The Lee Steinberg Law Firm and 1-800-LEE-FREE have successfully handled Michigan slip and fall personal injury cases for over 50 years. We have a team of experienced Michigan slip-and-fall lawyers dedicated to helping injured individuals get the compensation they deserve.

Michigan premises liability cases involve negligence, where an injured person alleges a property owner or property manager created or permitted an unreasonably dangerous condition to exist that leads to an injury.

Any injury following a slip and fall accident is an unfortunate event. You owe it to yourself or your family to make sure you recover compensation and are not burdened financially by the medical bills, lost wages, and other damage resulting from a slip-and-fall or trip-and-fall injury. Contact a knowledgeable Michigan slip and fall lawyer who will help you.

Why Hire the Michigan Slip and Fall Lawyers from the Lee Steinberg Law Firm

Decades of experience. Our Michigan personal injury lawyers have handled these cases for decades, even when many law firms refused to take them on. We are not afraid to seek the truth and get justice for our clients.
Familiarity with these cases. Slip and fall cases are not the same as car accident cases. Liability or negligence is almost contested and the defendant will point the blame on the injured plaintiff. We know how to defeat these accusations.
We get ready for trial. Our team of dedicated Michigan slip and fall attorneys prepare each case as if it may go to trial. We take the necessary depositions and hire the right experts. We are not afraid to prove our client was right at trial.
There is never a fee until we win. We work on a contingency fee basis. This means we don’t get paid, and don’t charge anything until we win your case.

How Do I Know If I Have a Slip and Fall Case?

A Michigan slip and fall incident is when a person is injured by slipping, tripping, or otherwise falling due to an unreasonably dangerous condition on the land. These incidents can happen inside or outside of a building. They are caused by hazards like wet floors, crumbling stairs, potholes, broken concrete, a broken railing, and other general defects. A slip and fall case is also known as a premises liability case.

Michigan building owners, homeowners, and landlords must keep their premises reasonably safe and protect against unreasonable harm.

When a person gets injured because of an unreasonable dangerous condition, and the landowner knows or should have known about the defect, a Michigan slip and fall accident lawyer can help pursue your case. This is called negligence.

You are entitled to money for your pain and suffering, emotional distress, anxiety, and scarring from the personal injuries caused by the negligence. In addition, the property owner must pay for past lost wages, future lost income, past medical expenses, future medical bills, and other economic damages.

What Should I Do After a Slip and Fall Accident in Michigan?

If you are injured after slipping and falling in Michigan, there are several steps to take if you believe that your fall was the result of someone’s negligence.

Gather Information:

It is crucial to record and retain as much information as possible as to what caused your fall.

Take clear photos of the area and surroundings where your fall occurred. Note the conditions of the area in which your fall occurred. For example, if there was poor lighting, a spill, or another hazard that caused your fall, record those details. If you are too hurt, ask a witness or person accompanying you to take pictures.
Take a video on your cellphone of the area where you fell.
Ask about surveillance video.
Get the names and cell phone numbers of witnesses. If a case goes to court, eyewitnesses will provide crucial information about your case.

Seek Medical Attention:

You should get medical attention for injuries. Even if your injuries appear minor, it is important to go to an area hospital or urgent care. A medical examination can uncover internal injuries that you might not be immediately aware of and can result in catastrophic injury if ignored and not treated.

Make sure you tell any medical professionals about the conditions that caused your fall. This information might be included in your medical records, and important evidence might be provided.

Notify Building Owner or Premises Manager:

You should also notify a building owner or manager in charge of the building that your fall occurred and explain that you were injured. However, do not provide the building owner or manager a written statement. Also, only talk to an insurance representative of the building owner or premises manager after first contacting a Michigan slip and fall attorney.

Contact a Michigan Slip and Fall Lawyer:

Calling a Michigan slip and fall lawyer as soon as possible after your fall is wise. An attorney will answer questions, tell you what to do, and help gather and preserve evidence. A good Michigan slip and fall attorney will hire investigators to interview witnesses and find other evidence to support your case.

For example, a Michigan slip-and-fall lawyer can recover or preserve any video surveillance of the incident. Most businesses and other properties have video cameras on their premises. But only some keep the video for a short time. Recorded material can be deleted after a short period, so obtaining a copy of the video before it is erased is essential.

What Defenses Do Premises Owners Have in a Michigan Slip and Fall Case?

With respect to Michigan slip and fall incidents and Michigan trip and fall incidents, there are several defenses available to building and apartment owners. The open and obvious doctrine is one of the most popular and dangerous defenses used by building owners.

A premises owner might try to bring up various defenses to blame you for your injury.

Comparative Fault Defense:

Michigan is a “comparative negligence” state, which means that your potential compensation can be reduced by the percentage by which you are deemed to be at fault for the accident that occurred.

Under Michigan law, specifically MCL 600.2959, you cannot obtain pain and suffering compensation if you are more than 50% at fault for causing the fall. The amount of economic damages you receive is reduced by your percentage of fault.

For example, if a jury found a plaintiff 75% at fault for slipping on black ice in a driveway, then that plaintiff would be unable to collect any compensation for their pain and suffering or emotional distress, no matter the injuries.

Comparative negligence can come up in a number of ways. If a person is distracted while walking and slips on a puddle of water in a grocery store, they can be deemed partially at fault for their fall.

Another example involves a person ignoring a “wet floor” sign or some other type of warning that a dangerous condition may exist.

The Open And Obvious Defense:

The open and obvious defense was changed drastically by the Michigan Supreme Court ruling in Kandil-Elsayed v F & E Oil, Inc, (2023) and Pinsky v Kroger Co of Mich., (Docket Nos. 162907 and 163430). Under the new standard, the open and obvious nature of a condition, such as ice and snow, goes to the comparative negligence of the injured person and the breach of the duty of care of the property owner.

