Sean | March 12, 2025

Can You Sue for a Slip and Fall?

Slip and fall accidents can happen unexpectedly in public and private spaces, such as homes, workplaces, hospitals, construction sites, parks, grocery stores, and public restrooms. They can cause severe injuries and significantly impact a person’s quality of life, leaving them questioning, “Can you sue for a slip and fall?” The answer is yes. However, several factors must be considered, including whether the property owner knew about the unsafe condition that caused your accident.

Proving liability can be challenging in these cases. Consult an experienced St. Petersburg slip and fall accident attorney to determine the legitimacy of your claim. After evaluating your case, they can formulate a strategy for proving negligence and securing compensation for your economic and intangible losses. Schedule a free consultation to get started.

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Hazardous Conditions

An unsafe or hazardous condition must exist to sue for a slip and fall. Injured parties who trip over their own feet will not have a valid claim. However, laws require property owners and managers to keep their premises reasonably safe. Examples of unsafe conditions that are viable reasons for suing for a slip and fall accident are as follows:

When exposure to hazardous chemicals leads to illness, parties may have a legitimate claim. Examples include exposure to asbestos, lead paint, or toxic mold. Under premises liability law, property owners are liable for injuries, illnesses, and damages. However, some circumstances may hold other parties liable, such as property management companies, landlords, tenants, and maintenance contractors.

Property Owner Negligence

A property owner must be aware of the unsafe conditions to be found negligent for injuries and damages in a slip and fall lawsuit. It will be unethical to hold them accountable for a hazard they were unaware of or couldn’t reasonably know about.

Sometimes, these cases involve negligent property owners who failed to promptly remedy a hazardous situation, while others involve property owners who refused to act. Proving the property owner or liable party knew or should have known about the hazard involves many complexities. Having an experienced slip and fall accident lawyer build your case provides you with better odds of a successful claim or lawsuit.

Failure to Warn

Property owners with unsafe conditions on their premises must make reasonable efforts to warn guests, visitors, clients, patrons, or customers that a hazard exists. They must also do whatever they can to prevent them from injuring themselves on the hazard, such as placing a wet floor sign near a spill or on a freshly mopped floor. Inadequate sign placement may also constitute negligence in a slip and fall lawsuit.

What Constitutes Negligence in a Slip and Fall?

Within the scope of tort law, negligence relates to harm caused by violating a duty of care through a negligent act or a failure to act. To successfully pursue a negligence claim or lawsuit, you must prove the four elements of negligence: duty of care, breach of duty, causation, and damages. For a slip and fall accident, that means demonstrating:

• Duty of Care: The property owner or management company is legally obligated to maintain their property reasonably safe for visitors. 
• Breach of Duty: The property owner or management company failed to uphold this duty by allowing a hazardous condition to exist without proper warning or prompt attention. 
• Causation: The unsafe condition is directly responsible for your slip and fall accident and subsequent injuries.
• Damages: You sustained injuries and actual damages resulting from the slip and fall, such as medical bills, lost income, and pain and suffering. 

Proving negligence is considerably easier with an experienced slip and fall lawyer. They are well-versed in tort law and negligence and know how to build a strong case to secure compensation. A seasoned slip and fall accident attorney will thoroughly investigate your slip and fall, gathering and presenting evidence to liable insurance companies, judges, and juries. Once your lawyer establishes negligence, they will calculate damages, negotiate, and secure settlements. If negotiations fail, they will file a civil lawsuit.

Damages You Can Recover After a Slip and Fall

When you file a claim or sue for a slip and fall, your attorney will value the damages in your case. The process involves calculating your economic damages and assigning value to your non-economic damages. In rare instances, a jury may award punitive damages. Punitive damages are awarded in addition to actual damages when circumstances are egregious—and the court warrants a need to punish the defendant. Courts award punitive damages in roughly five percent of all verdicts.

Economic Damages

The economic damages in your case are the monetary losses you incurred due to the slip and fall. These are calculated (and proven) by their receipts and invoices. Depending on the severity of injuries and their impact on your life, economic damages may include the following:

• Medical Costs: All healthcare expenses associated with your slip and fall are recoverable damages. These may include ambulance transport, emergency services, surgical care, primary care, physical therapy, rehabilitation services, assistive devices, prescription medications, alternative medicine, and future medical care. 
• Lost Income: When injuries cause you to miss work, you can include income losses in your claim or lawsuit. Depending on the nature of your profession, you may recover lost income or salary, tips and commissions, healthcare benefits, retirement or pension, and lost promotions. 
• Lost Earning Capacity: Permanent impairment or disability that prevents you from returning to work at full capacity, or at all, may have a diminished earning capacity calculated for lost future earnings.
• Property Damages: Any property damaged or destroyed in your slip and fall is recoverable economic loss. This may include jewelry, glasses, clothing, and portable electronic devices like cell phones.
• Domestic Services: When injuries lead to the temporary or permanent need for domestic services, they can be calculated as economic loss. Domestic services include cleaning and home maintenance work. It may also entail having a hired professional run errands on your behalf, such as grocery shopping and picking up prescription medications.
• Childcare Costs: Depending on the circumstances of your slip and fall, you can seek compensation for childcare costs. It may be considered a compensable loss of earning capacity under premises liability law.

