This complete guide breaks down Florida slip and fall laws, the statute of limitations, average payouts, and how to start building a case.

In Florida, a slip and fall case, or a premises liability case, requires an injured person to:

1. Prove their injury resulted from the property owner knowing about a dangerous condition or should have known but failed to do anything about the condition (negligence)
2. File a claim within two years of the accident date (statute of limitations)

It’s important to act quickly after a slip and fall accident for two key reasons:

1. The two-year statute of limitations.
2. It’s easier to gather and preserve evidence to prove negligence and injury shortly after an accident.

This article covers what you need to know to make a slip and fall claim or bring a lawsuit if necessary in Florida. We will cover:

• Premises liability laws
• The statute of limitations
• Average payouts
• Everything you need to file a claim
• How to get started

How Long Do You Have to Report a Slip and Fall in Florida?

The statute of limitations dictates how long accident victims have to bring a case against a property owner. Under Florida law, accident victims in Florida used to have four years to bring a premises liability case against a negligent third party. However, in 2023 the law was changed and the statute of limitations was reduced to just two years for most cases.

There are some exceptions to the two-year limit. The deadline may be “tolled” (meaning the timer is paused), giving a person more time to initiate a claim in certain cases.

The deadline may be tolled (paused) if:

1. The accident victim was under the age of 18 when the accident happened
2. The accident victim was mentally incapacitated at the time of the accident
3. The property owner concealed information about the dangerous condition of the property
4. The injury was not immediately apparent
5. The defendant left the state or went into hiding

In the above examples, the two-year timer may be paused until the person:

• Reaches the age of 18
• Regains their mental capacity
• Becomes aware of the information they needed to bring the case to court

Another exception to the two-year rule is claims against government entities.

These have different deadlines and special procedures that must be followed. An experienced personal injury attorney can help you follow the correct process for your specific type of slip and fall case.

Do You Need a Police Report for a Slip and Fall?

There is no legal requirement for accident victims to produce a police report for a slip and fall claim. However, it’s important to recognize the difference between a police report and an accident report. The law doesn’t require a police report to be filed with the police or an incident report to be filed with the property or business owner. However, if you’re able to make an incident report with the property or business owner, this could help strengthen your case.

Incident Report

In most cases, slips and falls should be reported directly to the property owner or the business owner who manages the property, rather than to the police.

• Filing an incident report with the property owner, the manager of the business, or the company’s head office is also not required by law.
• What’s more, filing an incident report may not even be possible depending on the type of property on which the accident occurred.
• If the accident was severe enough to warrant calling first responders for medical treatment, this will cause an incident report to be generated with those services. This report can be used as evidence of the incident.

Police Report

Filing a police report is something that’s only necessary in cases where a crime (or potential crime) has been committed.

What is the Average Payout for a Slip and Fall in Florida?

There is no average payout for slip and fall settlements in Florida because settlement amounts vary case by case and can depend on factors like medical expenses, injury severity, lost wages, negligence, and more. Payouts, settlements, or damages can range from $10,000.00 for minor injuries to over $1 million for catastrophic injuries.

In settlement negotiations, the defendant usually agrees to pay the plaintiff in settlement rather than face a jury in a courtroom. The types of damages that can be covered are the same as those that are covered in other injury cases.

However, with cases being harder to prove, more business owners are insisting that their cases go to trial or they offer a smaller settlement amount than they did before the change in the law.

Slip and Fall Payout Example

Publix and Walmart are well-known for being difficult to negotiate a settlement with. However, it is not impossible to reason with their claim adjusters. Below are a few examples of settlements we achieved for our clients:

• Settlement: $28,500.00 – vs. Publix Super Markets, Inc. – The victim slipped and fell in the produce department, but did not suffer any bone fractures or other major injuries.
• Case won: $59,999.00 – vs. Walmart Stores, Inc. –The victim slipped and fell and was injured by a garbage can that she was purchasing.

See more of our slip and fall settlements:

• Publix settlements
• Walmart settlements

What is the 51% Rule in Florida?

To claim for damages after a slip and fall accident in Florida, you have to prove that you were “less at fault” than the property owner. The courts call this rule “modified comparative negligence.”

Each person involved in the accident is given a percentage of the blame. If the court thinks the accident victim was more at fault than the property owner, they won’t be able to claim for damages, even if the property owner’s negligence partly contributed to the accident.

For example, if someone trips over a loose rug and falls, but they were reading their phone screen while walking instead of looking at their surroundings, the court might split the blame between the two parties. This part is important, because the significance the court attributes to each factor that led to the accident affects whether or not a claim can even be considered.

If the victim’s share of responsibility is deemed to have been 50 percent or less, they can recover damages. The amount of damages they can recover will be proportionate to the other party’s responsibility for the accident.

If the court considers the victim’s role in the accident to be the most important factor, and attributes 51% or more of the blame to them, they will not be able to recover any damages.

