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Missouri Slip and Fall Attorney
Missouri · Illinois · Free Consultation
If you were hurt in a slip and fall or trip and fall in Missouri or the Metro East, you may have a premises liability claim, and the property owner's insurance company already has a team working against you.
Wayman Law Group handles personal injury cases in St. Louis city and county, St. Charles County, Jefferson County, and Madison and St. Clair Counties in Illinois. Kevin Wayman brings over 35 years of civil litigation experience to these cases. You do not need to figure out Missouri premises liability law on your own.
What is premises liability in Missouri?
Premises liability is the area of Missouri law that makes property owners and occupiers responsible when a dangerous condition causes injury to a visitor. The framework classifies the injured person as an invitee, licensee, or trespasser — and that classification determines what duty the owner owed. Customers, shoppers, and patients are invitees, the highest protected category. Owners owe invitees a duty to exercise reasonable care to protect them from known dangers and dangers that would have been discovered through reasonable inspection. Carter v. Kinney, 896 S.W.2d 926 (Mo. 1995).
What do you have to prove?
Under MAI 22.03, an invitee must prove four elements: a dangerous condition existed, the owner knew or should have known about it, the owner failed to fix it or warn you, and that failure directly caused your injuries. The knowledge element is often the most contested — actual knowledge means an employee created or knew of the hazard; constructive knowledge means the condition existed long enough that the owner should have discovered it.
Missouri also recognizes a recurring condition doctrine: if the defendant's own operational practices predictably create the same type of hazard, you can prove constructive knowledge through evidence of the pattern. Emery v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 976 S.W.2d 439 (1998).
The open and obvious defense
The open and obvious doctrine, adopted in Harris v. Niehaus, 857 S.W.2d 222 (1993), allows owners to argue a hazard was so visible they had no duty to warn. But Missouri recognizes a critical exception: an owner can still be liable for an open and obvious condition if the owner should have anticipated that someone would be harmed by it anyway — for example where a business environment predictably distracts customers, or where a condition visible in daylight is hidden at night.
Spoliation: destroyed surveillance footage
Surveillance footage is often the most important evidence in a slip and fall case. If a property owner intentionally destroys or fails to preserve footage after an incident, Missouri allows an adverse inference that the footage would have shown something harmful to the owner's case. Brown v. Hamid, 856 S.W.2d 51 (Mo. 1993). The most effective tool is a written evidence preservation demand sent the same day the case comes in.
What damages can you recover?
For premises liability claims against private parties, Missouri does not cap compensatory damages — the Section 538.210 cap applies only to health care providers. Recoverable damages include economic damages (past and future medical bills, lost income), noneconomic damages (pain, suffering, disability), loss of consortium for a spouse, and in some cases punitive damages.
Comparative fault
Missouri uses pure comparative fault — you can recover even if you were partly at fault, with your award reduced proportionately. Gustafson v. Benda, 661 S.W.2d 11 (Mo. 1983). The strength of your case depends on evidence that the condition was non-obvious and that you were engaged in normal, expected behavior.
How long do you have to file?
Generally five years from the date of injury under RSMo § 516.120. If the property was owned by a government entity, special pre-suit notice deadlines as short as 90 days can apply, and missing them can bar your claim entirely — confirmed in Zang v. City of St. Charles, 659 S.W.3d 327 (2023). Damages against government entities are capped at $300,000 per person and $2 million per occurrence under RSMo § 537.610.
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