What You Have to Prove to Win a Slip-and-Fall Injury Claim

To win a slip-and-fall claim, you must show the owner knew or should have known of a hazard and didn't fix it or warn you. You also must show that failure caused your injury. Most cases turn on what the owner knew and when.

What exactly do you have to prove?

You have to prove the owner was careless, not just that you got hurt there. In most states that means 4 elements.

1. A condition on the property created an unreasonable risk of harm, such as a spill, a broken step or an unlit stairwell.
2. The owner or occupier knew about it, or would have found it with reasonable inspections.
3. The owner didn't fix it or warn you within a reasonable time.
4. That failure caused your injury, and you have losses such as medical bills or missed pay.

The defendant is whoever controls the property: a store, a landlord, a homeowner or a government agency. A landowner "is not an insurer of [a] visitor's safety," the Texas Supreme Court said in Austin v. Kroger Texas on June 12, 2015.

Does it matter why you were on the property?

In many states, yes. Traditional premises law sorts visitors into 3 groups, and the owner's duty shrinks as you move down the list. Texas still uses this system.

• Invitees enter with the owner's knowledge "for the mutual benefit of both," like a shopper in a store. The owner must use reasonable care to make the premises safe or warn of hidden dangers it knows or should know about.
• Licensees enter with permission for their own purposes. A social guest is the classic example. In Texas, the owner must warn of or fix only dangers it actually knows about and the licensee doesn't.
• Trespassers have no permission. In Texas, the owner's only duty is not to injure them "willfully, wantonly, or through gross negligence," per Texas Utilities Electric Co. v. Timmons (1997).

Texas applies that licensee duty to most government property. Under Civil Practice and Remedies Code §101.022(a), the government owes only a licensee's duty unless you pay to use the premises.

That standard is hard to meet. In City of Laredo v. Rodriguez (June 11, 2025), a Texas appeals court required proof the city actually knew of the condition.

California and New York dropped the categories

California threw out the 3-tier system in Rowland v. Christian, decided August 8, 1968. A guest severed tendons on a cracked faucet handle the host had known about for 2 weeks.

The court's test is whether the owner acted "as a reasonable man in view of the probability of injury to others." Your status can still matter, but it no longer decides the case.

New York followed in Basso v. Miller (1976). Owners there must keep property "in a reasonably safe condition in view of all the circumstances." See our California and New York pages.

How do you prove the owner knew about the hazard?

With actual notice or constructive notice. Actual notice means the owner knew, say from an earlier complaint or a repair request. Constructive notice means the hazard existed long enough that a reasonable owner would have found it.

Constructive notice usually turns on time and inspections. In Ortega v. Kmart (2001), a shopper slipped on spilled milk. The California Supreme Court held he didn't have to prove exactly how long it had been there.

Evidence of a failure "to inspect the premises within a reasonable period of time" let the jury infer notice. Kmart's own testimony that the area could go up to 2 hours between checks supported that inference.

Florida put the rule in a statute for spills in stores. Florida Statutes §768.0755 requires anyone who slips on a "transitory foreign substance" in a business to prove actual or constructive knowledge. That can come from how long the substance sat there, or from spills happening so often they were foreseeable. See our Florida page.

What is the "open and obvious" defense?

It's the argument that the hazard was so plain you should have seen and avoided it. States treat it very differently.

In Texas, it can end the case. The Texas Supreme Court held in Austin v. Kroger Texas that a landowner generally owes no duty to warn invitees about dangers that are "open and obvious or known" to them.

The court kept 2 narrow exceptions. One covers foreseeable criminal acts by third parties. The other covers a "necessary use" of dangerous premises the invitee can't avoid and can't adequately protect against.

In New York, the defense only reduces your award. An open and obvious hazard "bears only on the injured person's comparative fault," and the owner still must keep the premises reasonably safe. The Appellate Division, Fourth Department, applied that rule in Krutulis v Daiker's, Inc. on July 3, 2024.

What if you were partly at fault?

Your award is usually cut by your share of fault, and in some states a high share wipes it out. Defense lawyers often point to phones, flip-flops or ignored warning cones.

• California and New York use pure comparative fault. If you are 60% at fault, you still collect 40% of your damages.
• Texas bars recovery if you are more than 50% responsible.
• Florida has barred any party "greater than 50 percent at fault for his or her own harm" since 2023, under §768.81(6).

Our guide to comparative vs. contributory negligence covers every state's rule.

What evidence should you collect?

Evidence of the hazard often disappears within hours. Spills get mopped, ice melts and broken steps get repaired.

• Photograph the exact spot before anyone cleans it. Capture the lighting, any missing handrail and the absence of warning signs.
• Ask the manager to write an incident report, and get a copy or at least the report number.
• Get names and phone numbers of witnesses, including employees who said anything about the hazard.
• Keep the shoes you wore. The defense will likely ask about them.
• Send a written request to preserve surveillance video, sweep logs and inspection records. Many camera systems record over footage on a routine cycle.
• See a doctor the same day or the next. A gap in treatment is one of the mistakes that hurt injury settlements most.

Video fights are common. In Brookshire Bros. v. Aldridge (July 3, 2014), a Texas grocery kept about 8 minutes of video of a fall. The rest erased under its normal policy.

The Texas Supreme Court refused to punish the store with a jury instruction because nothing showed it meant to hide evidence. The duty to preserve starts when an owner knows or should know there is "a substantial chance that a claim will be filed." An early letter makes that plain.

What if you fell on city or state property?

You usually must file a formal claim with the government within months, long before the normal lawsuit deadline. Miss it, and the case can be over.

California gives you 6 months

Government Code §911.2 requires a claim for personal injury within 6 months after the cause of action accrues. If you miss it, §911.4 lets you apply to file late, but no later than 1 year after the injury.

If the agency rejects your claim in writing, §945.6 gives you 6 months from the date that notice is delivered or mailed to sue. If it never sends written notice, you have 2 years from accrual.

New York gives you 90 days

General Municipal Law §50-e requires a notice of claim within 90 days after the claim arises. A court may allow late notice, weighing factors such as whether the city learned the essential facts within that window.

The lawsuit itself must be filed within 1 year and 90 days under §50-i. You also must wait at least 30 days after serving the notice before suing.

New York City sidewalks add a twist. Under Administrative Code §7-210, the owner of the property next to the sidewalk is liable for most sidewalk defects, not the city. The city stays responsible for sidewalks beside owner-occupied 1-, 2- and 3-family homes used only as residences.

Texas gives you 6 months, unless a city charter says otherwise

Civil Practice and Remedies Code §101.101 entitles a governmental unit to notice within 6 months after the incident. It also approves city charter provisions that set their own notice periods, so check the charter of the city involved.

Formal notice isn't required if the government already knew you were injured. Don't count on that exception.

What should you do this week?

1. Write down the time, the exact spot, what you slipped on and who you spoke with, while you still remember.
2. Send the owner or its insurer a short letter asking it to preserve video, incident reports, and cleaning and inspection logs for that date.
3. If a government owns the property, calendar the claim deadline now: 6 months in California and Texas, 90 days in New York.
4. Hold off on a recorded statement to the owner's insurer until you know the extent of your injuries. See dealing with insurance adjusters.
5. Note your lawsuit deadline. It is 2 years in California and Texas. Our statute of limitations guide lists other states.
6. If the owner disputes notice or a government deadline is running, compare local firms in our city rankings. Ask each one how many premises cases it has tried, not just settled.