Types of Damages

Florida slip and fall victims may recover damages (compensation) in two broad categories:

1. Economic (general) damages
2. Non-economic (intangible) damages

One way of looking at these two categories is how they are proven.

1. Economic Damages

Claims for economic damages typically require paperwork to support them in the form of medical bills, invoices, receipts, paychecks, and other documentation.

Economic Damages in Florida include:

• EMS or ambulance charges
• Hospital bills
• Anesthesiologist bills
• Surgeon’s bill
• Home nursing care bills
• Physical therapist bills
• Medical equipment rental (wheelchair, etc.)
• Lost earnings (wages) and loss of ability to earn wages in the future

2. Non-Economic Damages

Non-economic Damages in Florida include:

• Bodily injury and the resulting pain and suffering
• Loss of capacity for the enjoyment of life
• Scarring or disfigurement
• Mental anguish or emotional distress
• Disability

Read: Grocery Store Slip and Falls

Elements of a Slip and Fall Case in Florida

For a slip and fall case to be successful in Florida, the injured party must prove several key elements:

1. Duty of Care
2. Breach of Duty
3. Injury
4. Causation
5. Actual Knowledge
6. Constructive Knowledge

1. Duty of Care

Business owners have a duty of care to ensure that their property is reasonably safe. For example, a restaurant has a duty of care to ensure the floor in their publicly accessible areas is free from obstructions and hazards. This includes making sure that the floor is not slippery and that rugs or mats aren’t curled up in a way that might pose a tripping hazard.

2. Breach of Duty

To make a claim for a slip and fall accident, the injured party would have to prove that the company failed in its duty of care.

Examples of a restaurant owner’s breach of duty of care might be:

• Failure to clean up a spilled drink
• Failure to put out signs warning people that the floor was wet after being cleaned

Do warning signs protect property owners from liability?

In Florida, having warning signs near the scene of a slip and fall accident doesn’t necessarily protect a property owner or operator from being found at-fault or paying damages.

Rather, a victim (plaintiff) must show three key elements to prove a property owner or operator is at fault (negligent) and responsible to pay damages:

1. The property owner has a duty of care
2. The property owner failed to perform that duty
3. That failure caused the victim’s injury

This means that a victim can still win even if a warning sign is located at the scene of the slip and fall if the injured victim can prove:

• All three elements
• The property owner or operator had “actual” knowledge or “constructive” knowledge of the real and present danger at the time the victim was hurt

A warning sign would not be sufficient to protect the property owner or operator in the following example:

• A grocery store had a warning sign that cautioned customers against the possibility of slippery floors in the produce department.
• A victim showed they slipped and fell on water that had been puddled in the aisle for over an hour.

As the Florida Supreme Court has explained, “… it must be shown that the owner negligently failed where the law, custom, or innate danger requires diligence.” (Heps vs Burdine’s, Inc.)

However, it is up to a jury to decide whether an injured victim should have seen a warning sign. For example, a jury could conclude that the victim was:

• Totally at fault
• Partly at fault
• Not at fault at all

If there was a clearly posted sign right where the potential danger existed, then this would make the case more difficult to win or settle.

3. Injury

The plaintiff must prove that they suffered harm as a result of the accident.

• This could be a physical injury such as cuts, bruises, or broken bones, or psychological trauma.
• The severity of the injury may impact the level of compensation the victim is eligible for.

4. Causation

The injury must have been caused by the defendant’s negligence.

Under Florida law, the plaintiff must prove that the defendant’s negligence was the proximate cause of the injury. This means proving two elements:

1. Causation in fact (Meaning, the defendant’s negligence was the actual cause of the plaintiff’s injuries.)
2. Foreseeability (Defined as the ability to predict or anticipate the likelihood of an accident occurring based on prior knowledge or circumstances. One way to establish foreseeability is by demonstrating that a specific type of incident has occurred with such frequency that it may reasonably be expected to happen again. This suggests that the premises owner should have taken steps to prevent or mitigate the risk of a slip and fall.)

Causation in fact

Florida courts use the “more likely than not” standard. This means that a victim would just need to prove that the accident was “probably caused” by the property owner or operator’s negligence.

Foreseeability

The property owner or operator will most likely try to prove that the accident could not have been foreseen, or that they could not have been reasonably expected to prevent it.

5. Actual Knowledge

The term “actual knowledge” refers to hazards or issues that the property owner knew about.

For example, if a store had a broken or loose floorboard and there are references to this in maintenance records, this shows the property owner had “actual knowledge” of the issue.

6. Constructive Knowledge

Constructive knowledge refers to issues that the property owner should have known about, had they been following proper safety procedures. This measure is used for accidents involving transitory hazards (such as food, litter, or liquids).

Proving actual or constructive knowledge is one of the most difficult parts of a slip and fall case in Florida, due to the evidentiary burden imposed by the courts.

One example of this is the case of Leftwich v. Wal-Mart Stores East, LP, 396 So.3d 603 (2024).

In this case, a customer slipped on a clear liquid that had been spilled on a floor tile.

