What To Do After a Slip and Fall in Kentucky: Step-by-Step

1. Check yourself before standing. If you hit your head or can’t put weight on a leg, ask someone to call 911.
2. Look at what made you fall. A spill, ice, a broken step, a torn mat, poor lighting.
3. Take photos and video of the hazard, the surrounding area, any warning signs (or none) and your injuries.
4. Report it to a manager, landlord or owner. Ask them to write an incident report and ask for a copy. Write down their name if they refuse.
5. Get witness names and phone numbers, including employees who saw the hazard.
6. Don’t guess about fault or apologize. Stick to the facts.

As soon as you can, ideally the same day. Adrenaline can hide pain, and some injuries, like head injuries, fractures and back injuries, show up hours or days later. A gap between the fall and your first visit gives insurers a reason to argue something else caused your injuries. See gaps in treatment and delayed symptoms and head injury warning signs.

Tell the provider exactly how you fell and every place that hurts, then follow the treatment plan.

• Keep your shoes and clothing as they were. Insurers often blame footwear.
• Write down what happened while it’s fresh: time, lighting, what you were carrying, what employees said.
• Ask for video to be preserved. Many stores keep footage only briefly. A lawyer can send a preservation letter.
• Track your symptoms and costs. Our free injury pain journal helps.
• Stay off social media about the fall. See social media after an accident.

• Leaving without reporting the fall
• Giving a recorded statement to the property’s insurer before getting advice. See recorded statements.
• Signing a medical release or a settlement release too early
• Waiting to see a doctor
• Missing the one-year deadline

In a business fall, Kentucky’s Supreme Court held in Lanier v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 99 S.W.3d 431 (Ky. 2003), that once a customer proves a foreign substance or dangerous condition on the floor caused the fall, the burden shifts to the business to show it used reasonable care.

Kentucky property owners owe customers and other invited guests a duty to keep the premises reasonably safe and to fix or warn about hazards they know about or should find with reasonable care. Since Kentucky River Medical Center v. McIntosh (2010) and Shelton v. Kentucky Easter Seals Society (2013), an “open and obvious” hazard usually doesn’t end a case on its own; it is weighed when fault is compared. Kentucky uses pure comparative fault: your share of fault reduces your recovery but doesn’t bar it (KRS 411.182).

Most other Kentucky personal injury claims, including falls on someone’s property, must be filed within one year (KRS 413.140). Falls on city streets and sidewalks may require written notice to the city within 90 days (KRS 411.110). See sidewalk trip and falls and use our statute of limitations calculator.