When you park at a Las Vegas hotel or casino, you expect a basic level of safety. You assume the cameras are recording, the lights are on, and security is patrolling. But when a guest is mugged, assaulted, or carjacked in a parking garage, that illusion of safety shatters. Crashes and falls inside the same garages raise a different set of questions, covered in our guide to parking garage accidents at Las Vegas casinos; this article is about crime.
The question immediately follows: Is the hotel responsible for the criminal’s actions?
In Nevada, the answer turns on foreseeability: a hotel is liable only if the crime was “foreseeable” and it failed to take reasonable precautions against it. Hotels aren’t responsible for every random act by someone who is not their employee: under NRS 651.015 the act is not foreseeable unless the hotel failed to exercise due care for the safety of people on the premises, or prior incidents of similar wrongful acts occurred on the premises and the hotel had notice or knowledge of them.
As a Las Vegas negligent security attorney with over 40 years of experience, Jack Bernstein sees this too often: hotels cutting costs on security guards or lighting, leaving guests vulnerable in the shadows. This guide explains how we hold them accountable under Nevada law.
The Legal Standard: “Foreseeability” (NRS 651.015)
Liability for hotel assaults is governed by NRS 651.015. This statute sets the ground rules: a hotel is liable for a third party’s crime if:
- The wrongful act was foreseeable; AND
- The owner failed to take reasonable precautions against it.
This creates a two-step battle. We don’t just prove you were hurt; we prove the act was foreseeable, which for a wrongful act by someone who is not an employee under the hotel’s control means the hotel failed to exercise due care for the safety of people on the premises, or prior incidents of similar wrongful acts occurred on the premises and the hotel had notice or knowledge of them. The court decides that question as a matter of law, along with whether the hotel had a duty to take reasonable precautions.
How We Prove They “Should Have Known”
Nevada defines foreseeability by statute, and the Nevada Supreme Court has held that NRS 651.015(3) codifies the common-law approach it set out in Doud v. Las Vegas Hilton Corp.. The judge, not the jury, decides foreseeability as a matter of law, so we build the full picture:
- Prior Similar Crimes: A documented history of muggings or break-ins in the garage is the evidence we look for first on notice. In Humphries v. New York-New York Hotel & Casino, 133 Nev. 607, 403 P.3d 358 (2017) the Nevada Supreme Court held that a beating on a casino floor was foreseeable based on the casino’s notice or knowledge of prior incidents of similar wrongful acts, rejected the narrower view that the venue needed notice of the specific attack that was coming, and compared the earlier incidents by where they happened, how violent they were, and the security concerns they raised. The court reversed a summary judgment for the casino rather than finding it liable, and how much similarity a particular record shows is argued case by case.
- High-Crime Area: We use CAP Index reports (standardized crime risk assessments used by insurance companies and security professionals) to show whether the hotel sits in a “red zone” for violent crime. Understand what this does and does not do: under NRS 651.015(3) an act is not foreseeable unless the owner failed to exercise due care, or prior incidents of similar wrongful acts occurred on the premises and the owner had notice or knowledge of them. Neighborhood crime data is not on-premises incidents and the statute sets no sliding scale of duty keyed to area risk, so this evidence is context for what the hotel knew and what it chose to spend on security, not a substitute for the on-premises history.
- Internal Failures: If the hotel’s own logs show guards were skipping patrols, they failed their duty of care.
Red Flags of Negligent Security (Checklist)
You don’t need to be a lawyer to spot negligence. If you were assaulted in a parking garage, look for these physical “red flags” that often signal a failure of due care.
1. Inadequate Lighting (The “Dark Corner” Trap)
Criminals hide in the dark. Municipal codes and industry standards dictate minimum light levels for parking structures.
- The Negligence: Burnt-out bulbs, dark stairwells, or shadows caused by poor design create “ambush zones.” If a hotel fails to replace lights they knew were broken, that is evidence the hotel did not exercise due care for the safety of people on the premises.
2. “Ghost” Security
- The Reality: Many hotels hire the cheapest security vendors available.
- The Negligence: Guards who are “ghosts”, meaning they are logged as being on duty but are actually texting in the breakroom, sleeping, or absent from their post.
- The Evidence: We compare GPS tracking on guard radios against their handwritten logs. Discrepancies prove negligence.
3. Broken Access Controls
- The Reality: Parking gates are often left broken in the “up” position because it’s cheaper than fixing them or staffing a booth.
- The Negligence: A broken gate invites non-guests and criminals into a private, secure area. If the gate was broken for weeks, the hotel invited the risk.
4. The “Dummy Camera” Problem
- The Reality: Many black domes on ceilings are empty shells or contain broken cameras.
- The Negligence: While Nevada law doesn’t strictly mandate cameras in all areas, creating a false sense of security with dummy cameras can be argued as negligence if it led you to park there believing you were watched.
Evidence We Must Secure Immediately
In negligent security cases, the evidence disappears fast. The hotel controls the video, the logs, and the lighting records.
- Surveillance Footage: We send a preservation letter immediately. We need not just the attack, but the hours before it, to show the attacker loitering (which security should have spotted).
- Shift Activity Reports (SARS): These logs reveal where guards actually were versus where they were supposed to be.
- Maintenance Records: Did the hotel know the lights were out? Maintenance tickets will show if they ordered bulbs but waited weeks to install them.
- 911 Call Logs: These show how often police were called to the property and for what, which is how we look for prior incidents of similar wrongful acts on the premises that the hotel had notice of, one of the two routes to “foreseeability” under the statute.
Action Plan: What to Do If You Are Assaulted
- Get to Safety & Call 911: A police report is the foundation of your case.
- Report to Hotel Security (But Be Careful): Report the incident to establish it happened on their property. Do not admit fault (e.g., avoid saying “I shouldn’t have walked there alone”). Just state the facts of the attack.
- Photograph the Scene: If the lights were out, take a picture of the darkness. If the gate was broken, take a picture of it. Conditions change by the next morning.
- Preserve Physical Evidence: Do not wash clothes with blood or DNA evidence.
- Watch the Clock: An action for injuries to a person, or for the death of a person caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another, must generally be commenced within two years in Nevada (NRS 11.190), but different deadlines and exceptions can apply: an action against the alleged perpetrator for sexual abuse of a minor (NRS 11.215), or for a sexual assault that occurred when the plaintiff was 18 or older (NRS 11.217), may be brought at any time, and the period does not run while the person entitled to sue was under 18 or insane when the claim accrued (NRS 11.250). If more than two years have passed, ask an attorney before assuming nothing can be done.
Why You Need an Experienced Attorney
Hotels and casinos have powerful legal teams dedicated to proving they did “enough.” They will argue the crime was random and unpreventable.
We know how to prove otherwise. With 40+ years of experience, Jack Bernstein knows how to obtain the internal security logs, maintenance records, and crime grid data that hotels try to hide. We don’t just look at the attack; we look at the months of negligence that allowed it to happen.
Contact Jack Bernstein Injury Lawyers for a free consultation to evaluate your negligent security claim: (702) 633-3333.