Slip & Fall Injury Attorney Serving Rhode Island & Massachusetts

Legal Counsel for Injuries from Falls

Slip and fall accidents happen fast and hurt badly. A wet floor with no warning sign, a cracked sidewalk, a broken staircase railing, a loose carpet edge on a commercial property. The hazard takes a second to encounter and can produce injuries that take months or years to recover from. Fractures, head injuries, shoulder tears, and back injuries are all common outcomes. So is dismissiveness from the property owner and their insurance company, who will typically respond by blaming the person who got hurt rather than the condition of their property. At Corrao & Robles Law, attorney Amanda L. Corrao represents individuals injured in slip and fall and trip and fall accidents throughout Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

How Do Slip and Fall Claims Work?

Premises Liability, Duty of Care, and What You Have to Prove

Slip and fall claims fall under premises liability law. Property owners, and in some cases tenants, property managers, or businesses operating on the property, owe a legal duty to maintain their premises in a reasonably safe condition for people who are lawfully on the property. What “reasonably safe” requires varies based on the type of visitor and the nature of the property, but for business invitees, such as customers, clients, and others invited onto the property for the owner’s commercial benefit, the duty is significant. Owners must not only address hazards they know about but also hazards they should have discovered through reasonable inspection and maintenance.

Rhode Island and Massachusetts premises liability law requires an injured person to prove four things: that the property owner owed them a duty of care, that the owner breached that duty by creating or failing to address a dangerous condition, that the dangerous condition caused the fall and resulting injuries, and that the injuries produced actual damages. The most contested element is almost always the breach, which is whether the owner knew or should have known about the hazard in time to fix it before someone got hurt.

The “knew or should have known” standard is what makes evidence so important in these cases. If a retail store employee spills a liquid in an aisle and a customer slips on it 30 seconds later, the store may not have had reasonable opportunity to clean it up. If that same spill sits unaddressed for 45 minutes despite regular employee foot traffic, the store absolutely should have noticed and corrected it. Surveillance footage, maintenance logs, cleaning records, incident reports, and employee testimony all become relevant to establishing the timeline. Insurers know that most people don’t know how to get these records and that they’ll be harder to access or may be destroyed once litigation holds are in place.

Property owners and their insurers in slip and fall cases raise predictable defenses. They argue the condition was obvious and the injured person should have seen it. They argue the injured person was distracted, wearing improper footwear, or not paying attention. They argue no hazard existed at all, or that the hazard appeared after the fall rather than before. In Rhode Island, comparative fault reduces recovery proportionally if the injured person is found partially responsible. In Massachusetts, comparative fault above 50% eliminates recovery entirely. Preempting these arguments with evidence is the most important function of early legal investigation.

Landlord Liability and Residential Fall Cases

Slip and fall accidents don’t only happen in retail and commercial settings. Apartment tenants, guests of tenants, and visitors to residential properties are injured by defective stairs, inadequate lighting in common areas, uneven exterior walkways, and poorly maintained building infrastructure. Landlords in Rhode Island and Massachusetts owe a duty to maintain common areas in a safe condition. Lease terms that purport to shift that responsibility to the tenant do not fully insulate landlords from liability under state law. When a landlord’s failure to address a known maintenance issue causes a tenant or visitor to fall and be injured, premises liability law provides a path to compensation.

How We Can Help After a Slip or Trip and Fall

Premises liability cases are won or lost on evidence, and evidence must be gathered fast.

  • Preserving surveillance footage before retention periods expire, typically 24 to 72 hours in commercial settings
  • Documenting the hazard through photographs and witness accounts before the property owner corrects the condition
  • Investigating the owner’s knowledge of the dangerous condition through maintenance records and incident reports

Building Your Slip and Fall Claim

  • Photographing the hazard and the surrounding area immediately if possible, or dispatching an investigator
  • Requesting preservation of all surveillance footage covering the area before and after the fall
  • Obtaining maintenance logs, cleaning schedules, and prior incident reports from the property
  • Identifying and interviewing witnesses including employees, bystanders, and other customers
  • Collecting all medical records from emergency treatment through ongoing rehabilitation
  • Working with medical experts to document the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis
  • Retaining liability experts when the defect involves building code violations or industry safety standards
  • Researching the property owner’s and tenant’s insurance coverage to identify all available compensation sources

What to Expect: The Slip and Fall Claim Process

Evidence Preservation:

We act immediately to secure the evidence that establishes the hazardous condition and the property owner’s knowledge of it. Surveillance footage is the first priority. Property owners sometimes move quickly to correct conditions after an accident — which is evidence of prior knowledge — and that too needs to be documented.

