People laugh about slip and falls until they have one. A fall onto concrete or down a stairway breaks hips and wrists, tears rotator cuffs, and causes concussions that linger for months. The CDC counts falls as the leading cause of injury death for adults 65 and older. These are not small cases, and property insurers do not treat them like small cases. Neither do we.
Scalli Murphy Law has handled premises liability claims from our Everett office since 1994. If you were hurt on someone else’s property anywhere in Massachusetts, call 617-387-7000. The consultation is free, and with these cases the calendar matters more than people expect. One deadline is 30 days.
What a Property Owner Owes You
Massachusetts property owners must use reasonable care to keep their premises safe for lawful visitors. That means cleaning up spills, fixing broken steps and railings, lighting the places people walk, and warning about hazards that are not apparent. The old distinctions between invitees and licensees are gone; if you were on the property lawfully, the duty applies.
Liability usually turns on notice. The owner is responsible if they knew about the hazard, or if it existed long enough that they should have known, which the law calls constructive notice. A puddle that hit the floor thirty seconds before you did is a hard case. Grapes that sat on the produce-aisle floor long enough to turn brown are a different story, and for self-service stores the Supreme Judicial Court has made these cases more realistic to prove: where the store’s own way of doing business predictably creates hazards, the victim does not have to show how long the specific spill sat there. Sheehan v. Roche Bros. Supermarkets, 448 Mass. 780 (2007).
Snow and Ice: The Rule Changed, and There Is a 30-Day Trap
For decades Massachusetts owners escaped liability for “natural accumulations” of snow and ice. The SJC threw that rule out in Papadopoulos v. Target Corp., 457 Mass. 368 (2010). Owners now owe the same reasonable care for snow and ice as for any other hazard on the property.
The trap is procedural. If snow or ice caused your injury, Massachusetts law requires written notice to the property owner within 30 days (M.G.L. c. 84, s. 21). Miss it and a strong case can die before it starts. This deadline is the single best reason not to wait and see how your knee feels in a couple of months. Our snow and ice page covers these cases in detail, and if you fell at a rental property, we also wrote about a landlord’s duty to clear snow and ice.
“It Was Open and Obvious” Is Not the End of the Argument
Insurers love to argue that the hazard was obvious, so the owner owed no warning. Massachusetts law is narrower than the adjuster’s version. Even for an obvious danger, an owner can remain liable for failing to fix it when the owner should expect that people will encounter it anyway. Dos Santos v. Coleta, 465 Mass. 148 (2013). An icy front walkway is obvious. It is also the only way into the building.
The Cases We See Most
Falls on ice and snow lead the winter. The rest of the year it is wet floors and fallen merchandise in stores, broken stairs and missing handrails in apartment buildings, uneven walkways and potholed parking lots, and poor lighting that hides all of the above. We also handle injuries from inadequate security and from hazards that fall on people rather than the reverse. If a dog hurt you, that is its own statute and its own page: dog bites and attacks.
Fault-Shifting Is the Defense Playbook
Expect to hear that you were not watching where you were going. Massachusetts uses modified comparative negligence: you recover as long as you were not more than 50 percent at fault, reduced by your share (M.G.L. c. 231, s. 85). Adjusters push claimants’ percentages up because every point is money. Push back with evidence, not indignation.
The evidence in a fall case disappears faster than in a crash case. The spill gets mopped and the stair gets fixed. Store surveillance video gets overwritten, sometimes within days. Photograph the exact spot and your shoes, get the names of witnesses, insist on an incident report, and call a lawyer soon enough to send a preservation letter while the video still exists.
Deadlines
Three years from the injury for most premises claims (M.G.L. c. 260, s. 2A). Thirty days for the written snow and ice notice (c. 84, s. 21). Public-property cases have their own presentment rules and, for public way defects, a statutory damage cap, so claims involving a town sidewalk need attention immediately.
Questions We Hear
I fell in a store and they had me fill out an incident report. Did I hurt my case?
No, the report helps establish that the fall happened and when. Just be careful with recorded statements to the insurer afterward. Report the facts; let the medicine speak to the injuries.
I fell on ice outside my apartment. Can I really make a claim against my own landlord?
Yes. Since Papadopoulos, landlords owe reasonable care for snow and ice in common areas, and tenants are lawful visitors. The 30-day written notice applies, so move quickly.
The owner says I should have seen the hazard. Is my case over?
No. Obviousness cuts against a failure-to-warn claim, but owners can still be liable for failing to fix a danger people predictably encounter. And even a finding of partial fault only reduces a recovery unless your share passes 50 percent.
What does it cost?
Nothing up front. Contingency fee: we get paid a percentage of the recovery, and nothing if there is none.
Where We Handle Premises Cases
We handle slip and fall and premises cases statewide from our Everett, Danvers, and Medford offices. Local pages for the communities closest to our offices:
Everett · Medford · Malden · Chelsea · Revere · Danvers · Peabody · Salem · Somerville · Lynn · Beverly
Call Before the Evidence Gets Mopped Up
Premises cases are won early: the photographs, the video, the 30-day notice. If you were seriously hurt on someone else’s property, call 617-387-7000 or toll-free (833) 933-HURT, or send us a message. Free consultation, and no fee unless we recover for you.