CCTV footage suggested that the liquid had not been there long enough to meet the “should have known about” threshold because it showed that:

• An employee had inspected the area around 10 minutes prior to the plaintiff’s accident
• Several customers had passed through without incident in that period.

To prove constructive knowledge, the plaintiff must provide evidence that the dangerous condition either occurs regularly or has existed for a sufficient length of time for it to be reasonable to expect the property owner to know about it.

This is often done by using additional evidence, or “plus factors.” An experienced personal injury lawyer can assist with identifying such evidence such as footprints, wheel marks, or dirt that might suggest a hazard had been present for a long time.

Florida Slip and Fall Laws

Under Florida law, there isn’t a single statute that governs slip and fall accidents. Rather, there are several statutes and pieces of case law that are taken into account when evaluating the claim.

One key law is Florida Statute 768.0775, which relates to accidents involving a slip or fall at a business premises caused by a transitory substance.

Florida Statute 768.0755

This statute states that if a person slips and falls on a transitory foreign substance in a business establishment, that person must prove that the business knew about, or should have known about, the hazard and that they should have taken steps to remedy it.

This requires proving actual or constructive knowledge, or that the hazardous condition is one that occurs regularly enough that the accident should have been foreseeable.

How Do You Win a Slip and Fall Case in Florida?

It’s important to keep a clear head in the aftermath of an accident. If you slip or fall in a public place, follow this process to increase the chances of bringing a successful slip and fall case against the property owner:

1. Gather evidence
2. Save your clothes and shoes
3. Seek medical attention
4. File an incident report
5. Consult with a qualified and experienced lawyer

1. Gather evidence

1. If it’s safe to do so, take photos and/or videos of the scene of the accident, including yourself and the hazard you slipped or fell on.
2. Ask the owner to preserve CCTV footage of the incident.
3. Take the names and contact details of any witnesses.

2. Save your clothes and shoes

Saving the clothes and shoes you were wearing when the accident happened can help prove that you were not at fault for the accident.

Inform your slip and fall accident lawyer that you’ve taken steps to preserve your clothes and shoes following the accident, so they know they have this evidence available to them.

This is a crucial step because:

• The property owner might attempt to claim that you tripped on a long skirt or slipped because your shoes had worn treads.
• If you can prove you were wearing trousers that fit well and new shoes or sneakers that were appropriate for the weather and had ample tread, you can argue your attire didn’t contribute to the fall.

Preserve the garments as they were after the accident.

• Leave the garments unwashed/unrepaired to show any rips or damage from the fall
• Don’t use the shoes as this could wear down the tread
• Take photographs of the garments from multiple angles
• Store the garments in a sealed bag or box, labelled with the date of the incident

3. See a doctor

For a premises liability claim to be successful, accident victims must prove they were injured as a result of the premises owner or manager’s negligence.

Seeing a doctor is essential in order to prove that an injury occurred.

• Keep records of any medical treatment you receive
• Keep a diary of how your injuries affect your day-to-day life
• Keep receipts for any medical bills you incur
• Be sure to be honest when discussing your injuries with your doctor. If you had any pre-existing injuries or medical conditions, disclose these to your doctor so they can provide an accurate diagnosis

4. File an incident report

If possible, file an incident report with the business owner or property manager. This is not a legal requirement, but it may help strengthen your case.

5. Consult with a qualified and experienced lawyer

An experienced personal injury lawyer can help you navigate the slip and fall lawsuit process successfully, providing guidance at each stage of the process.

It’s particularly useful to work with a lawyer if you’ve suffered a serious injury or are embroiled in an insurance dispute, as they can increase the chances of you receiving the correct amount of compensation.

An experienced slip and fall lawyer will:

• Know how to preserve critical evidence before it disappears (e.g., surveillance footage, maintenance logs and witness testimony)
• Know the different ways to prove the property owner had actual or constructive knowledge of the hazard before the accident
• Know whether an expert will be able to persuasively present to a jury that a business breached its duty of care (e.g., whether or not proper safety and maintenance protocols were followed) or be able to persuasively quantify the impairment to a victim’s future earning capacity or future medical needs
• Have knowledge of how most insurance companies handle these claims, including countering the insurance industry’s tactic of shifting blame to the victim
• Have years of experience examining accident facts, applying the law, and effectively asking juries to render verdicts for clients that make them whole again

If you, or someone close to you, has experienced a slip and fall accident and you’re looking for support as you start the claims process, contact us to book a free consultation. We would be happy to discuss your case and offer advice on how best to proceed.

Related:

• How can I prove that the store owner knew about the dangerous conditions that led to my slip and fall accident?
• What Type of Proof Do You Need for Your Florida Slip and Fall Claim?
• Can Your Slip And Fall Claim Related To Water On The Floor Survive A Summary Judgment?

See – 5 Things You Get From Alan Sackrin and How They Can Help You!

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Do you have questions or comments? Then please feel free to send Alan an email or call him now at (954) 458-8655.

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