Shot Near a Midland Club — Your Negligent Security Claim Starts Here
You were walking toward a club on North Lee Street at 1:42 in the morning. You heard arguing — a group of people you did not know, somewhere west of the business. Then gunshots. Then you were on the ground, shot once, and the world changed. You woke up at Midland Memorial Hospital with a bullet wound in your left buttock, and nobody — not the patrons, not the club, not the people who were arguing — would tell the police what happened. The shooter is gone. No crime scene was found. You told the officers you did not want to pursue criminal charges, and maybe you meant it at the time — you were in a hospital bed, in pain, and the criminal justice system felt like someone else’s problem.
We need you to hear this clearly: declining to press criminal charges does not close the door on a civil claim for compensation. The criminal system and the civil system are separate. The criminal system punishes the shooter — if the police find them, and if a prosecutor can prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The civil system compensates you — and it asks a different question: did the business that drew you to that block at that hour do what it was legally required to do to keep you safe? That question has nothing to do with whether you pressed charges. And the burden of proof in civil court is lower — you must prove your case by a preponderance of the evidence, meaning your version of events is more likely true than not. That is a far cry from “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
But here is what we need you to understand right now, before anything else: the evidence that decides your case is disappearing. The club’s surveillance cameras — if they captured the argument, the crowd, the shooter, or the response of whatever security was or was not there — those systems overwrite. Typical cycles run seven to thirty days. Every day that passes without a preservation letter, that footage slides closer to gone. The neighboring businesses on the 200 block of North Lee Street may have exterior cameras that caught everything the club’s cameras missed — and those overwrite too. This is not a warning designed to scare you. It is the mechanical reality of how these cases are won and lost, and it is why the first thing we do — the day you call — is send a spoliation letter that legally freezes every frame of footage, every security log, every staffing record before anyone can let it die.
We are Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC. We are trial lawyers who take premises liability and negligent security cases across Texas, including right here in Midland. Ralph Manginello has spent 27-plus years in courtrooms, including federal court, and Lupe Peña spent years inside a national insurance-defense firm — the rooms where adjusters and their lawyers decided how to deny, delay, and devalue people exactly like you — before he chose to sit on your side of the table. We work on contingency: we do not get paid unless we win your case. Your consultation is free. And the clock is already running on the evidence that decides everything.
What Happened on the 200 Block of North Lee Street
Here is what the public record shows, and what it means for a civil case.
At approximately 1:42 AM on a Sunday morning, a 20-year-old man was shot once in the left buttock on the 200 block of North Lee Street in Midland, Texas. He told responding Midland Police Department officers he had been walking toward a club when he heard arguing from an unknown group west of the business, followed by gunshots. He was treated at Midland Memorial Hospital. No suspect was identified. No crime scene was located. Patrons at the location denied knowledge of a shooting. The victim declined to pursue criminal charges.
Now here is what those facts look like through a negligent-security lens — and why a case that looks thin on its surface can become strong once the right records are pulled.
The 200 block of North Lee Street sits in downtown Midland — a nightlife corridor where establishments operate late into the night and draw significant weekend foot traffic. Midland is a Permian Basin oil town, and its economy and population surge and contract with the energy cycle. When oil booms, the workforce floods in; the bars fill up; the late-night crowd grows; and bar-related incidents — assaults, disturbances, weapons complaints — historically rise with them. This is not speculation. It is a pattern that Texas negligent-security law specifically recognizes as relevant to whether a business should have known that violence was foreseeable at its location.
The convergence of three facts — a late-night venue serving alcohol, an early-morning hour (1:42 AM), and a crowd gathering outside the business — creates what premises-liability attorneys call a foreseeability matrix. It is the set of conditions that, under Texas law, can establish that a business owner owed an enhanced duty to provide adequate security, lighting, and exterior monitoring. The argument that erupted west of the club, the gunshots that followed, and the fact that nobody at the location would talk to the police — all of this is evidence of an environment where security was either absent, inadequate, or indifferent.
