Salt Lake City Slip and Fall Lawyer

People tend to shrug off slip-and-fall injuries as embarrassing accidents — something you should have watched out for. Property owners and their insurers count on that. But when a store leaves a spill unmarked, a landlord ignores an icy walkway, or a business lets a step crumble, the injuries that follow aren't your fault. Broken hips, herniated discs, and head injuries can mean surgery, months off work, and lasting pain.

At West Injury Law, we know these cases are won or lost on evidence and timing — and we know how to prove a property owner should have fixed the hazard that hurt you.

Why Slip-and-Fall Cases Are Harder Than They Look

Unlike a car crash, a fall doesn't come with a police report. To win, you generally have to show that the property owner knew, or reasonably should have known, about the dangerous condition and failed to fix it or warn you — and that the hazard is what caused your injury. Insurers exploit that: they argue the spill "just happened," that you weren't watching, or that the danger was "open and obvious."

That's why the evidence gathered in the first hours and days matters so much — the photo of the ice before it melts, the incident report before it's rewritten, the witness before they leave. The sooner we're involved, the stronger your case.

Utah Premises Liability Law

Property owners owe you a duty of care. In Utah, a property owner or occupier must keep their premises reasonably safe and warn of known hazards. How much they owe depends on why you were there:

• Invitees — customers, tenants, and business visitors — are owed the highest duty: reasonable care to keep the property safe and to inspect for hazards.
• Licensees — social guests — are owed a duty to be warned of known dangers.
• Trespassers are generally owed only a limited duty.

Proving the case. You typically must show the owner knew or should have known about the hazard and failed to act. A puddle that a manager walked past for an hour is very different from one that appeared seconds before you fell.

Shared fault matters. Utah follows modified comparative negligence with a 50% bar — your compensation is reduced by your share of fault, and if you're found 50% or more responsible, you recover nothing. Insurers lean hard on this to blame you.

The deadline. You generally have four years from the date of the fall to file a personal injury claim in Utah. Evidence disappears fast, so don't wait.

Slip and Fall Statistics

Falls are one of the most common causes of serious injury in the country — not a rare fluke. The CDC reports that falls are a leading cause of injury-related emergency-department visits for people of all ages, and among older adults the toll is especially high: roughly 3 million older adults are treated in emergency rooms for fall injuries each year, and falls are the leading cause of injury and injury death for adults 65 and older.

When a fall is caused by a hazard the property owner should have fixed — an unsalted walkway, an unmarked spill, a broken stair — those injuries and their costs are the owner's responsibility, not yours.

Source: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), fall-injury data.

What to Do After a Slip and Fall

1. Report it right away. Tell the store manager, landlord, or property owner and make sure a written incident report is created — then ask for a copy.
2. Photograph the hazard immediately. The spill, the ice, the broken step — capture it before it's cleaned up, salted, or repaired. This evidence vanishes fast.
3. Get witness information. Names and numbers of anyone who saw the fall or the hazard.
4. See a doctor — even if you feel okay. Back, hip, and head injuries often surface days later. Prompt care documents the injury.
5. Don't give a recorded statement — call West Injury Law. Let us deal with the insurer. Free consultation, no attorney fees unless we win.

Where Falls Happen — Common Hazards

We handle falls caused by ice and snow on unsalted walkways and parking lots (a constant hazard along the Wasatch Front), wet or freshly mopped floors without warning signs, uneven or broken flooring and cracked sidewalks, poorly lit stairwells and walkways, loose rugs, mats, and cords, missing handrails, and falling merchandise. These happen in grocery stores, restaurants, apartment complexes, hotels, parking lots, and on public sidewalks.

Common Slip and Fall Injuries

A fall can cause far more than a bruise. We handle cases involving broken hips and fractures, herniated discs and back injuries, traumatic brain injuries and concussions, shoulder and wrist injuries, spinal cord damage, and torn ligaments. For older adults especially, a single fall can be life-altering — which is exactly why these claims deserve to be taken seriously.

Compensation You Can Recover

• Economic damages: medical bills, future medical care, lost wages, and lost earning capacity.
• Non-economic damages: pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of life.
• Long-term care costs: where a serious fall leads to lasting disability.

How Insurance Companies Try to Pay You Less

Expect the insurer to argue that you weren't watching where you were going, that the hazard was "open and obvious," that the spill appeared too quickly for anyone to fix, or that your injury was pre-existing. They may also push a fast, low settlement before you know how serious the injury is. We counter with evidence — photos, incident reports, maintenance records, and witness statements — and we hold them to the real value of your claim.

Why Choose West Injury Law

• We deal with the insurance companies — so you can focus on getting better.
• No attorney fees unless we win — free consultation, nothing up front.
• Local roots — a Salt Lake City firm that knows Utah premises law and Utah winters.
• Evidence-driven — we move fast to lock down the proof these cases turn on.
• Hablamos Español.