Slip and Fall Accidents
Slip and Fall Lawyer Fort Lauderdale
A slip and fall accident can happen in an instant — a wet floor in a grocery store, a cracked sidewalk outside a hotel, an unmarked step in a parking garage, or a poorly lit stairwell in a commercial building. What follows that instant can upend your life for months or years: serious injuries, mounting medical bills, lost income during recovery, and an insurance company or property owner's legal team working to minimize or deny your claim entirely. If you were injured in a slip and fall accident in Fort Lauderdale or anywhere in South Florida, you need an experienced slip and fall lawyer who knows Florida premises liability law and who will fight aggressively for the full compensation you deserve.
The Law Offices of Richard Corey, PLLC represents slip and fall victims throughout Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, and South Florida. Managing Attorney Richard P. Corey is a three-time Super Lawyers Rising Stars recipient in civil litigation and personal injury — a distinction awarded to fewer than 2.5% of attorneys in Florida — and brings a litigation background that means every slip and fall case is evaluated and pursued with trial-ready preparation from the first consultation. Property owners and their insurers know the difference between an attorney who settles quickly at a discount and one who prepares every case for the courtroom. We are the latter.
Contact The Law Offices of Richard Corey, PLLC at (954) 789-0461 or legal@rcenterpriselaw.com to schedule a free consultation with a Fort Lauderdale slip and fall attorney.
What Is a Slip and Fall Claim in Florida?
A slip and fall claim is a type of premises liability lawsuit brought against a property owner or occupier who failed to maintain their property in a reasonably safe condition, resulting in injury to a visitor or lawful guest. Florida's premises liability framework — governed primarily by Florida Statute § 768.0755 and the broader negligence principles of Chapter 768 — requires property owners to exercise reasonable care in maintaining their premises and to warn visitors of dangerous conditions that the owner knew or should have known existed.
The legal standard applied to your slip and fall claim depends in part on your status as a visitor to the property. In Florida, invitees — those who enter a property for a business purpose or at the owner's express or implied invitation, such as customers in a store, hotel guests, or restaurant patrons — are owed the highest duty of care. Property owners must not only warn invitees of known hazards but must also inspect their property regularly to discover and correct dangerous conditions before someone is hurt.
Florida Statute § 768.0755 governs slip and fall claims involving transitory foreign substances on business premises — the legal term for substances like water, food, or other liquids that cause slippery conditions on floors. Under this statute, to hold a business owner liable for a slip and fall caused by a transitory foreign substance, the injured party must prove that the business had actual or constructive knowledge of the dangerous condition and should have taken action to remedy it. Constructive knowledge can be established by showing either that the condition existed for a sufficient period of time that the business should have discovered it through the exercise of ordinary care, or that the condition occurred with regularity and was therefore foreseeable. This is a fact-intensive inquiry that requires careful evidence gathering — which is one reason why retaining an experienced slip and fall attorney as quickly as possible after an accident is critical.
Florida's modified comparative fault rule, effective March 24, 2023 under Florida Statute § 768.81, also applies to slip and fall cases. Under this framework, an injured party who is found to be more than 50% at fault for their own accident is barred from recovering any damages. Property owners and their insurers routinely argue that the injured person was distracted, wearing inappropriate footwear, or failed to notice an obvious hazard — arguments designed to shift fault to the victim and reduce or eliminate the property owner's liability. The Law Offices of Richard Corey, PLLC anticipates and counters these arguments with the factual and legal record necessary to establish the property owner's responsibility for the dangerous condition that caused your injury.
Common Slip and Fall Injuries We Handle
Slip and fall accidents generate sudden, uncontrolled impacts that can produce serious injuries — particularly in older adults, whose bones are more fragile and whose recovery from trauma is more complicated. The Law Offices of Richard Corey, PLLC represents slip and fall victims suffering from the full range of injuries these accidents cause, including:
Traumatic Brain Injuries
When a person slips and falls backward or to the side, their head frequently strikes the floor or another hard surface. The resulting traumatic brain injury (TBI) can range from a mild concussion with temporary symptoms to a severe TBI producing permanent cognitive, behavioral, and neurological impairment. TBIs are frequently underdiagnosed in the immediate aftermath of a slip and fall because symptoms — including headache, confusion, memory problems, dizziness, and personality changes — may not fully manifest for hours or days after the incident. Any head impact in a slip and fall accident warrants immediate neurological evaluation, regardless of how the victim feels in the immediate aftermath.
