A Guide to Louisiana Slip and Fall Claims and Lawsuits

You slipped and fell on some liquid spilled in a grocery aisle. Or you tripped and fell on the uneven pavement of your neighbor's front walk. If you've been hurt in a slip and fall or trip and fall accident like one of these, you might be thinking about an insurance claim or a slip and fall lawsuit to recover compensation ("damages") for your injuries.

You've come to the right place. We walk you through the elements of a Louisiana slip and fall claim, focusing most of our attention on the issue of fault—who's legally responsible for your injuries. We'll also touch on the statute of limitations, other defenses the landowner might raise, and much more.

The Elements of a Louisiana Slip and Fall Case

Louisiana slip and fall claims are grounded in negligence law. Negligence is the failure to be as careful as the circumstances require. But negligence, by itself, isn't enough. To have a slip and fall case, the landowner's negligence must have caused you to suffer an injury.

Louisiana Negligence Law

To prove a landowner's liability (legal responsibility) for your slip and fall, Louisiana negligence law requires you to show that:

• the landowner owed you a duty of care
• the landowner breached, or failed to meet, that duty of care
• you suffered an injury, and
• your injury was caused by the landowner's failure to meet the duty of care.

The first two elements—duty of care and breach of that duty—are what the law calls negligence. In a typical slip and fall case, both are hotly contested.

Landowners, tenants, contractors, property managers, easement owners, and others who own or control real estate—we call them all "owners" or "landowners" for the sake of convenience—have a legal duty to keep their property reasonably safe for known or foreseeable visitors. Sometimes, this duty extends to trespassers.

As we'll see, though, duty is a two-way street. Most often, the defendant (the party you're suing) will respond to your claim that they were negligent by arguing that you were negligent, too. This legal defense, called "comparative negligence," gets raised in almost every slip and fall case.

What Does the Duty of Care Require?

The duty of care requires that a landowner use reasonable care to make their property safe for visitors who enter with permission. But what does that mean? What must the owner actually do to satisfy this duty? The specifics depend, in part, on where you fall—a merchant's premises or somewhere else. A merchant's duty of care likely will be more demanding than that of a private homeowner.

In general, though, the duty of care requires that a landowner:

• periodically inspect their property to find dangerous conditions, and
• either warn visitors of those dangers, or fix them.

Falls on a merchant's premises. A merchant is a person or business selling "goods, foods, wares, or merchandise" at a fixed location. It also includes an innkeeper, but only as to "shops, restaurants, and lobby areas" inside the hotel or motel. In other words, a merchant is a retail business that's open to the public, including a retail business located inside a hotel or motel. (La. Rev. Stat. § 9:2800.6.C.(2) (2025).)

A Louisiana merchant's duty of care is described in La. Rev. Stat. § 9:2800.6.A (2025). Merchants must use "reasonable care" to keep aisles and floors in reasonably safe condition. Reasonable care is that level of skill and caution that an ordinarily careful and prudent merchant would use under similar circumstances.

When you enter a merchant's premises with permission (that is, when you're not trespassing) and you're hurt in a fall, you must prove these elements:

• a dangerous condition created an unreasonable risk of harm, and the risk of harm was foreseeable
• the merchant either created the condition or had actual or constructive notice of it (discussed below) before you fell, and
• the merchant failed to use reasonable care to protect you from harm.

In addition to these three requirements, the Louisiana Supreme Court has added a fourth. You also must prove a "temporal element," meaning you must show that the danger existed for a long enough time before you fell that the merchant should have discovered it. There's no bright-line time period here. How long the danger must have existed before you were hurt is a question of law and fact that must be decided by the judge and the fact finder.

Falls that happen somewhere else. If you slip and fall somewhere other than a place of business, the controlling statute is La. Civ. Code Art. 2317.1 (2025). While it's worded differently, the requirements are much the same as those for merchants. To prove landowner liability, you'll have to show that:

• there was a "defect" on the land, meaning a dangerous condition that created an unreasonable risk of harm
• the landowner actually knew about the danger, or should have known about it had they exercised reasonable care, and
• the landowner failed to exercise reasonable care.

The temporal element mentioned above also comes into play here, when deciding whether a hazard existed long enough that the landowner should have discovered it.

Courts Adjust the Duty of Care Based on the Facts

Courts regularly tweak the duty of care based on the facts of a case. For example, when a landowner knows that visitors will be on their property, the law probably expects them to inspect more frequently and be more vigilant about warnings and repairs.

Consider, for example, a retail shopkeeper. They want customers to come to their store every day. For those customers—the law calls them "invitees" or "business invitees"—the merchant likely must do daily (or even more frequent) inspections.

By comparison, imagine a homeowner who invites family and friends for a birthday party. To keep the property safe for infrequent party guests (in legalese, "licensees"), a one-time inspection shortly before the party might suffice.

