Las Vegas Slip and Fall Lawyer

In short: A fall claim in Nevada is not won by showing that you fell. It is won by showing what the dangerous condition was, that the business created it or should have known about it, and that it did nothing reasonable about it. Clark Law Group, PLLC in Las Vegas can review the incident, request that video and inspection records be preserved, and explain what the claim actually requires. Consultations are free. On personal-injury matters, you do not pay an attorney fee if there is no recovery. Call 702-330-3272 Monday through Friday, 8:30 AM to 5 PM, or contact the office. Contacting the firm does not create an attorney-client relationship.

What Nevada premises liability actually requires

Nevada law starts from a limit, not from a promise. The owner or occupant of property is not an insurer of the safety of people on the premises, and an accident occurring on the premises does not by itself establish negligence. At the same time, a business owes its patrons a duty to keep the premises in a reasonably safe condition for use. The Nevada Supreme Court set out both halves of that rule in Sprague v. Lucky Stores, Inc., 109 Nev. 247 (1993).

The case then divides on one question: who put the hazard there.

• If the business or one of its employees caused the substance to be on the floor, that ordinarily supports liability, because a foreign substance on the floor is usually not consistent with ordinary care.
• If someone else caused it — another customer, a delivery, the weather — liability lies only if the business had actual or constructive notice of the condition and failed to remedy it.

That second branch is where many Las Vegas fall claims are contested. Constructive notice is about what a reasonable inspection should have found. It can be built from how long the hazard sat there, from the store's own sweep or inspection schedule, or from a pattern. In Sprague itself, the court allowed a theory that a continual buildup of debris in a produce department could put the store on constructive notice that a hazard could exist at any time, and that failing to use a countermeasure such as skid mats could be unreasonable.

"It was obvious" is not the end of the claim

For decades, an obvious hazard was treated as a complete answer for the property owner. Nevada changed that. In Foster v. Costco Wholesale Corp., 128 Nev. 773 (2012), the Nevada Supreme Court adopted section 51 of the Restatement (Third) of Torts and held that a landowner owes a duty of reasonable care to entrants for risks that exist on the property, and that the open and obvious nature of a dangerous condition does not automatically relieve a landowner from that general duty.

Obviousness still matters. It goes to whether the owner acted reasonably, and it goes to comparative fault under NRS 41.141. It is an argument, not an automatic loss.

Where these falls happen in Las Vegas

Clark Law Group reviews fall claims from the kinds of properties this valley actually has:

• Casino and hotel floors, where spilled drinks, cleaning operations, wet entry areas during rain, and heavy foot traffic meet a documented inspection routine and extensive camera coverage.
• Grocery and retail stores, where produce departments, freezer cases, leaking refrigeration, and stocking operations produce recurring conditions.
• Restaurants and bars, where kitchen-to-floor transfer and beverage spills are common and where an incident report is usually written the same night.
• Parking structures, garages, and walkways, where lighting, a curb height change, an unmarked step, a broken drain grate, or a raised sidewalk panel is the condition.
• Apartment complexes and common areas, where stairs, handrails, and pool-deck surfaces raise maintenance and repair-notice questions.

Naming a property type does not decide a claim. Each one just changes which records exist and who holds them.

The records that decide these cases, and how fast they disappear

Surveillance video can turn a description into proof. Retention varies widely between businesses and systems, and some footage is overwritten well before a claim is presented, so a written preservation request early and in specific terms is worth making. A request is not the only thing that can create a duty to preserve, and it does not by itself guarantee that footage is kept. Nevada Rule of Civil Procedure 37(e) addresses electronically stored information that should have been preserved in the anticipation or conduct of litigation and is lost because a party failed to take reasonable steps to preserve it; a court may order measures to cure the resulting prejudice, and, only on finding an intent to deprive another party of the information's use, may go further. See NRCP 37(e).

What is normally worth requesting:

• Video from every angle covering the location, starting well before the fall and running past the response
• The incident or guest-injury report the business prepared, and the name of the employee who wrote it
• Sweep, inspection, or floor-care logs for that area on that shift
• Work orders, repair records, or prior complaints about the same condition
• Names of employees who responded and of any witnesses
• Photographs of the exact condition, the lighting, any warning cone, and the surrounding floor

What is worth keeping yourself: the shoes and clothing you were wearing, unwashed and unworn; your own photographs; and a written timeline made while the details are fresh.

Falls on public property follow different rules

A fall in a public building or on government-maintained ground can raise a different set of questions. Start by identifying who actually owns, occupies, or maintains the place. A public-looking location is not automatically a public defendant: a transit stop, a parking structure, or a plaza can be owned, leased, or maintained by a private company, and a private contractor doing work for a public body is a different defendant again. That question comes first, because the rules below only matter if a Nevada governmental entity is in fact a defendant.

