A Florida slip-and-fall case is usually a premises liability / negligence claim: you must prove the property owner/occupier owed a duty, breached it, and that breach caused your injuries.
Florida’s standard civil jury instructions frame the invitee/invited-licensee duties as whether the defendant failed to maintain the premises in a reasonably safe condition, failed to correct a dangerous condition it knew or should have known about, or failed to warn of a dangerous condition where the defendant’s knowledge was greater than the claimant’s.
The big statutory rule for “spills” in businesses: § 768.0755
If the fall is in a business establishment and involves a “transitory foreign substance” (think: a temporary spill/object in the walking area), Florida Statute § 768.0755 controls the key proof issue:
- The injured person must prove the business had actual or constructive knowledge of the dangerous condition and should have taken action to remedy it.
Constructive knowledge can be shown by circumstantial evidence that either:
- The condition existed long enough that the business should have known of it (time-on-the-floor), or
- the condition occurred with enough regularity that it was foreseeable.
The statute also says it does not affect common-law duties of care generally— meaning the broader premises-liability duties still exist, but for transitory-substance cases you still must clear the notice/knowledge requirement.
Practical effect: in a typical supermarket/liquor-store/restaurant spill case, the fight is often about notice (how long it was there, whether employees caused/saw it, whether similar spills happen frequently in that area).
Falls That Are Not “Transitory Foreign Substance” Cases
Not every slip/trip-and-fall is a § 768.0755 case. Examples that often fall outside that statute
include hazards like:
- uneven flooring/thresholds/steps
- potholes/cracked pavement
- defective mats
- structural/property defects
Those are generally governed by common-law premises liability principles (duty to maintain reasonably safe premises; duty to warn of concealed dangers in appropriate circumstances), as reflected in the jury instruction language.
“Open and Obvious” Hazards: Not a Complete Shield
Florida courts commonly treat “open and obvious” as affecting the duty to warn, but it does not automatically eliminate the duty to maintain the premises in a reasonably safe condition.
A Florida DCA decision summarizes the rule this way: obviousness can discharge the duty to warn, but not the duty to maintain.
So even if a hazard is visible, liability can still be argued based on unsafe maintenance, code violations, or other circumstances—though open-and-obvious conditions often strengthen comparative fault arguments.
Comparative Negligence (Major 2023+ Change)
Florida now uses a modified comparative fault rule in most negligence cases:
- Your damages are reduced by your percentage of fault
- If you’re found more than 50% at fault, you recover nothing.
Florida also allows fault allocation to nonparties if properly pled and proven.
Deadline To Sue (Statute of Limitations)
A slip-and-fall is typically an “action founded on negligence,” which in Florida must be filed within 2 years. (Other deadlines can apply in special contexts, but 2 years is the planning baseline for ordinary premises cases.)
What Evidence Matters in Practice (Because the Law Turns on It)
Especially in § 768.0755 business-spill cases, liability commonly rises or falls on proof of actual/constructive knowledge, such as:
- surveillance video showing how long the spill/hazard existed
- employee testimony/logs about inspections and cleanups
- characteristics of the substance (track marks, dirt, drying, footprints)
- prior similar incidents (to prove “regularity/foreseeability”)
If you want, describe the setting (store/restaurant/apartment/parking lot), what the hazard was (spill vs structural defect), and whether there’s video or witnesses—then the legal standard that applies (and what you’d need to prove) becomes much more specific.
If you or someone you care about has suffered from a slip and fall accident due to unsafe conditions, reach out to Bobet Law Firm for a comprehensive evaluation of your case at no charge.