If you suffered serious injuries in a slip and fall accident caused by dangerous property conditions, a Pennsylvania slip and fall lawyer at Munley Law can help protect your rights.
Our firm brings more than 250 years of combined experience, with board-certified trial attorneys who have secured multimillion-dollar results in high-stakes premises liability cases involving traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord damage, surgical fractures, and permanent disabilities.
Our premises liability attorneys act promptly to investigate the scene, preserve critical evidence, and develop claims tailored for maximum compensation. We offer free consultations, and you pay no fees unless we successfully represent you in your case.
Contact Munley Law today to speak with an experienced slip and fall lawyer. There is no fee unless we win your case.
Why Choose Munley Law for Serious Slip and Fall Injuries in Pennsylvania?
At Munley Law, we represent clients who have suffered catastrophic injuries in slip and fall accidents throughout Pennsylvania.
Our attorneys hold board certifications from the National Board of Trial Advocacy and recognition as Civil Trial Specialists. These certifications require extensive trial experience, peer review, and demonstrated courtroom excellence.
Our attorneys have earned recognition from Lawdragon, Best Lawyers, and Super Lawyers for their work in premises liability. All of our partners also hold the AV Preeminent Rating from Martindale-Hubbell, which is the highest possible rating, and we have recovered substantial verdicts and settlements for clients who have suffered traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord damage, and orthopedic trauma from slip and falls.
We maintain offices across Pennsylvania and regularly represent clients in courts in Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe, and Wayne counties. Our local presence provides familiarity with Pennsylvania court procedures and established relationships with medical experts and specialists.
When you hire Munley Law, we begin investigating your case immediately. Within 24 to 48 hours, we preserve critical evidence, including security camera footage, maintenance logs, and witness statements. This ensures that we can build the strongest possible case.
We handle all cases on a contingency fee basis; you pay no attorney fees unless we recover compensation.
Contact a Personal Injury Lawyer at Munley Law
Call Us At 844-686-5397 What is Considered a Serious Slip and Fall Injury Case in Pennsylvania?
Munley Law represents clients who have sustained serious injuries in slip and fall accidents caused by property owner negligence. We focus on cases with substantial medical treatment, long-term disability, or permanent impairment. 
Injuries we handle typically require emergency treatment, hospitalization, surgery, or extended rehabilitation. These include:
- Spinal cord injuries: Injuries resulting in paralysis, loss of sensation, or permanent mobility impairment.
- Traumatic brain injuries: TBIs occur when someone strikes their head during a fall. Falls can cause concussions, intracranial hemorrhages, or diffuse axonal injury. Some symptoms of traumatic brain injuries appear hours or days after the incident.
- Fractures requiring surgery: These injuries include hip fractures, femoral fractures, ankle fractures, wrist fractures, or vertebral compression fractures. Fall-related fractures often require open reduction internal fixation and months of physical therapy. Hip fractures carry particularly high morbidity and mortality rates in adults over 65.
- Disc herniations and spinal injuries: These injuries compress nerves and cause radicular pain, motor weakness, or sensory deficits. These may require discectomy, spinal fusion, or other surgical intervention.
- Joint tears requiring orthopedic intervention: Rotator cuff tears, meniscus tears, or labral tears that necessitate arthroscopic surgery or joint replacement.
- Long-term disability or permanent impairment: Any injury that prevents you from returning to work or performing activities of daily living.
“At Munley Law, our mission is simple: to provide all injury victims equal access to justice, even against the most powerful entities. For more than 65 years, we have been the voice for the injured, the forgotten, and those who need someone to stand beside them in their darkest hour.”
Marion Munley
Negligent Conditions That Cause Severe Slip and Fall Injuries in Pennsylvania
Slip and fall accidents resulting in injuries occur when property owners fail to identify and correct hazardous conditions. These conditions commonly include:
Dangerous Conditions in Retail and Commercial Properties
Retail stores experience high foot traffic, creating numerous hazards.
Spills from leaking products, tracked-in water, or broken containers create slippery surfaces. Grocery stores also often experience issues with leaking refrigeration units that cause water to accumulate on floors near produce sections or frozen food aisles.
Flooring conditions also contribute to falls, such as:
- Worn floor mats with curled edges
- Transitions between flooring materials
- Recently waxed floors without warnings
- Damaged flooring creates tripping hazards
- Highly polished surfaces become slippery when wet
Recurring hazards demonstrate property owner knowledge. If a store experiences frequent spills in a particular area due to structural problems but fails to repair the underlying issue, this pattern establishes notice.
Falls remain a leading cause of injury across all age groups. According to the CDC, one out of five falls causes a serious injury, with many occurring in commercial settings.
