A fall is not a case. A fall someone should have prevented is.
Property owners in Pennsylvania are not insurers of everyone who walks onto their land. The question is never simply whether you fell. It is whether the owner knew, or should have known, about the hazard and failed to do something a reasonably careful owner would have done.
Lawyers file these under premises liability — the law governing injuries caused by the condition of someone else’s property. A slip and fall is the most common kind, but the same rules cover a trip on broken paving, a fall down unlit stairs, or a ceiling that gives way.
What you were doing there changes what you were owed
| Status | Who this is | What is owed |
|---|---|---|
| Invitee | Customers, tenants, anyone there for the owner’s business | The highest duty: inspect for hazards and make them safe or warn. Most claims are here. |
| Licensee | Social guests | Warn of known dangers the guest is unlikely to discover |
| Trespasser | Someone there without permission | Very little, beyond not causing wilful harm |
Notice is where these claims are won and lost
Most slip and fall claims are decided on this point rather than on how badly someone was hurt. You generally have to show the owner had actual notice of the hazard (they knew) or constructive notice (it had been there long enough that a reasonable owner would have found it). A spill thirty seconds old is usually nobody’s fault. The same spill an hour old, tracked through by other shoppers, is a different case.
This is why evidence gathered early matters so much: incident reports, inspection logs, and above all the store’s own CCTV, which is frequently overwritten within days unless someone asks for it to be preserved.
Snow and ice: Pennsylvania has its own rule
Falls on snow or ice are governed by the hills and ridges doctrine, which is specific to Pennsylvania and surprises people.
Where snow or ice has accumulated naturally, an owner is generally not liable unless the snow and ice had formed into ridges or elevations that unreasonably obstruct travel, the owner had notice of them, and they caused the fall. Landowners are given a reasonable time after a storm to clear up; a fall during or immediately after a storm is difficult.
The doctrine applies to natural accumulation. Ice formed because a downspout discharged across a walkway, or because a lot was ploughed into a pile that melted and refroze, is a different argument entirely.
Open and obvious hazards
An owner may argue the hazard was so obvious that you should have avoided it. That is a real defence, but not an automatic one — it does not apply where the owner should have anticipated that people would encounter the hazard anyway, for example the only entrance to a shop.
Being partly at fault
Expect the argument that you were not looking where you were going, were carrying something, or were wearing unsuitable footwear. Under Pennsylvania’s modified comparative negligence rule that reduces recovery by your share and only bars it entirely above 50 percent.
The deadline, and one that catches people out
Two years from the fall for most premises claims.
Six months’ written notice if you fell on property owned by a local agency or the Commonwealth — a school, a municipal building, a public sidewalk maintained by a township. Miss that notice and the two years becomes irrelevant.
What to do now
Report the fall in writing and keep a copy. Photograph the hazard and the surrounding area before anything is cleaned or repaired. Get the names of anyone who saw it. Ask, in writing, that video be preserved. Then get an opinion before giving any recorded statement.
LPB Law Group reviews Pennsylvania premises claims at no charge.