Atlanta premises liability and slip and fall lawyer

A wet floor in a grocery aisle. A broken stair at your apartment complex. A pothole hidden in a dark parking lot.

When a property owner ignores a hazard and you get hurt, Georgia law may let you hold the owner responsible. Gary Huggins is an Atlanta premises liability lawyer at Huggins Accident Injury Lawyer, with an office in Perimeter Center.

Gary handles slip and fall, trip and fall and negligent security claims across metro Atlanta. Below is what Georgia requires of property owners, what evidence to gather and how long you have.

Questions about your fall? Call (240) 421-5511, day or night.

What is premises liability in Georgia?

Premises liability is the part of injury law that covers unsafe property. It applies to owners and to anyone who controls a property, such as a store, a landlord or a management company.

What the owner owed you depends on why you were there:

• Invitees are customers, hotel guests, tenants using common areas and others there for business. The owner must use ordinary care to keep “the premises and approaches safe” (O.C.G.A. § 51-3-1). Approaches can include the entrances and walkways you use to get in and out.
• Licensees are people there with permission but for their own purposes, like a social guest at a friend's house. The owner is liable to a licensee only for willful or wanton injury (O.C.G.A. § 51-3-2), a much harder standard to meet.

Most people hurt in a store, restaurant, hotel or apartment common area are invitees, so the owner had to use ordinary care to keep them safe.

Dog attacks follow a separate Georgia statute; see our page on dog bite claims.

Superior knowledge: the question most fall cases turn on

Georgia premises cases usually come down to one question: who knew more about the hazard? You generally need to show two things:

1. The owner knew, or should have known, about the hazard.
2. You did not know about it, even though you were using ordinary care for your own safety.

“Should have known” is where many cases are decided. Evidence can include how long a spill sat on the floor, whether employees were nearby, whether the store followed its own inspection schedule and whether anyone had complained before. Your case often depends on proving how long the hazard was there and why the owner should have found it.

Expect the owner's insurer to argue that the hazard was “open and obvious” or that you were not watching where you were going. Good evidence answers both arguments.

Not sure the owner knew about the hazard? Call (240) 421-5511 and Gary will tell you what kind of evidence could prove it.

Where slip and fall injuries happen around Atlanta

Stores and restaurants

Common hazards include spilled drinks, dropped produce, freshly mopped floors with no warning sign, cluttered aisles and rainwater tracked in at the door. These falls happen everywhere from grocery stores in Sandy Springs to big-box stores along Buford Highway and Peachtree Industrial Boulevard.

Apartment complexes

Typical problems are broken stairs and railings, rotting decks, loose carpet on landings, dark breezeways and ice from leaking gutters. Apartment owners usually control the stairways, walkways and parking areas, so hazards there are typically their responsibility.

Parking lots and decks

Falls here involve potholes, crumbling curbs, broken wheel stops, oil slicks, poor lighting and unmarked changes in level. They happen at shopping centers, office parks around Perimeter Center and garages in Midtown and Buckhead.

Hotels

Guests slip on wet lobby floors, slick pool decks and tubs without mats, or fall in dim stairwells. An injured guest may fly home within days, which can make evidence harder to gather later.

Common fall injuries

Falls can cause broken hips, wrists and ankles, torn knee ligaments, back injuries and head injuries that affect memory and mood.

Hurt at a store, an apartment complex or a hotel? Call (240) 421-5511 and Gary will explain whether the owner may be responsible.

What should you do after a fall on someone's property?

Take these steps if you can, or ask a family member to help:

1. Get medical care. Tell the doctor exactly how you fell and everything that hurts.
2. Report the fall to a manager and ask for a copy of the incident report. If they will not give you one, write down the manager's name, the date and time and what you told them.
3. Photograph the hazard before it is cleaned up: the spill or broken step, the lighting and the lack of any warning sign. Photograph your shoes too.
4. Get the names and phone numbers of witnesses, including employees who saw what happened.
5. Note where the security cameras are. Many systems record over old footage automatically.
6. Keep the shoes and clothes you wore, unwashed and unrepaired.
7. If it was raining, note whether there were mats or warning cones at the entrance.
8. Be careful with the owner's insurance company. Read why a recorded statement can hurt your claim before you agree to one.

Store video is often the strongest evidence in a fall case, and it can disappear fast. If you fell recently, call (240) 421-5511 so Gary can ask the owner, in writing, to preserve the footage before it is recorded over.

Negligent security: attacks at apartments, parking decks and hotels

Sometimes the danger is not a spill but a person. A robbery in a parking deck, an assault in an apartment breezeway or a shooting at a gas station can lead to a negligent security claim against a property owner who failed to take reasonable precautions.

Georgia changed these claims in 2025. For claims arising on or after April 21, 2025, new O.C.G.A. §§ 51-3-50 through 51-3-57 narrow property owners' liability for injuries caused by third-party crimes. Under the new law:

• The crime must have been foreseeable, tied to a known hazardous condition on the property.
• The owner is held to an ordinary-care standard.
• The jury must assign part of the fault to the criminal who committed the attack.
• Owners have defenses, for example when the injured person was trespassing or was hurt off the premises.

