Virginia Slip And Fall Lawyer

A wet floor at a convenience store left our client unable to work or live without pain. A jury awarded her $12.26 million, the largest slip-and-fall verdict in Virginia.

Falls like hers happen every day across Virginia. Property owners leave hazards in grocery stores, restaurants, stairwells, parking lots, and medical offices. Visitors walk in with no warning of a freshly mopped floor, a crumbling step, or a pitch-black hallway.

Smith Law Center has fought for injured Virginians since 1949, when Joseph Smith opened the firm in Hampton with a simple mission: represent people harmed by negligence. Three generations later, our attorneys carry that same principle into every slip-and-fall case we take.

We’ve recovered over $1 billion for our clients and earned a national reputation for handling the traumatic brain injuries that slip-and-fall accidents so often cause. Contact us at (757) 244-7000 for a free case review with a Virginia slip-and-fall lawyer.

Learn From a Client How Smith Law Center Helps Slip-and-Fall Victims

Lensei slipped and fell at her dentist’s office after walking across a freshly mopped floor with no warning signs. Smith Law Center attorney Stewart Gill held the dentist accountable.

Where Do Most Slip and Fall Injuries Occur in Virginia?

Serious slip and fall injuries happen throughout Virginia in all kinds of locations, including:

• Grocery stores and retail shops. Spills left in aisles, freshly mopped floors without warning signs, and product displays blocking walkways injure Virginia shoppers every day. Big box stores and busy supermarkets are repeat offenders due to constant foot traffic and the high volume of liquid products on shelves.
• Restaurants and bars. Spilled drinks, greasy kitchen floors that haven’t been degreased, and chairs pushed into walkways are all common in Virginia restaurants. The dinner rush is when most of these falls happen, when staff are stretched thin and spills go unaddressed.
• Parking lots and garages. Cracked pavement, potholes, poor lighting, and black ice make Virginia parking areas dangerous, particularly from November through March. Many Virginia commercial parking lots are decades old and riddled with surface defects that property owners have neglected for years.
• Sidewalks and walkways. Uneven concrete, tree root damage, and icy conditions cause serious falls across Virginia. The Commonwealth’s freeze-thaw cycles are hard on concrete, and sections of sidewalk can shift or crack significantly over a single winter.
• Apartment buildings and rental properties. Lobbies, stairwells, elevators, and pool areas are where Virginia tenants and visitors are most often injured. Falls on poorly lit or poorly maintained stairs between floors are especially common in older apartment complexes.
• Workplaces and construction sites. Falls are the leading cause of fatal workplace injuries on Virginia construction sites. Debris, unstable scaffolding, and wet surfaces on active job sites put workers at risk daily.
• Hotels and resorts. Slippery pool decks, poorly maintained stairs, and wet bathroom floors injure Virginia hotel guests every year. Virginia’s busy tourism season means high turnover in hotel rooms, and housekeeping shortcuts can leave behind wet floors and tripping hazards.
• Private homes. Loose rugs, broken steps, poor lighting, and wet bathroom floors at someone else’s home cause a surprising number of serious injuries. If you were visiting a friend, neighbor, or family member when you fell, the homeowner may have known about the hazard and simply never gotten around to fixing it.

These are the locations where Virginia slip-and-fall injuries occur most frequently, but a dangerous fall can happen on any property where an owner has neglected basic maintenance or ignored a known hazard.

What Causes Most Slip and Fall Injuries in Virginia?

Nearly every slip and fall accident traces back to a hazard that a property owner could have identified and fixed. The most common causes in Virginia include:

• Wet or slippery floors. Spills, mopped surfaces, tracked-in rainwater, and freshly waxed floors account for over half of all slip-and-fall incidents. A single unattended puddle near a store entrance on a rainy Virginia afternoon is all it takes.
• Uneven or damaged surfaces. Cracked sidewalks, broken tiles, warped floorboards, and parking lot potholes cause falls throughout Virginia. The Commonwealth’s freeze-thaw cycles accelerate surface damage, and many properties have defects that have been worsening for years without repair.
• Poor lighting. Dim or burned-out lighting in stairways, hallways, and parking garages makes hazards invisible. This is a frequent problem in older Virginia commercial buildings and apartment complexes, especially during shorter winter days when visitors are arriving and leaving in the dark.
• Missing or broken handrails. Staircases without sturdy handrails are dangerous for anyone, and especially risky for older adults. A wobbly or missing handrail on a staircase that dozens of people use every day is an accident waiting to happen.
• Loose rugs, mats, and carpeting. Unsecured throw rugs, curled carpet edges, and bunched-up floor mats are cheap and easy to fix, yet property owners routinely ignore them.
• Cluttered walkways. Boxes in hallways, merchandise stacked in aisles, cords across floors, and debris left on walkways create tripping hazards you may not notice until it’s too late.
• Weather-related hazards. Virginia winters bring ice, snow, and freezing rain that make walkways, steps, and parking lots dangerous. Property owners are responsible for clearing these areas within a reasonable time after a storm, and many simply don’t.
• Defective stairs. Steps that are too steep, uneven in height, or missing non-slip treads lead to serious falls. Deteriorating outdoor steps are a particular concern in Virginia’s older neighborhoods, where wooden and concrete stairs take a beating from weather and age.
• Lack of warning signs. Even a temporary hazard, such as a freshly mopped floor, requires a visible warning. If no sign was posted when you fell, someone failed in their responsibility to keep you safe.

If you were injured in a fall on unsafe property, you can speak directly with a Virginia slip and fall attorney at (757) 244-7000. There is no cost to discuss your case.

After a Slip and Fall in Virginia, What Should I Do?

