A customer or visitor falling on your property is stressful, and the instinct is often to assume the business is automatically on the hook. Florida law does not work that way. There is a specific legal standard the injured person has to meet, and understanding it changes how a business should respond in the first hours after it happens.
- A fall alone is not enough: the injured person has to prove the business knew, or should have known, about the specific hazard.
- Insurance is usually the real backstop: most businesses carry coverage that pays for exactly this kind of claim.
- Coverage has real limits: a business can still need independent counsel when coverage is disputed, exceeded, or missing entirely.
- Two ways to show that knowledge: the condition existed long enough that it should have been discovered, or it occurred with enough regularity to be foreseeable.
- Two-year filing deadline: most claims must be filed within two years of the fall, under current Florida law.
- The rules differ by hazard type: a spill and a broken step are governed by different legal standards, not the same one.
- Evidence disappears fast: surveillance footage and inspection logs are frequently overwritten within days.
Does a customer automatically win a claim just because they fell on my property?
No. Under Fla. Stat. § 768.0755, when a fall involves a spill or similar hazard, the injured person carries the burden of proving the business had actual or constructive knowledge of the dangerous condition and failed to address it. The fact that a fall happened is not evidence of fault. This is a meaningfully higher bar than many business owners expect, and it exists specifically because Florida law recognizes that a fall does not automatically mean something was done wrong.
Does the business’s insurance typically cover this?
Often, yes. Most Florida businesses carry commercial general liability insurance, and a standard policy typically covers exactly this kind of claim, including the legal defense costs and any settlement or judgment that results, up to the policy limit. Florida law does not require this coverage for most businesses, but landlords and vendor contracts frequently require proof of it anyway. Reporting the incident to the carrier promptly matters, since most policies carry a separate notice requirement apart from any legal deadline.
If insurance is covering this, why would a business need a lawyer too?
Insurance typically appoints defense counsel, but that attorney’s duty runs primarily to the insurer, not the business, and a few situations pull the two apart. If the insurer questions coverage or reserves its right to deny the claim later, the business is facing that dispute largely alone. If the claim could exceed the policy limit, the business carries real exposure for the difference, similar to an at-fault driver facing an excess judgment. If coverage lapsed, was excluded, or was never in place, there is no insurer-appointed defense to begin with. And in the hours right after the fall, before any carrier is even on the phone, decisions about evidence and how the incident gets reported are already being made without anyone representing the business specifically.
What exactly does the injured person have to prove?
Either actual knowledge, meaning an employee created or knew about the hazard directly, or constructive knowledge, which can be shown two ways: that the condition existed long enough that reasonable care would have caught it, or that the same type of condition happened with enough regularity to be foreseeable. Without one of these, the claim does not meet the statutory standard, regardless of how serious the injury was.
How long does someone have to file a claim after falling in my business?
Generally two years from the date of the fall, under Fla. Stat. § 95.11(4)(a), for incidents occurring on or after March 24, 2023. HB 837 cut this deadline from the previous four years. Once that period passes without a claim being filed, the business is typically no longer exposed to that specific incident, though records and footage are best preserved well before that point, not held onto solely because of the deadline.
Is this favorable standard the same for every kind of fall?
No, and this distinction matters. Fla. Stat. § 768.0755 applies specifically to transitory foreign substances, meaning spills, dropped items, or tracked-in liquid, something temporary rather than built into the property. A fall caused by a structural condition, such as a broken step, a torn mat, or uneven flooring, is generally evaluated under Florida’s older negligent maintenance framework instead, which does not carry the same notice requirement. For very minor height variations, some Florida courts have applied a trivial defect doctrine, declining to treat a small enough irregularity as legally actionable, on the reasoning that pedestrians are expected to watch where they walk. Correctly identifying which category applies affects the entire defense.
What if the injured person was not paying attention?
Under Florida’s modified comparative negligence framework, a distracted visitor, such as someone looking at a phone rather than the floor, can bear a portion of the fault, which reduces the business’s exposure accordingly. Florida law bars recovery entirely if the injured person is found more than 50 percent at fault. This does not eliminate the business’s duty to maintain safe conditions, but it is a real factor in how a claim is ultimately valued.
Is a wet floor sign enough protection?
It helps, but it does not guarantee protection. Once a hazard is known, Florida law generally expects a business to either fix it promptly or warn about it while it remains. A clearly placed warning sign supports the argument that reasonable care was taken, but a sign does not excuse leaving a known hazard unaddressed indefinitely, and its placement, visibility, and timing can all become factual questions in a dispute.
What should a business do immediately after someone falls?
Preserve surveillance footage right away, since most systems overwrite recordings within days, and that footage can show exactly how long a hazard was present. Complete an internal incident report while details are fresh, including the condition of the area, any inspection or cleaning logs, and the names of witnesses. Avoid statements that could be read as admitting fault. Notify the business’s liability insurance carrier promptly, since most commercial policies require timely notice as a condition of coverage.
If your business is facing this
Every case depends on the specific hazard involved and what the available evidence shows, and that requires a real review, not a guess. Matters in Miami-Dade are handled locally, through the Eleventh Judicial Circuit.
The first consultation is free and confidential, with no obligation to retain.