Keep detailed records of all economic damage sustained from your slip and fall injuries. Ask your attorney if you are uncertain if an expense counts as economic damage. They may recover financial losses for many other things—such as the gas and travel time to and from medical appointments, copays, and deductibles. A lost income statement from your employer is also helpful for proving income losses, especially regarding missed promotion opportunities and overtime.

Non-Economic Damages

The non-economic damages in your case are the intangible losses you experienced because of your slip and fall. They require personal documentation and can be more challenging to quantify and prove. Non-economic damages are often referred to as pain and suffering and may include the following:

Families suing for a slip and fall that resulted in the wrongful death of a loved one can pursue economic and non-economic damages for the decedent’s losses and their own. In addition, they may obtain compensation for wrongful death damages, such as final arrangement costs, loss of financial support, loss of parental guidance, and the lost prospect of an inheritance.

What You Must Do to Sue for a Slip and Fall

To effectively sue for a slip and fall, you must take several steps to ensure an optimal recovery and protect your legal rights. You must seek immediate medical attention before documenting your accident and pain and suffering. You must also follow your medical treatment recovery plan and hire a slip and fall lawyer to handle your case.

Seek Immediate Medical Attention

Slip and fall accidents can be severe and result in life-altering injuries. It is vital that you seek immediate medical care for apparent injuries and undergo medical evaluations for any hidden ones. Injuries a medical professional will examine you for signs of before ordering tests and imaging include:

• Neck and back injuries
• Hip fractures
• Knee injuries
• Sprained wrists
• Broken limbs
• Spinal cord injuries (SCIs)
• Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs)
• Soft tissue injuries
• Facial trauma
• Lacerations

Detailed medical documentation is important for establishing your injuries’ severity and impact on your quality of life. Even if you do not feel injured after a slip and fall accident, you should undergo a medical evaluation. It is valuable for establishing an injury timeline if symptoms develop later. Many injuries may take several hours to days to present. It also looks better with insurers if you seek immediate medical care instead of delaying it. A delay in medical care gives them a window of doubt.

Document Your Accident

If plausible, document the accident scene. Take photos of any hazardous conditions and your injuries immediately following the slip and fall. Gather witness statements from anyone who can attest to the property owner’s negligence. Keep detailed records of all monetary losses and provide them to your attorney. If you are unable to document the accident scene, a slip and fall attorney can provide that service.

Document Your Pain and Suffering

Pain and suffering can be much more challenging to prove in a slip and fall claim or lawsuit. Accident victims should keep a consistent and detailed pain journal documenting these damages. In addition to a detailed accounting of the slip and fall accident, journal entries should highlight symptoms of injury, such as:

• Physical pain on a scale of 1-10
• Pain management (medications, including dosage, frequency, and dependency) 
• Emotional distress and state of mind
• Sleep disturbances (pain, nightmares, excessive sleeping, and insomnia)
• Limitations on daily activities
• Effects of current medical treatments
• Changes in underlying medical conditions associated with chronic pain
• Psychological effects (PTSD, anxiety, and depression)
• Record of symptoms (headaches, dizziness, numbness, and tingling)

Your slip and fall lawyer will use your detailed pain journal to determine and demand compensation for non-economic damages. Detailed medical records and expert testimony from witnesses, such as medical professionals, economists, and occupational and vocational experts, also help establish pain and suffering after a slip and fall.

Follow Your Medical Treatment Recovery Plan

It’s not enough to see a doctor; you must follow the discharge care or medical treatment recovery plan. Make and maintain prescribed treatment and rehabilitation appointments to ensure optimal recovery and prove the need to compensate. Detailed medical records demonstrating consistency go a long way in establishing injury and the need for medical treatment and care. Gaps in treatment or a history of canceled or missed appointments look terrible and can be used to discredit or downplay the severity of your injuries.

Hire a Slip and Fall Attorney

If you want to file an insurance claim or sue for a slip and fall, you’ll need an experienced attorney. Most slip and fall accident lawyers work for contingency so anyone can afford their services. Contingency means no upfront or out-of-pocket expenses; you only pay if your lawyer wins your lawsuit. Additional benefits of hiring a slip and fall attorney to represent your case are as follows:

• Handling communications insurance companies
• Providing a thorough investigation into your slip and fall accident
• Calculating the damages in your claim or lawsuit
• Negotiating with insurance companies
• Representing you in court when cases require litigation

Don’t delay consulting a personal injury lawyer about your case. You’ll want to discover a strategy for recovering compensation for your financial and intangible losses. The statute of limitations varies depending on state jurisdiction. Schedule a free case evaluation now.

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