When Michigan property owners ignore what they created, you pay the price.

You slipped. You fell. Maybe it was black ice in a parking lot, a wet floor with no warning sign, a crumbling sidewalk outside a strip mall. Now you’re dealing with a broken wrist, a herniated disc, a fractured hip, and the property owner’s insurance company is already working to convince you it was your own fault for not watching where you were going. That argument used to carry enormous legal weight in Michigan. It no longer does. A 2023 Michigan Supreme Court decision changed the rules, and cases that would have been dismissed three years ago are now fully viable. Scott Reizen knows how insurers fight these claims, he spent years defending them. Now he fights back.

What Michigan Law Says About Slip & Fall

Michigan premises liability law divides visitors into three categories, and your duty of care depends on which one you are.

An invitee is someone who enters property for a business purpose, a customer, a patient, a patron. Property owners owe invitees the highest duty: they must exercise reasonable care, inspect the property for hidden dangers, and correct or warn of hazards. A licensee is a social guest, someone who enters with permission but not for business. The owner must warn of known dangers. A trespasser is owed only the duty not to willfully injure them.

The vast majority of slip and fall cases involve invitees, people who were somewhere they had every right to be.

For years, Michigan courts used the “open and obvious” doctrine to dismiss slip and fall cases. If a hazard was visible,” ice in a parking lot, a wet floor, a broken step defendants argued they had no duty to protect you from it because you could see it yourself. Under Lugo v. Ameritech (2001), this doctrine functioned as a near-absolute defense, and property owners walked away from legitimate cases with impunity.

In 2023, the Michigan Supreme Court overruled Lugo in Kandil-Elsayed v. F & E Oil, Inc. The court held that the open-and-obvious doctrine is no longer part of the duty analysis at all. Whether a hazard was visible goes to comparative fault meaning the jury weighs your awareness against the property owner’s negligence, rather than a judge dismissing your case before trial. This is the single most significant development in Michigan premises liability law in two decades.

The statute of limitations for slip and fall claims is three years from the date of injury under MCL 600.5805. Miss that window, and your claim is gone.

How Slip & Fall Cases Work in Michigan

Property owners don’t pay claims out of their own pockets. Their commercial general liability or premises insurance does, and those insurers are in the business of minimizing payouts.

The first thing an adjuster will do is investigate the scene. They look for surveillance footage, they interview witnesses, they pull maintenance logs. What they’re building , from day one, is the argument that you were careless. You weren’t paying attention. You were on your phone. You’d been drinking. The hazard was obvious and you should have avoided it.

Post-Kandil-Elsayed, those arguments don’t end the case. But they still go to the jury on the question of your comparative fault. Under MCL 600.2959, if a jury finds you were more than 50% at fault, you recover no noneconomic damages. Insurers know this, and they use it aggressively, especially in snow and ice cases, where Michigan winters give them a lot of material.

The other problem is documentation. Property owners have a duty to preserve evidence, but incidents get quietly forgotten. Maintenance logs disappear. Surveillance footage gets overwritten. Acting fast, preserving evidence and putting the property owner on legal notice, is often the difference between a strong case and one where the critical proof no longer exists.

What The Reizen Law Group Does Differently

Before Scott represented injured people, he represented property owners and their insurers. He knows exactly how the defense builds these cases: the standard arguments, the investigation playbook, the witnesses they call, the experts they hire. He’s been on the other side of every move.

That means when Scott handles your slip and fall case, he knows what evidence needs to be preserved and how fast it needs to happen. He knows what maintenance records to demand and what to do when they go missing. He knows when a company’s “inspection log” is a litigation creation rather than a real document. He knows what adjusters look for in recorded statements which is why he’ll tell you clearly: don’t give one.

Kandil-Elsayed created new opportunities, but those opportunities don’t exploit themselves. They require aggressive, properly documented litigation. Scott brings over two decades of experience to that fight, and because he spent years on the defense side, he knows how to neutralize the tactics being used against you.

Common Causes of Slip & Fall Injuries

  • Ice and snow accumulation: parking lots, building entrances, sidewalks; high-volume cases in Michigan winters
  • Wet floors: grocery stores, restaurants, hospitals, gyms; especially without warning signs or timely cleanup
  • Broken or uneven pavement: cracked sidewalks, potholed parking lots, buckled flooring
  • Defective stairs or handrails: loose railings, broken treads, inadequate lighting on stairwells
  • Inadequate lighting: dark parking garages, poorly lit corridors, unlit exterior walkways
  • Negligent security: when poor lighting or lack of security contributes to a fall or assault on the property
  • Retail and restaurant hazards: spilled merchandise, cluttered aisles, recently mopped floors without signage

Frequently Asked Questions

The hazard that caused my fall was pretty obvious does that mean I can’t sue?

