SLIP AND FALL LAWS IN FLORIDA

Under Florida law there are different categories for those who are injured at or on a commercial, private or public property. The plaintiff(s), those injured are owed a different duty or responsibility by the owner or those responsible for these types of properties.

First, the jury must determine whether the plaintiff was an invitee or invited license; a welcomed visitor such as a person shopping at a store or visiting a public park. Or if the plaintiff is a trespasser or an uninvited licensee; a person on the premises unlawfully or without the owner or occupier’s permission.

Our slip and fall attorneys in Jacksonville will help you understand this definition and determine which applies to you.

Slip and fall injuries are first categorized by a jury into one of the following two ways:

1. Invitee or invited licensee:

Whether, at the time and place of the incident, the Plaintiff was invited on premises owned by or in the possession of Defendant. A person is invited on land or premises of another when he/she enters or remains there at the invitation of the owner or possessor. An invitation may be either express or reasonably implied from the circumstances.

A person remains invited as long as he/she uses the premises in the customary manner or in a manner which the owner or possessor of the premises might reasonably have expected and at a place where the visitor was invited or where he/she was permitted to be or where he/she might reasonably have been expected by the owner or possessor to be.

2. Discovered trespasser or uninvited licensee whose presence is foreseeable:

Whether, at the time and place of the incident in this case, Defendant had a duty to use reasonable care for the safety of Plaintiff. A person who owns or has possession of land or premises, who knows of a condition on the premises which involves an unreasonable risk of harm to another person on the premises has a duty to use reasonable care to warn the other person of the condition and the risk involved, if the presence of the other person is known *[or reasonably foreseeable] by the owner or possessor and if the other neither knew nor should have known of the condition and risk by the use of reasonable care.

After deciding whether the plaintiff was an invited licensee or an uninvited licensee, the jury will then decide whether the owner or occupier was negligent.

1. Landowner or possessor’s negligence toward invitee and invited licensee:

Whether Defendant 1.) negligently failed to maintain the premises in a reasonably safe condition, or 2.) negligently failed to correct a dangerous condition about which Defendant either knew or should have known, by the use of reasonable care, or 3.) negligently failed to warn Plaintiff of a dangerous condition about which Defendant had, or should have had, knowledge greater than that of Plaintiff; and, if so, whether such negligence was a legal cause of injury to the Plaintiff.

2. Landowner or possessor’s negligence toward discovered trespasser or foreseeable licensee:

Whether Defendant negligently failed to warn Plaintiff of a dangerous condition and risk which were known to Defendant and of which Plaintiff neither knew nor should have known, by the use of reasonable care; and, if so, whether such negligence was a legal cause of injury to the Plaintiff.

For example, if you were injured while shopping at any grocery store, you would be considered an invitee and owed the highest possible duty by the owner or occupier of the property. The owner or occupier would have to be sure that the premise was reasonably maintained in a safe condition. So, if the store allowed liquid detergent to pool for a period of time, which such pool of detergent caused the Plaintiff to slip and fall and suffer injury, the owner and/or occupier of the store would be liable for the injuries that resulted from such fall. Such occurrences are very common.