Injured on Unsafe Property? We Help You Pursue Full Compensation
When property owners fail to fix dangerous conditions or warn visitors about known hazards, serious injuries can happen in an instant. At The Injury Claim Law Firm, we represent people across Florida who were hurt on unsafe property and now face medical bills, time away from work, and lasting pain.
Our legal team focuses on holding negligent property owners, businesses, and insurers accountable. From the first investigation through settlement negotiations or trial, we work to pursue the maximum compensation the law allows, so you can focus on your recovery while we handle the legal fight.
Definition of Premises Liability
Premises liability refers to the legal responsibility of property owners to maintain a safe environment for those who enter their premises. You may have a valid premises liability claim if you’re injured on someone else’s property due to negligence.
Do I Have a Premises Liability Case?
Many people are unsure whether their injury qualifies as a premises liability claim. While every case is different, these factors are often present in valid Florida claims:
- You were lawfully on the property, such as a customer, tenant, guest, or visitor
- There was a hazardous or dangerous condition on the property
- The property owner or manager knew, or should have known, about the danger
- That unsafe condition directly caused your injuries and financial losses
If this situation sounds familiar, you may have a valid claim under Florida law. Speaking with a lawyer early can help protect evidence and your right to compensation.
What Is Premises Liability in Florida?
Premises liability is an area of personal injury law that holds property owners and those in control of property responsible for injuries caused by unsafe conditions. In Florida, owners and occupiers of property have a legal duty to maintain reasonably safe premises and to address or warn about dangers they know, or should know, exist.
These cases are grounded in negligence. When a property owner fails to take reasonable steps to inspect, maintain, repair, or warn about hazardous conditions, and someone is injured as a result, the injured person may be entitled to compensation for their losses.
Premises liability claims can involve a wide range of hazards, from wet floors and broken stairways to inadequate security or unsafe recreational areas. What matters most is whether the injury was preventable and whether the responsible party failed to meet their legal duty of care.
Legal Duties of Property Owners
In Florida, property owners have a legal obligation to ensure their premises are safe for visitors. This involves two critical components: duty of care and breach of duty.
Duty of Care
Property owners owe a duty of care to those who enter their property, whether they are invited guests or customers. This duty includes:
- Regular Maintenance: Ensuring walkways, entrances, and other areas are free from hazards.
- Adequate Security: Implementing measures to prevent accidents and criminal activities, especially in commercial properties.
- Prompt Repairs: Addressing any dangerous conditions, such as broken railings or slippery floors, as soon as they are identified.
Breach of Duty
A breach of duty occurs when a property owner fails to meet their legal obligations, leading to premises liability accidents. This can include:
- Negligent Security: Failing to provide adequate security measures can result in injuries during crimes.
- Dangerous Conditions: Allowing hazards, such as spills or uneven surfaces, to remain unaddressed, potentially causing slip and fall accidents.
- Inadequate Responses: Ignoring reports of safety concerns or failing to act on known hazards.
Where Do Premises Liability Accidents Occur?
Unsafe property conditions can exist almost anywhere. Premises liability claims in Florida frequently arise from accidents involving:
- Grocery stores, retail shops, and shopping centers
- Restaurants, bars, and nightlife venues
- Apartment complexes and condominium communities
- Hotels, resorts, and vacation properties
- Office buildings and commercial properties
- Private homes and residential neighborhoods
- Parking lots and parking garages
- Amusement parks, attractions, and entertainment venues
- Swimming pools and recreational facilities
- Construction sites and temporary work areas
- Amusement parks and attractions
The type of property is less important than the conduct of the owner or party in control. If a dangerous condition was allowed to exist and caused harm, the property owner may be legally responsible, regardless of where the injury occurred.
Common Premises Liability Accidents We Handle
Unsafe property conditions can take many forms. Our firm represents clients across Florida in premises liability cases involving:
- Slip and fall and trip and fall accidents: Wet floors, spills, loose mats, uneven surfaces, debris, and poorly maintained flooring.
- Stairway and railing accidents: Broken steps, missing or loose handrails, worn stair treads, and inadequate lighting.
