South Florida Personal Injury Lawyers Blog
If you had a slip and fall at a Miami grocery store, Florida law puts the burden on you to prove the store either knew or should have known about the dangerous condition that caused your fall. This is a tougher standard than most people realize, and it’s the single biggest reason slip-and-fall cases at Publix, Winn-Dixie, Sedano’s, and Whole Foods locations across South Florida get denied.
The statute that governs these claims is Florida Statute § 768.0755, and it changed how grocery store cases work back in 2010.
What Florida Statute § 768.0755 Requires
Under § 768.0755, if you slip and fall on a transitory foreign substance in a business establishment, you must prove that the business establishment had actual or constructive knowledge of the dangerous condition and should have taken action to remedy it. A transitory foreign substance is any temporary substance on the floor that isn’t supposed to be there — spilled milk, leaking produce water, a smashed grape, melted ice cream, or anything similar.
You can prove the store’s knowledge two ways:
- Actual knowledge — an employee saw the spill, was told about it, or caused it themselves. This is the harder version to prove because it usually requires witness testimony or video.
- Constructive knowledge — the condition existed long enough that, in the exercise of ordinary care, the store should have known about it, or the condition occurred with regularity and was therefore foreseeable.
That second prong is where most grocery store slip-and-fall cases live. If a banana had been on the floor for thirty minutes during a busy Saturday afternoon at a Kendall Publix, that’s strong circumstantial evidence the store should have spotted and cleaned it. If you fell on it ten seconds after the woman ahead of you dropped it, the store has a real defense.
Friedman Rodman Frank & Estrada has handled premises liability cases at South Florida grocery stores, restaurants, and big-box retailers since 1976. The investigation usually turns on what the store’s inspection logs, employee schedules, and surveillance footage show — and how quickly we can demand them before they disappear.
What to Do After a Grocery Store Fall in Miami
The first hour matters more than people realize. Report the fall to the store manager and ask for a written incident report. Insist on a copy if they’ll provide one. Take photos of the substance on the floor, the surrounding area, the lack of warning cones, and your shoes. Get the names and phone numbers of any witnesses, including employees.
Then get medical care. Soft-tissue injuries, hip and wrist fractures, and head injuries are common in grocery store falls, and the medical records are what later prove the connection between the fall and your injuries. The statute of limitations for negligence claims in Florida is two years from the date of the fall under Fla. Stat. § 95.11, as amended by HB 837 in 2023.
Do not give a recorded statement to the store’s insurance adjuster before talking to an attorney. Stores like Publix self-insure and have aggressive in-house claims teams trained to lock in statements that defeat your case under § 768.0755. They’ll ask how long you think the substance was on the floor — and any answer you give can be used against you later.
Surveillance video is the single biggest piece of evidence in these cases, and most stores overwrite footage within 30 days. A preservation letter from an attorney early on is often the difference between a case that settles and a case that gets denied. The same applies to other Florida premises liability claims where the store’s records hold the key facts.
Get a Free Case Review
If you had a slip and fall at a Miami grocery store and you’re facing medical bills, lost wages, or pushback from the store’s adjuster, call Friedman Rodman Frank & Estrada at (305) 448-8585 or contact us online. The consultation is free, and you pay nothing unless we recover compensation for you.