You fell in a store or parking lot: when a Texas slip and fall is a real claim

The honest answer for anyone who just fell

You may have a case if you fell because of a dangerous condition the property owner knew about, or should have discovered, and failed to fix or warn you about, and the fall caused you real injury. Falling on someone else's property is not enough by itself. In Texas, the strongest fall claims are the ones where evidence shows the hazard had been there long enough that a reasonable store should have found it, or that employees actually knew about it.

I am a founding partner at Garcia, Garcia & Mullen, and slip and fall and premises liability cases are part of my injury practice. People who call me after a fall are often embarrassed, hurt worse than they first thought, and unsure whether they are allowed to blame the store. This guide explains how Texas courts look at these cases so you can judge your own situation. It is general information, not legal advice; talk to a licensed Texas attorney about your specific facts.

Four things Texas law asks an injured customer to prove

When you are a customer in a store, the law treats you as an invitee, someone who was invited onto the property for the owner's business purposes. In its 2026 decision in H-E-B, LP v. Peterson, the Supreme Court of Texas restated what an injured invitee must show. Each element is a separate hurdle, and a claim that is strong on three and missing the fourth usually fails.

• The owner or operator had actual or constructive knowledge of a condition on property it controls.
• The condition was unreasonably dangerous.
• The owner failed to use reasonable care to reduce or eliminate the risk.
• That failure was a proximate cause of your injury.

How long was the spill there? The question that decides most fall cases

Actual knowledge is the simpler path: an employee saw the puddle, a customer reported the loose mat, or the store caused the hazard itself. More often, though, there is no proof anyone knew, and the case turns on constructive knowledge, meaning the store should have known. The Peterson decision makes clear what that requires: some evidence of how long the dangerous condition existed before the fall, so a jury can decide whether a reasonable owner had the chance to discover it. The court said whether an owner can be charged with that knowledge depends on how long the condition existed, how close employees were to it, and how noticeable it was.

In that case, a shopper slipped on a clear liquid on an aisle floor. She had evidence of roof leaks elsewhere in the store, but nothing showing how long the puddle on her aisle had been there, and the court ruled for the grocer. By contrast, the court pointed to an earlier case in which video showed employees repeatedly walking past a large grease spill in the five minutes before a customer slipped, which was enough to let the claim go forward.

The practical lesson is that the evidence of time, especially surveillance video, cleaning logs and employee schedules, is often the whole case. Stores record over their footage. That is why what you do in the first days after a fall matters so much.

Steps to take in the first days after a fall

If you are able, these steps protect both your health and your claim. None of them requires a lawyer, and all of them are easier to do right away than weeks later.

Keep your receipt or a bank record that shows you were in the store, and write down, the same day, everything you remember: the time, the aisle or area, what you slipped on, what employees said, and whether anyone mentioned that the problem had been reported before. Comments like that are easy to forget and hard to recover later. Over the following weeks, keep a short daily note about pain, sleep, missed work and the things you could not do, because insurers value injuries partly on how well their effect on your life is documented.

• Report the fall to a manager before you leave and ask that an incident report be written. Ask for a copy, or at least the name of the person who took it.
• Photograph the exact spot, the substance or defect, the lighting, and whether any warning sign was present, from several angles.
• Get names and phone numbers of any witnesses, including employees who came to help.
• Keep the shoes and clothing you were wearing, unwashed, in a bag.
• Ask in writing that the store preserve its video from the hours before and after your fall.
• See a doctor promptly, describe exactly how you fell, and follow the treatment plan.
• Do not give a recorded statement to the store's insurer until you have had advice.

Falls that often support a claim, and falls that usually do not

In my experience, the situations most likely to support a claim involve hazards a store creates or tolerates: a spill an employee walked past, produce or ice left on the floor for a long stretch, a leak that has been dripping into a bucket for days and finally overflowed, torn mats, broken pavement in a parking lot that has been there for months, missing handrails, or poor lighting in a stairwell. Prior complaints about the same hazard are especially important, because they speak directly to knowledge.

Claims are harder when the hazard appeared moments before the fall, when there is no way to show how long it was there, when the condition was obvious and easy to avoid, or when the injury is minor and resolved quickly. That does not mean you should not ask. It means a careful lawyer will tell you candidly whether the evidence is there, and I do. If you want to understand why some cases are worth pursuing and others are not, my guide on common Texas injury claim myths covers the misunderstandings I hear most.

When the store blames you for not watching your step

Expect it. Store insurers often argue that the customer was looking at a phone, wearing the wrong shoes, or should have seen the hazard. Texas uses proportionate responsibility: under the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, a claimant who is more than 50 percent responsible cannot recover, and a claimant who is 50 percent or less responsible has the recovery reduced by their share of fault. So the question is rarely all or nothing; it is how fault is divided.

That is another reason to be careful in early conversations with a store's claims representative. A friendly question about whether you were in a hurry, or whether you saw the floor, can become the main argument for assigning fault to you. Answer only what is needed to report the incident, and get advice before you go further.

Apartments, parking lots and public property follow some different rules

Not every fall happens in a grocery aisle. Falls at apartment complexes, office buildings, restaurants and parking lots raise the same core question about what the owner knew, but they can add others, such as who actually controlled the area: the landlord, a tenant, or a property management or maintenance company. Identifying the right party early matters, because each may have its own insurer.

Falls on property owned by a city, county or other government body are different in an important way. Claims against government entities in Texas can require written notice within a much shorter period than the general two-year deadline for filing suit, and the rules on what can be recovered are narrower. If you fell on a public sidewalk, in a government building, or at a public facility in Dallas or anywhere else, talk to a lawyer quickly so a notice deadline does not pass unnoticed.

How we look into a fall claim

Our investigation focuses on what the property owner knew and what it should have fixed. We gather photos, witness statements, the incident report and your medical records, and we ask early for preservation of video and maintenance records before they are overwritten. We look at whether there were earlier complaints or incidents involving the same condition, how often the area was inspected, and how close employees were when you fell.

We also look at your medical picture carefully. Falls can cause injuries that are not obvious the same day, such as back and neck injuries, wrist and hip fractures, and head injuries. Our team includes an emergency medicine physician who serves as a medical consultant, which helps us understand what your records show and what future care may be needed. Once the evidence and treatment are clear, we present the claim to the owner's insurer, negotiate, and file suit if a fair offer does not come. If you are wondering how long that usually takes, see how long an injury case takes in Texas.

If you are still deciding whether to call

Call sooner rather than later, mainly because of the video. The consultation is free and confidential, and you will leave with a straight answer about whether your fall looks like a claim. If it does and you retain us, we send preservation requests, take over communication with the insurer, and start the investigation right away. If you would rather try to resolve a small claim on your own first, read when handling your own injury claim works before you do.

For personal injury cases, there is no attorney fee unless we recover compensation for you. We represent people throughout the Dallas–Fort Worth area and Kaufman County, and our phone line is answered around the clock.

Questions people ask me