Kibbey Wagner Injury & Car Accident Lawyers | April 3, 2025 | Premises Liability
Falls can happen anywhere, including in homes, workplaces, and businesses. They are a leading cause of emergency room visits among all age groups. As a result, falling victims can incur significant medical costs, lost earnings, and out-of-pocket expenses.
The same premises liability laws apply to these accidents regardless of how they happen. However, there are differences in the causes and injuries you can suffer depending on whether you slip or trip and fall.
Falling Accidents
Slip, trip, and fall statistics paint a grim picture. Falls are the second-leading cause of accidental death. In 2023, 21% of the people who suffered fatal accidents died from falls. That year, doctors identified over 46,000 deaths as being caused by falls. According to state statistics, 4,380 of these falling deaths happened in Florida.
Additionally, falls are a leading cause of non-fatal injuries. Of the 25.4 million people injured in accidents in 2024, 35%, or about 8.9 million, incurred their injuries in a fall.
Experts categorize falling accidents into two categories. Elevated falls happen when someone falls from a height to a lower level. Falls from a ladder or down a flight of stairs qualify as elevated falls.
Same-level falls happen when someone loses their footing and falls to the ground. These falls happen in two primary ways:
Slip and Fall Accidents
Slip and fall accidents happen when the friction under your feet drops, causing you to lose your balance and fall.
The following conditions can lead to a slip and fall accident:
- Spilled liquid
- Sand, dirt, or gravel
- Waxed floors
- Condensation
- Dropped food
As you land, you can strike your buttocks, back, and head, potentially resulting in a range of injuries.
Trip and Fall Accidents
Trip and fall accidents occur when your stride is broken unexpectedly. Your foot might hit something or unexpectedly encounter a step up or down. As you lose your footing, your momentum causes you to fall forward.
Some causes of tripping accidents include the following:
- Objects on the floor
- Loose, rippled, or bunched carpet
- Unmarked steps
- Raised thresholds
When you fall forward, you can hit your knee, chest, or face. You might also throw your arms out to catch yourself and land on your hands, wrists, or arms.
Differences In Injuries Caused By Slip Trip and Fall Accidents
Because slips and trips happen differently, they produce different injuries.
When you slip and fall backward, you can suffer the following injuries:
- Hip fracture
- Strained back
- Vertebral fracture
- Concussion or another type of traumatic brain injury
- Skull fracture
By contrast, trip and fall accidents produce the following injuries when you fall forward:
- Facial bruises and fractures
- Knee sprains and fractures
- Chest bruises
- Rib fracture
- Wrist sprain or fracture
- Elbow sprain
- Arm fracture
Injuries from falls can lead to a range of losses, regardless of the cause. You may face medical bills for the treatment, therapy, and medication for your injuries. Your injuries might prevent you from working, leading to earnings losses. You might pay out-of-pocket for childcare, rides, or other tasks you cannot perform because of your disabilities.
Your injuries might also produce pain, anguish, and disfigurement. For example, if you trip and hit your face during the fall, you might fracture facial bones, producing painful injuries that permanently alter your appearance.
Similarities In Slipping and Tripping Accidents
The same legal principles apply to all falling injuries. Under Florida law, the person or business responsible for the premises has a legal duty to keep it reasonably safe for visitors. Thus, the location of an accident is important. If you trip and fall at a mall, you might have a claim against a shop, the mall manager, or the parking lot operator, depending on where you fell.
To pursue a claim, you must prove negligence. This legal doctrine was created to hold parties responsible for unintentional injuries. However, you do not have a legal claim for all unintentional injuries. Instead, you must prove the following four elements:
Duty of Care
The duty of care comes from the roles of the parties. To determine who may be liable, you must look at where the fall occurred and the responsibilities they had for the location. A restaurant might be responsible for slips that happen inside the dining area, while the landlord might be responsible for trips that happen in the parking lot.
The duty of care is not owed to everyone equally. Invitees and licensees, such as customers, clients, and social guests, deserve the highest protection. Trespassers are on the property without permission. The duty owed to trespassers is much lower.
An invitee can turn into a trespasser. For example, if you enter an “Employees Only” door, you may become a trespasser and not receive the protection afforded to invitees.
Breach of Duty
A breach of duty occurs when the responsible party fails to exercise reasonable care in protecting visitors on the premises. The duty of care owed to invitees and licensees includes finding and fixing hazardous conditions on the premises. If they cannot fix the condition, they must post reasonable warnings or block off the area.
The duty owed to trespassers only requires the responsible party to refrain from deliberately injuring them and post warnings of non-obvious hazards. For example, a nighttime trespasser who falls on a construction site because of a burned-out bulb might not have a claim against the construction company.
Damages
The damages you incur include both your economic and non-economic losses. Economic losses include the costs you incurred and income you could not earn. Non-economic losses include pain, suffering, and other non-financial impacts of your injuries. Slip or trip and fall lawsuit settlements cover both types of losses.
Causation
You must prove your losses were caused by the breach of duty. Causation means the breach led naturally and logically to your foreseeable losses. Thus, a convenience store manager’s failure to train workers to mop the entry during Florida rainstorms naturally and logically leads to slips on the wet floor.
Get Legal Help After a Slip and Fall or Trip and Fall
Although slips and trips occur differently and cause different injuries, the same legal principles apply. Thus, once you gather evidence proving how your injuries happened, there will be no difference in how you pursue financial compensation for a slipping or tripping accident.
If you were injured in a slip and fall or trip and fall, it is crucial to seek legal help immediately.
Contact Kibbey Wagner Injury & Car Accident Lawyers For Help Today
For more information, please contact the Stuart, Port St. Lucie, or Palm Beach Gardens personal injury law firm of Kibbey Wagner Injury & Car Accident Lawyers to schedule a free consultation today.
We proudly serve Martin County, St. Lucie County, Palm Beach County, and its surrounding areas in Florida:
Kibbey Wagner Injury & Car Accident Lawyers Stuart
73 SW Flagler Ave
Stuart, FL 34994
(772) 444-7000
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1100 SW St. Lucie West Blvd. Ste 202
Port St Lucie, FL 34986
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Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33418
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