What to Do After a Slip and Fall in Florida

Slip and fall claims can be strong — but they rise or fall on evidence that disappears quickly. Here is how to protect yourself.

1. Report the fall right away

Tell the store manager or property owner and ask for a written incident report. Get a copy or the report number.

2. Photograph the hazard immediately

Take photos and video of exactly what caused the fall — the spill, the uneven floor, the missing sign — before it is cleaned up or fixed.

3. Get names and look for cameras

Collect names and numbers of witnesses and ask whether there is surveillance video, which is often overwritten within days.

4. See a doctor the same day

Prompt medical care protects your health and ties your injuries to the fall.

5. Understand what you must prove

In Florida, for a spill or 'transitory substance' in a business, you generally must show the business knew or should have known about the hazard and failed to fix it. That is why fast evidence matters.

6. Mind the deadline

A two-year deadline applies to most negligence claims for incidents on or after March 24, 2023.

What makes these cases hard

Unlike a car crash, there is usually no police report and no independent record that the hazard existed. The business controls the evidence: the incident report, the surveillance video, the cleaning and inspection logs. That is why documenting the scene yourself, in the moment, often decides the case.

What "should have known" means

Florida law does not make a business responsible for every spill the instant it happens. The question is whether the hazard was there long enough that a reasonably careful business should have found and fixed it, or whether the condition happened often enough to be foreseeable. Timestamps on video and inspection logs are exactly how that gets proven.