Negligent Property Maintenance in Rental and Residential Buildings
Pennsylvania building codes establish minimum standards for stair construction, handrail placement, and lighting. This means that landlords and property managers must maintain common areas in a safe condition.
Common hazards include:
- Broken or loose stair treads
- Missing handrails
- Inadequate lighting in stairwells
- Deteriorating steps
- Loose carpeting or flooring in hallways, lobbies, or common areas
- Worn flooring with holes, tears, or raised edges
Outdoor and Parking Lot Hazards
Pennsylvania winters create slip and fall hazards when property owners fail to clear snow and ice from walkways, parking lots, and building entrances.
Property owners must remove snow and ice within a reasonable time after accumulation stops. What constitutes a “reasonable time” depends on factors such as weather conditions, property use, and available resources.
Parking lots present hazards, including:
- Potholes
- Uneven pavement
- Broken concrete
- Drainage problems
- Inadequate lighting
- Broken or uneven sidewalks
How a Pennsylvania Slip and Fall Injury Attorney Proves Negligence
Proving negligence in a Pennsylvania slip and fall case requires establishing four elements:
- Duty of care
- Breach of that duty
- Causation
- Damages
Your attorney must show that the property owner owed you a duty to maintain safe conditions, failed to meet that duty, and that this failure directly caused your injuries.
Property owners in Pennsylvania owe different duties depending on the visitor’s legal status. Invitees, such as customers in stores or apartment residents, receive the highest duty of care. Property owners are also required to inspect for hazards, remedy dangerous conditions, or provide adequate warnings to prevent injuries. Most slip and fall cases involve invitees who were lawfully on the property.
To establish liability, you must prove the property owner had notice of the dangerous condition. Pennsylvania law recognizes two types of notice:
- Actual Notice: The property owner or employees had direct knowledge of the specific hazard. Evidence includes employee statements, incident reports documenting previous complaints, maintenance requests, or video footage showing staff observing the hazard without taking corrective action.
- Constructive Notice: The hazard existed for a sufficient period of time for the property owner to have discovered it through a reasonable inspection. Time-on-floor analysis determines constructive notice. If video footage shows that a spill existed for 30 minutes while employees walked past it, this establishes constructive notice. If the spill occurred seconds before your fall, the property owner may not have had sufficient opportunity to discover it.
Gathering Critical Evidence
Strong slip and fall cases depend on the rapid preservation of evidence. Many businesses use surveillance systems that automatically record over old footage. When secured promptly, video evidence can show how a hazardous condition developed, how long it existed, whether employees were aware of it, and exactly how the fall occurred.
Internal documents are equally important. Corporate safety manuals, cleaning logs, and inspection policies establish the property owner’s own maintenance standards.
For example, if a store requires hourly floor inspections but fails to inspect the area where the fall occurred, that failure can demonstrate a clear violation of company procedures. Incident reports, maintenance records, and surveillance footage often form the foundation of liability evidence.
Expert testimony then connects the evidence to legal responsibility.
- Biomechanical engineers analyze the mechanics of the fall itself.
- Safety experts explain industry standards for property maintenance and hazard prevention.
- Medical experts link the fall to specific injuries, while human factors specialists show why the hazard was not obvious to a reasonable visitor.
Together, this evidence proves not only that the fall occurred, but why it should have been prevented.
Comparative Negligence in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania follows a modified comparative negligence rule. If you are partially at fault for your injuries, your compensation is reduced by your percentage of fault, but only if you are 51% or less responsible. If a jury determines you were 52% or more at fault, you recover nothing.
Defense attorneys commonly argue that injured people should have seen the hazard or were not paying attention. They may claim you wore inappropriate footwear, walked too fast, or were distracted.
Your attorney must gather evidence showing the hazard was not obvious, and your actions were reasonable.
Who Is Liable for a Slip and Fall Accident in Pennsylvania?
Liability in a Pennsylvania slip and fall case often extends beyond a single party. Depending on the type of property and the relationships between owners, tenants, managers, and contractors, multiple parties may share legal responsibility. 
Identifying every potentially liable party is critical, as it directly impacts the scope of available insurance coverage and the compensation you may be able to recover.
Property owners: Owners bear primary responsibility for maintaining safe conditions, including individual homeowners, commercial property owners, and institutions. Property owners may remain liable for dangerous conditions in common areas even after leasing the property.
Commercial tenants: Those who occupy leased property may be liable for falls within their leased space. A retail store leasing space in a shopping center is typically responsible for safe conditions inside the store and immediately adjacent areas.
Property management companies: Organizations that handle day-to-day maintenance can be held liable for falls caused by hazards they should have discovered and corrected.
