For Shoppers Hurt on Midlands Floors
- Under Wintersteen v. Food Lion, a South Carolina store answers for a spill only if it created the hazard or knew, or should have known, it was there.
- South Carolina’s Supreme Court has refused to adopt the “mode of operation” theory, so proof of how long a hazard sat usually decides a grocery or big-box fall claim.
- Camera systems in busy Columbia retail corridors such as Harbison Boulevard and Two Notch Road can record over older footage, so a preservation request should go out early.
- Owners can still be liable for an open and obvious hazard when they should expect a customer to be distracted, as South Carolina courts held in Callander v. Charleston Doughnut.
- Falls on a public sidewalk or in a government building fall under the Tort Claims Act, which caps damages at $300,000 per person and generally allows two years to sue.
More than one in four older adults falls each year, and falls are the most common cause of traumatic brain injuries in that age group, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A painful fall becomes a legal claim only when one question goes your way: how long was the hazard there, and should the owner have found it? That question, called notice, decides most fall cases in South Carolina.
A slip and fall lawyer in Columbia at Shelly Leeke Law Firm can move quickly to secure the proof of notice, including inspection logs, sweep records, surveillance footage, and prior incident reports. We have represented injured South Carolinians since 2007, and our office at 1111 Laurel Street in downtown Columbia handles fall claims from Richland County, Lexington County, and the surrounding Midlands. You can tell us what happened at a free consultation.
Where and Why Falls Happen in the Columbia Area
Falls in the Columbia area tend to cluster in a handful of places where foot traffic is heavy and floors, steps, and pavement take constant wear. The locations we see most often include:
- Grocery stores and big-box retail: spills, leaking coolers, and freshly mopped floors in stores along Harbison Boulevard, Two Notch Road, and Forest Drive.
- Restaurants and bars: slick floors, dim lighting, and crowded stairs in Five Points and the Vista.
- Apartment complexes: broken stairs, loose handrails, and unlit walkways.
- Parking lots and sidewalks: potholes, broken pavement, and unmarked curb drops. Public sidewalks raise a government claim, covered in the public property section of this page.
- Hotels, medical offices, and other businesses open to the public.
- Weather hazards: rain tracked into entryways and the occasional Midlands ice storm.
Behind each of these locations sits a specific hazard. The ones that cause most falls are wet or waxed floors, torn carpet and loose floorboards, debris and cords in walkways, defective stairs and railings, poor lighting, and uneven surfaces. Identifying the exact hazard, and photographing it before it is fixed, is often the first piece of evidence in a fall claim.
The Question That Decides These Cases: How Long Was It There?
South Carolina law does not make property owners insurers of your safety. In Wintersteen v. Food Lion, Inc. (2001), the South Carolina Supreme Court held that a person injured by a hazard in a store must show that the store created the dangerous condition, or that it had actual or constructive notice of the condition and failed to fix it. Actual notice means the owner knew. Constructive notice means the hazard was there long enough that a reasonable inspection would have found it.
A spill that is one minute old is a hard case. A spill that sat through three scheduled floor checks is a strong one. That is why the race to secure evidence matters so much in a fall claim. The records that usually decide notice are:
- Sweep and inspection logs: what the store’s own policy required, and whether staff followed it that day.
- Surveillance footage: how long the hazard sat, who walked past it, and when it was created. Many systems record over older video after a set period.
- Incident reports and prior complaints: a leak reported again and again is constructive notice in writing.
- Maintenance and repair records for stairs, handrails, and lighting.
This page focuses on falls: stores, wet floors, stairs, sidewalks, and the notice evidence that proves them. The broader framework, including visitor categories, negligent security, pools, and structural failures, is explained on our Columbia premises liability page, so you can read there about property claims that do not involve a fall.
Proving a Slip and Fall Case
Every fall claim rests on four elements: duty, breach, causation, and damages. The owner’s duty comes from South Carolina common law and depends on why you were on the property. A paying customer, as an invitee, is owed reasonable care, including a warning about hidden dangers the owner knows or should know about, while a trespasser is owed the least protection. Breach is usually the notice fight described in the previous section.
Causation and damages come from medical records that tie your injuries to the fall. Common fall injuries include wrist and ankle fractures, hip fractures in older adults, back injuries, spinal cord injuries, and traumatic brain injuries from striking a hard floor or stair edge. For claims arising or accruing after January 1, 2026, Act No. 42 of 2025 lets a jury assign fault to a company not named in the lawsuit, such as a floor-cleaning or maintenance contractor, so identifying every responsible business early matters.
The Defenses You Should Expect
Property owners and their insurers tend to rely on the same handful of arguments in fall cases. Knowing them in advance helps you understand why early evidence matters:
- “It was open and obvious.” Under Callander v. Charleston Doughnut Corp. (1991), an owner can still owe a duty when it should expect that visitors will be distracted or will not notice the danger, such as a hazard placed next to an eye-level product display.
- “You weren’t watching where you were going.” South Carolina uses modified comparative negligence (Nelson v. Concrete Supply Co., 1991). You can recover if your share of fault is 50% or less, and your award is reduced by that percentage.
- “There was a wet floor sign.” A sign helps the owner only if it was visible, adequate for the hazard, and in place before you fell. Footage and photos usually settle this.
- “You had no right to be there.” Visitor status changes the duty owed, but a customer who wanders into a back hallway does not automatically lose every claim.
