Store and restaurant slip and fall injuries: When you're injured in a slip, trip, or fall at a retail store, grocery store, restaurant, or other commercial property, you may be entitled to compensation for your injuries. Property owners and business operators have a legal duty to maintain reasonably safe premises for customers and visitors.
Successful slip and fall claims require proving the owner or occupier knew (or should have known) about the dangerous condition and failed to fix it or warn you. This guide covers how to build a slip and fall demand letter, what evidence you need, and how stores and restaurants typically respond.
I handle slip and fall demand letters personally. This page focuses on general U.S. premises liability law. If your accident occurred in California, I have California-specific guidance that addresses state law in detail.
Premises liability is the area of law that governs injuries on someone else's property. When you're injured in a slip or fall at a commercial business, the owner or occupier may be liable if they failed to maintain safe conditions.
Most states classify visitors into three categories, each owed a different duty of care:
| Visitor Status | Definition | Duty Owed |
|---|---|---|
| Invitee | Customer, patron, or business visitor invited for mutual benefit (stores, restaurants, banks, hotels) | Highest duty: Owner must inspect, discover hazards, repair or warn, and maintain reasonably safe conditions. |
| Licensee | Social guest or visitor on property for their own purpose (friend visiting, salesperson at door) | Moderate duty: Owner must warn of known hazards but generally not required to inspect or discover hidden dangers. |
| Trespasser | Person on property without permission | Minimal duty: Owner must not intentionally harm or set traps; limited duty to warn of hidden dangers. |
To succeed in a slip and fall claim, you must prove:
Most states apply comparative negligence, which reduces your recovery if you were partially at fault for your fall. Common comparative fault arguments include:
The most critical element in slip and fall cases is notice. Property owners are generally NOT liable for hazards they did not know about and could not reasonably have discovered. You must prove the owner had actual or constructive notice of the dangerous condition.
Actual notice means the owner or employee knew about the hazard before your fall. Evidence of actual notice includes:
Constructive notice means the owner should have known about the hazard through reasonable inspections. You prove constructive notice by showing:
Some states apply mode of operation theory to shift the burden of proof in self-service or high-traffic areas. Under this doctrine:
Stores and restaurants typically have:
In your demand letter and litigation, request these records via discovery or preservation letters. Lack of inspection logs can support constructive notice (if they can't show recent inspections, the jury may infer the hazard was there long enough to be discovered).
Slip and fall liability can involve multiple parties depending on the business structure and property ownership:
I personally draft and negotiate slip and fall demand letters for clients injured at stores, restaurants, and other commercial properties. These cases require careful evidence gathering, notice analysis, and strategic negotiation with corporate insurers.
Photos are extremely helpful but not absolutely required. You can still pursue a claim based on:
However, cases without photos are weaker and settle for less because the insurer can dispute what the condition actually looked like. Always try to photograph the hazard immediately after the fall, or have a witness do so.
This is the "open and obvious" defense. Insurers argue that if a hazard was obvious, the store had no duty to warn you because you should have seen and avoided it.
Counter-arguments:
In comparative negligence states, "open and obvious" may reduce your recovery but not bar it entirely.
Statute of limitations for slip and fall claims varies by state:
The clock starts on the date of your fall. If you miss the deadline, your claim is permanently barred.
Special rules: Government property (city sidewalk, county building) often requires filing a tort claim within 6 months to 1 year before filing suit. Check your state's government claims act.
Incident reports are helpful but not required to pursue a claim. You can still recover based on other evidence.
Why incident reports matter:
If you didn't file one: Send a written notice of the incident to store management and corporate headquarters immediately, describing what happened, when, and where. Request they preserve all evidence (video, logs, witness contact info). This creates notice even without a formal report.
Yes, but your recovery will likely be reduced under comparative negligence rules. Looking at your phone is a common comparative fault argument—insurers will claim you were distracted and should have seen the hazard.
How this affects your claim:
Mitigating arguments:
Economic damages:
Non-economic damages:
Punitive damages: Rarely available in slip and fall cases. Only if store's conduct was grossly negligent or intentional (e.g., knowingly ignored repeated complaints about serious hazard causing multiple injuries).