injury.
These cases run on a specific set of rules, and Texas law even sets out how far an owner’s landowner liability can reach. Getting those rules right is the whole game.
Houston attorney, Matthew Kotzen, represents people hurt by dangerous property conditions across Houston, from slick grocery aisles to poorly lit stairwells and unsecured pools. The firm proves what the owner knew, when they knew it, and why their failure to act caused your injury.
If a dangerous property left you injured in Houston, call (512) 254-4424 for a free consultation. You pay nothing unless we win.
Our Houston Premises Liability Lawyer
Legally reviewed by Matthew Kotzen
A former insurance-defense trial attorney, Matthew Kotzen spent the early part of his career representing insurance companies before switching sides to fight for injured people. He earned his J.D. from the Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer University and has represented thousands of injury victims. He is a Lifetime Member of Best Attorneys of America, was named to the Top 100 Civil Plaintiff Attorneys by The National Trial Lawyers, and is admitted to the State Bar of Texas.
“I spent years building cases for insurance companies. Now I use that same playbook to make sure they pay what they actually owe.”
Goldberg & Loren Fights for Maximum Compensation
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Texas Injury Law at a Glance
| Deadline to file a lawsuit | Two years from the date of the injury. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003 |
| Fault rule | Modified comparative responsibility ("51% bar"): you recover only if you are 50% or less at fault, and your award is reduced by your share. §§ 33.001, 33.012 |
| What the property owner owed you | Depends on your visitor status (invitee, licensee, or trespasser); on government property the duty is usually the one owed a licensee. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 101.022 |
| Bar / alcohol-provider liability | A provider can share liability for serving someone who was obviously intoxicated. Tex. Alco. Bev. Code § 2.02 |
Slip and Fall and the Other Injuries a Houston Premises Liability Lawyer Handles
Most people hear premises liability and picture a slip and fall, and that is a big part of it, but the category is much wider. A Houston premises liability lawyer handles any injury caused by an unsafe condition on someone else’s property. The connecting thread is a property owner who let a hazard exist and did nothing to fix or warn about it. The team at Goldberg & Loren has handled the full range of these claims.
Slip, Trip, and Fall Accidents
Wet floors, torn carpet, uneven pavement, and cluttered walkways send people to the ground every day, causing broken bones, back injuries, and head trauma. Proving one of these cases means showing the hazard existed and the owner should have dealt with it.
A wet entrance on a rainy Houston afternoon, a broken step in an apartment stairwell, or a deep pothole in a store parking lot can each support a claim when the owner knew about the danger and let it linger. The key is tying the injury to a condition the property owner had the time and duty to fix.
Negligent Security, Pool, and Falling Merchandise Injuries
Premises claims reach well beyond floors. A property with broken locks and no lighting can enable an assault, an unfenced pool can lead to a drowning, and a poorly stacked shelf can drop heavy merchandise onto a shopper. Each of these traces back to an owner who ignored a known risk.
Whether it is a security gap at an apartment complex or a hazard in a warehouse store, the question is the same: did the owner act reasonably?
Why Your Legal Status on the Property Changes Your Houston Claim
Texas does not treat every visitor the same, and your legal status on the property decides how much protection you get. A Houston premises liability lawyer starts by identifying why you were there, because that answer sets the duty the owner owed you. If you slip in a restaurant you came to as a paying customer, you are owed the highest level of care, a stronger position than a guest who wandered into a private area.
Invitees, Licensees, and Trespassers
An invitee is someone on the property for the owner’s benefit, such as a store customer, and they are owed the greatest duty of care. A licensee is a social guest owed a lesser duty, and a trespasser is owed very little, essentially only a duty not to be injured willfully, wantonly, or by gross negligence.
Where you fall on that scale directly affects what you must prove. On government property, the duty owed is usually the lower one owed a licensee (§ 101.022).
What Duty a Property Owner Owed You
For an invitee, a Houston property owner must make a reasonable effort to find dangerous conditions and then fix them or warn about them. That means inspecting the property, cleaning up spills, and posting clear warnings when a hazard cannot be removed right away.
A missing wet floor sign can be the failure that defines your case. When an owner skips those basic steps, such as a store that mops a spill but leaves no warning cone or a landlord who ignores a broken handrail for weeks, it breaches the duty Texas law imposes.
The Notice Rule You Must Prove To Win a Texas Premises Case
It is not enough that you got hurt on someone’s property. You generally have to prove the owner knew or should have known about the hazard and failed to act. To win a typical Texas premises liability claim, you usually need to establish each of the following points, and missing any one of them can sink the case.