The fact that no crime scene was located and no suspect was identified does not weaken a negligent-security claim. It strengthens the argument that the club’s security environment was so uncontrolled that a shooting could occur on its doorstep and the business could not even tell the police where it happened. And the fact that patrons denied knowledge? That is what happens when a venue has no incentive to be honest — no security cameras covering the exterior, no guard stationed outside, no protocol for reporting or responding to disturbances that occur just beyond the front door.
This is the case we build. But we build it on evidence — and that evidence is dying.
Texas Negligent Security Law — What a Club Owes You
Texas premises-liability law is built on a simple hierarchy: the more the property owner invited you in, the more it owes you. Texas classifies people on property in three categories — invitee, licensee, and trespasser — and the duty owed depends entirely on which one you are.
You were walking toward a club. You were a prospective patron — a business visitor. Under Texas law, you are an invitee. That is the highest status, and it carries the highest duty. A club owner owes an invitee a duty of reasonable care — and that duty, under Texas premises law, includes protecting invitees from foreseeable criminal acts of third parties. The business is not your insurer against all harm; it does not guarantee your safety. But when the conditions on and around the premises make certain kinds of criminal violence foreseeable — and the business did nothing to address them — the law says the business can be held responsible for what happened.
The critical word is foreseeable. Texas courts have been clear on this point: general crime in the area is not enough. You cannot simply point to downtown Midland and say “crime happens here” and win a negligent-security case. You must show prior similar incidents at or near the premises — assaults, disturbances, weapons complaints, shootings — that would have put a reasonable business owner on notice that this kind of violence was likely to occur. This is the single make-or-break battleground issue in a Texas negligent-security case. It is the question on which every case lives or dies.
“In civil cases, the plaintiff has the burden of proving their case by a preponderance of the evidence, which means the plaintiff merely needs to show that the fact in dispute is more likely than not.”
That is the standard from Cornell Law Institute’s legal encyclopedia — and it is the standard that governs your civil claim. You do not need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the club was negligent. You need to show that it is more likely than not — 51 percent or more — that the club failed to meet its duty and that failure caused your injury.
Here is how foreseeability is established in a case like yours: through discovery. We demand the Midland Police Department’s call-for-service records for the address and surrounding block — every call for an assault, a disturbance, a weapons complaint, a fight, a noise complaint that was really a near-riot — going back months or years. We pull the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission’s records for the establishment — complaints, inspections, violations, administrative actions. We subpoena the club’s own incident reports, its security contracts, its staffing records. And if those records show a pattern — if there were five assaults in the parking lot in the last year, or three weapons calls, or a prior shooting — then the argument writes itself: the club knew or should have known that violence was foreseeable, and it did nothing.
The criminal statute for assault in Texas is clear and applicable here as an analogue to the civil battery claim against the unknown shooter:
“A person commits an offense if the person: (1) intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly causes bodily injury to another, including the person’s spouse; (2) intentionally or knowingly threatens another with imminent bodily injury, including the person’s spouse.”
That is Tex. Penal Code § 22.01(a). The person who shot you committed a criminal act — and that same conduct, in civil terms, is an intentional tort: civil battery. The shooter is civilly liable to you for your injuries. The problem, right now, is that nobody knows who the shooter is. But that does not end the analysis — it just shifts the focus to the business that owed you a duty and may have failed to meet it.
Who Can Be Liable — The Defendant Map
A negligent-security case is rarely about one defendant. It is about a stack — the entities that controlled the conditions where you were shot, each with a different role and a different insurance policy.
The club operator. This is the business that held the TABC license, that served the alcohol, that drew the crowd to North Lee Street at 1:42 AM, and that owed you — a prospective patron and business invitee — a duty to protect against foreseeable criminal acts. The club operator is the primary defendant. Its duty includes providing adequate security during late-night operating hours — guards, lighting, exterior monitoring, crowd-control measures, and a protocol for responding to disturbances that erupt just outside the front door. If the club had no security, or if its security was inadequate for the known conditions, or if it failed to monitor the area where the argument erupted and did not call the police — that failure is the core of the negligent-security claim.