How do courts do this duty of care fine-tuning? They employ a four-part "risk-utility" test, balancing these factors:

• the usefulness of the allegedly dangerous condition
• the severity and likelihood of possible harms, including whether the danger is obvious
• how much it will cost the landowner to remedy the hazard, and
• the visitor's purpose for being on the property, including the nature and usefulness of the activity and whether it was inherently dangerous.

What About Trespassers?

As a rule, Louisiana landowners don't owe any duty of care to trespassers other than to avoid intentionally, willfully, or wantonly harming them.

As is true in most states, Louisiana carves out some important exceptions to this limited duty rule. First, a landowner who knows that trespassers are trespassing must warn them of known dangerous conditions. But the landowner doesn't have a duty to inspect the property for hidden hazards.

Second, Louisiana has special rules for trespassing children. Kids often are drawn to a property by what the law calls an "attractive nuisance"—things like a swimming pool, a trampoline, or abandoned vehicles. When a landowner knows that kids are trespassing because their property poses an attractive nuisance, they must take reasonable steps to protect the children from harm. This might include fencing the property, placing warning signs, or other safety measures.

Dangerous Conditions and Landowner Notice

Under Louisiana law, a landowner must warn of or fix a dangerous condition when these two things are true. First, a dangerous condition posing an unreasonable risk of harm exists on the land. Second, the landowner learns of (or should learn of) the danger in sufficient time to warn about or repair it.

Examples of dangerous conditions. Here are some examples of dangerous property conditions:

• uneven surfaces caused, for example, by something like a crack or break in the pavement or walk
• loose or easily movable surface material such as gravel, rocks, or sand
• wet, slushy, snowy, or icy walkways
• stair runs or risers that are larger or smaller than what's typically required by building or safety codes
• torn, frayed, or unsecured carpets or rugs
• accumulations—natural or artificial—of water, snow, or ice
• foreign substances like liquids, foods, or other slipping or tripping hazards on floors
• aisles or walkways occupied or partially blocked by product displays
• tools or equipment left in aisles or walkways
• products spilled on store aisles
• inadequate lighting
• missing or defective railings, handrails, or guardrails, and
• things hanging from shelves or ceilings.

The landowner must have known of the danger. A landowner can't be expected to warn about or fix dangerous conditions when the landowner isn't aware of them. Proving that the landowner had notice of the danger is critical to a slip and fall claim. In most cases, the landowner will deny having had any notice of the danger, or having had notice in enough time to act before you were hurt.

A landowner can be liable for injuries if they have either actual notice or constructive notice of a hazard.

Proof that the landowner created the condition should be enough to show actual notice. If the landowner didn't create the danger, proving what they actually knew can be a challenge. Here are examples of the kinds of evidence you might look for.

• Prior incident reports and complaints, documenting earlier encounters with the condition.
• Maintenance records, showing prior efforts to deal with the condition.
• Inspection reports from government agencies, recording prior infractions or safety violations related to the condition.
• Surveillance photos or videos, to prove how the condition came to be and how long it had existed.
• Testimony from others who saw the dangerous condition, to find out what they saw and what, if anything, they reported to the landowner.
• Emails, text messages, and other communications indicating that the dangerous condition was known to the landowner or its agents.
• Testimony from the landowner and the landowner's agents, to find out what they knew about the condition and when they knew it.
• Expert witness testimony, which can help to establish, for example, how long a substance likely had been on the floor before you fell on it.

A landowner's constructive notice of the danger also can be enough. You'll need to rely on constructive notice when—as often will be the case—the landowner denies having actually known of it.

The key to constructive notice is proving how long the dangerous condition existed before it injured you. In terms of landowner responsibility, the longer it was there, the better. Once you have an idea of how long the danger existed, you can argue that had the landowner been reasonably careful, they would have inspected the property, discovered the hazard, and fixed it or warned you about it. (See La. Rev. Stat. § 9:2800.6.C.(1) (2025).)

(Learn more about proving fault for slip and fall accidents.)

Landowner Defenses: Shifting the Blame to You

In addition to lack of notice, landowners can raise a number of defenses to a slip and fall claim. Three of the most common are:

• you were partly or completely to blame for your injuries
• the danger was open and obvious, and
• you assumed the risk of a known hazard.

You Were to Blame

Your own negligence can be a defense to the owner's legal responsibility. If the accident happened in a contributory negligence state, any negligence on your part—even 1% of the total—defeats your claim entirely. By contrast, when the accident happened in a comparative negligence state like Louisiana, your share of the blame simply reduces the damages you can collect.

Louisiana's "pure" comparative negligence rule. Louisiana is a "pure" comparative negligence state. Your percentage share of the total negligence reduces your personal injury damages by that amount. For instance, if you're found to be 50% responsible for your injuries, your total damages are reduced by that percentage. When you're found 99% to blame, you still get 1% of your total damages. Only if you're found to have been 100% at fault will you collect nothing.

(La. Civ. Code Art. 2323 (2025).)