Before this ruling, if a danger was considered open and obvious, the property owner had no duty to the public except in rare situations. This made it virtually impossible to hold property owners accountable for dangerous conditions on their land.

But the law has since changed. If a property owner allows snow and ice to exist on his property and does nothing to remove the danger – such as salting or plowing – the property owner can be held accountable for allowing an unreasonably dangerous condition to exist.

Instead, the open and obvious nature of the condition goes to whether the plaintiff was more than 50% at fault for causing their own injury.

Trespassing:

Trespassing is when a person enters another’s land without the landowner’s consent. As you can imagine, the landowner owes no duty to a trespasser except to refrain from injuring him by “wilful and wanton” misconduct. There are certain exceptions to this for children.

What Are the Most Common Slip and Fall Injuries

It’s important to also understand the common types of injuries that can result from slip and fall cases in Michigan. Falls can cause serious injuries that can create permanent and severe damage. Quality of life and well-being can be affected by slip and fall accidents. The elderly are especially at risk for injury due to poor balance.

Common slip and fall injuries include:

Broken bones and fractures in the wrist, arms, hand and elbow;
Broken bones in the legs, ankles, or feet;
Low back pain and lumbar disc herniation;
Neck pain and cervical disc herniation;
Torn ACLs, MCLs, meniscus and other ligament and tendon injury;
Shoulder injuries and rotator cuff tears
Head trauma, including traumatic brain injury.

What Are Common Locations of Slip and Fall Accidents

A slip and fall injury in Michigan can happen at almost any location, but the most common places outside the home for a fall injury include:

Stores, shopping plazas, and malls
Hospitals, medical buildings, nursing, and senior homes
Homes and residences of family and friends
Apartment complexes and condominium grounds
Restaurants, cafeterias, and eateries
Motels and hotels
Movie theaters, concert venues, and stadiums
Health clubs, recreational centers, and gyms
Schools and colleges and their campuses, including gyms and auditoriums
Airports, train stations, and bus stations
Workplace settings such as factories, offices, and manufacturing facilities

How Do You Prove Fault in a Slip and Fall Case

There are several important and distinct elements to a slip-and-fall case. Each element must be proven for a slip-and-fall case to advance and for compensation to be received.

Negligence

An injured person must also prove negligence or fault. In a premises liability case, the plaintiff must show the property owner owed a duty to the public. The owner or person in control of the property breached that duty by allowing an unreasonably dangerous condition to exist on the land. Without proving negligence, there is no case.

Proving negligence in a slip and fall case under Michigan law requires a certain amount of evidence. The law requires that the property owner where the fall occurred actually knew, or reasonably should have known, about the dangerous condition.

Further, the property owner must have had the ability and opportunity to fix the problem or warn of its existence. Finally, the property owner negligently failed to do so.

This concept is known as “notice” or “constructive notice.” Even with notice, however, a property owner is not required to fix a hazard immediately. Instead, the law allows for a reasonable amount of time to correct a dangerous condition.

Causation or “Proximate Cause”

The victim of a slip and fall case in Michigan must also prove that a dangerous condition on the property directly caused the fall and the resulting injury. This legal requirement is known as “causation” or “proximate cause.” In some cases, it can be difficult to prove how long a hazardous condition existed on a property, in which case a slip and fall attorney in Michigan can provide valuable assistance.

For this reason, a Michigan slip and fall attorney and legal team often investigate the accident site and seek to obtain witness testimony, medical records, and other valuable evidence that demonstrates a direct connection between the negligent action or omission and the victim’s accident.

Injury

For a Michigan slip and fall or trip and fall claim to succeed, it is necessary to demonstrate damages. The accident victim must have evidence of an actual injury, and the injury is usually confirmed by a physician.

Slip and Fall Injury Statistics

Nearly 25,000 slip-and-fall accidents occur daily in the United States. More shocking is the estimated 16,000 people who die each year as a result of a fall. In fact, one in five emergency room visits is the result of a fall.

Slips and trips also account for about 15 percent to 20 percent of all workers’ compensation costs. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, these accidents are second only to motor vehicles as a cause of occupational fatalities.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has monitored and kept statistics on falls that show how frequent and devastating slip and falls can be. Here are just some of the facts and statistics related to injuries and falls:

Each year, over 3 million people in the U.S. are treated in emergency rooms for fall injuries.
One out of every five falls results in a head injury or a broken bone.
More than 95% of all hip fractures are caused by falls.
More than 800,000 people are hospitalized every year in the U.S. because of injuries related to a fall.
The total medical costs for fall-related treatments in the U.S. was more than $60 billion in 2022 alone.
Falls are the most common cause of traumatic brain injuries.

Michigan Slip and Fall Lawyers: The Lee Steinberg Law Firm Gets Results

Every case is different. Because of this, it is vital to contact a knowledgeable and experienced Michigan slip-and-fall lawyer who can explain the law to you, answer your questions, and investigate your case.

The Lee Steinberg Law Firm uses its wealth of experience to understand the facets of Michigan slip and fall and Michigan trip and fall law to assist our clients. Our team of experienced Michigan slip and fall attorneys is dedicated to helping you get the compensation you deserve.

Our Michigan slip-and-fall lawyers fight for our clients. We have represented individuals injured by slip and fall accidents on Michigan properties for almost 50 years.

Please call Lee Free and Michigan slip and fall lawyers at 1-800-LEE-FREE (1-866-696-9146) or contact us online to schedule a free consultation.

We can answer any questions about Michigan slip and fall law and Michigan slip and fall accidents. We would be glad to hear about your case and provide more information on how we can fight for the fair compensation that you are owed.