PREMISES LIABILITY CLAIMS · FORT WORTH, TEXAS
Fort Worth Premises
Liability Lawyer
Aaron A. Herbert is Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. What board certification means
Hurt because a Fort Worth property owner left something dangerous the way it was? Get a free review of what happened, who controlled the property, and what they knew.
No fees or expenses unless you recover
Trial lawyerLicensed in Texas since 2002
A Fort Worth office.4200 South Freeway, Suite 412
Free first callDay or night
NO FEES OR EXPENSES UNLESS YOU RECOVER
Hurt on someone’s property in Fort Worth?
A free conversation can help you understand your next step.
IN OUR CLIENTS’ WORDS
Personal attention.
Remembered by our clients.
Communication was above and beyond!
Aaron was awesome, polite and patient.
I am very content, outstanding staff
Excerpts from testimonials published by the firm. Individual experiences vary; these are not promises of a particular result.
KNOW WHO IS IN YOUR CORNER
Aaron A. Herbert
Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law
Texas Board of Legal Specialization
YOUR RECOVERY. OUR FOCUS.
How we investigate
an unsafe-property claim.
A stair tread cracks under your heel at your apartment complex. A box of tile slides off a top shelf at a home store. Someone grabs you in a hotel parking lot where half the lights have been out for a month. Each one is a premises case, and each one starts with who controlled the place.
Give us the address and the date. Who owns a Fort Worth apartment complex is public record at the Tarrant Appraisal District. Work orders and police calls tell us the rest. Slipped on a wet floor? Our Fort Worth slip and fall page covers those cases.
Let’s talk about your situationTrial-focused representation.
Check Aaron Herbert’s State Bar profile before you call. Then ask how we would build your case if the owner’s insurer says no and it goes before a Tarrant County jury.
The records come first.
Fort Worth code complaints are public. So are police call logs for an address. We request both, then ask the owner to keep its work orders.
You get a real person.
Bring your questions about doctors, lost pay, and calls from the insurance company. You will know who your contact is and how often you will hear from us.
A RECORD OF ADVOCACY
Real cases.
Meaningful results.
Selected outcomes published by the Law Firm of Aaron A. Herbert. Every case begins with its own facts.
A fall involving a defective walkway at a private event venue.
A grocery-store fall involving a substance on the floor.
A collision involving a tractor-trailer that failed to control its speed.
An employee injured by defective machinery.
A pedestrian struck by a van in a crosswalk.
A rear-end collision involving a commercial van.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Figures are as published by the firm, not amounts clients necessarily received after fees and expenses.
View all published resultsFORT WORTH AND TARRANT COUNTY
What a Fort Worth
premises claim looks
like up close.
Fort Worth counted 918,915 residents in the 2020 Census. Every day, people here rent, shop, swim, and park on property that someone else has to keep in repair.
What if the danger was a person, not a broken step?
Owners do not have to stop every crime. In Timberwalk Apartments v. Cain (1998), the Texas Supreme Court said an owner must use ordinary care against crime it knew or had reason to know was a foreseeable risk. Courts look at earlier crimes by proximity, recency, frequency, similarity, and publicity. So we pull police calls for the address and the blocks around it. More on our negligent security page.
Does a warning sign end my case?
Sometimes. A Kroger worker slipped mopping an oily restroom floor, and the case went to the Texas Supreme Court in 2015 as Austin v. Kroger Texas. The court said a clear warning usually covers the owner, and so does a danger you already knew about. There are two exceptions. One is foreseeable crime. The other is a hazard you had no safe way around.
What if the city owns the property?
Tripped on a broken city sidewalk or in a city building? Send written notice fast. The Tort Claims Act allows six months (§101.101), and Fort Worth’s claim form cites 180 days under its charter. You also have to show the city actually knew about the hazard and you didn’t (§101.022).
How dangerous is a complex pool?
The CDC counts about 4,000 unintentional drowning deaths a year in the U.S., based on 2012–2021 data. For kids ages 1 to 4, drowning kills more than anything else. Texas requires apartment complexes with a pool to fence the pool yard at least 48 inches high (Health and Safety Code §757.003). A gate propped open with a chair is worth a photo.
WHY CHOOSE AARON HERBERT?
Choosing counsel
after a property injury.
Use the first call to test us. Ask what evidence we would want, who would handle your file, and how fees work before you sign anything.
From the firm: why speaking with an injury attorney matters.
A board-certified trial lawyer
You can look up Aaron’s certification on the State Bar of Texas website in about a minute. We encourage it.
Help finding a doctor
No health insurance? Can’t get an MRI scheduled? Tell us. We can help you find providers in Fort Worth and talk through how treatment might get paid.