The property owner or lessor. The entity that owns or leases the building may be a separate defendant. Texas premises liability can extend to a property owner who knew or should have known about inadequate security, lighting, or crowd-control measures in a high-risk late-night entertainment context. If the owner leased to a club operator and turned a blind eye to a pattern of violence — or if the lease gave the owner control over security conditions — the owner is in the case.
Any contracted security company. If the club hired a security firm — and we find out in discovery whether it did — that firm may be liable for negligent performance of its duties. Was the firm staffed adequately for a late-night venue? Were guards stationed outside, or only at the door? Did anyone monitor the exterior, the area where the argument erupted, the crowd west of the business? Did any guard call the police? If the security company voluntarily undertook to provide security and did so negligently, Texas law may impose liability for that negligent undertaking.
The unknown shooter. The person who pulled the trigger committed an intentional tort — civil battery. Identifying the shooter through discovery and investigation could unlock personal assets or applicable insurance coverage, and it supports a punitive damages claim. Collectibility is uncertain right now — if the shooter is never identified, a judgment against them may be uncollectible. But the pursuit itself matters: it preserves the claim, it creates pressure, and it keeps every defendant honest about their own share of responsibility.
This is how a case that starts with “nobody knows who shot me” becomes a case with multiple defendants, each with insurance, each with a duty they may have breached. The shooter may be unknown. The business is not.
The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission — The Regulatory Record That Builds Your Case
The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) licenses and regulates every establishment that serves alcohol in Texas. TABC’s Licensing Division processes close to 100,000 licenses and permits each year — and every one of those licensees operates under rules that include maintaining order on the premises.
This matters to your case in two ways.
First, TABC rules require license and permit holders to report certain crimes and disturbances that happen at their businesses — including shootings, stabbings, serious bodily injury, deaths, and disturbances — within 24 hours. The TABC’s own enforcement page states this plainly:
“TABC license and permit holders must report certain crimes and disturbances that happen at their businesses. … Within 24 Hours: TABC license and permit holders are required to report if any of the following happens at their business as soon as possible and w”
If the club on North Lee Street failed to report this shooting — and the public record suggests the patrons denied any knowledge of it — that failure is itself a regulatory violation. More importantly, TABC’s records of prior complaints, inspections, and violations at this establishment are discoverable evidence. They establish the regulatory history of the venue — and they are the kind of records that support the foreseeability element of your claim. If the TABC has cited this club before for breaches of the peace, for over-service, for failing to maintain order — those citations are prior-incident evidence that the club knew or should have known that violence was foreseeable.
Second, TABC records are not standalone claims. You are not suing the club for violating a TABC rule. You are suing the club for negligent security — and the TABC records are the evidence that proves the club knew what was happening on its premises and failed to address it. They are the standard of care the club should have met, documented by the agency that regulates it.
Midland municipal ordinances may also impose requirements for security plans, lighting, or crowd management at nightlife venues. These local rules, where they exist, serve the same function — they define the standard of care and they create discoverable records when the standard is violated.
This is what a negligent security attorney does in the first weeks of a case: we pull every regulatory record — TABC, Midland municipal, Midland Police Department calls for service — and we map them to the premises. The pattern that emerges from those records is the backbone of the foreseeability argument. Without it, the case is weak. With it, the case can be strong enough to force a real settlement or win at trial.
The Evidence Clock — What Is Dying Right Now
Every negligent-security case is a race against the machines that captured the event. Here is what exists, who holds it, and how fast it legally dies.
Club CCTV and surveillance footage — interior and exterior. The club’s own cameras may have captured the argument, the crowd gathering outside, the shooting itself, the shooter, or the response of security personnel — or the absence of any response. This footage is the most powerful evidence in the case. It is also the most fragile. Typical surveillance systems overwrite on cycles of seven to thirty days. If no preservation letter has been sent, this footage may already be gone — or it may have days left. The preservation letter goes out the day you call. It is a legal demand that puts the club on notice that the footage is evidence in a potential lawsuit and that destruction will carry legal consequences.
