Slip and Fall Lawyer in Miami

A slip and fall in a Miami grocery store, restaurant, hotel lobby, condo common area, or shopping mall can produce serious and lasting injuries — broken hips, fractured wrists, herniated discs, traumatic brain injury, and torn rotator cuffs are all common. Slip and fall cases in Florida are also among the most contested types of personal injury claims, because the Florida Legislature has set a high evidentiary bar for plaintiffs to recover. If you have been hurt in a fall on someone else's property, you need a Miami slip and fall lawyer who knows what Florida law actually requires and how to prove it.

Florida Statute § 768.0755 — The Constructive Notice Requirement

Slip and fall claims involving a "transitory foreign substance" (a spill, a leak, a tracked-in puddle, a dropped piece of produce, etc.) on the floor of a business establishment are governed by Florida Statute § 768.0755. Under that statute, an injured customer 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 circumstantial evidence showing either (a) the dangerous condition existed for such a length of time that, in the exercise of ordinary care, the business should have known of it, or (b) the condition occurred with regularity and was therefore foreseeable.

This statute changed Florida slip and fall law in 2010 and made these cases significantly harder. The old rule put the burden on the business to show it had a reasonable cleanup procedure; the new rule puts the burden on the injured customer to prove how long the spill was on the floor and that the store knew or should have known about it. That is why, in any serious Miami slip and fall case, securing the surveillance video — fast, before it is overwritten — is the single most important step.

Common Miami Slip and Fall Scenarios

• Grocery store spills. Publix, Winn-Dixie, Sedano's, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and Walmart aisles — leaking refrigerated cases, dropped produce, broken jars, wet-floor zones with no warning signs.
• Restaurant and bar floors. Spilled drinks, food, tracked-in rain, and slippery tile near kitchens and ice machines.
• Hotel lobbies and pool decks. South Beach and downtown hotels with marble lobbies that turn glass-slick when wet.
• Condominium common areas. Wet lobby floors after rain, slippery pool decks, broken stairway treads, missing handrails.
• Shopping malls and big-box stores. Dadeland, Aventura Mall, Bayside, Brickell City Centre, Dolphin Mall, Sawgrass Mills.
• Parking lots and sidewalks. Cracked pavement, potholes, broken wheel stops, inadequate lighting.

Comparative Negligence and Florida's New 51% Bar

Defense lawyers in slip and fall cases routinely argue that the customer was not paying attention, was looking at a phone, or was wearing inappropriate footwear. Under Florida's pre-2023 pure comparative negligence rule, that argument might have reduced your recovery but never eliminated it. As of March 24, 2023, Florida applies a "modified" comparative negligence standard with a 51% bar — if a jury assigns you more than 50% of the fault for your fall, you recover nothing. This makes the framing of the evidence critical from day one.

What to Do After a Fall in Miami

• Report the fall to a manager and ask for a written incident report — and a copy
• Photograph the substance on the floor, the surrounding area, your clothing, and the area lighting before anything is cleaned up
• Get the names of any employees who responded and any witnesses who saw the fall
• Note exactly where in the store the fall happened so we can later identify which cameras covered it
• Seek medical care promptly — a delay of even a few days will be used against you by the defense
• Do not give a recorded statement to the store's insurance carrier without first speaking to a lawyer

Statute of Limitations

For falls that occurred on or after March 24, 2023, the statute of limitations on a Florida negligence claim is two years from the date of the fall. For falls occurring before that date, the prior four-year limit may still apply. If your fall occurred on government property — a Miami-Dade Park, a public school, a county building — you must comply with the pre-suit notice requirements of Florida's sovereign immunity statute, § 768.28, and damage caps will apply.

Preserving Surveillance Video

Most Miami retailers cycle their surveillance video on a 14-to-30-day loop. Once it is overwritten, it is gone. We typically issue a written preservation-of-evidence (spoliation) letter to the property owner within hours of being retained, demanding that all relevant footage, sweep logs, incident reports, and prior-fall records be preserved. If the footage is later "lost," Florida courts may impose sanctions and a jury can be instructed to infer that the missing video would have helped you. Acting quickly is everything.

If you have been hurt in a slip and fall anywhere in Miami-Dade or Broward County, the Law Offices of Albert Goodwin can help. We handle slip and fall cases on a contingency-fee basis — no fee unless we recover. Call 786-522-1411 or email [email protected] to schedule a free consultation.