We dig into the records
A manager’s file can hold three tenant complaints about the same stair rail. We ask for work orders, emails, inspection reports, and the names of people who saw you get hurt.
We take the adjuster’s calls
Once you hire us, the insurance company calls us, not you. Bring every letter and email you have gotten so far. We will read them first.
Ready for trial if it comes to that
Most cases settle. Insurers watch which lawyers are willing to try a case. We prepare every file as if a jury will see it.
No fees or expenses unless you recover
The first meeting is free. Ask us to walk you through the fee and the costs, with a sample number, before you sign. The contract spells it out.
AFTER A PROPERTY INJURY
What to bring to
your free consultation.
Bring the address, the date, your photos, any police or incident report number, and letters from an insurance company. Renters, bring the lease and any repair requests you sent. You do not need all of it to call.
- 1
Get checked out.
Urgent care, the ER at JPS, your family doctor. Tell them exactly where it happened. Save the paperwork.
- 2
Put it in an email.
Send it to the leasing office or the store manager that day. Attacked? Call Fort Worth police and write down the report number.
- 3
Take pictures.
Photograph the stair, the railing, the dark light pole, or the box that fell, before anyone fixes it. Get a phone number from anyone who saw it.
- 4
Call before you sign.
Don’t give a recorded statement or cash a check until a lawyer has looked at it.
A landlord can replace a rotten stair tread in an afternoon. Call soon so we can ask the owner to keep the old parts, the records, and the video.
UNDERSTANDING YOUR CLAIM
An injury is the beginning
of the story.
The evidence matters.
Getting hurt on someone’s property does not by itself make the owner pay. These are the three questions we ask first.
Who were you to the owner?
A shopper or hotel guest is usually an invitee and gets the most protection. Under Keetch v. Kroger (1992), an invitee shows the owner knew or should have known of a condition that posed an unreasonable risk, failed to use reasonable care about it, and that this caused the injury.
What did the owner know?
Was there a work order for the railing? Had tenants complained about the lights in the lot? Were there car break-ins on the same row last spring?
Hurt in a store? Our guides to falls at Target, Kroger, Tom Thumb and Albertsons, Home Depot, and Ross explain what each retailer's records can show.
How has your life changed?
Your medical records, pay stubs, and the things you can no longer do at home or at work.
Read how Texas injury claims are valued, visit our Fort Worth personal injury page, read about Walmart injuries in Fort Worth, or see our Dallas premises liability page if you were hurt in Dallas County.
CLEAR ANSWERS. A BETTER NEXT STEP.
Premises liability
questions.
Your situation is unique.
We’re here to listen.
Does it cost anything to talk with your firm?
No. The first talk is free. If you hire us, you pay no fee or expenses unless you recover. Ask us how the money would split on a sample settlement.
I slipped on a wet floor. Is this the right page?
Spills and wet floors have their own page: see our Fort Worth slip and fall page. This page is for the other ways property hurts people. Think falling stock, a stair that gives way, a dark parking lot, a pool, or a dog. Either way, the first call is free.
What if a shelf of merchandise fell on me?
Tell us the store, the aisle, and what fell. A stack that tips onto a shopper is a condition of the premises, so the Keetch questions apply. Did the store know, or should it have known, that the stack was unstable? A photo of the shelf and the name of whoever stocked it both help.
Who is responsible for a dog attack at my apartment complex?
Start with the dog’s owner. An owner who knew the dog was dangerous answers for the bite (Marshall v. Ranne, Tex. 1974). Landlords are liable less often. Bring any emails neighbors sent about that dog.
What does an owner owe a guest or a trespasser?
Less than a customer gets. For a social guest, called a licensee, the owner must warn about or fix dangers it actually knows about and the guest does not, and must not hurt the guest through gross negligence. For a trespasser, the owner must not cause injury willfully, wantonly, or through gross negligence.
How long do I have to bring a Texas injury lawsuit?
Two years, in most cases. A city sidewalk or county building can cut that to six months for the written notice. Talking with an adjuster doesn’t stop the clock. See Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code §16.003.
What if the owner says I should have watched where I was going?
Texas compares fault. If a jury puts more than 50% on you, you recover nothing. At 20%, your damages drop by 20%. That is why your phone, your shoes, and the lighting all come up in these cases.
How much could my case be worth?
Nobody can honestly quote a number on the first call. A torn rotator cuff from a broken railing and a bruised shin are very different cases. So are a stack of tenant complaints and none at all. We give you a range once we see the records.
FIGHTING FOR THE SERIOUSLY INJURED
Ready to take
your next step?
Tell us what happened. We’ll help you understand your options.
No fees or expenses unless you recover.