Neighboring business surveillance footage on the 200 block of North Lee Street. Exterior cameras from adjacent businesses may have captured the argument, the shooter, your path toward the club, and whether any club security personnel monitored or responded to the disturbance. These are independent sources — the club does not control them, and they may show what the club’s own cameras missed or what the club’s cameras were never pointed at. Same overwrite risk. Same urgency. We send preservation letters to every business on the block with a camera.
TABC complaint and inspection records. These establish the regulatory history of the establishment — prior violations, complaints, inspections, administrative actions. They are generally retained long-term, but processing delays can occur. We request these through TABC’s public information channels promptly.
Midland Police Department call records and incident reports. Prior calls for service — assaults, disturbances, weapons complaints, fights — at or near the club are the core foreseeability evidence. These records exist and must be requested through MPD records. Mapping prior calls geographically to the premises is essential — we need to show that the calls were to this address, not just “downtown.”
Club security staffing records, contracts, and post-incident reports. These show whether security was provided at all, how many personnel were on duty, what training they had, and whether any incident documentation was created after the shooting. Personnel turnover and document-retention policies mean these records degrade quickly. A preservation letter must be sent immediately — and if the club claims it has no security records, that fact itself is evidence of inadequate security.
Your medical records from Midland Memorial Hospital. These document the gunshot wound, the treatment rendered, any complications, the prognosis, and any nerve or vascular damage. Hospital records are retained per regulatory requirements and are not as time-sensitive as surveillance footage — but obtaining them requires proper authorization and a HIPAA-compliant release, which we handle.
Here is what happens when a defendant lets required evidence die after receiving a preservation letter: the law answers. An adverse-inference instruction tells the jury they may assume the lost footage was as bad for the defendant as the plaintiff says it was. Sanctions are available. And in some circumstances, the destruction itself becomes a separate claim. The bar for the harshest sanctions is high — but the leverage begins the moment the letter is on file. The letter is not a formality. It is the first shot in the case.
The Medicine — What a Gunshot to the Buttock Actually Does
You were treated at Midland Memorial Hospital and released. You may feel like you got lucky — a single gunshot wound, treated and done. We need you to understand what that bullet may have done beneath the skin, because the full extent of this injury may not reveal itself for weeks or months.
A gunshot wound to the buttock is not a simple injury. The buttock region contains the sciatic nerve — the largest nerve in the human body — along with major vascular structures and significant musculature. A bullet that passes through or near the sciatic nerve can cause nerve damage that does not show up on a standard emergency-room scan. The symptoms may be delayed: numbness, tingling, weakness in the leg or foot, chronic pain that worsens over time, difficulty sitting, difficulty walking, loss of function that makes work impossible.
Here is what the defense does with a “treated and released” gunshot wound: they argue you are fine. They point to the discharge papers. They say the injury was minor. They use the gap between the ER visit and any follow-up care to argue the injury resolved. And if you did not follow up — because you do not have insurance, or because you thought it was healing, or because you were focused on getting back to work — they use that gap to minimize the entire claim.
This is why documentation matters. Every symptom — every time your leg goes numb, every time you cannot sit through a shift, every time the pain wakes you up — must be in a medical record. Follow up with a doctor even if you think you are healing. A gunshot wound that damages the sciatic nerve can produce chronic pain and functional impairment requiring years of care: pain management, physical therapy, nerve studies, possibly surgical intervention. The life-care planner on our team builds the cost of that future care in today’s dollars. The forensic economist reduces it to present value. And the number that comes out of that process is nothing like what the insurance adjuster’s first offer will be — which is the point.
If complications arise and this injury ultimately proves fatal — which is not expected on current facts but must be monitored — Texas survival actions allow recovery of damages that accrued before death. We hope this is irrelevant. But we watch for it, because gunshot wounds can cause delayed vascular complications, infections, or embolic events that are not apparent at discharge.
What Your Case Is Worth — Honest Numbers
We owe you honesty about value, not a sales pitch. Here is what cases like yours are worth, and why the range is so wide.