Claims from incidents before April 21, 2025, are decided under the older rules. The date of the attack decides which law applies. Here is more on the 2025 tort reform law and what it means for injured people.

Evidence in these cases often includes earlier incident reports and police calls to the property, broken gates or locks, dead lights, cameras that did not work and the property's security contracts.

Attacked at an apartment complex, hotel or parking deck? Call (240) 421-5511 and Gary will tell you which law applies to your date and what evidence to request first.

Apartment and parking-deck safety: what to watch for

Whether the problem is a broken step or a broken gate, the same kinds of proof show what an owner knew. Watch for:

• Lights that stay out in parking decks, stairwells and breezeways
• Gates, door locks and access systems that do not work
• Stair railings, decks and walkways in disrepair
• Security cameras that are missing, broken or not recording
• Repair requests that go unanswered

If you rent, report hazards in writing through email or the resident portal and keep copies. A written repair request is proof that the owner knew about the problem.

What if you fell on government property?

Falls on public sidewalks, at government buildings, in public parks or at transit stations follow special rules. A claim against a city can require written notice within six months, long before the usual two-year deadline. Before suing, you must give written ante litem notice:

• City: within six months of the injury (O.C.G.A. § 36-33-5)
• County: within 12 months (O.C.G.A. § 36-11-1)
• State of Georgia: within 12 months under the Georgia Tort Claims Act (O.C.G.A. § 50-21-26)

Governments are protected by sovereign immunity except where the law waives it. MARTA and other transit systems can involve special notice rules and shorter deadlines, so call right away after a fall at a station. Figuring out who maintains a particular sidewalk or stairway can also take some digging.

Fell on a sidewalk, in a government building or at a MARTA station? Call (240) 421-5511 so Gary can find out who owns the property and which notice deadline applies.

Georgia's 50% rule in fall cases

The property owner's insurer will look for ways to blame you: you were on your phone, wearing the wrong shoes, walking where you should not have been or ignoring a sign. Georgia's modified comparative negligence rule makes those arguments important (O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33).

If you are 50% or more at fault, you recover nothing. If you are less than 50% at fault, your award is reduced by your share.

In a hypothetical case with $100,000 in damages where you are 20% at fault, you would receive $80,000. Juries can also assign fault to others who are not in the lawsuit, such as a cleaning contractor.

Learn more about Georgia's 50% rule.

How long do you have to file a premises liability claim?

In Georgia, you generally have two years from the date of your injury to file a lawsuit (O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33). Other deadlines can apply:

• Claims against a city, county or the State need the earlier written notice described above.
• For a child, the injury deadline generally does not run until the child turns 18 (O.C.G.A. § 9-3-90). A parent's claim for the child's medical bills follows different rules, so call early.
• A spouse's separate claim for loss of consortium has four years, though it is usually brought together with yours.

Unsure which deadline applies to your fall? Call (240) 421-5511 and Gary will work out the dates with you.

What compensation is available after a fall?

You may be entitled to:

• Medical bills, past and future
• Lost wages and lost earning capacity
• Pain and suffering, emotional distress and loss of enjoyment of life

Georgia has no cap on non-economic damages in ordinary injury cases. For claims arising on or after April 21, 2025, though, juries may hear what your health insurer actually paid, recoverable medical expenses are limited to the reasonable value of necessary care, and letter-of-protection arrangements can be discovered by the other side (O.C.G.A. § 51-12-1.1). Keep every medical bill and insurance statement.

The responsible parties may include the owner, a management company, a tenant business, or a maintenance or security contractor, and each may carry its own liability insurance.

How an Atlanta premises liability lawyer builds your case

Gary Huggins brings 20 years of law practice to every case. He meets clients at the office, by phone or video, at home or at a hospital bedside, and he speaks Spanish (información en español). In a premises case, he typically:

• Visits the scene and photographs it, including the lighting at the same time of day
• Sends preservation letters for video, cleaning logs, inspection records and prior complaints
• Identifies everyone who controlled the property, from the owner to the management company and contractors
• Organizes medical records and bills to meet the new rules for proving medical expenses
• Handles the insurance company and prepares the case as if it will go to trial

For premises cases, there is no attorney's fee unless we recover compensation for you. Call (240) 421-5511, tell Gary where and how you fell, and he will give you a straight answer about your options.

Talk to an Atlanta slip and fall lawyer today

A fall can mean surgery, weeks off work and bills that keep coming. You do not have to deal with the property owner's insurance company on your own.

Our office is at 1050 Crown Pointe Parkway, Suite 500, Atlanta, GA 30338, a few minutes from the I-285 and GA-400 interchange. Gary serves clients from Dunwoody and Sandy Springs to Decatur, Gwinnett and Cobb. Call (240) 421-5511 any time for a free consultation.