If you were attacked at a hotel, apartment complex, bar, or parking garage in Las Vegas, the person who hurt you may not be the only one responsible. When a property owner ignored a known danger, like broken gates, dark walkways, missing security, or a history of similar attacks, Nevada law can hold that property accountable for its part in what happened.
First, what happened to you was not your fault. This guide explains when you can sue a property after an assault in Nevada, how long you have, what compensation can cover, and how to tell whether a claim makes sense for you.
Yes, You Can Sue a Property After an Assault When It Let the Danger In
Most survivors assume the only person they can hold accountable is the attacker. The attacker may face criminal charges, but a prison sentence doesn’t pay your medical bills. Attackers rarely have insurance or assets worth pursuing.
A property is different. Hotels, casinos, apartment complexes, nightclubs, shopping centers, and parking garages carry liability insurance. They also owe the people on their property reasonable care for their safety. When they cut corners on security and someone gets hurt, that’s called a negligent security claim.
Depending on who controlled the property, the responsible party might be:
- The property owner
- The management company that runs it day to day
- A security company hired to patrol or monitor it
Sorting out who controlled what is the first job of a Las Vegas premises liability attorney, because the owner, the manager, and the security contractor often point at each other.
These cases come up all over the valley. Some survivors were assaulted at a Las Vegas hotel or casino on the Strip or downtown. Others were attacked in the parking lot or stairwell of their own building in Spring Valley or North Las Vegas. If that’s you, it helps to understand who’s liable for an injury at an apartment complex, and what it takes when suing a landlord in Nevada.
When You Can Sue: What a Negligent Security Claim Has to Show
Being attacked on someone’s property isn’t enough on its own. A claim usually turns on three questions.
Was the Attack Foreseeable?
For hotels, motels, and other lodging, Nevada has a specific law, NRS 651.015. It makes the property responsible for an injury caused by someone who isn’t an employee when the attack was foreseeable and the property failed to take reasonable precautions. A judge decides whether the attack was foreseeable. That usually means looking at prior similar incidents the property knew about, or at whether it failed to use basic care for guests’ safety.
The Nevada Supreme Court has said those earlier incidents don’t have to be identical. A steady pattern of fights on a casino floor, for example, can make the next fight foreseeable.
Apartment complexes, bars, and stores fall under general negligence rules instead. The core question is similar, though: did the property know, or should it have known, that people were at risk?
Did the Property Skip Reasonable Precautions?
Security failures that often show up in these cases include:
- Broken gates, door locks, or access controls left unrepaired
- Burned-out lighting in lots, walkways, and stairwells
- Cameras that didn’t work or that no one monitored
- No guards, or too few for the size of the property
- Complaints and police calls the property ignored
- Security that never responded, or showed up too late
What If the Attacker Worked There?
If a bouncer, guard, or other employee attacked you, the claim looks different. A business can be responsible for its own staff under other legal theories, such as how it hired, trained, or supervised them. Mention this right away when you talk to a lawyer.
The Attacker Committed the Crime. Why Is the Property Responsible Too?
An assault can lead to two completely separate cases. The criminal case is the state prosecuting the attacker. Your civil claim is about compensation for what you lost. You don’t need charges filed or a conviction to bring a civil claim, and you don’t have to wait for the criminal case to end.
You also don’t have to sue the attacker to bring a claim against the property. The property can try to bring the attacker into the case itself.
Here’s how responsibility gets divided. When a jury decides a case against both a careless property and the person who attacked you, Nevada generally holds the property responsible for its own share of the fault. The attacker remains responsible for all of it. In practice, the property’s share becomes the real fight. That’s why evidence of what the property knew and ignored matters so much.
And if the attacker was never identified, the claim against the property doesn’t automatically disappear. It’s built on the property’s own failures, not on catching the person who hurt you.
How Long Can You Sue After an Assault in Nevada?
Nevada’s deadlines depend on who you’re suing and what happened.
Two Years Against the Property
A negligent security claim against a property generally must be filed within two years of the assault under NRS 11.190(4)(e). That’s the deadline to file a lawsuit, not just to call an insurance company. Miss it, and the claim is usually gone for good.
Claims Against the Attacker
A civil claim against the attacker for assault or battery also generally carries a two-year deadline. There’s one major exception. Since 2023, Nevada has no time limit for an adult survivor of sexual assault to sue the person who committed it. That exception covers the perpetrator only. It doesn’t extend the deadline for a claim against the property.
If You Were Under 18
When the survivor was a minor, the clock generally doesn’t start until they turn 18. The details matter, so get advice specific to your situation.
If the Government Owns the Property
Claims involving publicly owned places, like a transit center or public park, follow separate rules. They include a $200,000 cap per person and no punitive damages.
The Evidence Deadline Is Much Shorter
The legal deadline is measured in years, but evidence disappears in days or weeks. Surveillance systems routinely record over old footage. Incident reports, guard logs, and access-card records can be lost or “misplaced.” A lawyer can send a preservation letter that puts the property on notice to keep all of it.
How Much Money Can You Get After an Assault?
