Practice area · Slip and fall

Find out if your fall is a case — and what it could be worth.

Not every fall is the owner’s fault. Many are. The line between the two is sharper than people expect.

Get a free slip-and-fall case estimate

How the estimate works

  1. 01

    Tell us what happened

    Describe the incident in plain language. Five minutes, no forms, no legal jargon.

  2. 02

    Our AI analyzes

    We weigh liability, treatment, jurisdiction, and insurance to sketch a realistic value range.

  3. 03

    A vetted attorney calls

    If your case has merit, a licensed attorney in your state follows up within 24 hours — free.

What drives the value of a slip and fall case

Slip-and-fall claims live or die on three things: was there a real hazard, did the owner know about it (or should they have), and can you prove it. Get those three right and the case is worth talking about. Get them wrong and it’s nobody’s fault but the floor’s.

A clear hazard
A wet floor with no sign, a broken stair, ice on a commercial walkway, an unmarked drop. Vague claims of "the floor was slick" rarely win.
Owner knew or should have known
A spill 30 seconds before you slipped is usually not a case. The same spill on security footage for two hours is.
Documentation in the first hour
Photos of the hazard, a written incident report from the manager, witness names, and a same-day medical visit. These three things win or lose more cases than any legal argument.
Severity of injury
A sprain settles in the low five figures. A fracture requiring surgery moves into six figures. Permanent restriction or hardware reaches the high six figures.
Property type
Commercial properties (stores, restaurants, hotels) owe customers the highest duty of care. Apartment landlords owe a duty in common areas. Government property has special notice deadlines.
Your share of fault
Most states reduce your recovery by your percentage of fault for the fall. A few bar recovery above a threshold. Where the fall happened matters.

Realistic settlement ranges

Realistic bands for cases where liability is clear. Actual outcomes vary widely; treat these as orientation.

Sprain or strain

$5,000 – $25,000

No surgery, recovers in weeks to a few months, with documented but limited PT and no permanent restriction.

Fracture

$30,000 – $150,000

Broken bone requiring cast, hardware, or surgical fixation. Documented recovery and time off work.

Permanent restriction

$100,000 – $500,000+

Lasting impairment, permanent hardware, chronic pain that limits work or daily life.

Catastrophic

$500,000+

Spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, or fatality from a fall. Usually limited by policy rather than case theory.

Common questions

What people ask before they call.

I tripped over something I probably should have seen. Do I still have a case?
Maybe a partial one. Most states apply comparative fault — your percentage of responsibility reduces the recovery. A visible obstacle in plain sight is hard to win, but a partially obscured one might still produce a reduced settlement.
Does the store have to have "done something wrong," or is being where the fall happened enough?
They have to have done something wrong — meaning they created the hazard, were told about it, or it had been there long enough that a reasonable owner would have caught it. Pure presence on the property is not enough.
There was no warning sign. Does that help my case?
Yes. An unmarked hazard is one of the strongest fact patterns in premises-liability law — most jurisdictions require warning when a hazard cannot be immediately fixed.
How long do I have to file a slip-and-fall claim?
Usually 2 or 3 years from the date of the fall, depending on your state. If the property is government-owned (a school, a public building, a city sidewalk), notice can be due in as little as 60–180 days — much shorter than the regular deadline.

Related

More tools and reading on cases like yours.

Worried about a deadline? See the statute of limitations in your state.

Ready for a free estimate?

Five minutes. No forms. No obligation.

Get a free slip-and-fall case estimate