Liability Investigation:

We build the factual record establishing the property owner’s duty, the breach, and causation. Maintenance logs, cleaning schedules, employee training records, and prior incident reports are all relevant. We research any applicable building codes or safety regulations that establish the standard the owner failed to meet.

Injury Documentation:

Slip and fall injuries vary widely in severity. Hip fractures, wrist and shoulder injuries from breaking a fall, spinal injuries, head trauma, and knee damage are all common. We work with treating physicians and where appropriate independent medical experts to document the full scope of injuries and future medical needs.

Demand, Negotiation, and Litigation:

We prepare a demand package addressing both liability and damages. Many premises liability cases resolve in negotiation. When property owners and their insurers refuse fair settlement, Attorney Corrao takes cases to court in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

Why Choose Corrao & Robles Law?

Fast evidence response:

Surveillance footage and maintenance records require immediate action

Liability expertise:

We know how to establish the “knew or should have known” standard

Both states:

Experienced in Rhode Island and Massachusetts premises liability law

Contingency representation:

No fees unless we recover

Frequently Asked Questions

Not reporting immediately doesn’t eliminate a claim, but it does complicate it. Property owners use the absence of an immediate report to argue the injury didn’t happen on their premises or wasn’t serious. If you didn’t report at the time because you were embarrassed, confused, or didn’t realize how seriously you were hurt, the focus shifts to witness accounts, medical records showing treatment timing, and any surveillance footage still accessible. Seek medical attention and speak with an attorney as quickly as possible. Attorney Corrao understands how to build the evidentiary record when reporting was delayed.

Footwear is a common target in slip and fall cases. Insurers argue that inappropriate shoes contributed to the fall and that the injured person was partly at fault. Whether that argument works depends on the severity of the underlying hazard. A person in high heels who slips on a wet floor with no warning cones for 45 minutes is not primarily responsible because of footwear choice. A large, clear hazard overwhelms quibbles about shoes. More marginal hazards in contexts where footwear was plainly unreasonable are a harder case. The analysis is always fact-specific. Attorney Corrao reviews the full picture before any liability conclusions are drawn.

The property owner has no obligation to hand it over voluntarily before litigation begins, and usually won’t. The solution is a written preservation letter sent immediately after the accident, demanding that all footage from the relevant area and time period be preserved. That letter creates a legal obligation to retain the evidence and supports an adverse inference if footage is later destroyed. Formal discovery in litigation compels production. Attorney Corrao handles preservation letters in premises liability cases and understands the narrow window for making them effective.

Claims against government entities in Rhode Island and Massachusetts require special procedures, including notice requirements with shorter timelines than standard personal injury claims. Rhode Island municipal claims for sidewalk defects may require notice within 60 days. Missing that deadline bars the claim against that entity entirely. Government immunity provisions limit but do not eliminate liability for premises conditions. If you were injured on any government-owned or maintained property, speaking with Attorney Corrao quickly is especially important.

Possibly. Landlords owe a duty to maintain common areas, such as hallways, stairwells, entryways, and exterior walkways, in a reasonably safe condition. If you were injured in a common area due to a hazardous condition the landlord knew about or should have addressed, a premises liability claim may be available. Injuries inside your own rented unit are more complex and depend on the lease terms, what notice of the defect was given, and whether the landlord had reasonable opportunity to make repairs. Attorney Corrao reviews the specific facts of every residential fall case.

Talk to a Slip and Fall Attorney

Property owners and their insurers don’t make these cases easy. If you were injured in a slip or trip and fall accident on someone else’s property in Rhode Island or Massachusetts, Corrao & Robles Law is ready to investigate and fight for fair compensation.

Contact us today for a free consultation.