Have You Suffered an Injury on Someone Else’s Property?
A fall at the Hill Country Galleria, an injury at a lakeside venue, or a hazard at an apartment complex can leave you with real injuries and a fight over who was responsible. A Lakeway premises liability lawyer at Goldberg & Loren proves what the property owner knew and should have fixed.
Call our local Lakeway premises liability law firm at (512) 254-4424 for a free consultation.
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Texas Injury Law at a Glance
| Deadline to file a lawsuit | Two years from the date of the injury (wrongful death: two years from the date of death). 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 drops 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 |
Your Visitor Status Controls the Case
Texas sorts injured visitors into categories, invitee, licensee, or trespasser, and the category controls what the owner owed you.
A customer or business guest is an invitee, owed the highest duty: the owner must reasonably inspect for hazards and then fix them or warn about them.
A social guest is a licensee, owed a duty only as to dangers the owner already knows about.
A trespasser is owed the least, generally only a duty to avoid injuring them through willful, wanton, or grossly negligent conduct, though children hurt by an attractive nuisance receive more protection.
On government property, such as a public park or boat ramp, the duty is usually the lower one owed a licensee (Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 101.022). These cases turn on notice: what the owner actually knew, or should have known, about the hazard before you were hurt.
An insurer’s first move is often to argue you were a lesser class of visitor so it owes you less, which is why getting the category right early matters.
Negligent Security Around Lakeway
Not every premises case is a fall. When a property owner fails to provide reasonable lighting, working locks, cameras, or security staff, and a foreseeable assault or robbery happens as a result, the owner can share liability.
This comes up at apartment complexes, hotels, short-term rentals, and parking areas around Lake Travis and Bee Cave.
The key question is foreseeability, and the answer often sits in the property’s own prior police call history and incident reports, which we subpoena. The owner is never automatically liable just because a crime occurred; you have to show the danger was foreseeable and reasonable precautions were skipped.
When Alcohol Was Involved
If the person who injured you was over-served at a bar, restaurant, or lakeside venue, the establishment may share liability under the Texas Dram Shop Act for serving alcohol to someone who was already obviously intoxicated (Tex. Alco. Bev. Code § 2.02).
This can matter when the at-fault person carries little insurance of their own. Proving it means showing the patron was visibly drunk when served, so we move fast to preserve booking records, point-of-sale and tab data, staff schedules, and footage before they cycle out.
Where Lake Travis Crash Victims Get Treated
Getting examined quickly protects both your health and your claim, adrenaline hides injuries, and a gap in treatment is the first thing an adjuster uses against you. Lake Travis crash victims are usually treated at:
- Baylor Scott & White Medical Center – Lakeway (100 Medical Pkwy, Lakeway), a 24/7 emergency room right in Lakeway.
- Dell Seton Medical Center at UT (1500 Red River St, Austin), the only Level I Trauma Center in Central Texas, where the most serious Lake Travis and Hill Country crashes are transported.
- Across the metro, St. David’s and Ascension Seton emergency departments also treat Austin-area injury patients.
Keep every discharge summary, imaging disc, and bill, those records are the backbone of what your claim is worth.
What the Property Owner Owed You
| Invitee (customer / business guest) | The highest duty, the owner must inspect for hazards and fix or warn about them. Most store and restaurant injuries fall here. |
| Licensee (social guest) | The owner must fix or warn about hazards it actually knows of, but need not inspect for unknown ones. |
| Trespasser | Generally only a duty to avoid willful harm, with a special exception protecting children. |
To win a slip-and-fall, Texas makes you show the hazard existed long enough that staff should have found and removed it, the “time-notice” rule from Wal-Mart Stores v. Reece.
An employee simply standing nearby is not enough; the law generally wants evidence of how long the danger was present, which is why cleaning logs and timestamped footage carry so much weight.
For an assault on a poorly secured property, a negligent-security claim can apply when the danger was foreseeable. A Lake Travis premises suit is filed in the Travis County district courts at 1700 Guadalupe Street, Austin.
How We Build a Lakeway Premises Case
Premises liability evidence disappears fast. Surveillance footage at a marina, restaurant, or complex is often overwritten within days, cleaning logs get tossed, and seasonal staff move on.
Our first job is preservation: we send letters demanding the owner keep the footage and records, and we document the scene, the conditions, and your injuries.
Then we identify every party that may share responsibility, the property owner, a management company, a maintenance contractor, or a security firm, and we handle the insurers so you can focus on recovering.
Because Texas uses modified comparative responsibility, the defense will try to shift part of the blame onto you; you can still recover as long as you are 50% or less at fault, with your award reduced by your share (§§ 33.001, 33.012).
And the clock is real: you generally have two years from the date of injury to file (§ 16.003), and if a city or county property is involved, you may have to give written notice within six months (§ 101.101). We charge no fee unless we recover for you.
Property Injuries Around Lake Travis
Lake Travis draws crowds to marinas and boat docks, lakeside restaurants and bars, resort and short-term-rental pools, and Bee Cave retail, all places where a wet dock, an unmarked step, a broken railing, or poor security can turn a good day into an emergency. If you are hurt on someone else’s property:
- 1
Report it to the owner or manager and ask for a written incident report.
- 2
Photograph the hazard before it is fixed or cleaned up.
- 3
Get witness names and keep the shoes and clothing you were wearing.
- 4
See a doctor and save every record.
Frequently Asked Questions
That the owner knew or should have known about the hazard and failed to fix or warn about it. Your visitor status (invitee, licensee, trespasser) sets the exact duty (§ 101.022).
Sometimes, under the Texas Dram Shop Act, a provider can share liability for serving someone obviously intoxicated (§ 2.02).
Two years from the date of injury under § 16.003, and evidence like footage disappears far sooner.
That a hazard existed, the owner knew or should have known about it in time to fix it, and it caused your injury. The "time-notice" rule means an employee simply being nearby is not enough, which is why cleaning logs and camera footage matter.
Sometimes, under negligent-security law, when the crime was foreseeable (often shown by the property's own prior call history) and the business failed to take reasonable precautions such as lighting, cameras, or security.
Report it to the owner or manager and get a written incident report, photograph the hazard before it is fixed, and get witness names. Then see a doctor, the incident report and photos are often what prove the hazard existed.
Wet docks, pool decks, and unmarked steps are common hazards, and the owner can be liable if they knew or should have known and failed to fix or warn. Quick photos and an incident report make these cases much stronger.
They can be. A host who rents to guests owes a duty to keep the property reasonably safe and to warn of hidden dangers, so a broken stair or an unfenced pool can support a claim.
Areas We Also Serve
Our Lakeway office anchors a Texas-wide personal injury practice. If your crash happened outside the Lake Travis area, our team also helps injured people in:
Legal Sources & References
Texas law on this page is cited to the official statutes published by the Texas Legislature and was last reviewed on August 3, 2026.
- Statute of limitations, Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003
- Comparative responsibility, §§ 33.001, 33.012
- Premises duty, § 101.022
- Dram Shop Act, Tex. Alco. Bev. Code § 2.02
- Texas crash data, TxDOT
- Lake Travis emergency care, Baylor Scott & White – Lakeway, Dell Seton (Level I Trauma)
- Where Lakeway suits are filed, Travis County District Courts
