Tampa Slip and Fall Lawyer

It happens between one step and the next. A puddle nobody mopped in a grocery aisle, a dark parking lot, a broken handrail on wet stairs. You are on the floor before you understand what happened, and while you are being helped up, an employee is already filling out a form about it. That form, and the video cameras you may not have noticed, will matter more to your case than almost anything said at the scene.

I am Louis P. Meyer, Esq., a Senior Attorney at Kanner & Pintaluga, P.A. in Tampa. My practice focuses on personal injury cases across Florida, including premises liability claims: slip and falls, trip and falls, and injuries caused by dangerous conditions in stores, restaurants, apartment complexes, and parking lots. This page covers the rules that make Florida fall cases different, because in a fall case the legal fight starts with a question most injured people never see coming.

What this practice covers

A premises liability claim says a property owner or business failed to keep its premises reasonably safe, or failed to warn about a danger it knew about, and someone got hurt. The injuries in fall cases are routinely underestimated: fractured hips and wrists, torn shoulders and knees, head injuries, and back injuries that turn a working person into a patient for a year.

I handle fall and premises cases across the Tampa area and Florida: falls on liquids and debris in retail stores, trips on broken pavement and uneven surfaces, falls on stairs with code or maintenance problems, and injuries in common areas of apartment and condominium properties. Every one of them runs into the same Florida specific hurdle early, and it is better to know about it now than in a deposition.

The notice problem: what did the business know, and when

Most injury cases ask who caused the accident. Florida fall cases ask something narrower: what did the business know about the condition that caused the fall? For the most common fall, a slip on a transitory foreign substance, meaning a liquid or item that does not belong on the floor, Florida law puts the burden on the injured person to prove the business had actual or constructive knowledge of it. Actual knowledge means an employee saw it or caused it. Constructive knowledge is proven with circumstances: the condition existed long enough that the business should have found it in the exercise of ordinary care, or it happened regularly enough to be foreseeable.

That is why the details around a fall are the case. How long was the liquid on the floor? Were there tracks, dirt, or drying edges showing age? Did an employee walk past it? Is there an inspection log, and does anyone actually follow it? Surveillance video usually captures the area, including how the condition got there and how long it sat. Video is also overwritten on a cycle, sometimes within days. An incident report written at the scene, and a preservation demand sent early for the video and the inspection records, are the foundation the rest of the case stands on. Fall cases are not won on the fact that a floor was wet. They are won on what the business knew and did nothing about.

How I approach this work

Evidence first, because fall evidence has a shelf life. I want the video preserved before it cycles out, the incident report identified, and the condition documented as close to the event as possible. Then the injury record: treatment documented consistently, because carriers attack gaps in care in fall cases the same way they attack notice. Florida follows modified comparative fault under Fla. Stat. § 768.81, which means your recovery is reduced by your share of fault and barred if you are found more than fifty percent responsible, and every fall case gets an argument that you should have seen it. I will tell you plainly where a case is strong and where the notice proof has holes, because that proof decides these cases.

Questions people ask after a Tampa slip and fall

I fell in a store. What should I do at the scene if I am able?

Report the fall to the business and make sure an incident report is created, and get the name of the person who took it. Photograph the condition that caused the fall and the surrounding area. Get names of witnesses. Then get medical care promptly, and keep every record. What the scene looked like that day cannot be recreated later from memory.

The store says the spill just happened, so they are not responsible. Is that true?

That is the notice defense, and it is the center of Florida slip and fall law. If a transitory foreign substance caused the fall, you must prove the business knew or should have known about it. Evidence that the liquid was dirty, tracked through, or partially dried, or that spills happened in that spot regularly, can establish constructive knowledge. A clean puddle with no history is a harder case.

Is there video of my fall, and how do I get it?

Most commercial premises record common areas, and the video often shows the fall, the condition, and how long the condition existed. Stores keep video for limited periods before it is overwritten, which is why a written preservation demand sent quickly matters. In litigation, video, incident reports, and inspection logs are obtained through discovery if the business will not produce them voluntarily.

The business offered to pay my medical bills if I sign a release. Should I?

Understand what you are trading. An offer to cover an emergency room bill usually comes with a full release of the claim, including future treatment for injuries that have not declared themselves yet. Falls cause injuries that get worse before they get better, particularly head, back, and joint injuries. No release should be signed before you understand the full injury picture.

Can I still recover if the store says I was not watching where I was going?

Florida uses modified comparative fault, Fla. Stat. § 768.81. Your compensation is reduced by your percentage of fault, and if you are found more than fifty percent at fault, you recover nothing. The store’s argument about your attention does not erase its own duty; it reduces or defeats recovery depending on the share the evidence supports. That is a fight about percentages, and it is fought with the scene evidence.

How long do I have to file a slip and fall lawsuit in Florida?

For most negligence cases, Florida law gives you two years from the date of the fall. Claims involving government owned property, a city sidewalk or a public building, carry presuit notice requirements and different rules that must be handled much sooner. Two years sounds long; the video the case may depend on can be gone in two weeks.

The bottom line

A fall case turns on knowledge: what the business knew about the danger, and how fast you move to prove it before the proof is swept, mopped, and recorded over. The floor gets cleaned within the hour. The case gets built from what was preserved before it was.

Louis P. Meyer, Esq.
Senior Attorney, Kanner & Pintaluga, P.A.
100 S. Ashley Drive, Suite 610, Tampa, FL 33602
Phone: 561-206-2949
Email: lmeyer@kpattorney.com

About the Author

Louis P. Meyer, Esq. is a Senior Attorney at Kanner & Pintaluga, P.A., where his practice focuses on personal injury cases and first party property damage claims across Florida, including slip and fall and premises liability cases in the Tampa area. He was selected to Florida Rising Stars in 2024, 2025, and 2026. He is bilingual in English and Spanish, writes the LouisTheLawyer publication on Substack, and hosts the podcast Off The Record by Louis Meyer. He holds an LL.M. from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, a J.D. from Whittier Law School, and a B.A. from UCLA, graduating with Honors. He was admitted to The Florida Bar on November 23, 2020, Bar No. 1024811. This page is general information about how premises liability claims work in Florida. It is not legal advice about any specific accident or injury.

Louis P. Meyer, Esq., Senior Attorney, Kanner & Pintaluga, P.A., 100 S. Ashley Drive, Suite 610, Tampa, FL 33602. Phone: 561-206-2949. Email: lmeyer@kpattorney.com.

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