Snow and ice removal contractors: These third parties may be liable if they negligently perform contracted duties or create additional hazards through improper plowing or salting. Pennsylvania courts have recognized that snow removal contractors can owe a duty directly to injured parties.
Maintenance and janitorial companies: They may be liable if their work creates hazards or if they fail to warn about hazards they have discovered.
Municipal and government entities: Under specific circumstances, these entities can be sued for falls on public property. The Pennsylvania Political Subdivision Tort Claims Act limits municipal liability and requires written notice to the municipality within six months of the accident.
What to Do After a Slip and Fall Accident in PA
The actions you take after a slip and fall accident affect your ability to prove your claim. Follow these steps:
- Seek immediate medical attention. Call 911 or go to the emergency room if you experience head trauma, loss of consciousness, severe pain, inability to bear weight, or back and neck symptoms. Traumatic brain injuries and spinal damage may not cause noticeable symptoms immediately, and medical professionals can identify injuries through examination and imaging.
- Report the incident to the property owner or manager. Notify store management, building security, or the property owner about your fall as soon as possible. Provide a brief, factual description. Request that an incident report be completed and ask for a copy. If refused, note the name of the person who took your report and the report number.
- Photograph the hazard and the surrounding area. Use your phone to take multiple photographs of the exact location where you fell. Document the hazardous condition from several angles and distances. Photograph the entire area, showing lighting conditions, warning signs (or the absence of signs), and the general layout. Take photos of your footwear and clothing. If you are unable to take pictures yourself, ask someone to document the scene before you leave.
- Preserve the footwear and clothing you were wearing. Do not clean or discard the shoes and clothes you wore during the fall. Forensic experts may examine these items to analyze how the hazard affected your traction or how your body impacted the ground.
- Request and save a copy of the incident report. Obtain a copy immediately if possible. If the property owner will not provide a copy at the scene, follow up within a few days with a written request. Save all documents provided.
- Document your symptoms and treatment. Keep a journal to describe your pain levels, symptoms, limitations, and how injuries impact your daily activities. Photograph visible injuries. Save all medical records, prescriptions, and bills. Attend all scheduled appointments and follow treatment recommendations.
- Avoid giving recorded statements to insurance companies. Property owners and their insurers may contact you and request a recorded statement. You are not required to provide such statements. Consult with an attorney before taking any action. Insurance adjusters use questions designed to undermine claims.
- Contact a Pennsylvania slip and fall attorney. Consult with a premises liability lawyer as soon as possible. Early attorney involvement ensures critical evidence is preserved, witnesses are interviewed while events remain fresh, and you avoid statements that could damage your claim.
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Pennsylvania Slip and Fall FAQs
When Do You Need a Slip and Fall Injury Lawyer in Pennsylvania?
After a slip and fall accident in Pennsylvania, you need an attorney if you sustained injuries requiring significant medical treatment, including traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord damage, fractures requiring surgery, disc herniations, torn ligaments or tendons, and other injuries causing long-term disability or permanent impairment. If you were hospitalized, required surgery, or face ongoing medical treatment and lost income, your case may warrant legal representation.
What if I Hadn’t Reported the Fall Immediately?
Immediate reporting is ideal after a fall, but failing to report immediately does not necessarily prevent you from pursuing a claim. Many people do not realize they sustained injuries immediately, or they are too injured to complete reports. Seek medical attention promptly and document that the dangerous condition caused your injuries. Notify the property owner in writing as soon as possible. Contact an attorney quickly so the investigation can begin before the evidence disappears.
Who Pays My Medical Bills After a Slip and Fall?
Initially, your health insurance typically covers medical treatment following a slip-and-fall accident. If you lack health insurance, medical providers may treat you on a lien basis, agreeing to wait for payment until your case settles. In Pennsylvania, if you recover compensation, you may need to reimburse your health insurance company for expenses they paid. However, your Pennsylvania slip and fall attorney can often negotiate these liens to increase your net recovery.
How Much is a Slip and Fall Case Worth in Pennsylvania?
The value of your slip and fall case depends on injury severity, medical treatment cost, lost income, future medical needs, pain and suffering extent, whether you have permanent disability, and the strength of evidence proving negligence. Cases involving traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord damage, or fractures requiring multiple surgeries typically have higher values.
How Long Do I Have to File a Slip and Fall Lawsuit in Pennsylvania?
Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations for personal injury cases is two years from the date of your injury. You must file a lawsuit within two years or lose your right to pursue compensation. Different time limits apply for government entities, which require written notice within six months.
Book a Free Consultation with Munley Law’s Premises Liability Lawyers
If you suffered injuries in a Pennsylvania slip and fall accident, contact Munley Law for a free consultation. Our premises liability attorneys will evaluate your case and explain your legal options. Call or complete our online contact form.
