When the Person Hurting You Is the One in Charge

You went out, or you walked into the wrong building, or you were stopped on the street, or you ended up in someone’s custody. Something escalated. The person in the uniform — bouncer, security guard, off-duty officer working a private gig, or sworn law enforcement — used force that went well past what the situation called for.

You woke up with a concussion. With broken bones. With dental damage, lacerations, scarring, missing teeth, neurological symptoms, or worse. Maybe you were also charged criminally — for “disorderly conduct,” “resisting arrest,” “assault on an officer” — even though the person who escalated was the one wearing the badge or the security shirt.

That fact pattern is more common than people realize. And the law treats it differently than people assume.

I’m Nathan Cate. I represent Tennesseans hurt by force in places where they had every right to be safe — and where the people using the force were the ones who were supposed to keep order.

What I Handle

These cases generally fall into three categories. The legal framework differs across them, but the central question is the same: was the force used reasonable, or did it cross the line?

Bar and Venue Security

Bouncers, club security, festival security, and venue staff who use disproportionate force on patrons. These are the cases I see most often: someone refused service or asked to leave, an escort that turned into an assault, a takedown that drove a patron’s head into the floor, a chokehold applied long after resistance ended.

Bouncers are not police officers — they are private parties without qualified immunity, and the bars that hired them are generally on the hook for what they did. Most commercial venues carry general liability insurance with assault and battery riders that pay these claims.

Off-Duty Officers Working Private Security

Off-duty Metro officers, Williamson County deputies, Rutherford County deputies, and other Tennessee law enforcement frequently work private security gigs at downtown bars, music venues, hotels, and special events. When an off-duty officer uses excessive force in that private capacity, the analysis often resembles a bouncer case more than a traditional police case — the venue and the officer’s secondary employer are both potentially liable.

These cases combine the familiar bar/venue framework with the credibility complications that come from a uniformed officer being the defendant. Knowing how to manage that combination matters.

Police, Jail, and Correctional Officer Force

Sworn officers acting in their official capacity — during arrests, traffic stops, jail intake, transport, or while in custody — are subject to a different legal framework than private security. Claims against them often involve federal civil rights law under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alongside Tennessee state-court claims. I’m admitted to the Middle District of Tennessee and have litigated these cases. Each one is evaluated individually, and depending on the facts, the right path may be state court, federal court, or co-counseling with a firm that focuses on federal civil rights work.

What Tennessee Law Lets You Recover

Several routes exist depending on the facts of the case:

Civil Assault and Battery — The person who used the force is liable in tort for harmful or offensive contact. The bouncer, the security guard, or the officer acting outside any lawful privilege.

Vicarious Liability (Respondeat Superior) — When the force occurred within the scope of employment, the employer is liable. Bars, security companies, venues, and secondary employers of off-duty officers all sit in this category.

Negligent Hiring, Training, and Supervision — Independently of respondeat superior, an employer is liable when it hired someone with a known propensity for violence, failed to train them, or ignored prior complaints. These claims survive even when the “scope of employment” defense succeeds.

Premises Liability and Negligent Security — Bars, hotels, and entertainment venues owe a duty of reasonable care to their patrons, including reasonable steps to prevent foreseeable violence — including violence by their own security staff.

Tennessee Dram Shop Liability — Under Tenn. Code Ann. § 57-10-101 et seq., a venue can be liable for serving a visibly intoxicated patron or a minor when the resulting intoxication contributes to injury.

Federal Civil Rights Claims — When the defendant was acting under color of state law, claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 may be available. These cases are evaluated case-by-case for venue, viability, and the right team to handle them.

Damages — Medical bills (present and future), lost wages and lost earning capacity, pain and suffering, emotional distress, permanent impairment, scarring, and in cases of intentional or reckless conduct, punitive damages.

The Clock Is Short

Under Tenn. Code Ann. § 28-3-104, the statute of limitations on personal injury claims in Tennessee is one year from the date of injury. That same one-year limitation applies to federal § 1983 civil rights claims arising in Tennessee, which borrow the state’s personal injury limitation period.

That deadline alone is reason enough to call sooner rather than later. The bigger problem is that the evidence in these cases starts vanishing long before the deadline runs:

Surveillance video at most Nashville venues is overwritten on a 30-90 day cycle. Without an early preservation letter, the most important footage in the case is gone.
Body camera footage from MNPD and surrounding jurisdictions is subject to retention rules. Some categories are deleted automatically after fixed periods.
Jail surveillance has its own retention windows, often 30-60 days, and obtaining it requires specific procedural steps that take time.
Witnesses — bartenders, servers, fellow inmates, fellow patrons, security colleagues — scatter quickly and stop returning calls within weeks.
Insurance adjusters call early with low offers and request recorded statements that can be used against you later.

If you were hurt by a security agent, an officer, or anyone acting in a quasi-law-enforcement role in Tennessee, the first 30 days matter more than the last 11 months.

What I Look For in These Cases

When someone calls about one of these cases, the analysis runs through:

Conduct of the injured person immediately before the use of force. Were you complying? Resisting? Already restrained? Already removed? Asleep? Unconscious?
Level of force used. A hand on the shoulder is one thing. A choke, a strike to the head, a takedown that drives a head into a wall, a knee to the neck — that’s another.
Whether force continued after the threat ended. Force used after the patron, suspect, or detainee was no longer resisting is the strongest fact pattern for these claims.
The defendant’s history. Prior incidents, prior complaints, prior lawsuits — for the individual officer or security worker, and for the venue or agency that employed them.
Documentary evidence. Surveillance video, bystander cell phone footage, body cam, dispatch records, medical records, photographs of injuries.
The procedural posture. Is there a parallel criminal case against you? Is the officer subject to internal investigation? Is the venue’s insurance carrier already engaged?

When the case looks viable, I move quickly — preservation letters out the same week, witness statements locked in before memories fade, photographs of injuries documented before they heal, and the insurance carrier put on notice before they take a recorded statement that hurts the case.

About the Firm

I’m Nathan Cate, a Nashville-based attorney with a Tennessee state-court criminal defense practice and a parallel civil practice representing people injured by force. The two reinforce each other: my criminal defense work means I read police reports, body cam, and discovery the same way the prosecution does — and that same evidence often drives the civil case.

I’m admitted to practice in the Tennessee state courts and in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. I’ve represented clients in claims against bars, venues, security companies, and individual officers and security workers across Middle Tennessee.

If you were injured by law enforcement, jail or correctional staff, or private security in Tennessee — call (615) 664-8083 for a free consultation. I’ll review what happened, identify what evidence still exists, and tell you whether the case is worth pursuing.

N. Cate Law 222 2nd Avenue North, Suite 220 Nashville, TN 37201 catelaw.com

Related practice areas: Violent Crimes · Petition to Suspend Sentence · Practice Areas

This page describes general areas of law and is not legal advice. Outcomes in any specific case depend on the facts, the evidence, and the law as it applies on the date of the incident. The Tennessee statute of limitations on personal injury is one year — if you were injured, the time to call is now.

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