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Get the exam first. It is free, it does not require a police report, and for an adult it is available within 120 hours. The Houston hospitals that perform it are listed on our Houston SANE exam locations page, and our what to do now page walks through the first days in order.
If you are able to, report to the police now. You are not required to, but the same early evidence that builds a prosecution builds a civil claim.
Then call 713-521-0059, or message us, and say it happened this week. We will tell you what your case needs and get it started, beginning with written notice to whoever holds the video and records so it is kept. There is no guaranteed response time, but we typically respond within 12 to 24 hours of a call or message.
Often, yes. A hotel takes your money in exchange for a room you are supposed to be safe in. When a guest is attacked in a room, a hallway, a stairwell or a parking lot, the hotel can be answerable for it. Texas gives you two routes, and they have different requirements.
The step that cannot wait is the hotel’s records. Camera footage of corridors, elevators and lots is often kept for a week or less. Keycard logs and front desk records can also be purged on a schedule. Call 713-521-0059 so written notice to keep those records can go out before the systems write over what happened.
This is the usual premises claim. It generally takes two separate showings: that the crime was foreseeable, and that the hotel’s failure to prevent it was unreasonable.
Foreseeability first. Timberwalk Apartments, Partners, Inc. v. Cain, 972 S.W.2d 749 (Tex. 1998), directs courts to weigh several factors. They are whether criminal conduct previously occurred on or near the property, how recently, how often, and how similar it was. Courts also look at what publicity it received, so that the owner knew or should have known.
Del Lago Partners, Inc. v. Smith, 307 S.W.3d 762 (Tex. 2010), adds that those factors “are not the only reasons that a criminal act might be deemed foreseeable.” A hotel may be within Del Lago’s reasoning regardless of the crime statistics. That can happen where it watched a situation escalate, had been warned, or knew about a specific person on the property.
Usually not by itself. UDR Texas Properties, L.P. v. Petrie, 517 S.W.3d 98 (Tex. 2017), holds that foreseeability alone is not enough: “Foreseeability is the beginning, not the end, of the analysis in determining the extent of the duty to protect against criminal acts of third parties.” You also need evidence that weighs the risk against the burden of preventing it.
In a hotel case, that usually means proof about specific measures. What would a working keycard system, a staffed front desk or a functioning camera have cost? What would a lock that had been reported broken have prevented if it was fixed? The facts of your stay decide how those questions come out. Repair requests, guest complaints and staffing schedules are often the records that answer them.
Trafficking often runs through hotels and motels. Texas wrote a statute, Chapter 98 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, that reaches the property and not only the trafficker.
Section 98.002(a) imposes liability on a defendant who traffics or who intentionally or knowingly benefits from participating in a venture that traffics another person, for damages arising from the trafficking by the defendant or the venture. A hotel that knowingly profited from a trafficking operation run out of its rooms can fall within that clause, where the knowledge and the benefit can be proven. The proof usually comes from room records, repeat cash bookings, housekeeping reports, prior law enforcement contacts, staff complaints, and what management did with them.
Where Chapter 98 applies, the remedies are stronger. Section 98.003 makes actual damages including mental anguish, court costs and reasonable attorney’s fees mandatory for a prevailing claimant, and exemplary damages are also available. Section 98.005 makes such a defendant jointly liable for the entire amount of the trafficking damages. Section 98.007 gives you the right to proceed under a confidential identity. Our page on human trafficking civil claims covers more of this statute.
It matters. Most hotels operate under a franchise. The company on the sign, the company that owns the building and the company that manages it are frequently three separate entities. Each may have its own insurer. Finding the right defendants early helps keep your claim from stalling while each company points elsewhere.
The franchise agreement, the management contract and the brand’s own safety standards can show who controlled security at the property. Which company controlled security is often the question that decides who belongs in your claim, and the contracts usually answer it.
In most cases, no. A civil claim against the hotel does not usually require a report, a charge or a conviction. What your claim does need is evidence, and most of it sits in the hotel’s own records on an automatic timer. Our page on a civil claim without a criminal case explains how the two can run separately.
Every statute and case linked above was read at its primary source. Texas statutes change every legislative session and case law is constantly changing.
This page is general information about Texas law. It is not legal advice about your situation, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.
Hotels generate more records than apartment complexes, and they often overwrite them faster. Keycard logs show every entry to the room and when it happened. Front desk and folio records, housekeeping and maintenance logs, and the police call history for the address all matter. Where the property flies a brand’s flag, franchise inspection reports can matter too. A preservation letter in the first days is important, because retention windows are short and many systems purge automatically. Our page on evidence after a sexual assault explains what goes first.
We start with written notice to the hotel to keep its video and access logs, because those are on the shortest timers. Then we identify every company involved: the brand, the owner and the manager. We look at what each one knew, and whether Chapter 98 applies to what happened at the property.
Schiffer Law Firm is a Houston personal injury firm with 50 plus years of combined experience representing injured people and survivors across Texas.
If you are an advocate or a counselor asking on someone’s behalf, you are welcome to call with a general question. We will not ask you for their name.
There is no charge to talk, and no attorney’s fee unless there is a recovery.
Written by Jacob Schiffer, Attorney, Schiffer Law Firm. State Bar of Texas No. 24105175.
Call 713-521-0059.
Often, yes, where the hotel knew or should have known of a foreseeable risk and failed to act reasonably. There is also a separate claim under Chapter 98 where trafficking is involved.
They are usually different companies with separate insurance. Both may belong in the case, and identifying the right companies early matters.
Often within seven to thirty days. A preservation letter costs nothing and can stop the overwrite.
In most cases, no. A civil claim against the hotel does not usually require a report, a charge or a conviction. What it does need is evidence, and most of it is in the hotel's own records, which run on an automatic timer.
Section 98.002(a) can reach a hotel that intentionally or knowingly benefits from participating in a venture that traffics another person. Section 98.007 gives you the right to proceed under a confidential identity.
It depends on the claim and the facts, and the deadlines can differ. Our page on how long you have to sue goes through them, and it is worth asking about your dates early.