Georgia Slip and Fall Lawyer

What Georgia law requires of property owners

An owner or occupier who invites people onto the property, such as customers, diners, hotel guests or a tenant's visitors, must use ordinary care to keep the premises and approaches safe (O.C.G.A. § 51-3-1). The owner is not an insurer of everyone's safety. Georgia courts describe the basis of liability as the owner's superior knowledge of the hazard: a danger the owner knew about, or should have known about, and you did not.

Someone who is on the property only for their own purposes, with the owner's permission, such as a social guest, is usually treated as a licensee. The owner generally owes a licensee a narrower duty: to avoid willful or wanton injury (O.C.G.A. § 51-3-2). Which category applies depends on why you were there.

Showing the owner knew about the hazard

You generally must show that the owner had actual or constructive knowledge of the hazard. Actual knowledge means the owner knew, for example because an employee saw the spill or a customer reported it. Constructive knowledge means the owner should have known. Georgia courts recognize two common ways to show it:

• An employee was in the immediate area and could easily have seen and removed the hazard.
• The hazard was there long enough that a reasonable inspection should have found it. If the owner cannot show that it had a reasonable inspection procedure and actually followed it, knowledge may be inferred.

“Open and obvious” is not an automatic defense

Owners often argue that the hazard was open and obvious, or that you should have been watching where you were going. That argument does not automatically defeat a claim. The Supreme Court of Georgia has explained that the question is whether you reasonably could have seen and avoided the hazard by using ordinary care, and that conditions such as poor lighting or a hidden change in elevation can create a question of fact (SMG Construction Services v. Cook, 2025). Admitting that you were not looking at the floor when you fell does not automatically establish that you were careless (Robinson v. Kroger Co., 1997).

The defense is stronger when you already knew about the specific hazard that caused the fall. Even then, the owner must still prove the other parts of its defense, and courts take these questions away from a jury only when the evidence is plain, palpable and undisputed. The details of each fall matter.

Your own care and shared fault

Georgia expects visitors to use ordinary care for their own safety. If you could have avoided the harm through ordinary care, you may not be able to recover (O.C.G.A. § 51-11-7). In other cases, a share of fault assigned to you lowers your damages by that percentage, and a share of 50 percent or more bars recovery (O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33).

Where falls happen

• Grocery and retail stores: spills, dropped produce, leaking coolers, merchandise left in aisles and wet entryways on rainy days.
• Restaurants and hotels: wet or uneven floors, poorly lit steps and restroom hazards.
• Apartments and rental homes: Georgia landlords must keep rented premises in repair (O.C.G.A. § 44-7-13). A landlord who has handed over possession is generally not responsible for a tenant's own negligence, but remains responsible for defective construction and failure to repair (O.C.G.A. § 44-7-14). Stairwells, walkways and other common areas the landlord controls can also be involved.
• Parking lots and sidewalks: potholes, broken curbs and poor lighting, where an early question is who maintains the area.
• Government property: falls in public buildings or on public sidewalks trigger the notice deadlines described below.

Evidence to preserve

Evidence in a fall case can disappear quickly. Depending on where you fell, it may include:

• Surveillance video, which some businesses keep for only a short time.
• The incident report and the names of the employees or managers you spoke with.
• Photos of the hazard, the lighting, any warning signs or cones (or their absence) and your footwear.
• Inspection or sweep logs, maintenance records and prior complaints about the same condition.
• Witness names and phone numbers.
• Medical records that connect your injuries to the fall.

Filing deadlines and notice to government bodies

In most Georgia injury cases, a lawsuit must be filed within two years of the fall (O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33). If you fell on property owned by a city, county or the State, written ante litem notice comes first: within six months for a city (O.C.G.A. § 36-33-5) and within 12 months for a county (O.C.G.A. § 36-11-1) or the State (O.C.G.A. § 50-21-26). Claims against government bodies also involve immunity rules that can limit or bar recovery, so check your dates early.

What to do after a fall

• Get medical care, and tell the provider exactly how you fell.
• Report the fall to a manager or the property owner, and ask for a copy of the incident report or its report number.
• Photograph the hazard before it is cleaned up, along with the surrounding area, the lighting and your injuries.
• Keep the shoes and clothing you were wearing.
• Write down the names and contact details of witnesses.
• Be cautious about giving a recorded statement to the property owner's insurer before you get legal advice.

How SinghToro Law can help

We start by asking the property owner to preserve video, incident reports and maintenance records, then build a timeline of what the owner knew and when. We gather your medical and wage records and handle communications with the owner's insurer. Compensation in a premises case may include medical expenses, lost income and pain and suffering; for falls on or after April 21, 2025, a 2025 law changed how medical bills are proven at trial (O.C.G.A. § 51-12-1.1). Our principal attorney, Vishay Singh, Esq., is admitted to the Georgia Bar.

Your first consultation is free and confidential. We handle injury cases on a contingency fee, so you owe no attorney's fee unless we recover money for you.