Low end: $25,000. This reflects a treated-and-released gunshot wound with no identified defendant, no established foreseeability pattern, and full recovery with no complications. At this end, the case is essentially a physical-injury claim with ER bills and some pain and suffering — and the difficulty of proving negligent security without prior-incident evidence makes the defendant’s insurance company confident it can pay little or nothing.
High end: $350,000. This assumes discovery reveals a documented history of prior violent incidents at the club — assaults, weapons complaints, prior shootings — and that the club had inadequate security measures in place despite that history. It assumes the victim suffered nerve damage or other complications requiring ongoing treatment. At this end, the foreseeability element is established, the club’s negligence is provable, and the damages include not just the ER visit but follow-up care, nerve studies, pain management, lost wages, and significant pain and suffering.
The wide range — $25,000 to $350,000 — is driven by two unknowns: the foreseeability element (which we build through discovery) and the severity of the injury (which we build through medical documentation). Both are within your control to influence. The foreseeability evidence either exists in the records or it does not — but we will not know until we pull them. The injury severity depends on medical follow-up — which is why we tell every client to see a doctor and document every symptom.
Collectibility is uncertain until the premises owner and operator are identified and their insurance coverage is confirmed. A nightclub operator may carry a general-liability policy — but the coverage limits vary, and some policies exclude or limit coverage for violent incidents or claims arising from the sale of alcohol. The property owner may carry separate coverage. A contracted security company, if one existed, may have its own policy. Part of the investigation is identifying every policy that applies and understanding what each covers and what each excludes.
Here is what the adjuster does not want you to know: their first offer — if they make one at all — will be a fraction of the case’s actual value. They will calculate it using valuation software that inputs your medical bills, the diagnosis codes, and a multiplier for “pain and suffering” that a computer — not a human — selected. They will discount everything they cannot see on a billing statement: the fear of being shot, the sleepless nights, the moment you flinch at a loud sound, the job you could not go back to, the future nerve damage that has not been diagnosed yet. The number we build accounts for all of it — because a real case value is not a multiplier times a bill. It is the full cost of what happened to you, past and future, economic and human, built by experts and proven by evidence.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. We have recovered over $50 million for injured clients across our firm’s history, including multimillion-dollar settlements in brain injury, amputation, truck crash, and maritime cases. Every one of those results was built on the facts of that case — and your case will be built on the facts of yours.
The Insurance Adjuster’s Playbook — What They Will Do and How to Counter It
Lupe Peña spent years inside a national insurance-defense firm. He sat in the rooms where adjusters decided how to handle claims like yours. Here is what they will try — and here is how we counter each move.
Play 1: The “just checking in” recorded-statement call. Within days, someone friendly will call — maybe from the club’s insurance company, maybe from a third-party adjuster. They will say they just want to hear your side of the story. They will ask if they can record the conversation “for accuracy.” This call is engineered to get you to say things that will be quoted against you later — “I’m feeling okay,” “I didn’t see who shot me,” “I was just in the wrong place.” Every word goes into a transcript that the defense will use to minimize your claim. Counter: Do not give a recorded statement to the club’s insurer. Do not speak with their representatives at all. Every communication goes through us. If they call, you say: “I have an attorney. Please contact my attorney’s office.” Then you hang up and call us.
Play 2: The fast settlement check with a release. A check may arrive quickly — sometimes within a week or two — with a release form printed on the back or included in the envelope. The amount will seem reasonable for an ER visit. But signing that release extinguishes your entire claim — including the nerve damage that has not been diagnosed yet, the lost wages from the job you have not been able to return to, the pain and suffering that the computer at the insurance company has already undervalued. Counter: Never sign anything from the club’s insurance company without having an attorney review it. A release is final. Once you sign, the case is over — even if your leg goes numb next month.