If one is, two provisions are worth knowing about, and both come with limits:

• Administrative claim filing. NRS 41.036(1)–(2) provides that a person with a tort claim against the State files it with the Attorney General, and against a political subdivision with that subdivision's governing body, within two years after the cause of action accrues. Subsection 3 states that this filing is not a condition precedent to bringing an action under NRS 41.031. In other words, it is an administrative provision, not an extra deadline that forfeits a lawsuit on its own. It is still worth advice rather than assumption.
• Damages limit. NRS 41.035(1) provides that an award in an action sounding in tort brought under NRS 41.031, or against a present or former officer or employee of the State or a political subdivision, an immune contractor, or a State Legislator, arising out of an act or omission within the scope of public duties, may not exceed $200,000 for any one claimant and may not include exemplary or punitive damages. That limit is tied to those covered claims. It does not follow every cause of action that happens to involve a public place, and whether it applies to a specific set of facts is a question for counsel.

Nevada law at a glance for a fall claim

| Issue | What Nevada law provides | | --- | --- | | Injury filing deadline | Generally 2 years from the date of injury (NRS 11.190) | | Duty of the property owner | Reasonable care to entrants for risks on the property (Foster v. Costco, 128 Nev. 773 (2012)) | | Hazard created by a third party | Actual or constructive notice plus failure to remedy (Sprague v. Lucky Stores, 109 Nev. 247 (1993)) | | Open and obvious hazard | Does not automatically end the duty; bears on reasonableness and comparative fault | | Fault rule | Modified comparative negligence, 51% bar (NRS 41.141) | | Covered claims against a Nevada public entity | Administrative claim filed within 2 years, which NRS 41.036(3) states is not a condition precedent to suit; $200,000 limit and no punitive damages on the tort claims NRS 41.035 covers. Whether a defendant is a public entity at all is a fact question | | Attorney fee on injury matters | No attorney fee if there is no recovery |

This table is general information, not legal advice.

What to do after a fall

1. Get emergency help first if you need it. Call 911 for a serious injury. The steps below matter, but none of them comes before care.
2. Report it before you leave, if you are able to. Ask that an incident report be made and ask for the name of the person taking it. A fall with no contemporaneous report is harder to document later.
3. Photograph the condition itself when it is safe to do so, not just the room. Capture the substance, the surface, the lighting, and whether any warning sign was present.
4. Get the names of the responding employee and of anyone who saw it, if you safely can.
5. Get medical care and keep the records. A gap in treatment can be used to argue the injury came from something else.
6. Keep your shoes and clothing exactly as they were.
7. Call Clark Law Group at 702-330-3272 during business hours or request a callback so a video-preservation request can go out promptly.

If someone asks you for a recorded statement, the answer depends on who is asking. A property's insurer or a third-party claims administrator is generally a party you have no contractual obligation to, and many people decline until they have advice. Your own insurer is different, because policies normally contain a cooperation clause and an outright refusal can create a coverage problem. A subpoena or other legal process is different again and cannot be ignored. Find out who is asking and why, check what your own policy requires, and get advice before you answer.

Who reviews injury work at this firm

C. Jared Clark, Esq. is the designated responsible attorney for Clark Law Group. He earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a Juris Doctor, cum laude, from Thomas Jefferson School of Law. He interned for the Honorable John A. Houston, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of California, and for the San Diego Public Defender's office. He has lived in Nevada since 1988 and is a member of the State Bar of Nevada, the American Bar Association, and the Nevada Justice Association. Read more about the attorneys.

The office is at 2320 Potosi St, Las Vegas, NV 89146, and hours are Monday through Friday, 8:30 AM to 5 PM. A fall is one kind of personal injury claim; if a vehicle was involved instead, start with the car accident page.

Sources

• NRS 11.190 — periods of limitation, including the two-year period for injury actions
• NRS 41.141 — comparative negligence
• NRS 41.035 and NRS 41.036 — limit on damages in covered tort actions, and administrative claim filing
• NRCP 37(e) — failure to preserve electronically stored information
• Foster v. Costco Wholesale Corp., 128 Nev. 773, 291 P.3d 150 (2012) — official reporter text
• Sprague v. Lucky Stores, Inc., 109 Nev. 247, 849 P.2d 320 (1993) — official reporter text

This page is attorney advertising and general information, not legal advice. Statutes, rules and case law change, and how any of them apply depends on the facts. Contacting the firm does not create an attorney-client relationship. Prior results do not guarantee future outcomes.