Not anymore. Before 2023, Michigan’s “open and obvious” doctrine often ended slip and fall cases before trial. The Michigan Supreme Court’s decision in Kandil-Elsayed v. F & E Oil, Inc. changed that. Whether the hazard was visible now goes to the question of comparative fault a jury issue not whether the property owner owed you a duty at all. Many cases that would have been dismissed before 2023 are now fully viable.

I slipped on ice in a parking lot. Is that a viable case?

It can be. Snow and ice cases in Michigan were among the hardest to bring under the old rule ice was considered the definition of “open and obvious.” Post-Kandil-Elsayed, those cases are analyzed differently. The property owner’s maintenance practices, the timing of the last inspection, whether the ice was a natural accumulation or caused by faulty drainage these all become relevant questions for a jury.

How long do I have to file a slip and fall claim in Michigan?

Three years from the date of injury under MCL 600.5805. That sounds like a long time, but evidence disappears fast. Surveillance footage gets overwritten. Witnesses move. The sooner you act, the better your case.

What if I was partly at fault for the fall?

Michigan uses modified comparative negligence under MCL 600.2959. If you were less than 51% at fault, you can still recover your damages are reduced proportionally by your share of fault. Only if a jury finds you more than 50% responsible do you lose the right to noneconomic damages.

What should I do immediately after a fall on someone else’s property?

Report it to the property owner or manager before you leave. Get names of anyone who saw what happened. Photograph the hazard, your injuries, and your surroundings. Seek medical attention the same day. And don’t give a recorded statement to any insurance company without speaking to a lawyer first.

Does it matter what type of property it was a store, someone’s home, a parking lot?

Yes, in the sense that your legal status (invitee, licensee, or trespasser) affects what duty the owner owed you. Business visitors at commercial properties are typically invitees and receive the strongest protection. But any property owner residential or commercial can be liable if they created or knew about a dangerous condition and failed to address it.

Talk to Scott

If you were hurt on someone else’s property, you have more options than the insurance company wants you to know. Scott Reizen spent years defending these exact claims. He knows what they’re worth and how they’re fought. Call (248) 554-3440 for a free consultation, or fill out the form on this page. No fee unless we win and the first call costs you nothing.

Slip & Fall

When Michigan property owners ignore what they created, you pay the price.

You slipped. You fell. Maybe it was black ice in a parking lot, a wet floor with no warning sign, a crumbling sidewalk outside a strip mall. Now you’re dealing with a broken wrist, a herniated disc, a fractured hip, and the property owner’s insurance company is already working to convince you it was your own fault for not watching where you were going. That argument used to carry enormous legal weight in Michigan. It no longer does. A 2023 Michigan Supreme Court decision changed the rules, and cases that would have been dismissed three years ago are now fully viable. Scott Reizen knows how insurers fight these claims, he spent years defending them. Now he fights back.

What Michigan Law Says About Slip & Fall

Michigan premises liability law divides visitors into three categories, and your duty of care depends on which one you are.

An invitee is someone who enters property for a business purpose, a customer, a patient, a patron. Property owners owe invitees the highest duty: they must exercise reasonable care, inspect the property for hidden dangers, and correct or warn of hazards. A licensee is a social guest, someone who enters with permission but not for business. The owner must warn of known dangers. A trespasser is owed only the duty not to willfully injure them.

The vast majority of slip and fall cases involve invitees, people who were somewhere they had every right to be.

For years, Michigan courts used the “open and obvious” doctrine to dismiss slip and fall cases. If a hazard was visible,” ice in a parking lot, a wet floor, a broken step defendants argued they had no duty to protect you from it because you could see it yourself. Under Lugo v. Ameritech (2001), this doctrine functioned as a near-absolute defense, and property owners walked away from legitimate cases with impunity.

In 2023, the Michigan Supreme Court overruled Lugo in Kandil-Elsayed v. F & E Oil, Inc. The court held that the open-and-obvious doctrine is no longer part of the duty analysis at all. Whether a hazard was visible goes to comparative fault meaning the jury weighs your awareness against the property owner’s negligence, rather than a judge dismissing your case before trial. This is the single most significant development in Michigan premises liability law in two decades.

The statute of limitations for slip and fall claims is three years from the date of injury under MCL 600.5805. Miss that window, and your claim is gone.

How Slip & Fall Cases Work in Michigan

Property owners don’t pay claims out of their own pockets. Their commercial general liability or premises insurance does, and those insurers are in the business of minimizing payouts.