Play 3: The “you were partly at fault” argument. Texas follows a modified comparative-negligence rule with a 51 percent bar. If you are 51 percent or more at fault, your recovery is barred. If you are less than 51 percent at fault, your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault. The adjuster will try to pin fault on you: you were out at 1:42 AM, you were walking toward a club, you heard an argument and kept walking. They will argue you assumed the risk of being in a late-night nightlife environment. Counter: Walking toward a business as a prospective patron is not negligence. Being out late at night is not assumption of the risk of being shot. Texas law does not require you to foresee a stranger’s criminal act and avoid it — it requires the business that invited you to that location to protect you from foreseeable harm. Every percentage point the defense tries to pin on you is money, and we fight every point.
Play 4: The surveillance and social-media watch. The insurance company may assign an investigator to watch you — physically, online, or both. They will look at your social media for photos of you “looking fine” — out with friends, at work, at the gym. They will use those posts to argue your injury is not serious. Counter: Do not post about the incident on social media. Do not post photos that could be misinterpreted. Set your accounts to private. If an investigator follows you, they will see what you can and cannot do — and if your injury is real, the surveillance will confirm it, not undermine it. But the social-media posts are the real danger, because a photo of you smiling at a birthday party can be twisted into “she is not in pain.”
Play 5: The independent medical examination (IME) with their doctor. The insurance company may require you to be examined by a doctor they choose — and that doctor’s report will minimize your injury. This is a standard defense tactic. Counter: We prepare you for the IME. We make sure the doctor knows about every symptom. We review the report for inconsistencies and bias. And if the IME doctor says you are fine, your treating physicians — who have actually been caring for you — provide the counter-narrative.
Each of these plays is designed to reduce the value of your claim. Each has a counter. The counters work only if they are deployed before the play runs — which is why the day you call is the day the protection starts.
How We Build the Proof — Week One to Resolution
Here is what the case actually looks like, from the day you call to the day it resolves.
Week one. The preservation letter goes out — to the club, to the property owner, to any neighboring business with cameras on the 200 block of North Lee Street. Every frame of footage, every security log, every staffing record, every incident report is frozen. We identify the club operator and the property owner through county property records and TABC license records. We request MPD call-for-service records for the address and surrounding block. We request TABC complaint and inspection records for the establishment. We obtain your medical records from Midland Memorial Hospital with a HIPAA-compliant release.
Weeks two through four. The records start coming in. We map the MPD calls geographically to the premises — every assault, every disturbance, every weapons complaint, every fight. We review the TABC record for prior violations. We review whatever surveillance footage survived. We interview witnesses — if any can be identified — and we document your ongoing symptoms through your treating physicians.
Months one through three. If the foreseeability record is strong, we retain a premises-security expert — a professional who opines on industry standards for late-night nightlife venues and the adequacy of the security measures the club had in place. The expert reviews the evidence and produces a report. If your injury is ongoing, we document the full course of medical treatment — nerve studies, pain management, physical therapy, surgical consultations. A life-care planner builds the cost of your future care. A forensic economist reduces it to present value.
Months three through six. Discovery. Depositions. The club operator, under oath, answers questions about what security was in place, what they knew about prior incidents, what they did or did not do in response. The property owner, under oath, explains what control it had over security conditions. If a security company was contracted, its personnel explain their staffing, their training, their protocols — and what happened the night you were shot.
Months six through twelve. Mediation. We approach mediation only after the foreseeability record is developed and the damages are documented — because a mediation without that evidence is a mediation at a discount. If the evidence is strong and the insurance coverage is identified, we evaluate a settlement demand designed to trigger the insurer’s exposure beyond policy limits under Texas’s excess-insurance doctrine — a demand that, if reasonably should have been accepted and was not, can make the insurer liable for a judgment exceeding the policy.
Trial. If the case does not settle, we try it in Midland County — in the courthouse where the jury will be your neighbors. People who know North Lee Street, who know what downtown Midland is like at 1:42 AM on a Sunday, who can separate the criminal shooter’s culpability from the premises owner’s duty. Voir dire explores jurors’ attitudes about business-owner responsibility for third-party criminal acts and their views on the nightlife culture that the oil economy drives. The case is presented, the experts testify, the records speak — and the jury decides.
