Slip and fall lawyer in Miami and South Florida

Falls in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach

A fall in a hotel lobby, mall, parking garage, condo breezeway or supermarket is often the start of a long recovery. Whether you can recover compensation depends on the facts, not just the injury.

Our Miami office, at 1111 Brickell Ave, 10th Floor, Miami, FL 33131, meets people hurt in falls by appointment, in English or Spanish. The consultation is free and confidential. The statewide rules are covered on our statewide slip and fall page.

Short answer: for a fall on a spill or similar substance in a Florida business, the injured person generally must show that the business knew, or should have known, about the hazard. Photos, witness names, an incident report and a prompt request to save video are the first steps.

The knowledge requirement

Under section 768.0755 of the Florida Statutes, a person who slips on a transitory foreign substance in a business establishment must prove the business had actual or constructive knowledge of the condition and failed to use ordinary care. Constructive knowledge can be shown when the condition existed long enough that the business should have discovered it, or when it occurred often enough to be foreseeable.

In practice, our work focuses on:

• inspection and cleaning logs for the shift;
• staffing and where employees were before the fall;
• video that shows how long the hazard was present;
• earlier reports of similar falls at the same location.

Camera systems often record over old footage within days.

Typical South Florida settings

• Hotels and resorts, including lobbies, pool decks, restaurants and stairwells.
• Condominiums and apartment complexes, where common areas, stairs, lighting and walkways are the owner's or association's responsibility.
• Malls, supermarkets and big-box stores, where spills and leaks during rain are common.
• Restaurants, bars and event venues with crowds and wet floors.
• Parking lots and garages, where uneven pavement and poor lighting cause falls.

Different property types can bring different rules, and falls at work may involve workers' compensation.

Steps to take after a fall

1. Get medical care and describe every symptom.
2. Report the fall to a manager, building management or security. Ask for a written report.
3. Photograph the hazard, the lighting, the area and any warning signs.
4. Get names and numbers of witnesses.
5. Ask who controls any video, and ask in writing that it be saved.
6. Keep the shoes and clothing you wore.
7. Do not give a recorded statement to the insurer before getting advice.

Hospitals

Designated trauma centers in these counties, per the state's July 23, 2026 list:

Seeing a doctor promptly links the injury to the fall in the records an insurer will review.

Courts

Miami-Dade County is in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit; Broward County in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit; Palm Beach County in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit; Monroe County in the Sixteenth Judicial Circuit. The $50,000 line separates county court from circuit court. Under Fla. Stat. § 95.11, a negligence lawsuit over an incident after March 24, 2023 generally must be filed within two years. See our deadline guide.

When fault is shared

Property owners often argue that a hazard was open and obvious. Florida compares fault: in most negligence cases, a person found more than 50% at fault generally cannot recover, and a smaller share reduces an award. See our comparative fault guide.

Where people live

The four counties around our Miami office had about 6,221,207 residents in the 2020 Census. Below are larger communities nearer to Miami than to our other offices (distances as the crow flies).

Hotels, resorts and condominiums

Falls at hotels and condominium buildings raise questions that a supermarket spill does not. Who owns and who manages the property may be different companies. Pool decks, stairwells and common areas may be maintained by a contractor. Incident reports may be kept by security, by management or by an insurer. In a large building, ask who wrote the report and keep their name.

The paperwork you should keep

Keep any incident report, photographs, medical records, receipts for out-of-pocket costs, and notes of conversations with staff or managers. If a condominium association or hotel contacts you, keep the letters unopened until you have copied them.

When a fall happens while you are visiting

If you were visiting South Florida, tell your home doctor about the fall and keep your follow-up care going. Records from both places matter. Missing a deadline because you assumed that returning home changed things is a mistake worth avoiding; the time limit generally runs from the date of the fall.

Do not post about it

Insurers and defense lawyers look at social media. Photographs from after the fall, comments about how you feel, and even check-ins can be used to question a claim. Keep your accounts private and your posts quiet until your case is resolved.

What the property owner's insurer will ask

Expect questions about what you were wearing, whether you were carrying anything or using a phone, and why you were there. These answers are not secrets, but they can be framed against you if given loosely. Answer simply, stay with the facts, and speak to a lawyer before agreeing to a recorded interview.

Return to normal activity carefully

Do not rush back to physical activity before your doctor says it is safe, and do not skip appointments. A visible setback or a missed treatment becomes an argument later that you were not hurt as badly as claimed. If you cannot afford a referral, tell your doctor and ask about options, so the record shows why.

Photographs worth taking

Take pictures of the hazard from several distances, the surrounding floor and lighting, any signs or the lack of them, your injuries each day as they change, and your shoes. Include a common object for scale if you can. Save the original files; do not edit or filter them.

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More from our Miami office: personal injury, car accidents and truck accidents.

General information, not legal advice. Reading this page does not create an attorney-client relationship, and every case depends on its own facts. For qualifying personal injury matters the firm works on a contingency-fee basis, so attorney fees are not collected unless there is a recovery. Last updated: 2026-10-16.

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