Practice areas / Slip and fall
Slip, trip and fall claims
notice, video and the statute the stores rely on
In a Florida slip-and-fall claim, the central issue is whether the business knew or should have known about the dangerous condition.
Evidence often includes surveillance footage, inspection logs, and incident reports. These records can be overwritten or discarded, so preservation should begin promptly.
What Florida law actually says
For a fall on a transitory substance in a business, Florida requires proof of actual or constructive knowledge. Constructive knowledge means time or regularity: it was there long enough, or it happened often enough (Fla. Stat. 768.0755).
The duty owed depends on why you were there. A business invitee is owed reasonable care to keep the premises safe and to warn of dangers the owner knew or should have known about.
Expect an argument that the hazard was open and obvious. It is an argument about percentage, not an exit.
What gets secured first
A written preservation demand for the video, same week, because most retail systems overwrite in days or weeks
The incident report the manager filled out and did not give you a copy of
Sweep, inspection and maintenance logs against what the video actually shows
Prior falls at the same spot, which turn one incident into a pattern the owner had notice of
Asked in the first phone call
The store had me fill out an incident report. Did that hurt my case?
Not necessarily, and the report is often useful. What matters is getting a copy, and getting the video preserved, before either one disappears into a claims file.
I did not go to a doctor that day.
It is not over, but it is now a fight. The defense will argue the gap means you were not really hurt. That argument is answerable, and it is much easier to answer early.
Nothing on this site is legal advice. The deadlines and standards described here are general, they have exceptions, and they change. Florida rewrote several of them in 2023. Do not use this site to calculate your own deadline.