This is not a fast process. But the number at the end is built from all of it — every record, every deposition, every expert report, every medical bill, every symptom you documented. The adjuster’s first offer is a fraction of that number because the adjuster’s first offer is made before any of this exists. Our job is to build the evidence that makes the real number undeniable.
Your First 72 Hours — What to Do Now
Medical care comes first. If you have not followed up with a doctor since being discharged from Midland Memorial Hospital, do it now. Gunshot wounds can cause delayed nerve damage, vascular complications, infections — problems that do not appear on the discharge paperwork but emerge over days or weeks. Document every symptom, even if it seems minor. Numbness, tingling, pain when sitting, weakness in the leg — every one of these goes in a medical record, and every medical record is evidence.
Do not speak with the club’s representatives or insurance adjusters. If someone calls from the club’s insurance company, or from a “third-party investigator,” or from anyone who says they want to “help resolve this,” do not talk to them. Say: “I have an attorney. Please contact my attorney.” Then call us. Anything you say to them will be used to reduce the value of your claim — not because they are evil, but because that is how the system works.
Do not sign anything. No release, no authorization, no settlement agreement, no “medical authorization form” from the insurance company. If you receive a check, do not cash it — it may have a release attached. Everything goes through us first.
Do not post about the incident on social media. No photos, no status updates, no comments on the news story. Set your accounts to private. If friends post about you, ask them to take it down. The insurance company’s investigators are looking for anything they can use.
Preserve what you can. If you have photos from that night — your phone, a friend’s phone, anything that shows the scene, the crowd, the conditions outside the club — save them. If you received any paperwork from the hospital, keep it. If you have text messages from that night, do not delete them.
Call us. The consultation is free. The call is 1-888-ATTY-911. We are available 24/7 — live staff, not an answering service. We will tell you honestly whether we think you have a case, what it might be worth, and what the next steps are. If we are the right fit, we will say so. If we are not, we will tell you that too — and we will point you to someone who is. There is no fee unless we win your case.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I sue if the shooter is never caught?
Yes. Your negligent-security claim is against the club and property owner — not the shooter. The question is whether the business that invited you to that location at that hour failed to protect you from foreseeable criminal violence. That question does not depend on identifying the shooter. The shooter’s identity matters for a separate claim — civil battery against the person who pulled the trigger — but the premises-liability claim stands on its own. If the shooter is identified during discovery, we add them as a defendant. If they are never identified, the club’s failure to provide adequate security is still the case.
What if I declined to press criminal charges?
That decision has no effect on your civil claim. The criminal and civil systems are separate. The criminal system requires a prosecutor to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt — a high standard — and requires police investigation and cooperation. You are not required to cooperate with a criminal prosecution to pursue a civil claim. Your civil case is proven by a preponderance of the evidence — a lower standard — and it asks a different question: was the club negligent? The fact that you chose not to pursue criminal charges is understandable and irrelevant to your civil rights. We distinguish this clearly for the jury if the case goes to trial.
How long do I have to file a claim?
Texas’s personal injury statute of limitations generally gives you two years from the date of the injury to file a lawsuit. This deadline is strict — if you miss it, your claim is barred. There are limited exceptions, but they are narrow and should never be relied on without consulting an attorney. Two years sounds like a long time, but the evidence that builds your case — surveillance footage, security records, witness memories — degrades within weeks, not years. The day you call is the day the clock starts working for you instead of against you.
What if the club says they had nothing to do with it — the shooting happened outside?
This is the club’s first line of defense, and it is often wrong. Texas premises liability can extend to areas near the premises — including sidewalks, parking areas, and the immediate vicinity — where the business’s operations create a foreseeable risk. If the club’s alcohol service and late-night operating hours drew a crowd to that location, and that crowd’s presence created a foreseeable risk of violence, the club’s duty may extend to the area where you were shot. The argument that erupted “west of the business” — just outside the club — is not an automatic shield for the club. It is a fact pattern we analyze through the lens of the club’s duty and the foreseeability of the harm.