Spinal Cord and Back Injuries
Slip and fall accidents commonly produce injuries to the cervical and lumbar spine, including herniated and bulging discs, facet joint injuries, spinal cord compression, and in the most severe cases, partial or complete spinal cord injury resulting in paralysis. Spinal injuries from slip and fall accidents often produce chronic pain, radiculopathy (shooting pain, numbness, or weakness in the arms or legs), and long-term functional limitations that require ongoing medical management. Insurance companies and property owners frequently attempt to attribute spinal injuries to pre-existing degeneration rather than the fall — a defense that requires thorough medical documentation and expert testimony to overcome.
Hip Fractures
Hip fractures are among the most serious and life-threatening consequences of slip and fall accidents, particularly for elderly victims. A hip fracture typically requires surgical repair — often including hip replacement — followed by extensive physical rehabilitation. The recovery process can span months and frequently produces permanent loss of mobility, independence, and quality of life. For older adults, a hip fracture can be a life-altering event with cascading health consequences. The economic damages in serious hip fracture cases — including surgical costs, hospitalization, rehabilitation, home health care, and long-term assisted living needs — can be substantial, and recovering them in full requires experienced litigation counsel.
Wrist and Arm Fractures
When a person slips and begins to fall, the natural instinct is to extend the arms to break the impact — producing fractures of the wrist, forearm, and shoulder that are among the most common slip and fall injuries. These fractures, while less catastrophic than hip or spinal injuries, can require surgical repair, extended immobilization, and months of physical therapy. Wrist and hand injuries also frequently produce lasting functional limitations — grip weakness, reduced range of motion, and chronic pain — that affect the victim's ability to work and perform daily activities.
Knee Injuries
The sudden, twisting motion of a slip and fall frequently damages the structures of the knee — including the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), the medial collateral ligament (MCL), the meniscus, and the patellar tendon. Knee injuries in slip and fall accidents range from sprains and strains that resolve with conservative treatment to complete ligament tears requiring surgical reconstruction and extended rehabilitation. For workers whose occupations require standing, walking, climbing, or physical labor, a serious knee injury from a slip and fall can produce significant lost income and, in some cases, permanent career limitations.
Soft Tissue Injuries
Soft tissue injuries — including sprains, strains, contusions, and tears of the muscles, tendons, and ligaments of the back, neck, shoulder, and knee — are among the most common consequences of slip and fall accidents. Despite their classification as "soft tissue" injuries, these conditions can produce chronic pain and functional limitation that persists for months or years. Property owners and their insurers routinely minimize soft tissue injury claims, arguing that they are not serious or that they predated the accident. The Law Offices of Richard Corey, PLLC builds thorough documentation of soft tissue injuries through treating records, imaging studies, and expert medical opinions — and we push back aggressively against bad-faith minimization of legitimate injury claims.
Where Slip and Fall Accidents Happen in Fort Lauderdale
Fort Lauderdale and Broward County's combination of commercial activity, tourism, retail density, and aging infrastructure creates a high volume of slip and fall accident opportunities across a wide range of property types. The Law Offices of Richard Corey, PLLC handles slip and fall claims arising from accidents at:
Grocery Stores and Supermarkets
Grocery stores are among the most common locations for slip and fall accidents in Florida — and among the most aggressively defended by large retail chains with experienced in-house legal teams and insurance carriers. Spilled liquids, freshly mopped floors without adequate signage, produce displays that create wet floor conditions, and refrigeration leaks all create hazardous conditions that injure grocery store customers throughout Broward County every year. Under Florida Statute § 768.0755, establishing the store's actual or constructive knowledge of the transitory foreign substance that caused your fall is the central legal challenge — and it requires prompt evidence gathering, including incident report retrieval, surveillance footage preservation, and witness identification.
