You were doing something ordinary. Pushing a cart down a grocery aisle, crossing a parking garage at night, taking the stairs at an apartment you have used a hundred times. Then the floor gave way, or there was nothing where you expected solid ground, and an ordinary errand became the day everything changed.
Now you are hurt, the bills are coming, and a claims adjuster who handles these every week is already deciding what your life is worth. You have never done this once. They do it for a living. A premises case is won or lost on a record the property owner controls: the surveillance video that gets overwritten on a short loop, the inspection logs, the prior complaints about the same hazard. We move to lock that record down before it disappears, and we build the case for everything you lost.
In Florida, the owner’s duty turns on your status on the property. That status often becomes the first fight in a premises case.
The three kinds of premises cases
Florida premises law sorts these cases by the kind of hazard, and the kind of hazard decides what you have to prove. Getting the lane right at the start shapes everything that follows, because the wrong characterization can saddle your case with a burden it never needed to carry. That is not hypothetical: the burden in a store-floor fall traces to section 768.0755, which the Legislature passed in 2010 to undo the more plaintiff-friendly rule the Florida Supreme Court had adopted in Owens v. Publix Supermarkets, Inc., 802 So. 2d 315 (Fla. 2001).
| What it is | What has to be proven | |
|---|---|---|
| Transitory substance | A temporary spill or dropped item on a business floor: a puddle, a grape, a leaking cooler. | That the business had actual or constructive knowledge of the condition, under Fla. Stat. 768.0755. |
| Static or structural defect | A permanent broken feature: a cracked walkway, an unmarked step-down, a broken wheel stop, a failing handrail. | That the owner broke its duty to keep the property in a reasonably safe condition. |
| Negligent security | A criminal act, such as an assault or robbery, on a property that was poorly secured. | That prior crime made the attack foreseeable and the owner failed to provide reasonable security. |
On a residential apartment property, a negligent-security claim also runs into the presumption against liability in Fla. Stat. 768.0706, which an owner can claim by substantially putting the listed security measures in place.
Premises liability is the core of my plaintiff-side practice, and I am a member of the National Association of Premises Liability Attorneys with a heavy trial background in these cases. I represent injured people, not insurance companies. I am a trial lawyer who came up in the courtroom as a public defender, tried numerous cases, and cross-examined witnesses constantly, and that is the depth I bring when a property owner puts someone in harm’s way. I am willing to put your case in front of a jury, which is often what it takes to move an insurer toward fair value. From the first call through trial, I handle your case personally. Learn more about my background.
Who the property owner owed a duty to
The duty a property owner owed you turns on why you were there. The insurer often tries to downgrade your status to shrink the duty it owed, so proof that fixes you on the property as a paying or invited guest matters from the first day.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Invitee (a customer, tenant, or business guest) | The highest duty: keep the property reasonably safe, inspect for hidden dangers, and fix or warn about them. Almost every strong case is an invitee case. |
| Licensee (a social guest) | A thinner duty: warn of known dangers that are not obvious. There is no duty to inspect. |
| Trespasser | Under Fla. Stat. 768.075, almost nothing, unless the owner acted intentionally or, toward a known trespasser, with gross negligence. |
A receipt, a card statement, a parking stub, or a timestamped phone photo can be what fixes your status as an invitee.
What the property owner will argue, and how we answer
The defense in a premises case runs along two lines. The first is that the hazard was open and obvious, so you should have seen it and stepped around it. An obvious condition can cut off the owner’s duty to warn, but Florida courts have held that the separate duty to keep the property reasonably safe survives, and whether a condition was dangerous enough to be unreasonable is usually a question for the jury once the facts are developed. The second line is comparative fault. Under Fla. Stat. 768.81, your own share of fault reduces what you recover, and a person found more than fifty percent at fault recovers nothing, so anticipating and holding down that percentage is liability work from intake forward. The strongest answer is often physical: when the fight is whether a floor or walkway was unsafe, I measure it, which is the subject of how we prove a floor was unreasonably dangerous.
The deadline, and why moving fast matters
For a fall or other premises incident on or after March 24, 2023, Florida gives you two years to file suit, under Fla. Stat. 95.11(5)(a). That window is shorter than it used to be. If a city, county, or other government body owns the property, a separate written-notice step applies under Fla. Stat. 768.28 and the timeline is tighter, so a government location calls for fast action. The deeper reason to move quickly is the proof. Surveillance video often overwrites within days, inspection logs go missing, and witnesses scatter. One of the first things we do is send a demand to preserve that evidence before the owner can let it disappear.
Premises cases we handle
Each of these case types runs on the same Florida law explained above, applied to a different setting and a different set of records:
Common Questions
How long do I have to file a premises liability claim in Florida?
For a fall or other premises incident on or after March 24, 2023, you generally have two years from the date you were hurt to file suit, under Fla. Stat. 95.11(5)(a). If the property is owned by a city, county, or other government body, a separate written-notice step applies under Fla. Stat. 768.28 and the timeline is tighter. Beyond the legal deadline, the practical clock is the evidence: surveillance video often overwrites within days, so it is best to act quickly.
The store says the spill was obvious and the fall was my fault. Is my case over?
Not necessarily. An open and obvious condition can limit a property owner's duty to warn you, but Florida courts have held that the separate duty to keep the property reasonably safe does not disappear just because a hazard was visible. Your own share of fault reduces what you recover, and under Fla. Stat. 768.81 a person found more than fifty percent at fault recovers nothing, which is why holding down that percentage is part of the case from day one.
What do I have to prove in a slip-and-fall at a store?
Under Fla. Stat. 768.0755, you have to show the business had actual or constructive knowledge of the dangerous condition and should have fixed it. Constructive knowledge can be shown with evidence that the condition was there long enough that a careful business would have found it, or that the same kind of hazard happened with regularity. A puddle that is dirty, tracked through, or dried at the edges helps prove it sat there long enough.
What is the difference between a slip-and-fall and a trip-and-fall case?
It comes down to the hazard. A slip on a temporary substance, like a spill or a dropped item, runs through the notice statute, so the fight is over what the business knew. A trip on a permanent broken feature, like a cracked walkway or an unmarked step, runs on the owner's duty to maintain the property and skips the notice burden, which is often the stronger way to plead the case.
How much is my premises case worth?
Your case is worth what you lost, measured by your medical bills, your lost income, the future care you will need, and the harm to your daily life. No two cases are the same, and many folks are surprised how low the adjuster's first number is compared to the full picture. We build the value from the records and the proof rather than from whatever the insurer offers to make the stress stop.
Related: How a Florida injury claim works, Personal injury overview, Car crash injuries, Hurt by a drunk driver, and About Rory Safir.
This page is general information about Florida premises liability law, not legal advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. The governing authorities include Fla. Stat. 768.0755 (transitory foreign substances), 768.0706 (negligent security at residential properties), 768.075 (trespasser duty), 768.81 (comparative fault), 95.11(5)(a) (two-year limitations), and 768.28 (claims against government). Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. The hiring of a lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely on advertisements.