What did you do that was negligent? The defendant will look high and low for ways to blame you for the fall. Here are a few of the most common claims.

• You were on a part of the property where visitors aren't allowed, or aren't expected to be.
• You weren't paying attention to where you were walking.
• You were distracted by a child, or your phone, or something else.
• You were wearing footwear that was inappropriate or even unsafe for the situation.
• You were warned of the dangerous condition, or the owner took reasonable steps to protect visitors.
• The dangerous condition was open and obvious.

Open and Obvious Dangers

In many states, landowners aren't responsible for injuries caused by known or "open and obvious" dangers. An open and obvious danger is one that's clearly visible and that should be seen by a reasonable person exercising ordinary care for their own safety. Common examples include accumulations of snow or ice, large objects, and darkness.

In Louisiana, the fact that a dangerous condition was open and obvious isn't an automatic defense to liability. Under the risk-utility test described above, when the risk of harm from an open and obvious condition outweighs the usefulness of the condition, the landowner still has a duty to warn of the danger or take other steps to minimize the likelihood of injury. The obvious nature of a danger is one factor courts use to decide the landowner's duty of care and whether a visitor was comparatively negligent.

You Assumed the Risk

When you voluntarily and knowingly assume the risk of a known danger, injuries resulting from that danger ordinarily aren't the responsibility of the landowner. Classic examples include recreational activities like bungee jumping, base jumping, skydiving, and other high-risk adventures.

In Louisiana, assumption of the risk isn't a complete defense to landowner liability. Instead, it's treated as a factor in deciding how much comparative negligence should be assigned to you.

The Slip and Fall Statute of Limitations

A "statute of limitations" is a law that limits your time to file a lawsuit in court. For most Louisiana slip and fall claims, you have two years from the date you were injured to sue. Different rules might apply when:

• you don't discover your injury right away
• you were injured in a crime of violence, or
• you were an unemancipated minor (younger than 18 and under your parents' legal control) when you were injured.

(La. Civ. Code Art. 3493.1 (2025).)

Note, importantly, that this two-year limitation period only applies to injuries that happen on or after July 1, 2024. For injuries before that date, the statute of limitations is just one year from the date of your injury.

If you're not sure how much time you have to file a slip and fall lawsuit, speak to a Louisiana personal injury lawyer right away. Miss the filing deadline and, absent an extension that gives you more time to sue, your slip and fall claim is legally dead. You've lost the right to recover damages for your injuries.

Do You Need a Lawyer for Your Slip and Fall Claim?

To answer that, ask yourself these questions.

• Are the case facts simple and mostly uncontested? If so, that's a point in favor of giving it a try on your own. On the other hand, when the facts are complicated or murky, or the defendant disputes your version of the story, think about hiring legal counsel. A lawyer can help you find and organize the facts into a coherent, compelling narrative that puts you in the best possible light.
• Are there difficult legal issues involved? Here, we're speaking of legal issues that might sink, or do serious damage to, your case. The statute of limitations is a prime example. So is comparative or contributory negligence, as discussed above. Because comparative negligence is almost guaranteed to be in play in a slip and fall case, your best bet will be to have legal help in your corner.

The defendant will be represented by an insurance company and its attorneys. It won't be a fair fight unless you have legal counsel, too. Here's how you can find a lawyer who's right for you.

Louisiana Slip and Fall FAQ

Here are some other questions you might have about your slip and fall case.

Where Will Your Slip and Fall Lawsuit Be Filed?

Your lawyer will file your case in Louisiana's district court, the trial court where most civil (non-criminal) lawsuits start. In addition to choosing the proper court, your lawyer also must sue in the correct "venue," or location. Typically, that's the court nearest to where the defendant lives or has its main place of business, or where you fell and were injured.

Will Your Case Settle or Will It Go to Trial?

The overwhelming majority of personal injury cases settle without a trial. Yours probably will, too, unless the defendant feels confident a jury will find you were mostly to blame, you weren't badly hurt, or your injuries weren't caused by the fall. You should discuss negotiation and settlement strategies with your lawyer.

How Long Will It Take to Resolve Your Case?

That depends. If the facts aren't disputed, it's clear the landowner was to blame, you've gathered the evidence to support your claim, and your injuries and damages are well documented, your case might settle in several weeks to a few months. If it goes to trial, expect the process to take a year or more, and even longer if there's an appeal. A case can settle at any time during trial preparation or trial.

What Kinds of Damages Can You Collect?

If you win your case, you'll recover what the law calls "compensatory damages." As the name suggests, these are meant to compensate you for:

• out-of-pocket losses like medical bills, lost wages, and amounts you pay for replacement household services, and
• things that don't come directly out of your pocket, like pain and suffering, emotional distress, and disability.

(Learn more about how insurance companies value injury cases.)

Find Out About Louisiana Personal Injury Laws

Your slip and fall claim is a type of personal injury case. You can learn more about the laws we've covered here, as well as other Louisiana personal injury laws that might impact your claim.