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A wet floor with no warning sign, a broken step left unrepaired for months, a parking lot riddled with ice after a winter storm; these are not random accidents. They are the result of property owners failing to maintain safe conditions for the people who enter their premises. When a preventable hazard causes a serious injury, Missouri law gives victims the right to hold negligent property owners accountable. Filing a slip-and-fall lawsuit is how that accountability happens, and our team at Goldblatt + Singer has spent more than 75 years helping injured St. Louis residents pursue the compensation they deserve.
The moments after a slip and fall accident are disorienting, painful, and often overwhelming. What you do in the hours and days that follow, however, can make or break the strength of your legal claim. Evidence disappears quickly; surveillance footage gets overwritten, witnesses forget details, and hazardous conditions get repaired as soon as a business realizes it faces liability. Taking deliberate steps right away can protect your health and your legal rights.
Four actions have the most importance in the early stages of a case, such as:
Once these steps are complete, contacting a slip-and-fall attorney should be the next priority.
Most slip-and-fall lawsuits in Missouri follow a recognizable path from first contact to final resolution. It begins with a free case evaluation, where an attorney reviews the facts and advises on how to proceed. If the case moves forward, the investigation phase starts immediately, gathering incident reports, surveillance footage, witness accounts, and the property owner’s maintenance records.
Once liability is established, the attorney sends a formal demand letter to the insurer, and settlement negotiations begin. If the initial offers are inadequate, a formal lawsuit is filed in the Missouri civil court, and discovery opens. This stage involves depositions, written interrogatories, and document requests between both sides, and can last several months in a contested case.
Following discovery, most cases either settle at mediation or proceed to trial. From the first call to final resolution, a slip-and-fall lawsuit in Missouri typically takes between one and three years, though cases with clear liability and cooperative insurers can resolve more quickly.
Premises liability is the area of Missouri law that governs slip-and-fall claims. To recover compensation, an injured person must prove four elements: that the property owner owed a duty of care, that the owner breached that duty by allowing a dangerous condition to exist, that the condition directly caused the fall, and that the fall produced measurable harm. Missouri property owners owe this duty to all lawful visitors, from grocery store customers to office building guests.
The breach element is where most cases turn. The injured person must show that the property owner created the hazard, knew about it, and failed to correct it, or reasonably should have discovered it through ordinary maintenance. Maintenance logs, employee statements, and prior incident reports can become critical evidence at this stage.
Missouri follows a pure comparative fault rule, meaning that if a jury finds the injured person partially responsible, their damages are reduced by their percentage of fault rather than eliminated entirely. An attorney at Goldblatt + Singer can work to minimize any comparative fault assigned to the client. Without solid documentation of all four elements, insurance companies will resist even legitimate claims.
Slip and fall injuries range from soft tissue sprains to fractured hips, traumatic brain injuries, and spinal cord damage. The compensation available in a Missouri premises liability case reflects the full scope of what the victim has lost, not just the bills already paid.
Damages in a successful slip and fall claim can include:
Missouri does not cap non-economic damages in premises liability cases, meaning the value of a well-documented pain-and-suffering claim is not artificially limited. An attorney familiar with Missouri slip-and-fall litigation can provide a realistic assessment of total damages based on the specific facts of the case.
Missouri law sets a strict deadline for personal injury claims. Under Missouri Revised Statutes § 516.120, an injured person has five years from the date of the fall to file a premises liability lawsuit in civil court. Missing this deadline can result in the case being dismissed, regardless of how solid the underlying claim may be.
Five years may sound like a long time, but waiting has serious risks. Physical evidence disappears. Witnesses become harder to locate. Surveillance footage is typically overwritten within 30 to 90 days. The longer a victim waits to consult an attorney, the harder it becomes to reconstruct a compelling record of what happened and who was at fault. Consulting an attorney early gives your case the foundation to move forward.
A serious fall injury can change everything in an instant. Our team at Goldblatt + Singer has stood by injured St. Louis residents since 1949, recovering more than one billion dollars for over 30,000 clients across Missouri. Our attorneys take premises liability cases on a contingency basis: no recovery, no fee. To discuss your slip and fall lawsuit with a Missouri personal injury lawyer, contact us today at (314) 231-4100 for a free case evaluation.
Jeff Singer, Managing Partner at Goldblatt + Singer for over a decade, is a seasoned personal injury attorney known for his compassionate yet tough advocacy. He has resolved hundreds of cases and recovered millions for clients. Recognized as a Missouri Super Lawyer and Top 100 National Trial Lawyer, Jeff also serves on the Missouri Bar’s Chief Disciplinary Committee and the Board of Governors for the Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys.
This page has been created, edited, and reviewed by a team of legal writers following our thorough editorial guidelines. It was approved by our Founding Partner, Jeffrey Singer, who has over 30 years of experience as a personal injury attorney.
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