Most people who fall on someone else’s property feel embarrassed before they feel pain. The instinct is to apologize, brush it off, and leave. That reaction is common, and it often benefits the property owner. What you do in the hours and days after a fall determines whether key evidence is preserved or lost.

Get Medical Care Immediately

Adrenaline hides pain. Traumatic brain injuries, fractures, and ligament tears may not appear for hours or days. Get a medical evaluation within 24 hours to document injuries. Waiting gives insurance companies an excuse to deny your claim.

Report the Fall to the Person Who Manages the Property and Get a Copy

Notify a store manager, landlord, or property supervisor. Request a written incident report and get a copy. Write down every employee’s name and role. Without a report, there may be no record that you reported the fall.

Photograph the Hazard, the Area, and Your Injuries

Take wide shots of the scene and close-ups of the condition that caused the fall, whether it was a spill, cracked step, poor lighting, or a missing warning sign. Photograph your injuries and the shoes you were wearing. Conditions are often cleaned or repaired within hours. Your phone timestamps the images and preserves what existed at that moment.

Write Down What You Remember While It Is Still Clear

Write down the time, lighting, weather, what you stepped on or tripped over, who saw your fall, and conversations afterward. These details matter months later.

Do Not Give a Recorded Statement to Any Insurance Company

Virginia’s contributory negligence law can bar you from recovery if you are even slightly at fault. Adjusters know this and ask questions to show you were not paying attention. Talk to a slip-and-fall attorney before giving a statement.

Contact a Virginia Slip and Fall Lawyer

Surveillance footage may be overwritten within days. Maintenance logs can be altered or discarded. Witnesses move or forget. An attorney can send a written notice requiring the business to preserve surveillance footage and maintenance records before they are deleted or overwritten.

Podcast: Brain Injuries After a Slip and Fall

Traumatic brain injuries are frequently misunderstood in the early stages after a fall. Smith Law Center partner David Holt discusses how these cases are evaluated and why symptoms are often missed during initial medical visits on the Cases for Causes podcast.

Listen here:

How Do I Pursue a Slip and Fall Case in Virginia?

Property owners across Virginia have a legal obligation to keep their spaces safe for visitors. When someone slips, trips, or falls because of a hazard the owner failed to fix or warn about, the injured person can pursue a claim. That claim revolves around four questions.

1. Did the Property Owner Owe You a Duty of Care?

Virginia law assigns different levels of responsibility based on why you were on the property.
Customers, tenants, and patients (“invitees”) are owed the highest level of care. The owner must inspect for hazards, repair them promptly, and warn visitors when an immediate fix isn’t feasible.

Social guests (“licensees”) must be warned about known dangers, such as a broken porch step or a leak that makes the kitchen floor slick.

Trespassers receive the least protection, though children injured by dangerous features, such as unfenced pools, are treated differently.

2. Did the Property Owner Fail to Meet That Duty?

A breach happens when the owner knew about a slip or trip hazard, or should have known through reasonable inspections, and did nothing.

Examples include a spill left in a grocery aisle for 45 minutes with no caution sign, or an exterior step that tenants reported as crumbling months earlier, and no one repaired it.

The question is always what the owner knew about the condition, how long it had been there, and whether they took any steps to clean it up, fix it, or mark it.

3. Did That Failure Cause the Fall and the Injury?

The injury must be connected to the specific slip or trip hazard that the owner neglected.

Medical records, photographs of the scene, and expert analysis help establish the link between the wet floor or broken surface, the fall itself, and the resulting diagnosis, whether that’s a traumatic brain injury, a fractured hip, or spinal damage.

4. Did the Fall Result In Actual Losses?

Medical bills, lost wages, reduced earning capacity, physical pain, and changes to daily life all factor into a Virginia slip and fall claim.

Compensation can cover emergency care and hospitalization, surgery and rehabilitation, physical therapy and ongoing prescriptions, income lost during recovery, long-term changes in earning ability, pain and physical limitations, and damaged personal items such as glasses, hearing aids, or mobility devices.

Why Does Virginia’s Contributory Negligence Rule Matter in Slip and Fall Cases?

Virginia is one of only a few states that follows pure contributory negligence. Under this rule, any fault on the injured person’s part, even a small percentage, can bar them from recovering compensation entirely.

In slip-and-fall cases specifically, the property owner’s legal team will look for evidence that the person who fell should have seen the hazard, was distracted, ignored a wet floor sign, or was wearing footwear that contributed to the fall.

Evidence gathered early after a fall matters because of this rule. Surveillance footage showing the hazard and the fall, maintenance logs proving the owner knew about the condition, witness accounts, and safety expert opinions all need to be collected before they disappear. An experienced Virginia slip and fall attorney knows how to preserve that evidence and counter contributory negligence arguments when they arise.

“Every day is spent preparing for your case. Your goals become my mission.”

⎯ Stephen M. Smith | Smith Law Center

Smith Law Center’s track record in Virginia slip-and-fall cases reflects our commitment to putting that preparation to work for our clients.

• $12,264,302 Jury Verdict | A customer slipped on a freshly cleaned floor at Miller Mart. No warning signs were posted. The fall caused a mild traumatic brain injury. A jury awarded the largest slip and fall verdict in Virginia history at the time.
• $1,000,000 Settlement | Our client fell on a wet, freshly cleaned concrete floor inside a fast food restaurant and suffered a mild traumatic brain injury. The restaurant paid full policy limits.

Studies consistently show that injured people who work with attorneys recover significantly higher compensation than those who go through the process alone. Our results across decades of Virginia slip-and-fall litigation reflect what thorough preparation and trial-ready strategy can achieve.