Hotels and Resorts
Fort Lauderdale's tourism economy generates extensive hotel and resort premises liability exposure. Hotel guests are business invitees entitled to the highest duty of care from the property owner. Pool areas, pool decks, lobby floors, stairwells, parking structures, and beach access pathways are all common locations for slip and fall accidents in hotel and resort settings. Hotels and resort operators are required to maintain all common areas in a reasonably safe condition and to warn guests of known hazards — and their failure to do so, when it results in injury to a guest, creates significant premises liability exposure.
Restaurants and Bars
Spilled beverages, grease on kitchen floors that migrates to dining areas, recently mopped tile floors without adequate wet floor signage, and uneven thresholds between indoor and outdoor dining areas are all common causes of slip and fall accidents in Fort Lauderdale's busy restaurant and hospitality scene. Restaurant premises liability claims in Florida are governed by § 768.0755 when a transitory foreign substance is involved, and require the same constructive knowledge showing as other commercial premises claims.
Retail Stores and Shopping Centers
Large retail stores, shopping centers, and strip malls throughout Broward County are frequent sites of slip and fall accidents caused by spilled merchandise, freshly waxed floors, wet entryways during rainy weather, improperly secured floor mats, and uneven pavement in parking lots and walkways. When the accident occurs on common area property owned by the shopping center landlord rather than an individual tenant, the liability analysis may implicate both the tenant and the property owner — a multi-party scenario that requires careful investigation to identify every potentially responsible party.
Parking Lots and Garages
Cracked pavement, unmarked speed bumps, inadequate lighting, standing water from drainage failures, and slippery painted surfaces in parking lots and garages throughout Fort Lauderdale create significant slip and fall hazards. Parking facility accidents frequently involve questions about whether the defective condition was the result of a construction or design defect — which may implicate the contractor or designer in addition to the property owner — or a maintenance failure that the owner should have discovered and remedied through reasonable inspection.
Government and Public Property
When a slip and fall occurs on property owned or maintained by a government entity — a city sidewalk, a public park, a government building — the claim is subject to Florida's sovereign immunity framework under Florida Statute § 768.28. Claims against government entities in Florida require a pre-suit notice of claim to be filed with the appropriate agency within three years of the accident, and are subject to specific damages caps. The procedural requirements for government premises liability claims are distinct and unforgiving — a missed notice deadline or improper filing can permanently bar an otherwise valid claim.
Florida Premises Liability Laws You Need to Know
Florida's premises liability framework contains several critical legal provisions that directly affect slip and fall claims. Understanding these laws is essential to protecting your rights.
Florida Statute § 768.0755 — Transitory Foreign Substances
This statute governs the most common type of slip and fall claim in commercial settings — accidents caused by a foreign substance on the floor of a business premises. Under § 768.0755, the claimant must prove that the business establishment had actual or constructive knowledge of the dangerous condition and should have taken action to remedy it. This is a demanding standard that requires thorough factual investigation — including surveillance footage analysis, incident report review, employee witness testimony, and documentation of the property's inspection and maintenance procedures.
Florida Statute § 768.81 — Modified Comparative Fault
Florida's modified comparative fault rule bars recovery entirely when the injured party is found to be more than 50% at fault. In slip and fall cases, property owners and their insurers routinely argue contributory fault — that the victim was distracted, inattentive, or wearing inappropriate footwear. The Law Offices of Richard Corey, PLLC builds cases that anticipate and counter these arguments, establishing the property owner's fault and minimizing any comparative fault attribution to our clients.
Florida Statute § 768.28 — Sovereign Immunity and Government Claims
Slip and fall claims against government entities are subject to Florida's sovereign immunity statute, which imposes pre-suit notice requirements, damages caps, and specific procedural rules that differ significantly from claims against private property owners. Missing the three-year notice deadline for government claims is an absolute bar to recovery.
