The first question is usually simple: can I do anything.
More than one claim can exist at once, against different defendants. Each has its own deadline, and the shortest is not the one people expect.
Whether you have to tell your employer at all is a separate question with its own page, do I have to tell my employer I was assaulted.
Claim one: against the employer, for negligence
Whether an employer can be sued directly for negligence turns first on something many employees have never had reason to check: whether the employer carries workers compensation insurance.
An employer that does not is called a non-subscriber, and Section 406.033 of the Texas Labor Code changes what happens in a suit against one. The firm's page on that is non-subscriber work injury claims, and the short version is that in an action against a non-subscribing employer by an employee for an injury sustained in the course and scope of the employment, three defenses an employer would ordinarily raise are not available to it: that "the employee was guilty of contributory negligence," that "the employee assumed the risk of injury or death," and that "the injury or death was caused by the negligence of a fellow employee." Subsection (c) preserves two: an act of the employee intended to bring about the injury, and intoxication. Subsection (d) provides that "the plaintiff must prove negligence of the employer or of an agent or servant of the employer acting within the general scope of the agent's or servant's employment."
Whether a particular assault is treated as a work injury for this purpose is itself contested and depends on the facts.
The part of that section most likely to matter this week is subsections (f) and (g). They restrict a post-injury waiver of the cause of action. Such a waiver must be voluntary, may not be made earlier than the tenth business day after the injury, must be preceded by a medical evaluation, and must be written in conspicuous language. If someone put a form in front of you in the days after an assault at work, that form and its date matter. Do not sign one without having it read.
If the employer does carry workers compensation, the analysis is different and is a conversation to have on the specific facts.
Claim two: the harassment claim, and the deadline that runs first
This is the one that catches people, because it is administrative, it is short, and it starts running immediately.
Chapter 21 of the Texas Labor Code contains a sexual harassment subchapter. Section 21.141 defines "employer" for that subchapter as a person who "employs one or more employees" or who "acts directly in the interests of an employer in relation to an employee." One employee.
Section 21.142 provides that an employer commits an unlawful employment practice "if sexual harassment of an employee occurs and the employer or the employer's agents or supervisors: (1) know or should have known that the conduct constituting sexual harassment was occurring; and (2) fail to take immediate and appropriate corrective action."
Read that second element carefully, because it is about what the employer did after it knew. Reporting something and watching nothing happen is not a failure of your case. It may be the case.
Now the deadlines. Section 21.202(a) provides that a complaint "must be filed not later than the 180th day after the date the alleged unlawful employment practice occurred." Section 21.202(a-1) provides that "a complaint under this subchapter alleging sexual harassment must be filed not later than the 300th day after the date the alleged sexual harassment occurred."
Which of those two applies depends on whether the complaint alleges sexual harassment. The shorter period governs anything that does not. Neither is two years.
Section 21.201 requires the complaint to be in writing and under oath, stating that an unlawful employment practice occurred and the facts underlying it including date, place and circumstances, and facts sufficient to identify the respondent.
That complaint is filed with the administering agency, not with a court. Identifying the right one and getting it filed correctly is work to do with a lawyer well before the deadline, not on the last day.
Then Section 21.254: "Within 60 days after the date a notice of the right to file a civil action is received, the complainant may bring a civil action against the respondent."
Chapter 21 contains further provisions governing when a civil action must be brought, and the dates have to be calculated on the specific facts rather than read off this page. What this page can tell you is that the first clock in this claim is measured in days and it is already running.
Claim three: against somebody who is not your employer
The third claim is not against the employer at all.
If the assault happened on premises owned or controlled by someone else, or involved a contractor, a staffing agency, a client, a vendor or a property manager, those are separate entities worth identifying and investigating. Whether a claim exists against any particular one of them is a fact question and a legal one, and this article does not answer it. Identifying them early is the part that cannot wait, and that is covered in how many defendants there are.
Where the claim is that a property should have prevented what happened, the framework is the premises one: foreseeability under Timberwalk Apartments, Partners, Inc. v. Cain measured by the proximity, recency, frequency, similarity and publicity of prior crimes; Del Lago Partners, Inc. v. Smith holding those factors are not the only route; and UDR Texas Properties, L.P. v. Petrie holding that foreseeability alone is not enough and that the response must also be shown unreasonable in light of the burden of preventing the harm. That is on the negligent security page.
A negligence claim of that kind carries two years under Section 16.003 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, and claims arising from the specific offenses listed in Section 16.0045 carry thirty years or five, with which period reaching which defendant depending on the conduct alleged against that defendant.
The records worth asking about
Your personnel file. Any report you made and to whom. Whether the employer maintains a separate human resources file. Any prior complaints about the same person, which go directly to what the employer knew. Schedules and assignments showing who put the two of you together. Any badge or access records. A staffing agency's file if there was one. Any handbook or policy the employer wrote, alongside what it actually did.
Almost none of that is in your possession, and much of it is held by the employer. That is an argument for moving early, not an argument for despair.
What to do
Keep your own copies of what you already have, including the handbook, your schedule, texts, and any email in which you reported anything. Do that before you lose access to a work account.
Do not sign a waiver, a release or a separation agreement without having it read first.
Get the deadlines calculated from your dates rather than from a web page. There are two administrative periods, 180 days and 300 days, and which one governs depends on what is alleged. Assume the shorter one until a lawyer has calculated it.
There is no charge for that conversation and no attorney's fee unless there is a recovery.
Call 713-521-0059.
Authorities
Tex. Labor Code ch. 406 (workers compensation; Section 406.033 non-subscriber)
Tex. Labor Code ch. 21 (employment discrimination; Sections 21.141, 21.142, 21.201, 21.202, 21.254)
Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code ch. 16 (limitations)
Timberwalk Apartments, Partners, Inc. v. Cain, 972 S.W.2d 749 (Tex. 1998)
Del Lago Partners, Inc. v. Smith, 307 S.W.3d 762 (Tex. 2010)
UDR Texas Properties, L.P. v. Petrie, 517 S.W.3d 98 (Tex. 2017)
This article is general information about Texas law, not legal advice about your situation, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Employment deadlines are short and are calculated from specific dates.