Slip and Fall Attorney NJ

You generally need to show that a dangerous condition existed, that the property owner, manager, tenant, or other party in control knew or reasonably should have known about it, and that the condition caused your injuries. Photos, incident reports, witness names, inspection records, cleanup logs, surveillance footage, and medical records can all help connect the hazard to the fall.

Responsibility can fall on a property owner, business operator, landlord, tenant, management company, maintenance contractor, snow-removal contractor, or another party that controlled the area where the fall happened. The right defendant depends on who had the duty to inspect, repair, warn, clean, salt, sand, or otherwise keep the premises reasonably safe.

New Jersey uses modified comparative negligence. If an injured person is partly blamed for the fall, any recovery can be reduced by that percentage of fault. If the injured person is found more responsible than the other parties combined, recovery may be barred. That is why notice evidence, photos, lighting conditions, footwear, warning signs, and surveillance footage can matter.

Save photos or video of the hazard, the exact location, warning signs or lack of signs, footwear and clothing, incident reports, witness information, medical records, bills, time missed from work, and any messages with the property owner or insurer. If a business or apartment building may have camera footage, it is important to request preservation quickly before footage is overwritten.

Common hazards include wet floors, spills, rainwater tracked into entrances, snow and ice, uneven sidewalks, potholes, loose rugs or carpeting, broken stairs, missing handrails, poor lighting, debris, and obstacles in walkways. The issue is not just that a hazard existed; the claim often depends on whether the responsible party had notice and a reasonable chance to fix or warn about it.

In New Jersey, a commercial property owner must keep the public sidewalk next to its property in reasonably good condition, including dealing with snow and ice within a reasonable time; since 2024 that includes owners of vacant commercial lots. A residential homeowner generally has no duty to clear the public sidewalk of natural snow and ice, but can be liable for making it more dangerous, for example through careless clearing. Mixed-use buildings and rentals are judged by their predominant use, and a sidewalk privately owned by a community association is treated differently.

Usually not against a commercial owner for snow and ice that was still accumulating. Under the ongoing storm rule adopted in 2021, the duty to clear arises within a reasonable time after the storm ends. There are exceptions: the owner may still be liable if its own conduct increased the risk, or if the hazard existed before the storm began. When the storm ended and where the ice came from are often disputed facts.

Claims against public entities follow the Tort Claims Act. A notice of claim must generally be filed within 90 days, you must show a dangerous condition and that the entity’s action or inaction was palpably unreasonable, and pain-and-suffering damages are limited to serious permanent injuries with more than $3,600 in medical expenses. Public entities are also not liable for injuries caused solely by the effect of weather on streets and highways.

Ordinarily you must show the business knew, or should have discovered through reasonable inspection, that the hazard was there, unless the business created it. In self-service settings where products are handled by customers, the mode-of-operation rule can relieve you of proving notice if the hazard was reasonably related to that self-service activity. Courts apply it narrowly; it did not apply, for example, to grapes sold in closed containers.