Orange County negligent security lawyerAttacked? The owner's insurer talks to us.

Local differences in Orange County

This page is for a person hurt in an attack on someone else's property in Orange County, and for that person's family. It focuses on unincorporated areas and the cities that contract with the Sheriff; Santa Ana and Anaheim have their own pages. The local facts were checked on each agency's own website on November 9 and 11, 2026. It is general information, not advice about any one case. Our negligent security lawyer page covers every setting, and our Orange County personal injury lawyer page covers other injuries.

The owner's duty in California

California's jury instruction on crime on property, CACI No. 1005 (2026 edition), says that a landlord or the owner of a business open to the public "must use reasonable care to protect" tenants, guests or patrons "from another person's criminal conduct on" the property "if the [owner/landlord] can reasonably anticipate that conduct." Whether that duty exists is decided by the judge; whether the steps the owner took were "adequate and reasonable under the circumstances" is decided by the jury. An injury from an unsafe condition with no attack, such as a fall, follows the rules on our premises liability lawyer page.

Police agencies in Orange County

The police report after an Orange County attack comes from the agency that polices the place where it happened. The Orange County Sheriff's Department is the police agency for unincorporated Orange County and for contract cities including Mission Viejo, Lake Forest, San Clemente, Dana Point and Yorba Linda. Other cities, such as Anaheim, Irvine and Santa Ana, have their own police departments. The Sheriff's Department also says dozens of unincorporated county islands sit inside cities such as Anaheim, Orange and Santa Ana. We confirm which agency responded before we ask for the report.

Sheriff's Department reports

The Sheriff's Department releases crime reports to the victim, the victim's authorized representative, an insurer facing a claim, and a person who suffered bodily injury. Its report request page asks requesters to call the Records unit at 714-834-6454 first, and says a report takes an average of 7 to 10 days to be finalized. Requests go by email, in person at the Records Division in Santa Ana, by mail to P.O. Box 449, Santa Ana, CA 92702, or by fax. The Department charges 15 cents a page, and a domestic violence report is free to the victim under Family Code section 6228. A victim can also get the names and statements of witnesses for listed crimes, unless that would endanger a witness or the investigation (Government Code section 7923.605).

Calls and 911 audio

Requests for other Sheriff's records, such as call records, go to its Public Records Act unit by email, by mail to 320 N. Flower Street, Santa Ana, CA 92703, ATTN: CPRA, in person, by fax or by phone at (714) 834-3999, at 15 cents a page. California law requires a police agency to make public "the time, substance, and location of all complaints or requests for assistance received by the agency and the time and nature of the response thereto," with safety and investigation exceptions (Government Code section 7923.615). A city or county department may destroy telephone and radio recordings after 100 days (Government Code sections 34090.6 and 26202.6), so 911 audio is requested early. Victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking can get one free copy of the report, its photographs and any 911 recording (Family Code section 6228).

Threats from another tenant

The strongest cases usually involve written reports to the landlord or manager about threats or violence by a specific person, and no meaningful response. Complaints about noise or suspected drug activity, without threats or violence, are weaker evidence that violence was foreseeable. The two key cases are Castaneda v. Olsher (2007) 41 Cal.4th 1205 and Madhani v. Cooper (2003) 106 Cal.App.4th 412. In Madhani, a tenant asked the managers for help at least six times about a neighbor's shoving and threatening behavior before the neighbor pushed her down the stairs, and the Court of Appeal reversed summary judgment for the landlords. Our guide for a tenant attacked by another tenant explains the steps short of eviction.

Eviction tools under state law

A landlord with written reports of threats or violence by a specific occupant has tools, up to eviction. After a tenant has lived in a unit for 12 months, California's Tenant Protection Act requires a just cause, stated in the written notice, to end many tenancies (Civil Code section 1946.2). The at-fault causes include a nuisance and "Criminal activity by the tenant on the residential real property, including any common areas." The statute allows an eviction on those grounds; it does not require one. Whether a unit is covered, and whether a landlord should have acted, are questions for a lawyer. Santa Ana has its own ordinance, explained on our Santa Ana page.

Hotels and other businesses

Hotels, bars, parking operators and stores owe guests and customers reasonable care against crime they can reasonably anticipate. In O'Hara v. Western Seven Trees Corp. (1977) 75 Cal.App.3d 798, a Court of Appeal noted that "an innkeeper was under a duty to protect his guests." When a business has actual notice of an impending assault, Delgado v. Trax Bar & Grill (2005) 36 Cal.4th 224 says its duty includes "reasonable, relatively simple, and minimally burdensome steps to attempt to avert that danger." Some Orange County cities, including Anaheim, require hotels to keep panic button records for hotel workers, which a preservation letter can ask for. Our guide to hotel and motel assaults covers attacks on guests.