- Poor lighting, broken flooring, and potholes: Cracked sidewalks, potholes, loose tiles, and dimly lit hallways, stairwells, and parking areas.
- Falling merchandise and falling objects: Improperly stacked items, unsecured shelving, and objects falling from elevated areas.
- Elevator and escalator incidents: Mechanical failures, sudden stops, poor maintenance, and design defects.
- Swimming pool accidents and drownings: Inadequate supervision, missing safety features, defective gates or fencing, and poor maintenance.
- Negligent security incidents: Assaults, robberies, and other crimes caused by inadequate lighting, surveillance, access control, or security personnel.
- Dog bites and animal attacks: Injuries caused by animals on residential or commercial property are subject to Florida’s dog bite laws.
- Toxic exposure, burns, and electrical hazards: Injuries caused by hazardous chemicals, unsafe electrical conditions, or fire-related dangers.
- Inadequate maintenance: Injuries caused by neglected repairs or unsafe upkeep, including crumbling stairs, broken railings, loose tiles, damaged walkways, leaking ceilings, malfunctionning doors.
Common Injuries Caused by Unsafe Property Conditions
Premises liability accidents can result in serious injuries, some with long-term or permanent effects, including:
- Head injuries and traumatic brain injuries: Concussions, skull fractures, cognitive impairment, and lasting neurological damage.
- Back and neck injuries: Herniated discs, spinal cord injuries, and chronic pain requiring extensive treatment.
- Broken bones and fractures: Hip, wrist, ankle, and other fractures that limit mobility and prolong recovery.
- Soft tissue injuries: Sprains, strains, torn ligaments, and muscle injuries requiring rehabilitation.
- Lacerations and permanent scarring: Deep cuts, infections, nerve damage, and disfigurement caused by unsafe surfaces.
- Psychological trauma after violent incidents: PTSD, anxiety, depression, and emotional distress following assaults or robberies.
Seeking medical care as soon as possible after an accident is critical. Prompt treatment protects your health and creates documentation that can play an important role in your claim.
Who Can Be Held Liable in Florida Premises Liability Cases?
Liability in a premises case may involve more than just the property owner. Depending on the facts, responsible parties may include:
- Property owners: Commercial and residential owners, including businesses, landlords, homeowners, and investors responsible for maintaining safe conditions.
- Tenants and lessees: Businesses or individuals who control certain areas of a property and are responsible for injuries occurring in those spaces.
- Property management companies: Management firms hired to inspect, maintain, and repair properties that fail to address known hazards.
- Maintenance vendors and contractors: Third parties responsible for cleaning, repairs, landscaping, or maintenance whose negligence creates or fails to fix dangerous conditions.
- Security companies: Private security firms that provide inadequate security, engage in negligent hiring, or fail to address known safety risks.
- Government entities: Cities, counties, or state agencies responsible for unsafe conditions on public property, subject to special notice and legal requirements.
Identifying all liable parties allows us to pursue compensation from every available source, not just one.
Visitor Status and Duty of Care in Florida
Florida law assigns different duties of care to property owners based on the injured person’s status on the property. These distinctions often play a significant role in premises liability cases.
Invitees
Invitees are individuals who enter a property for business or mutual benefit, such as customers and patrons. Property owners owe invitees the highest duty of care. This includes the obligation to regularly inspect the property, correct dangerous conditions, and provide adequate warnings when hazards cannot be immediately fixed.
Common examples include shoppers in retail stores, restaurant patrons, hotel guests, and patients in medical offices.
Licensees
Licensees are social guests and others who enter properties with permission but not for business reasons. Property owners must warn licensees of known dangerous conditions that are not open and obvious.
Examples include friends or family members visiting a private residence.
Trespassers
Trespassers enter properties without permission. Generally, property owners owe only a limited duty to avoid intentional or reckless harm. However, important exceptions exist, particularly when children are involved.
Under the attractive nuisance doctrine, property owners may be responsible for injuries to children who are drawn to hazardous conditions such as swimming pools, construction sites, or abandoned equipment.
What Must Be Proven to Win a Florida Premises Liability Claim
To recover compensation in a Florida premises liability case, the injured person must establish four essential legal elements. Insurance companies often challenge one or more of these elements, which is why careful investigation and evidence development are critical.
