Slip and fall accidents occur every day. Often, these mishaps result in serious back, neck or knee injuries that severely impact the daily lives of people who experience them. Florida is an extremely tough state when it comes to proving fault in slip and fall cases. In order to do so, there must be proof that a shopkeeper was aware of the dangerous conditions that caused the accident. First stated in Owens v. Publix Supermarkets, Inc. , and later codified in Florida Statute § 768.0755, Florida requires the injured plaintiff to prove that a foreign transitory substance (i.e., a liquid, banana peel, etc.) was on the floor for a length of time sufficient enough for the shopkeeper to become aware of the condition. What does this mean in terms of a real slip and fall case? What this statute does is effectively shift the burden to the plaintiff to somehow prove how long the substance was on the floor. But, how does one prove this? One way is for the injured party to be able to testify that the substance looked dirty, had shopping cart tracks through it, or that the banana peel was brown. There is actually a case where the court went into great detail using the fact that the banana peel that caused the accident was brown as evidence for their case. The banana peel, they alleged, had to have been on the floor for a sufficient amount of time because it was brown. Had it […]

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