Neighborhood Preservation complaints

In unincorporated Orange County, a tenant reports substandard housing to OC Public Works Neighborhood Preservation, the County's code enforcement office, through the myOCeServices portal at any hour or the hotline at 714-667-8853 (toll free 1-866-552-8120). Inside a city, the complaint goes to that city's code enforcement office. California requires residential landlords to keep working dead bolts on main entry doors, window locks and common-area entry locks (Civil Code section 1941.3). The landlord is not liable under that section unless it fails to fix the problem within a reasonable time after notice, and a violation does not by itself decide negligence. A dated email to the manager and a code complaint give two records of when the owner was told.

Records the owner should keep

Private camera systems keep footage only as long as the owner's settings allow, and no California law makes a private owner keep it before a lawsuit, so a preservation letter goes out first. It asks the owner, the management company and any security company to keep video, door and gate logs, incident and guard reports, work orders, and complaints about the person who attacked you. Our negligent security evidence checklist lists each record, who holds it in Orange County and how to ask for it.

Victim services in Orange County

The Orange County District Attorney's Office lists Waymakers, which operates a Victim/Witness Assistance Program for crime victims and witnesses, and the Orange County Family Justice Center, (714) 765-1645, for survivors of domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assault and elder or dependent adult abuse. Waymakers runs Victim Assistance Centers at the Central, Harbor, North and West Justice Centers, listed below, and a confidential rape crisis hotline, open 24 hours a day, at (949) 831-9110 or (714) 957-2737. The California Victim Compensation Board (CalVCB) accepts applications within seven years of the crime, and later in some cases. CalVCB is a payor of last resort, so money later recovered in a civil case must be repaid to it.

Courthouse nearby

Orange County Superior Court hears injury cases from every city in the county at the Central Justice Center, 700 Civic Center Drive West, Santa Ana, for limited civil, unlimited civil and small claims cases. Complex civil cases go to the Civil Complex Center, 751 West Santa Ana Blvd. The court's civil division says a dispute of $35,000 or less is a limited civil case. Court pages were checked November 9, 2026. If a lawsuit is needed, we file it.

Filing deadlines

Most California injury lawsuits must be filed within two years of the injury (Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1). If a city, a county, the State, a school district, a transit agency or another public entity may be responsible, a written claim must first be presented to that entity within six months after the claim accrues (Government Code section 911.2). The lawsuit against the entity then has its own deadline: six months after a written rejection notice is delivered or mailed, or two years from the date the claim accrued if no written notice is given (Government Code section 945.6). The dates in any one case should be calculated by a lawyer.

Some claims have more time. Our negligent security deadlines guide lists each period, and our deadline calculator gives a first look at the dates.

Insurance and who pays

When someone is attacked on property in California, the people who may be responsible include the property owner, the property management company, the security company and any business that controlled the area. Each may have its own liability insurance. California requires every licensed private patrol operator to keep commercial general liability insurance of at least $1,000,000 for any one loss or occurrence (Business and Professions Code section 7583.40). Whether a policy pays for a particular attack depends on its terms, so the policies must be obtained and read. Our guide to insurance and who pays explains assault exclusions.

After you call

You do not have to describe the attack to start. We begin with the property: who owns it, who manages it, who provides security and which agency took the report. With your written authorization, we request the police records, send the preservation letters and deal with the insurers, in English or Spanish, by phone or video. Our guide on how to prove a negligent security case explains what the records need to show.

City pages in Orange County

Our Santa Ana negligent security lawyer page covers Santa Ana's police records, its just cause ordinance and its code complaints, and our Anaheim negligent security lawyer page covers Anaheim's hotel worker safety records. If a family member died in an attack, our guide to fatal attacks and wrongful death and our Orange County wrongful death lawyer page explain the family's claim.

Sources cited

• CACI No. 1005, 2026 edition: courts.ca.gov (PDF)
• Castaneda v. Olsher (2007) 41 Cal.4th 1205: CourtListener
• Madhani v. Cooper (2003) 106 Cal.App.4th 412: CourtListener
• O'Hara v. Western Seven Trees Corp. (1977) 75 Cal.App.3d 798: CourtListener
• Delgado v. Trax Bar & Grill (2005) 36 Cal.4th 224: CourtListener
• Orange County Sheriff's Department: patrol areas, North Patrol, report requests and public records requests
• Government Code sections 7923.605, 7923.615, 34090.6 and 26202.6; Family Code section 6228
• Civil Code sections 1946.2 and 1941.3
• OC Public Works, Neighborhood Preservation: pwds.oc.gov
• Orange County District Attorney: victims' services resources
• Waymakers: supporting victims
• California Victim Compensation Board: who is eligible
• Orange County Superior Court: Central Justice Center, Civil Complex Center and civil division
• Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1; Government Code sections 911.2 and 945.6; Business and Professions Code section 7583.40