Slips, Trips and Falls Articles

Architectural barriers appear in a broad range of premises liability disputes. Compliance with the ADA and other relevant codes and standards frequently removes hazards from access routes like sidewalks and entrances, building interiors, restrooms, and other accommodations. How the ADA applies to a particular property may require a thorough evaluation.

In this article, Architect & Premises Safety Expert Mark Monteith provides insight to the Americans with Disabilities Act and the implications it has on premises liability disputes.

Adequate illumination is often a topic in premises liability claims. In this article, Architect & Premises Safety Expert Doug Peden discusses the standard of care for artificial illumination and the role that it has in maintaining a safe environment.

Addressing the standard of care in premises liability and property management disputes involving snow and ice can be complex. In these cases, issues of causation and notice can be complicated by site drainage, unnatural snow accumulation, and the variety of services and surface treatment options available to property managers.

In this webinar video, premises safety expert Sylvia Deye and Property Management expert Albert Kerelis discuss the most prominent technical challenges in snow and ice investigations. Attendees will learn about site issues that can contribute to snow/ice related injuries, the standard of care for property owners and managers, and some of the relevant safety standards.

The adequacy of snow and ice management is frequently disputed in premises liability cases. Standards for snow and ice control on walkway surfaces recommend methods to maintain reasonably safe walkways where snow and ice, including refreezing of melt water, impact the safety of pedestrians. These standards also warn that conformance with the standards will not alleviate ALL snow and ice hazards. They do, however, represent a reasonable effort to reduce pedestrian risks associated with snow and ice.

In this article, Architect and Premises Safety Expert, Scott Klimek provides a list of core discovery questions relevant to winter maintenance disputes.

Public parks, private resorts, amphitheaters, and other outdoor spaces are popular event venues that require inspection and maintenance in order to ensure the safety of visitors. In this article, facilities engineer Edward Gray discusses proper grounds maintenance for preventing trip and fall incidents at outdoor events. He will examine the topic by reviewing a fact pattern from a prior case involving a plaintiff who tripped at an outdoor concert after encountering a hole concealed by straw.

Raised booth seating, sometimes used in restaurants, is associated with an increased rate of misstep and fall incidents. In this configuration, the booth is placed on a raised platform that is typically six inches above the adjacent floor, resulting in a single riser stair.

Single riser stairs, when not identified by pedestrians, create a risk of mis-steps when entering or leaving the booth. In this article, Architect & Premises Safety Expert, Scott Klimek discusses the hazards presented by the use of single riser stair platforms for booth seating in restaurants, and the design codes and standards that apply.

Previously, our premises safety experts addressed parking lot design and the use of wheel stops as they relate to slip, trip, and fall injuries, and pedestrian strikes. This article discusses the surface of the typical parking lot, common forms of asphalt deterioration, and the resulting hazards that can be present.

Parking lot safety can best be reliably established through proper design, construction, maintenance, and operations. This article discusses parking lot trip hazards, including a description of what constitutes a trip, relevant safety concepts, and links to other articles for more information.

At commercial, residential, and institutional properties, the property manager is responsible for maintaining a safe premises, which includes snow and ice management. Typically the removal of snow and ice is performed by a contracted third party, but in some cases the property manager or their staff perform these duties.

In this article, Architect and Premises Safety Expert, Albert Kerelis, details a property manager’s responsibilities for snow and ice removal.

In general, school administrators and their employees are expected to properly maintain the facilities, equipment, and school grounds in accordance with applicable standards of care. School districts have a duty to protect students and staff. Standards of care have been established to ensure the safety of the educational environment without compromising compliance with existing building codes, property codes, fire codes, and life safety codes.

In this article, School Facility Expert, Edward Gray, discusses the importance of keeping schools in compliance with safety standards of care to avoid injuries, the most common of which are falls.

Trips and falls occur when unanticipated variations in walking surfaces interrupt the motions of a pedestrian’s foot. Studies of pedestrian falls have identified that small changes in elevation are particularly dangerous because of the low probability that pedestrians will reliably detect them.

In this article, architect and premises safety expert, Thomas Lodge discusses hazards associated with abrupt changes in walkways such as interior floors and walkway surfaces such as sidewalks and short flight stairs.

This case involves a woman who visited a haunted house in the weeks leading up to Halloween. While ascending a dark unlit stairway within the attraction, an actor dressed as a monster unexpectedly jumped-out onto the landing, startling the plaintiff and causing her to lose her balance and fall backwards down the stair.


Architect and Premises Safety Expert, Mark Williams, AIA, NCARB was retained to investigate the incident and determine if dangerous conditions caused the incident to occur.

In this article, architect & construction expert, Will Martin discusses the project owner’s role in promoting safety on and around the construction site. Our experts are frequently retained to investigate injuries to construction workers and the general public to explain the responsibilities and liability of the various parties.

This article discusses several stairway codes and standards relevant to pedestrian safety. The article introduces the importance of consistent tread depth and riser height for preventing fall injuries. It also discusses the importance of handrails and other prominent stairway features.

The premises safety experts at Robson Forensic investigate many fall injuries related to stairs and other walkways. Call or submit an inquiry through our website for help determining which of our experts is best suited to address the specific technical issues in your case.

In this article, architect and retail premises safety expert, Catherine Peterman discusses the appropriate use of floor mats and runners.

When properly selected and maintained, floor mats can be part of an effective program to improve pedestrian safety. However, improper or poorly maintained mats can be hazardous and can cause falls.

In this article, biomechanical engineer, Dr. Valentina Ngai provides an introductory lesson on forensic gait analysis. She discusses how experts use injury data, combined with an understanding of the human gait, to determine what happened in unwitnessed or disputed incidents. Analyses of this type are frequently used to determine the fall mechanism (such as slip or trip), as well as if, how and possibly in what sequence the pathologic loading occurred.

In this article, biomedical engineer, Valentina Ngai discusses the process by which it is possible to reconstruct an incident by examining injury data. In this instance, Dr. Ngai was tasked with determining the way in which the plaintiff fell down a set of stairs.

In this article, architect and premises safety expert, Anthony Shinsky discusses various aspects of flooring that influence pedestrian safety.

This article discusses standards relevant to wheelstops (parking blocks) and what can be done to prevent slip, trip, and fall injuries in parking lots. The premises safety experts at Robson Forensic have investigated many incidents involving these common parking lot features.

This article provides an introduction into the basics of exterior property maintenance, the implications on premises safety, and some information on relevant standards to get your investigation started.

In this case, William E. J. Martin, AIA, NCARB, who was previously a licensed general contractor, was retained to determine whether rigging equipment, which was left outside of the secured construction site, created a dangerous condition that caused the plant employee’s injuries.

A premises safety expert at Robson Forensic was retained to investigate a case in which the plaintiff slipped and fell on an icy walkway. Our expert was tasked with determining whether the plaintiff fell on the sidewalk or the parking lot, and whether or not the defendant’s use of cat litter on the parking lot, as a treatment for icy conditions, created a dangerous condition.

In this article, the premises safety experts at Robson Forensic provide an introduction to the 2009 International Building Code stairway design requirements for new buildings. Particular attention is paid to the aspects of stairway design and construction that are most often associated with slip, trip, and fall injuries.

Falls are the most common and costly accident type for many commercial businesses. In the following article, published in the April 2011 Newsletter for HospitalityLawyer.com, the Premises Safety group at Robson Forensic provides a narrative regarding some of the most common causes of slip, trip, and fall injuries at hotels and retail establishments. The article also provides valuable precautions that should be taken to reduce the likelihood of fall injuries on stairs and walkways.