The first thing an adjuster will do is investigate the scene. They look for surveillance footage, they interview witnesses, they pull maintenance logs. What they’re building , from day one, is the argument that you were careless. You weren’t paying attention. You were on your phone. You’d been drinking. The hazard was obvious and you should have avoided it.

Post-Kandil-Elsayed, those arguments don’t end the case. But they still go to the jury on the question of your comparative fault. Under MCL 600.2959, if a jury finds you were more than 50% at fault, you recover no noneconomic damages. Insurers know this, and they use it aggressively, especially in snow and ice cases, where Michigan winters give them a lot of material.

The other problem is documentation. Property owners have a duty to preserve evidence, but incidents get quietly forgotten. Maintenance logs disappear. Surveillance footage gets overwritten. Acting fast, preserving evidence and putting the property owner on legal notice, is often the difference between a strong case and one where the critical proof no longer exists.

What The Reizen Law Group Does Differently

Before Scott represented injured people, he represented property owners and their insurers. He knows exactly how the defense builds these cases: the standard arguments, the investigation playbook, the witnesses they call, the experts they hire. He’s been on the other side of every move.

That means when Scott handles your slip and fall case, he knows what evidence needs to be preserved and how fast it needs to happen. He knows what maintenance records to demand and what to do when they go missing. He knows when a company’s “inspection log” is a litigation creation rather than a real document. He knows what adjusters look for in recorded statements which is why he’ll tell you clearly: don’t give one.

Kandil-Elsayed created new opportunities, but those opportunities don’t exploit themselves. They require aggressive, properly documented litigation. Scott brings over two decades of experience to that fight, and because he spent years on the defense side, he knows how to neutralize the tactics being used against you.

Common Causes of Slip & Fall Injuries

  • Ice and snow accumulation: parking lots, building entrances, sidewalks; high-volume cases in Michigan winters
  • Wet floors: grocery stores, restaurants, hospitals, gyms; especially without warning signs or timely cleanup
  • Broken or uneven pavement: cracked sidewalks, potholed parking lots, buckled flooring
  • Defective stairs or handrails: loose railings, broken treads, inadequate lighting on stairwells
  • Inadequate lighting: dark parking garages, poorly lit corridors, unlit exterior walkways
  • Negligent security: when poor lighting or lack of security contributes to a fall or assault on the property
  • Retail and restaurant hazards: spilled merchandise, cluttered aisles, recently mopped floors without signage

Frequently Asked Questions

The hazard that caused my fall was pretty obvious does that mean I can’t sue?

Not anymore. Before 2023, Michigan’s “open and obvious” doctrine often ended slip and fall cases before trial. The Michigan Supreme Court’s decision in Kandil-Elsayed v. F & E Oil, Inc. changed that. Whether the hazard was visible now goes to the question of comparative fault a jury issue not whether the property owner owed you a duty at all. Many cases that would have been dismissed before 2023 are now fully viable.

I slipped on ice in a parking lot. Is that a viable case?

It can be. Snow and ice cases in Michigan were among the hardest to bring under the old rule ice was considered the definition of “open and obvious.” Post-Kandil-Elsayed, those cases are analyzed differently. The property owner’s maintenance practices, the timing of the last inspection, whether the ice was a natural accumulation or caused by faulty drainage these all become relevant questions for a jury.

How long do I have to file a slip and fall claim in Michigan?

Three years from the date of injury under MCL 600.5805. That sounds like a long time, but evidence disappears fast. Surveillance footage gets overwritten. Witnesses move. The sooner you act, the better your case.

What if I was partly at fault for the fall?

Michigan uses modified comparative negligence under MCL 600.2959. If you were less than 51% at fault, you can still recover your damages are reduced proportionally by your share of fault. Only if a jury finds you more than 50% responsible do you lose the right to noneconomic damages.

What should I do immediately after a fall on someone else’s property?

Report it to the property owner or manager before you leave. Get names of anyone who saw what happened. Photograph the hazard, your injuries, and your surroundings. Seek medical attention the same day. And don’t give a recorded statement to any insurance company without speaking to a lawyer first.

Does it matter what type of property it was a store, someone’s home, a parking lot?

Yes, in the sense that your legal status (invitee, licensee, or trespasser) affects what duty the owner owed you. Business visitors at commercial properties are typically invitees and receive the strongest protection. But any property owner residential or commercial can be liable if they created or knew about a dangerous condition and failed to address it.

Talk to Scott

If you were hurt on someone else’s property, you have more options than the insurance company wants you to know. Scott Reizen spent years defending these exact claims. He knows what they’re worth and how they’re fought. Call (248) 554-3440 for a free consultation, or fill out the form on this page. No fee unless we win and the first call costs you nothing.