Massachusetts Slip and Fall FAQs

These answers explain how Massachusetts law treats falls on someone else's property: what owners owe visitors, what you have to prove, and what can shorten your time to act. Falls on snow and ice follow some special rules, which we cover on a separate page.

A property owner or occupier owes every lawful visitor a duty of reasonable care under all the circumstances. That includes keeping the property in reasonably safe condition, fixing hazards the owner knows or should know about, and warning about hidden dangers. The duty belongs to whoever owns or controls the space, which is why a store tenant or a management company can be responsible even if it does not hold the deed.

Massachusetts dropped the old labels that still show up on many websites. In Mounsey v. Ellard, 363 Mass. 693 (1973), the Supreme Judicial Court ended the distinction between "invitees" (customers) and "licensees" (social guests). A dinner guest and a paying customer are owed the same reasonable care. Reasonable care does not mean perfect care. An owner is not an insurer of everyone who walks in. Our Massachusetts premises liability page covers the kinds of property cases we handle.

An adult trespasser can usually recover only if the owner acted willfully, wantonly, or recklessly. The Supreme Judicial Court kept that narrower rule in Schofield v. Merrill, 386 Mass. 244 (1982), where a 23-year-old dove into an abandoned quarry and struck a submerged ledge. There is one exception, from Pridgen v. Boston Housing Authority, 364 Mass. 696 (1974): once the owner knows a trespasser is trapped or in a position of peril, the owner must use reasonable care to avoid harming that person.

Children get more protection. Under M.G.L. c. 231, § 85Q, an owner can be liable to a trespassing child for an artificial condition, such as an unfenced pool or an open excavation, when the owner knows children are likely to come onto the land, the condition poses a risk of death or serious injury that young children would not recognize, the burden of removing the danger is slight compared with the risk, and the owner fails to use reasonable care to eliminate the danger or protect the children.

A separate statute covers free public access. Under M.G.L. c. 21, § 17C, a landowner who lets the public use land for recreation without charging a fee is liable only for willful, wanton, or reckless conduct. An owner who charges a fee for that use loses the protection, though a voluntary donation does not count as a fee. See our swimming pool accident page for cases involving children.

Usually, yes, unless the owner created the hazard or the mode of operation rule applies. You generally must show the owner knew about the hazard, or that it was there long enough that a reasonable inspection would have found it and fixed it or warned about it.

How long is long enough depends on the place. A spill in a busy supermarket aisle may call for faster action than a spill in a rarely used storeroom. Evidence that helps prove time includes a dried or tracked-through spill, footprints and cart marks, cleaning logs, and surveillance video that shows when the hazard appeared.

You do not need to prove notice if the owner or its employees created the hazard, for example by mopping without a sign or stacking boxes in an aisle. Our grocery store slip and fall page walks through common store hazards.

It can relieve you of having to prove the store knew about the specific item you slipped on. In Sheehan v. Roche Bros. Supermarkets, Inc., 448 Mass. 780 (2007), a shopper slipped on a grape in a self-service supermarket. The Supreme Judicial Court held that a plaintiff can satisfy the notice requirement by showing the injury came from a reasonably foreseeable hazard related to the store's self-service business model.

The rule is not limited to grocery stores. In Sarkisian v. Concept Restaurants, Inc., 471 Mass. 679 (2015), the court applied it to a nightclub that sold drinks in plastic cups from bars on a crowded dance floor, where spilled drinks were a foreseeable result of how the business chose to operate. The owner still wins if it took reasonable steps to guard against that kind of hazard.

The rule has limits. The hazard must come from the business's chosen way of operating. A slip on water from a leaking roof is still a regular notice case. Read more about falls in stores and businesses.

Sometimes. An owner generally does not have to warn about a danger that is open and obvious, because a warning would tell a reasonable person nothing new. But the owner may still have to fix it.

In Dos Santos v. Coleta, 465 Mass. 148 (2013), the Supreme Judicial Court held that an obvious danger does not end the owner's duty to remedy a hazard when the owner can and should anticipate that people will encounter it anyway. The owner there set a trampoline next to a shallow above-ground pool so guests could jump in. Whether the rule applies depends on the facts, but it can matter for hazards people have no practical way to avoid, such as a broken step on the only path into a building.

How obvious the danger was can also become a question of your share of the fault. Our stairwell injury page covers common step and stair defects.

Not automatically, but it can be evidence of negligence. In Lindsey v. Massios, 372 Mass. 79 (1977), the Supreme Judicial Court said a violation of a statute requiring hallway lighting, "if found, constitutes evidence of negligence." The rule must actually apply to the property and be aimed at the kind of harm that happened. A jury weighs the violation along with everything else.

Code issues often come up in stair falls: missing or loose handrails, steps of uneven height, dim or burned-out lighting, and worn treads. An engineer or building inspector can measure the stairs and compare them with the code that applied when they were built or renovated. See our poor lighting injury page for how lighting affects these claims.

Anyone who controlled the space or created the hazard. That can include:

• A tenant business that runs the store or restaurant where you fell.
• A property management company.
• A cleaning, maintenance, or flooring contractor.
• A landlord, for common areas such as stairs, hallways, and entryways.