What if I was partly at fault for being there at 1:42 AM?
Texas follows a modified comparative-negligence rule. If you are less than 51 percent at fault, your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault — but it is not eliminated. Being out late at night, walking toward a business as a prospective patron, is not negligence. Hearing an argument and continuing to walk is not assumption of the risk of being shot. The defense will try to pin percentage points on you because every point is money off their client’s obligation. We fight every point — and in most cases like this, the argument that the victim was at fault for being present at a business that invited them in is weak.
What if the club has no insurance or very little coverage?
This is a real possibility. Some nightclub operators carry minimal general-liability coverage, and some policies exclude or limit claims arising from violent incidents or the sale of alcohol. We investigate every potential source of coverage — the club operator’s policy, the property owner’s policy, any security company’s policy, and any umbrella or excess policies. If the primary coverage is low, we look for every layer above it. If the club is uninsured or underinsured, we evaluate whether the property owner or any other defendant has deeper coverage. In some cases, a judgment against an uninsured defendant is still valuable — it can be enforced against assets, and it creates pressure that can produce a settlement from a co-defendant who does have coverage.
How much does it cost to hire a lawyer?
We work on contingency. The fee is 33.33 percent of the recovery before trial and 40 percent if the case goes to trial. We do not get paid unless we win your case. You pay nothing upfront — no hourly rate, no retainer, no consultation fee. The consultation is free. If we take your case, we advance the costs of investigation — the records requests, the expert fees, the filing fees — and those costs are repaid from the recovery at the end. If there is no recovery, you owe us nothing for costs or fees. This is not generosity — it is the structure that ensures everyone, regardless of their financial situation, can hire a trial lawyer to fight for them.
What if I do not speak English well?
We serve our clients fully in Spanish. Lupe Peña is fluent — he conducts complete consultations in Spanish without an interpreter, and our bilingual staff is available to you at every stage of the case. Hablamos Español. Your language should never be a barrier to understanding your rights or to having someone fight for you.
Who We Are — and Why It Matters
Ralph Manginello has spent 27-plus years in Texas courtrooms, including federal court. He was a journalist before he was a lawyer — which means he asks questions first and builds narratives from evidence, not assumption. He is the managing partner of The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC, admitted in Texas since 1998 and admitted to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. He has tried cases across the state and has recovered over $50 million for injured clients across the firm’s history. He is a member of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association and the Houston Bar Association.
Lupe Peña is a former insurance-defense attorney — he spent years inside a national defense firm, in the rooms where adjusters and their lawyers decided how to value, deny, and delay claims like yours. He knows how the valuation software works, how the IME doctors are selected, how the surveillance is deployed, and how the delay tactics are engineered. He now uses that knowledge for injured clients. He is admitted in Texas and to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, and he conducts full client consultations in Spanish.
This combination — Ralph’s 27 years of trial experience and Lupe’s insider knowledge of how the insurance industry works — is what we bring to a negligent-security case like yours. We know what the club’s insurance company will do before they do it, because we have seen it from the inside. We know what evidence wins and what evidence dies, because we have built these cases and tried them. And we know that the number the adjuster offers first is never the number the case is worth — because we used to be the people who set those numbers.
Your Next Step
You were shot by a stranger in a situation you did not create. You were walking toward a business that invited you in, at an hour when that business was open and drawing a crowd, and nobody protected you. The criminal system may or may not find the shooter. The civil system can hold the business accountable — but only if the evidence is preserved, the foreseeability record is built, and the claim is filed before the clock runs out.
The consultation is free. The call is 1-888-ATTY-911. We are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week — live staff, not an answering service. There is no fee unless we win your case. Hablamos Español.
Call now. The footage on the 200 block of North Lee Street is overwriting as you read this. Every day without a preservation letter is a day the case gets harder to prove. The day you call is the day that stops.
1-888-ATTY-911. Free consultation. No fee unless we win.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. This page is legal information, not legal advice. Contacting the firm is free and confidential.