What to Do if You’ve Suffered a Slip and Fall Accident in Florida

Slip and fall hazards happen all the time in Florida, and they can result in serious injuries. Enduring sprains, fractures, lacerations, and other injuries due to no fault of your own can be traumatizing and lead to high medical expenses and the inability to work, even if temporarily.

If you suffer a slip and fall accident due to negligence, you have the right to seek damages from the offending party through a personal injury claim. A Florida accident attorney can help you navigate through the process.

Dyson Law PLLC Accident Lawyer

At Dyson Law PLLC, our personal injury lawyers are experienced in helping South Florida residents secure favorable results in personal injury cases. We understand the difficulties that often arise during slip and fall lawsuits, and we work hard to obtain our clients the highest compensation possible.

We can even help negotiate with the relevant insurance company on your behalf. If you sustained an injury in a slip and fall in Delray Beach, call (561) 498-9979 to schedule a consultation.

Causes of Slip and Fall Accidents

While many things can lead to a slip and fall accident, unforeseen hazards are a common cause. In Florida, property owners are responsible for ensuring that their premises are free from hazardous conditions, within reason, that could potentially harm visitors or passersby.

A hazard is a condition that a reasonable person would identify, repair, and prevent or make efforts to warn people about. Common slip and fall hazards include:

Spills or puddles
Bad lighting
Foreign objects on walkways
Missing or damaged stair railings
Uneven flooring
Building code violations

These conditions often occur when companies or businesses don’t have good cleaning, maintenance, or management procedures. An experienced Delray Beach accident attorney will know how to investigate and expose these flaws to help you receive fair compensation for your injuries.

Negligence and Premises Liability in Florida

To prove negligence in a slip and fall accident in Florida, you will need to prove four points:

Duty: The property owner must owe you a duty of care.
Breach of Duty: The property owner must take some action—or fail to take action—resulting in a breach of that duty of care.
Causation: The breach of duty must be the cause of your damages.
Damage: You must suffer verifiable “damage” from the slip and fall, whether physical, monetary or otherwise.

The court considers why you were on the property a significant factor as far as whether you, as a victim of negligence, can hold the property owner or manager accountable for your damages in a lawsuit regarding whether the property owner owed you a duty of care. Florida premises liability law assigns three levels of care for property owners:

Visitors to public spaces and businesses are owed the highest level of care. The owner must perform regular inspections to identify and repair issues.
Invited guests on private property are owed the second-highest duty of care and should receive a warning of any potential hazards.
Trespassers, excluding children, are owed the lowest duty of care. Property owners aren’t responsible for any injuries incurred by adult trespassers so long as they didn’t take “willful or wanton” actions to cause harm (i.e., setting concealed traps).

Florida Slip and Fall Statute of Limitations

In Florida, slip and fall accidents are considered premise liability cases, which come with a four-year statute of limitations. Note the clock starts from the date of the injury, not the date you receive treatment for your injury.

If you sustain injuries from a slip and fall due to another party’s negligence, it’s best to seek medical treatment within 72 hours, if not immediately. This care should be verifiable and documented for your personal injury lawyer, who will represent you and pursue damages on your behalf.

Steps to Take After a Slip and Fall

The first thing to do after a slip and fall accident is to seek medical attention. The severity of your injuries may not be apparent immediately after the incident. A healthcare provider can give you a proper assessment. Once you receive medical care:

Report the accident and your injuries to the appropriate authorities, such as a property owner or manager. You want them to have documentation of the incident but do not sign any paperwork without your accident attorney’s knowledge.
Collect contact information from witnesses but keep communication at a minimum.
Take photographs or videos of the accident scene and your injuries.
Write detailed notes about the dangerous conditions leading to the accident, including details about other injured persons, how long the hazards were in place before your accident, etc.
Contact a skilled personal injuries lawyer to file a claim.

Need a Slip and Fall Accident Attorney? We Can Help

If you need a personal injuries attorney to fight for you after a slip and fall incident, you can count on team at Dyson Law PLLC.

We can handle personal injury cases of all types, even if your situation includes unique conditions or circumstances. Above all else, our goal is to provide value and guidance for our clients. Call us at 561-498-9979 to request a no-obligation consultation with an experienced Florida accident lawyer.

The information in this blog post (“post”) is provided for general informational purposes only and may not reflect the current law in your jurisdiction. No information in this post should be construed as legal advice from the individual author or the law firm, nor is it intended to be a substitute for legal counsel on any subject matter. No reader of this post should act or refrain from acting based on any information included in or accessible through this post without seeking the appropriate legal or other professional advice on the particular facts and circumstances at issue from a lawyer licensed in the recipient’s state, country or other appropriate licensing jurisdiction.

Dyson Law PLLC
15300 Jog Rd STE 103
Delray Beach, FL 33446
(561) 498-9979
https://new.dysonlaw.com/