Some defendants have limits on what they pay. Under M.G.L. c. 231, § 85K, a charity's liability is capped at $20,000 when the injury happened in an activity that directly carries out its charitable purpose. The cap does not apply to activities that are primarily commercial, even if the money goes to charity. Each responsible party may have its own insurance. Talk to us about who controlled the property where you fell.

Yes, if the landlord failed to use reasonable care in areas it controls, such as common stairways, hallways, entryways, and porches. In Lindsey v. Massios, the Supreme Judicial Court held that this duty also protects your guests.

For conditions inside your own unit, M.G.L. c. 186, § 19 gives tenants a specific tool. Once a landlord receives written notice of an unsafe condition by certified or registered mail, it must use reasonable care to fix it within a reasonable time. A notice from a local health or code inspector counts. The statute does not cover owner-occupied two- and three-family homes. A lease clause that says the landlord is not responsible for its own negligence is void under § 15 of the same chapter. See our stairwell injury page for common building defects.

A fall inside a public building, such as a school, library, or city hall, usually falls under the Massachusetts Tort Claims Act, M.G.L. c. 258. Before suing, you must present a written claim within two years under § 4. For a city or town, that means one of the officials the statute lists, such as the mayor or city manager; for a state agency, the Attorney General. You can sue after the claim is denied or six months pass without a decision. Recovery is generally capped at $100,000 under § 2, except for serious bodily injury claims against the MBTA, and § 10 of the statute bars some kinds of claims altogether.

Falls caused by a defect in a public street or sidewalk follow a different statute, M.G.L. c. 84, § 15, with a 30-day notice deadline and a $5,000 cap. We explain that track on our snow, ice, and sidewalk fall FAQs.

Three years from the date of the fall for most claims against a private owner, under M.G.L. c. 260, § 2A. Some claims have earlier deadlines that come first:

• A written claim to a city, town, or state agency within two years under M.G.L. c. 258, § 4.
• Written notice within 30 days for a fall caused by a defect in a public way under M.G.L. c. 84, § 18.
• Written notice within 30 days for a fall caused by snow or ice, including on private property, under M.G.L. c. 84, § 21. Missing that notice defeats a snow or ice claim only if the defendant proves it was prejudiced.

A child's three-year lawsuit deadline is generally paused until age 18 under M.G.L. c. 260, § 7, but that pause does not extend the two-year written claim against a public employer (George v. Saugus, 394 Mass. 40 (1985)).

As soon as you can, ideally the same day. No law sets a deadline for medical care, but insurers often use a gap between the fall and your first visit to argue that something else caused the injury.

Some fall injuries hide at first. A concussion can show up as headaches or confusion a day later. A torn rotator cuff or meniscus can feel like a sprain for a week. Tell the provider exactly how you fell so the record ties the injury to the fall. Then follow through with the care plan. Our injury types page covers common fall injuries.

Start with the evidence most likely to disappear:

• Photos of the exact spot, the hazard, and the lighting, taken before anyone cleans up.
• Names and phone numbers of witnesses.
• A copy of any incident report, or at least the name of the manager you reported the fall to.
• The shoes and clothing you wore, kept as they are.

Many camera systems automatically overwrite old footage, sometimes within days. A written preservation letter asks the owner to keep the video along with inspection and cleaning logs, work orders, prior complaints about the same spot, and its policies.

Yes, as long as your share of the fault is not greater than the combined fault of the defendants. That is the comparative negligence rule in M.G.L. c. 231, § 85. Your damages are reduced by your percentage.

Common defense arguments are that you were looking at your phone, your shoes were wrong for the conditions, or you should have seen the hazard. Say a jury finds you 20 percent at fault for not watching your step and the store 80 percent at fault for leaving a leak unattended for two hours. You recover 80 percent of your damages. Ask us how fault might be divided in your case.

There is no formula. Value depends on how badly you were hurt, how clear the owner's fault is, your own share of fault, and how much insurance is available. The categories of damages are:

• Medical bills, past and future.
• Lost wages and lost earning capacity.
• Pain and suffering, including loss of enjoyment of life.
• Scarring or permanent impairment.
• Loss of consortium claims by a spouse, or by the parents of a seriously injured minor child, or an adult child who depends on them for support, under M.G.L. c. 231, § 85X.

Whoever paid your medical bills may have a right to be repaid from the recovery. MassHealth and Medicare have repayment rights by law, and many private and employer health plans claim them too, which affects what you take home. Our premises liability page describes the injuries these cases involve.

You generally cannot sue your own employer. Workers' compensation covers the fall under M.G.L. c. 152, and it pays medical bills and part of your lost wages whether or not anyone was at fault.

If you fell on property your employer does not control, such as a customer's building, a delivery stop, or a store where you were making a service call, you may also have a claim against that property owner. M.G.L. c. 152, § 15 preserves that third-party claim, though the comp insurer is generally repaid from it. Our workers' compensation FAQs explain the comp side.

Reviewed by Jeffrey S. Glassman, founding attorney. Updated September 2026.

This page is general information, not legal advice. Every case turns on its own facts.