Florida's Two-Year Statute of Limitations
Under Florida Statute § 95.11(3)(a), slip and fall injury claims must be filed within two years of the date of the accident. Missing this deadline forfeits your right to compensation regardless of how strong your case is. Contact The Law Offices of Richard Corey, PLLC as soon as possible after your accident to preserve all available evidence and ensure your claim is pursued within the applicable time limits.
How Our Fort Lauderdale Slip and Fall Lawyers Fight for You
Property owners and their insurers have experienced legal teams and claims professionals whose primary objective is to pay as little as possible on slip and fall claims — or to pay nothing at all. Recovering full and fair compensation for a serious slip and fall injury requires a legal team with the premises liability experience, investigative resources, and courtroom credibility to match that opposition and to make clear that a fair settlement is either reached or the case will be tried.
The Law Offices of Richard Corey, PLLC begins every slip and fall case with an immediate investigation — preserving surveillance footage before it is overwritten, obtaining incident reports, identifying and interviewing witnesses, documenting the dangerous condition through photographs and inspection records, and retaining premises liability experts when the nature of the hazard warrants expert analysis. We document your injuries comprehensively through your treating physicians and, where appropriate, independent medical experts — building the medical record that supports full recovery of both economic and non-economic damages. We calculate your damages with precision, including past and future medical expenses, lost wages and earning capacity, pain and suffering, and any permanent impairment — and we negotiate from a position of demonstrated case strength.
When the property owner's offer does not reflect the full value of your case, we file suit and prepare for trial. Our civil litigation background means we are not a settlement mill. We try cases — and the property owners and insurers we negotiate with know it.
Why Choose The Law Offices of Richard Corey, PLLC as Your Slip and Fall Lawyer in Fort Lauderdale?
Selecting the right slip and fall attorney is the most important decision you will make after a serious premises liability injury. The difference between a firm that takes whatever the insurance company offers and one that prepares every case for trial is often the difference between a fraction of your damages and full recovery of everything you are owed.
Managing Attorney Richard P. Corey has been recognized by Super Lawyers as a Rising Star in civil litigation for three consecutive years — a distinction awarded to fewer than 2.5% of attorneys in Florida. He has been featured in USA Today, Yahoo News, and Influencive, is a TEDx Ocala 2025 speaker, and is a Member of the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States and admitted to practice in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Our firm is boutique by design. Every slip and fall client works directly with Richard — not a paralegal or case manager — and receives the senior-level legal attention that serious injury claims demand.
Serving Slip and Fall Victims Throughout South Florida
The Law Offices of Richard Corey, PLLC represents slip and fall victims throughout:
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Fort Lauderdale
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Broward County
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Miami
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Miami-Dade County
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Boca Raton
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West Palm Beach
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Palm Beach County
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Pompano Beach
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Hollywood
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Coral Springs
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Plantation
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Davie
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Deerfield Beach
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Weston
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All of South Florida
We handle slip and fall matters in Florida state courts statewide and in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Schedule a Free Consultation With a Fort Lauderdale Slip and Fall Lawyer
If you or a family member was injured in a slip and fall accident in Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, Miami-Dade County, or Palm Beach County, contact The Law Offices of Richard Corey, PLLC today. We offer free consultations for slip and fall victims.
The Law Offices of Richard Corey, PLLC
915 Middle River Drive, Suite 408
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304
Phone: (954) 789-0461
Email: legal@rcenterpriselaw.com
Website: rcenterpriselaw.com
Related Practice Areas
Slip and fall claims are part of the broader personal injury practice we maintain throughout South Florida. Visit our personal injury practice for comprehensive representation across all injury matters, including wrongful death and catastrophic injury claims. When a slip and fall occurs in a commercial property involved in a lease or ownership dispute, our civil litigation attorneys provide the full-scope representation your matter may require. If your injury occurred while riding in or waiting for an Uber or Lyft vehicle on a commercial property, learn more about our rideshare accident representation.