Duty of Care
First, you must show that the property owner or responsible party owed you a duty of care. This duty depends on why you were on the property and your legal status as a visitor. Business customers, tenants, and other invitees are owed the highest duty, while different standards apply to social guests and trespassers.
Breach of Duty
Next, you must demonstrate that the property owner breached their duty of care. This typically means showing that the owner failed to maintain reasonably safe conditions or failed to warn about a dangerous condition they knew, or should have known, existed.
Examples of a breach may include failing to clean up spills, ignoring broken steps or railings, neglecting lighting repairs, or failing to provide adequate security in high-risk areas.
Causation
You must also establish causation. This involves proving that the unsafe condition directly caused your accident and resulting injuries. In legal terms, this includes both factual causation (the injury would not have occurred but for the hazard) and legal causation (the injury was a foreseeable result of the dangerous condition).
Damages
Finally, you must prove that you suffered actual damages. These may include medical expenses, lost income, pain and suffering, emotional distress, and other losses recognized under Florida law. Without provable damages, even clear negligence may not result in compensation.
Evidence That Helps Prove a Premises Liability Claim
Strong evidence can make the difference between a denied claim and a successful recovery. Helpful evidence in Florida premises liability cases may include:
- Photographs or video of the hazardous condition, accident scene, and visible injuries
- Incident reports filed with the property owner, business, or management company
- Statements from witnesses who observed the accident or the dangerous condition
- Maintenance, inspection, or cleaning logs showing how the property was cared for
- Prior complaints or incident records demonstrating a recurring or known hazard
- Surveillance footage from the property or nearby businesses
- Expert testimony regarding safety standards, maintenance practices, or code violations
- Medical records connecting your injuries directly to the accident
Our firm acts quickly to send evidence preservation letters and prevent critical records or video footage from being lost or destroyed.
How a Florida Premises Liability Claim Moves Forward
Most premises cases follow a predictable path, even though every injury is different. After an initial investigation, your lawyer gathers records and evidence to establish how the hazard occurred and who was responsible. A claim is then presented to the insurer with documentation of medical treatment, lost income, and other damages.
If the insurer disputes liability or undervalues the claim, the case may proceed to litigation. This can involve discovery (the exchange of evidence), depositions, expert review, and ongoing settlement negotiations. If a fair resolution is not reached, the case can go to trial, where a judge or jury determines fault and damages. Acting early helps preserve proof and strengthens your position throughout the process.
Florida-Specific Rules That Can Make or Break Your Case
Florida premises liability claims are governed by laws that are different from those in many other states. Understanding these rules is essential to building a strong case.
Slip and Fall Claims Involving a Transitory Foreign Substance
In slip-and-fall cases involving a business and a transitory foreign substance, such as spilled liquid, dropped food, or debris, Florida law requires proof that the business had actual or constructive knowledge of the dangerous condition.
Actual knowledge exists when employees or management knew the substance was present. Constructive knowledge may be established by showing that the condition existed long enough that it should have been discovered through reasonable inspections, occurred regularly in the same location, or resulted from inadequate cleaning or inspection procedures.
This rule means it is not enough to show that you slipped and fell. The evidence must demonstrate that the business knew or should have known about the hazard and failed to address it within a reasonable time.
Comparative Fault in Florida Premises Cases
Florida follows comparative fault principles. If an injured person is found to be partially responsible for an accident, their compensation may be reduced by the percentage of fault attributed to them.
For example, if a jury determines that a property owner was negligent but that the injured person was also distracted or failed to exercise reasonable care, any award may be reduced accordingly. Even so, partial fault does not automatically bar recovery, and many premises liability cases still result in meaningful compensation.
Statute of Limitations and Filing Deadlines
Florida has shortened the time limits for filing many negligence claims. In most premises liability cases, a lawsuit must be filed within two years of the date of the accident. Some claims have even shorter deadlines, particularly those involving government-owned property.
Waiting too long can result in lost evidence, faded memories, and the permanent loss of your right to pursue compensation. Early legal guidance can help protect your claim and preserve critical proof.
