A staircase that should have been fixed, a spill nobody cleaned, a parking lot the owner knew was dangerous after dark. These cases are won with proof of what the owner knew — and when.
"Slip and fall" undersells what these cases are. The serious ones involve broken hips and shoulders, head injuries on concrete, stair and railing failures, falling merchandise, and assaults enabled by absent security. The legal question is rarely whether you fell — it's whether the owner created the hazard or knew (or should have known) about it and let it sit. That's a documents-and-witnesses fight: inspection logs, sweep sheets, prior incident reports, work orders, and surveillance footage that owners are quick to let disappear. Early preservation demands matter here as much as in trucking cases.
West Virginia adds a wrinkle worth knowing: by statute, owners generally aren't liable for hazards that are "open, obvious, reasonably apparent" (W. Va. Code § 55-7-28). The defense waves that statute at every case. It loses force when the evidence shows the hazard was concealed, the lighting was poor, or the owner had notice and a duty that a warning sign can't discharge. Ohio runs a similar open-and-obvious doctrine through its case law. Knowing where these doctrines actually stop is most of the craft.
Deadlines are the usual two years in both states (W. Va. Code § 55-2-12; Ohio Rev. Code § 2305.10) — but footage gets overwritten in days. If the property has cameras, the time to act is now.
Questions
I fell but didn't report it that day. Is that fatal?
No, but it raises the proof burden. Report it now, in writing, and preserve what you have — photos, clothing, shoes, witness names, and the medical record that ties the injury to the fall.
The store says I should have watched where I was going.
That's the open-and-obvious defense plus comparative fault, and it's their script in every case. Whether it works depends on lighting, sight lines, distractions the store itself created, and notice. Juries are less impressed by the script than adjusters expect.
Can I sue if I was hurt by crime on a business's property?
Sometimes — when prior incidents and conditions made the danger foreseeable and the owner skipped reasonable security. These negligent-security cases are fact-heavy and very much within our civil rights and injury wheelhouse.
