Florida’s premises liability law (F.S. §768.0755) specifically allows people who have been injured from slipping, tripping, or falling at a place of business or residence to sue for damages. However, Florida law also places the burden on the injured party to prove the negligence and liability of the property owner or business.

Actually Know or Should Have Known

The statute requires that a person who slips and falls on a “transitory foreign substance” must prove that the business had:

1. Actual or constructive knowledge of the dangerous condition, and
2. Should have done something to fix it.

Circumstantial evidence can be used to prove constructive knowledge, and to do that, you or your attorney can show that:

• The dangerous condition existed for long enough that the business would’ve known of the condition had it been exercising ordinary care, or
• The dangerous condition occurred regularly and was foreseeable.

Protect Your Rights

The most difficult aspect of slip and fall accidents is that businesses will rarely fail to fix a hazardous situation about which they have actual knowledge. This means that most slip and fall cases rely on proving constructive knowledge—i.e. the business or owner should have known about the dangerous condition.

Moreover, if a hazardous situation were to cause an accident—e.g. rain slick, leaky faucet, protruding tiles—you would expect the business to take immediate steps to remedy the issue so that no other patrons are injured. As such, documenting your surroundings after a slip and fall accident is critical to ensuring a provable and winable case.