No honest attorney can give you a number before reviewing your case. Nevada doesn’t cap compensatory damages in a claim against a private business, though, and compensation can include:
- Medical care: emergency treatment, surgery, follow-up care, and future treatment
- Counseling and therapy: for trauma, anxiety, depression, or PTSD
- Lost income: time missed from work and any lasting effect on your ability to earn
- Pain and suffering: the physical pain of your injuries
- Emotional harm: fear, sleeplessness, panic, and losing the life you had before
Emotional harm is often the biggest part of an assault case. It can be the hardest to prove without the right records. Here’s how emotional distress claims are evaluated.
What moves the value of a claim:
- How serious your injuries are, and how long recovery takes
- How strong the evidence is that the property knew about the danger
- The property’s insurance coverage
- Whether the defense can blame you. Under Nevada’s comparative fault rule, any share of fault assigned to you reduces your recovery, and more than 50% bars it.
Punitive damages exist in Nevada, but they require clear and convincing proof of conduct like malice or oppression. They’re the exception in property cases, not the rule.
Is It Worth Suing After an Assault?
That’s a personal decision, and there’s no wrong answer. A claim is usually worth a serious look when:
- Your injuries required real medical care or ongoing counseling
- The property had a history of police calls, prior incidents, or complaints
- Security was obviously missing, broken, or slow to respond
- You haven’t signed anything from the property or its insurer
For a broader framework, here’s how to know whether an injury case is worth pursuing.
It also helps to know what’s coming. Glen Howard spent years as an insurance defense attorney, so he knows the arguments a property’s insurer reaches for first:
- “It was a random crime. No one could have predicted it.” Prior incidents, police call logs, and ignored complaints say otherwise.
- “You’d been drinking.” Having a drink doesn’t mean you invited an attack, and it doesn’t erase the property’s duty.
- “You started it.” Witness statements and footage often tell a different story, which is why preserving them early matters.
- “We had security.” Having a guard on payroll isn’t the same as having reasonable security where and when you were attacked.
Many survivors also worry about reliving the attack over and over. A lawyer handles contact with the insurer, so you don’t have to retell your story to the people trying to minimize it.
Protecting Your Claim Right Now
If the attack was recent, these steps protect both you and your claim:
- Get medical and mental health care, and keep every record and receipt.
- Keep your police report or event number. If you didn’t report it, a lawyer can talk through your options.
- Write down what you noticed about security, like lights out, an open gate, no guard, or how long it took anyone to respond.
- Note the names of the property, its management company, and any security company on uniforms or signs.
- Don’t give a recorded statement or sign anything from the property or its insurer before getting legal advice.
- Ask about Nevada’s Victims of Crime Program. It can help some survivors with certain costs, separate from any civil claim.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can You Sue for Emotional Distress in Nevada After an Assault?
Yes. When you were physically attacked, the emotional fallout is part of the harm you can claim, including fear, anxiety, nightmares, panic attacks, and PTSD. Nevada courts have allowed assault survivors to recover for emotional harm, and it often makes up a large share of the value of these cases. Nevada sets a higher bar for emotional distress claims with no physical contact, so the facts matter. The strongest claims are backed by records: counseling notes, a therapist’s diagnosis, and the people in your life who saw how you changed. Getting mental health care isn’t just about your claim, but it does create the documentation insurers take seriously. Every case is different, so talk with a Nevada attorney about yours.
Can You Sue a Hotel or Casino If You Were Assaulted There?
Often, yes. Nevada law makes a hotel, motel, or other lodging property responsible for an attack by a non-employee when the attack was foreseeable and the property didn’t take reasonable precautions. Foreseeability usually comes down to whether similar incidents happened there before and whether the property knew about them. Resorts on the Strip track incidents closely, so that history often exists. The challenge is getting it before footage is recorded over and reports are buried. Casinos also have large claims teams that start building their defense the day you’re hurt. Act quickly and let a lawyer request the evidence.
Can I Sue a Bar If I Got Assaulted?
You may be able to, if the bar failed to keep patrons reasonably safe. That can mean ignoring a fight that was building, having too few staff for the crowd, letting in someone with a history of violence, or failing to step in once things turned physical. One distinction matters in Nevada. A licensed bar generally isn’t liable just because it served alcohol to an adult who later caused harm. A security claim is about what the bar did, or didn’t do, to protect you. If a bouncer or other employee attacked you, that can support a different claim against the bar for its own staff.
Can You Sue Someone for Assault Without Pressing Charges?
Yes. A civil claim is completely separate from a criminal case. You don’t need the attacker to be charged or convicted, and you don’t need to have pressed charges yourself. Civil cases use a lower standard of proof than criminal cases: you show it’s more likely than not that the defendant is responsible. That said, a police report can be valuable evidence, and some survivors decide to report later. Your claim against a property also doesn’t depend on the attacker being charged at all. It’s built on what the property knew and failed to do. A lawyer can walk you through the options without pressuring you either way.
You Didn’t Choose What Happened. You Can Choose What Happens Next.
You don’t have to decide anything today, and you don’t have to figure out whether you have a case on your own. Glen Howard is a licensed Nevada attorney and a former insurance defense lawyer. He knows how property insurers build their defense, which means he knows where it breaks.
Your consultation is free and confidential. There’s no fee unless we win. We’ll listen to what happened, look at what the property knew, and tell you honestly whether holding a negligent property accountable is a realistic path for you.
The footage won’t wait, and neither will the deadline. Start your free, confidential case review and find out where you stand.
