Watch Your Step: Common Causes of Slip or Trip & Fall Accidents and What South Carolina Law Says About Them

Slip and fall accidents can happen anywhere: in grocery stores, parking lots, restaurants, or office buildings. While they may seem minor, these accidents often cause serious injuries—from broken bones and torn ligaments to head trauma and long-term disability.

If you’ve been injured in a fall that wasn’t your fault, South Carolina law may give you the right to seek compensation. But these cases can be complex, and the conditions that caused your fall are often key to proving liability.

At Palmetto State Injury Lawyers, we’ve helped countless clients recover damages for preventable injuries. Here’s what you should know.

Common Causes of Slip or Trip and Fall Accidents

These are some of the most frequent causes we see in our cases:

• Uneven Surfaces: Cracked sidewalks, potholes, or irregular flooring
• Poor Lighting: Especially in stairwells, parking lots, or hallways
• Icy Sidewalks & Slippery Paths: Especially when property owners fail to salt or warn
• Standing Water or Snow on Walkways: From tracked-in rain to melting ice
• Broken or Loose Stairs: Often lacking handrails or with risers of unequal height
• Loose or Ripped Carpeting: Particularly in commercial buildings or rental units
• Cords or Debris in Walkways: Common in retail stores or workplaces

Temporary vs. Ongoing Hazards: Why the Difference Matters

Not all slip and fall hazards are the same—and South Carolina law treats them differently depending on whether the danger was temporary or ongoing. That distinction can affect how we prove a property owner was negligent.

Temporary hazards are short-term problems that pop up unexpectedly—like a spilled drink on the floor, rainwater tracked in from outside, or a patch of ice that formed overnight. With these, the key legal question is whether the property owner knew or should have known about the hazard and had a fair chance to fix it or warn people before someone got hurt.

Ongoing or permanent hazards, on the other hand, involve conditions that don’t just appear out of nowhere. Things like broken steps, uneven sidewalks, or missing handrails are usually considered long-standing problems. In those cases, a property owner is generally expected to have known about the danger. The focus then shifts to whether they took reasonable steps to fix the problem—or at the very least, warned people about it.

Here’s a quick breakdown:

• Temporary Conditions: Spilled drinks, freshly mopped floors, ice accumulation, fallen debris
• Permanent Hazards: Cracked pavement, poor lighting, loose or broken stairs, missing safety features

Knowing what kind of hazard caused your fall helps us understand how to prove fault—and how to hold the responsible party accountable. At Palmetto State Injury Lawyers, we’ll dig into the details, preserve the evidence, and fight for the full compensation you deserve.

🏛️ Duty Owed Depends on Your Legal Status

Under South Carolina law, the level of responsibility a property owner owes you depends on why you were on the property in the first place. The law separates people into three main categories:

• Invitee: Someone on the property for the owner’s benefit, like a customer at a store or a visitor at a business.
  → This group is owed the highest duty of care. Property owners must actively inspect for dangers, fix them promptly, or give clear warnings.
• Licensee: A social guest or someone there with permission but not for business purposes.
  → Property owners must warn licensees of known hazards but don’t have a duty to inspect or fix them.
• Trespasser: Someone on the property without permission.
  → In most cases, owners don’t owe a duty to protect trespassers—except not to intentionally harm them.

However, the law does make an important exception when it comes to children. Under what’s called the “attractive nuisance” doctrine, property owners may be held responsible if a child is hurt by something on the property that’s likely to attract a child’s curiosity—like a swimming pool, construction site, or even a muddy ditch. If the owner knew (or should have known) that children might come near and fail to take reasonable steps to secure the area, they can be held liable for resulting injuries. After all, kids don’t always recognize danger—and the law reflects that.

✅ To Recover, You Must Prove:

1. The property owner owed you a duty of care,
2. They breached that duty by failing to maintain safe premises,
3. That breach caused your fall, and
4. You suffered actual damages (e.g., medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering).

Why You Need Legal Help—Fast

Slip and fall claims in South Carolina are fact-intensive and often hotly contested. Insurance companies may try to blame you for the fall or argue the hazard was “open and obvious.”

Preserving evidence is critical. Photos of the scene, incident reports, witness statements, and prompt medical treatment can make or break a case. We know how to gather that evidence—and we don’t back down when insurers try to avoid responsibility.

Let’s Talk. We’re Here to Help.

At Palmetto State Injury Lawyers, we give our clients the personalized, relentless representation they deserve. You’ll work directly with a lawyer—not a call center—and we won’t charge a dime unless we win your case.

📞 Call (843) 823-6237 or
🌐 Visit PalmettoStateInjuryLawyers.com
to schedule your free consultation today.