A negligent security claim seeks damages from a property owner, occupier, or security contractor after a person was hurt on the premises by someone else’s wrongful act. For claims arising on or after April 21, 2025, Georgia controls them through a specific statute, O.C.G.A. §§ 51-3-50 to 51-3-57, enacted by SB 68. Under § 51-3-53(a), that article is “the sole and exclusive remedy” against owners and occupiers, with exceptions, including trafficking under § 51-1-56.
An invitee has to prove all of the following under § 51-3-51:
- The wrongful act was reasonably foreseeable, because the owner had particularized warning of imminent harm, or should have known based on prior substantially similar conduct on the premises, on adjoining property, or within 500 yards, of which it had actual knowledge, or by this same person.
- The injury was a foreseeable result.
- The third person exploited “a specific physical condition of the premises known to the owner,” creating a risk substantially greater than the general risk in the vicinity.
- The owner failed to use ordinary care to fix that condition.
- That failure was a proximate cause.
Section 51-3-54 lists bars, including injuries to trespassers, injuries off the premises, injuries to tenants under eviction, and claims by someone there to commit a felony.
Fault must be divided. Under § 51-3-56, a jury must apportion fault to the owner and the attacker, and can’t hear about the attacker’s sentence.
Claims that arose before that date stay under prior law, where Georgia CVS Pharmacy v. Carmichael (2023) used a totality-of-circumstances test for foreseeability, with no bright-line need for prior crimes. So the date of the incident comes first.
General information about Georgia law as of November 2026. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship.