Trip and Fall Accidents

Trip and Fall Accident Attorneys in Michigan

Trip-and-fall injuries are different from slip-and-fall injuries, and the distinction matters legally. A slip-and-fall involves losing traction on a slippery surface. A trip-and-fall happens when your foot catches on a raised surface, uneven pavement, a loose floorboard, a cracked sidewalk, or an obstacle in your path. The mechanics of the fall are different — in a trip, your body pitches forward and your hands, wrists, face, or head absorb the impact. Broken wrists, facial fractures, traumatic brain injuries, and hip fractures are all common.

Koussan Law represents trip-and-fall victims throughout Michigan. We pursue property owners, landlords, businesses, and government entities that allow tripping hazards to persist on their premises.

Premises Liability for Tripping Hazards

Under Michigan premises liability law, property owners owe invitees a duty to maintain their premises in a reasonably safe condition. For trip-and-fall cases, this means repairing cracked or uneven sidewalks, replacing raised or buckled flooring, securing loose carpeting and floor mats, maintaining parking lot surfaces, ensuring adequate lighting so pedestrians can see the walking surface, removing or marking obstacles in walkways, and keeping aisles and pathways clear of merchandise, cords, and debris.

When a business lets its parking lot deteriorate until there's a 2-inch lip between asphalt sections, or a landlord ignores a buckled hallway carpet for months, they're creating a tripping hazard they know about — and they're liable when someone falls.

The Open-and-Obvious Argument After Kandil-Elsayed

Property owners still argue the hazard was "open and obvious" and that you should have seen it. What changed is what that argument can accomplish. In Kandil-Elsayed v F & E Oil, Inc, 512 Mich 95 (2023), decided together with Pinsky v Kroger Co of Michigan, the Michigan Supreme Court overruled Lugo v Ameritech Corp, 464 Mich 512 (2001). The open and obvious nature of a hazard no longer eliminates the property owner's duty, and it is no longer a complete bar to your claim.

That is a real advantage for injured pedestrians. Visibility is now a factor the jury weighs when it decides breach and comparative fault, not a reason to dismiss the case before anyone hears the facts. Lugo's former "special aspects" and "effectively unavoidable" exceptions are no longer the operative test, which means a case no longer has to be shoehorned into one of them. We still develop the same facts we always did, that customers entering a store are looking at the entrance, not at a 1.5-inch concrete lip three feet in front of the door, but now those facts go to a jury on breach and fault instead of being the price of admission.

Government Liability for Sidewalks and Public Walkways

Michigan sidewalks and public walkways are often in terrible condition — tree root damage, frost heave, years of deferred maintenance. If you trip on a public sidewalk, the government entity responsible (the city, township, or county) may be liable under the public building exception to governmental immunity (MCL § 691.1406) if the sidewalk is adjacent to a public building, or under the highway exception (MCL § 691.1402) if the walkway is part of the road right-of-way. The 120-day notice requirement under MCL § 691.1404 applies to government claims.

Common Trip-and-Fall Injuries

The injuries from trip-and-fall accidents tend to be severe because of the forward momentum: broken wrists and arms from bracing the fall (Colles fractures), facial fractures and dental injuries from hitting the ground face-first, traumatic brain injuries from head impact, hip fractures (especially in older adults), and knee injuries from the twisting motion during the fall.

Statute of Limitations

Michigan's three-year statute of limitations under MCL § 600.5805 applies. Government claims require 120-day notice under MCL § 691.1404.

If you tripped and fell on someone's property in Michigan, call (313) 800-0000 for a free consultation. We'll inspect the hazard, document the condition, and hold the property owner accountable.

Use our free case calculator for a preliminary estimate of your claim value.