- The owner owed you a duty based on your status on the property, most often as an invitee.
- An unreasonably dangerous condition existed on the property, such as a spill, a broken step, or a hidden drop.
- The owner knew about the hazard, or it existed long enough that a careful owner should have found it.
- The owner failed to fix the hazard or warn you about it.
- That failure directly caused your injury and the real losses that followed.
The trickiest piece is almost always knowledge, because owners rarely admit they saw the danger. Proving that a hazard sat there long enough to be discovered is where evidence and speed matter most.
Actual and Constructive Knowledge of the Hazard
Actual knowledge means the owner truly knew, such as an employee who saw the spill and walked past it. Constructive knowledge means the hazard existed long enough that a reasonable owner should have found and fixed it.
An employee simply being near the hazard is not enough (Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Reece, 81 S.W.3d 812 (Tex. 2002)). A Houston premises liability attorney gathers the evidence that shows how long the danger was present. In a grocery case, a cleaning schedule that shows no inspection for hours can prove the store should have caught the spill long before you did, turning constructive knowledge from an argument into a documented fact a jury can see.
Why Evidence Vanishes Fast in Store Cases
Stores overwrite security footage on a schedule, sometimes within days, and the hazard that hurt you gets cleaned up minutes after you fall. That means the proof you need can be gone before you even leave the hospital.
Employees often fill out an incident report the same day, capturing admissions and details that fade from memory within weeks. Our team sends preservation demands quickly to stop that footage from disappearing, because acting fast is often what keeps the decisive evidence alive.
What a Houston Premises Liability Claim Can Pay For
A serious fall or property injury creates costs that reach far beyond the emergency room visit. A Houston premises liability claim is meant to cover the full weight of what the injury takes from you, both the bills you can count and the losses that are harder to measure.
Medical Bills and Ongoing Care
Your claim can cover emergency treatment, surgery, hospital stays, physical therapy, and the future care your recovery requires. Serious falls often need long-term treatment that keeps generating bills well after the incident, and those future costs belong in your claim, not just the receipts you already have.
A Houston premises liability lawyer works with medical providers to document the full arc of your care.
Lost Income, Pain, and Suffering
When an injury keeps you off the job, your claim can seek lost wages and the earning power you lose if you cannot return to the same work. Beyond the paycheck, Texas law lets you recover for physical pain and the way the injury disrupts your daily life.
These losses are real even though they do not come with an invoice, and putting a fair number on them takes experience and evidence.
Questions People Ask a Houston Premises Liability Lawyer
What Is the Statute of Limitations for Premises Liability in Texas
Texas generally gives you two years from the date of the injury to file a premises liability lawsuit (§ 16.003). If you miss that window, the court will usually refuse to hear your case no matter how strong it is. Because the evidence in these cases fades so quickly, waiting close to the deadline is risky even though the law allows it.
What Is the Average Slip and Fall Settlement in Texas
There is no reliable average, because these cases range from minor sprains to permanent disabilities, and the value tracks the injury. Anyone who quotes a figure before reviewing your medical records and the evidence of fault is guessing. The honest answer is that value depends on the harm, the proof, and the available insurance. A Houston premises liability lawyer can function once they review the facts, at no cost to you.
Call Goldberg & Loren Houston Premises Liability Lawyers Now
A property owner’s carelessness should not leave you stuck with the bills and the pain. A Houston premises liability lawyer at our team can prove what the owner knew, hold them accountable, and pursue the compensation your injury demands.
Our attorneys move quickly to preserve the surveillance footage and maintenance records that these cases depend on, and we build the notice evidence that Texas law requires. We know how property insurers try to shift blame onto the victim, and how to keep the focus where it belongs. The consultation is free, our team is available 24/7, and you pay nothing unless we win your case.
Do not let a store or landlord write you off. Call Goldberg & Loren now at (512) 254-4424 or reach our Houston premises liability lawyers through our contact page for your free consultation today.
Legal Sources & References
The Texas laws described on this page are cited to the official statutes published by the Texas Legislature and were last reviewed on July 31, 2026.
- Statute of limitations (2 years), Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003
- Comparative responsibility & reduction, Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code §§ 33.001, 33.012
- Premises-defect duty on government property, Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 101.022
- Dram Shop Act, Tex. Alco. Bev. Code § 2.02
- Texas crash data, Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT)
Goldberg & Loren
211 Ranch Rd 620 S, Suite #230
Lakeway, TX 78734
(512) 254-4424
A fall on someone else's property can leave you hurt and embarrassed at the same time, as if it were somehow your fault. Helping Houston clients see that it wasn't, and that the owner owed them a safe place, is what drives me.