Falls on Public Property
A fall on a public sidewalk, in a city park, or inside a government building in Columbia is handled under the South Carolina Tort Claims Act, not ordinary premises law. Damages are capped at $300,000 per person and $600,000 per occurrence (S.C. Code § 15-78-120), and punitive damages are not available. Suit generally must be filed within two years, extended to three years only if a verified claim is filed with the agency within one year (§ 15-78-110). Because the deadline is shorter and the rules differ, a public sidewalk claim should be reviewed early.
What Your Case May Be Worth, Including the Hidden Costs
The value of a fall claim depends on the injury, the treatment it requires, and how it changes daily life. Compensation can include:
- Economic damages: emergency care, surgery, physical therapy, future treatment, lost income, and reduced earning capacity.
- Non-economic damages: pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of life.
- Hidden, long-term costs: chronic pain, fear of falling again, lost independence for older adults, and home modifications such as grab bars or ramps.
Punitive damages are rare in fall cases but possible for willful, wanton, or reckless conduct proven by clear and convincing evidence (S.C. Code § 15-32-520). They are generally capped at three times compensatory damages or $500,000, whichever is greater, with exceptions in § 15-32-530. We work on a contingency fee basis, so you pay no attorney’s fees or case expenses unless we recover compensation for you. Our fee is calculated on the gross recovery before expenses are deducted.
What to Do After a Fall
The steps you take in the first hours after a fall protect both your health and the evidence of what caused it:
- Report the fall to the manager or owner right away and ask for a copy of the incident report.
- Photograph the hazard before it is cleaned up, with several angles, the lighting, and something for scale.
- Get witness names and contact information.
- Get medical care the same day and describe exactly how you fell.
- Keep the shoes and clothes you were wearing, unwashed.
- Do not give a recorded statement, accept blame, or take a quick settlement offer before you understand your injuries.
Two situations follow different rules. If you fell while working, the claim against your employer usually runs through workers’ compensation instead, although a separate claim may exist against a property owner who is not your employer. Falls in long-term care facilities raise their own questions about supervision and fall-prevention plans, covered by our Columbia nursing home abuse lawyers.
How Long Do You Have, and How Long Will It Take?
Deadline warning: most South Carolina slip and fall lawsuits must be filed within three years of the fall (S.C. Code § 15-3-530(5)), and missing that date can end your claim. Limited exceptions exist. For a minor, the deadline may be extended until after the child turns 18 (§ 15-3-40), and the three years run from when you knew or reasonably should have known you had a claim (§ 15-3-535). Claims against a government entity follow the shorter Tort Claims Act deadline.
As for timing, a straightforward claim with clear notice evidence and a short course of treatment can often resolve in months. A case with disputed liability, a serious injury, or a lawsuit can take a year or more. When a fall causes catastrophic injuries or a death that leads to a wrongful death claim, the case usually takes longer, because future care and lost income must be fully documented first.
How Shelly M. Leeke Approaches a Columbia Fall Claim
Store chains and property managers send fall claims to insurance adjusters, and Shelly M. Leeke spent the early part of her career on that side of the table. At Blue Williams she represented insurance companies in auto and workers’ compensation defense before moving to plaintiff work at Morris Bart. Today, as managing partner, she uses that experience to anticipate the notice and comparative fault arguments a store’s insurer will raise.
Her training began at Wofford College, where she earned a B.S. in Psychology and a B.A. in Government in 1999, followed by a J.D., cum laude, from Tulane University Law School in 2002. She served as a judicial law clerk at the Louisiana Supreme Court and is licensed in South Carolina and Louisiana. She wrote The South Carolina Accident Book, was named to the 2017 Forty Under 40, and has been recognized as a Super Lawyers Rising Star. She is a member of the South Carolina Bar and the South Carolina Association for Justice.
Areas We Serve
From our Laurel Street office, we handle fall claims across Columbia, Cayce, West Columbia, Forest Acres, St. Andrews, Denny Terrace, Irmo, Lexington, Blythewood, and Orangeburg. Cases from Richland County are generally filed in the Fifth Judicial Circuit, and cases from Lexington County in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit. For injuries other than falls, see our Columbia personal injury lawyer page, which lists the other claims our Columbia office handles.
Hurt in a Fall at a Columbia Store or Sidewalk?
Sweep logs, camera files, and incident reports from the day of your fall may not be kept forever, whether you went down in a Harbison Boulevard store, a Vista restaurant, or on a downtown sidewalk. Call our Columbia office at (803) 281-6054 so we can ask the property owner or agency to preserve that evidence while you focus on getting medical care and recovering.
Columbia Slip and Fall FAQ
The store cleaned up the spill right after my fall. Did I lose my evidence?
Not necessarily. Surveillance footage, sweep logs, and incident reports may still exist for a while. A written preservation letter puts the store on formal notice to keep them, which is a strong reason to act early.
There was a wet floor sign. Do I still have a case?
Possibly. A sign does not automatically protect the owner. It must have been visible, adequate for the hazard, and in place before you fell. Video and witness accounts usually decide whether the warning was enough.
I fell on a city sidewalk in Columbia. Can I bring a claim?
Often, yes, but through the South Carolina Tort Claims Act. Damages are capped, punitive damages are not available, and suit generally must be filed within two years unless a verified claim extends it to three.
I felt fine at first, but now my back is getting worse. What should I do?
See a doctor now and tell them about the fall, so your records connect the symptoms to it. Fall injuries often worsen over days, and gaps in treatment give insurers a reason to dispute your claim.
How is a slip and fall different from a premises liability case?
A slip and fall is the most common type of premises claim. This page covers falls, while our premises liability page covers the broader framework, including negligent security, structural failures, pools, and visitor-status rules.