What Compensation Can You Recover in a Florida Premises Liability Case?
Premises liability injuries can affect nearly every aspect of a person’s life. Depending on the circumstances, Florida law allows injured victims to pursue compensation for a range of damages.
Medical Expenses
You may be entitled to recover the cost of medical care related to your injuries, including emergency treatment, hospital stays, surgery, rehabilitation, physical therapy, prescription medications, medical equipment, and anticipated future care. Mental health treatment for emotional or psychological trauma may also be compensable.
Lost Wages and Reduced Earning Capacity
Compensation may include income lost while recovering from your injuries, as well as reduced earning capacity if your injuries limit your ability to work in the future. This can involve missed promotions, reduced hours, loss of benefits, or the need to change careers due to permanent limitations.
Pain and Suffering and Loss of Enjoyment of Life
Florida law recognizes the physical pain, emotional distress, and diminished quality of life caused by serious injuries. These damages account for ongoing discomfort, mental anguish, loss of independence, and the inability to participate in activities you once enjoyed.
Out-of-Pocket and Related Expenses
Accident victims often face additional expenses beyond medical bills. These may include transportation costs for treatment, home modifications, mobility aids, household services, and other necessary expenditures related to the injury.
Wrongful Death Damages
When a premises liability accident results in death, surviving family members may pursue wrongful death damages. These claims may include funeral and burial expenses, loss of financial support, and loss of companionship. The specific damages available depend on the relationship to the deceased and the circumstances of the case.
The value of a premises liability claim depends on many factors, including the severity of the injuries and how they affect your future. Our firm works with medical professionals, economists, and life care planners to evaluate the full scope of your losses and pursue compensation that reflects the true impact of the accident.
What To Do After a Premises Liability Accident
Taking the right steps after an accident on unsafe property can protect your health and strengthen your claim.
- Get medical attention immediately: Seek care right away, even if injuries seem minor. Some injuries take time to appear, and early treatment creates critical medical documentation.
- Report the incident: Notify the property owner, manager, or staff and request an incident report. If a copy is not provided, record who you spoke with and when.
- Document the scene and your injuries: Take photos or video of the hazard, the surrounding area, lighting, warning signs, and visible injuries. Photograph your shoes and clothing as well.
- Gather witness information: Get names and contact details for anyone who saw the accident or the dangerous condition.
- Preserve physical evidence: Keep the clothing and shoes you were wearing. Do not wash, repair, or discard them.
- Don’t give recorded statements without legal advice: Insurance adjusters may use recorded statements to reduce or deny claims. It is best to decline until you speak with a lawyer.
- Contact The Injury Claim Law Firm as soon as possible: Evidence such as surveillance footage can be lost quickly. Early legal involvement helps preserve proof and strengthen your case.
The sooner you contact us, the better positioned your case will be.
Negotiating with Insurance Companies
Insurance carriers often move quickly after an accident to limit what they pay. They may request recorded statements, argue the hazard was “open and obvious,” claim they had no notice of the condition, or suggest you were primarily at fault. These strategies can reduce or derail an otherwise valid claim. Having legal representation early can protect you from damaging statements, preserve evidence, and ensure the value of your injuries and losses is presented clearly and accurately.
Why Choose The Injury Claim Law Firm for Your Florida Premises Liability Case?
Premises liability claims are often disputed by property owners and insurers. Our firm is built to protect injured clients and pursue full compensation from day one.
- Fast action to preserve evidence: We move quickly to secure surveillance footage, maintenance records, and incident reports before they are lost or deleted.
- We handle the insurance companies: Our team manages all communications with insurers and defense lawyers so you can focus on recovery.
- Full evaluation of your damages: We calculate both current and future losses, including ongoing medical care, reduced earning capacity, and long-term impact.
- Trial-ready approach: Insurers know we prepare every case as if it will go to trial, which often leads to stronger settlement offers.
- Contingency fee and free consultation: If applicable, there are no upfront fees—you only pay if we recover compensation for you.
- Experience that matters: We have handled serious injury and premises liability cases across Florida, with results and client feedback available upon request.
