New York slip, trip and fall lawyer.

Reviewed by Daniel Hochman, Esq. · Last updated November 1, 2026

Which fall was yours?

Trip or slip: why the cause decides the case.

The law asks whether the owner created the hazard or knew about it, or should have known because it was there long enough to find and fix. A sidewalk flag that has been raised for months, a stair tread that has been cracked since last winter, a handrail that was never installed: those conditions prove their own history, and a careful photograph does much of the work. A puddle that came and went in ten minutes leaves nothing behind, which is why spill cases are harder to win. Both can be cases. They are built differently.

What makes a fall case strong.

• A physical defect you can photograph: a raised or broken sidewalk flag, a hole, a broken or uneven step, a missing handrail, a loose mat.
• Proof it was there a while: weathered edges, dirt in the crack, old repair marks, prior complaints, 311 reports, neighbors who saw it.
• A defendant who answers for it: a building owner with insurance, a store, a landlord, or a public body like the City or NYCHA.
• Medical treatment that matches the fall: an emergency room visit, X-rays, a fracture, surgery, physical therapy.
• Photos with a measurement: a ruler, a tape measure, or a coin next to the defect, plus wide shots that show exactly where it is.

Sidewalk falls in NYC: the owner or the City?

NYC ADMIN. CODE § 7-210

New York City puts the duty to keep a sidewalk reasonably safe on the owner of the property next to it, including repairing broken flags and clearing snow and ice. That owner, and its insurer, is usually the defendant. The owner cannot hand that duty to a tenant or a contractor and walk away from it.

The exception matters in the outer boroughs. If the property is a one-, two- or three-family house, the owner lives there, and it is used only as a home, the owner is generally not liable for an ordinary sidewalk defect and the City usually is. The owner can still be liable if they caused the defect, for example with their own repair work, or made special use of that part of the sidewalk, like a driveway.

NYC ADMIN. CODE § 7-201(c)

When the City is the defendant, it is liable only if it had prior written notice of the defect and did not fix it, or if it created the defect itself. Written notice can come from a filed complaint or from the sidewalk defect maps that have been filed with the City for decades. Checking those records early tells us quickly whether a City case is worth filing.

Notice: proving the owner knew, or should have.

Most fall cases turn on notice. Actual notice means the owner was told: a tenant complaint, a work order, an email to the super. Constructive notice means the defect was visible and had been there long enough that a reasonable owner would have found it and fixed it. New York's highest court set that test in its 1986 decision in Gordon v. American Museum of Natural History, and it is still the test today. A raised flag with rounded, dirty edges usually satisfies it. A clean, fresh spill usually does not.

Too small to count? The trivial defect rule.

Owners often argue that a defect was too minor to matter. New York has no minimum size: the Court of Appeals rejected a fixed inch rule in Trincere v. County of Suffolk and explained the test again in Hutchinson v. Sheridan Hill House Corp. in 2015. Courts look at the whole picture: height and depth, jagged edges, lighting, weather, whether it sat where people walk, and whether something drew your eye away. The City's own sidewalk rules treat a height difference of half an inch or more between flags as a defect the owner must repair. Your measured photo is the best answer to a trivial defect motion.

Stairs, handrails and building falls.

Inside buildings, owners and landlords must keep stairs, hallways, lobbies and entrances reasonably safe: treads that are level and secure, handrails where the building code calls for them, working lights. Broken steps and dark stairwells that tenants complained about are among the strongest fall cases there are, because the complaints prove notice. If you live in the building, gather every text, email or letter you or your neighbors sent about the problem.

NYCHA, City, MTA and other public property.

GEN. MUN. LAW §§ 50-e, 50-i

A fall on City sidewalks and streets, in a NYCHA building, in a subway station or on other public property follows special rules. A notice of claim must be served within 90 days of the fall, and the lawsuit must be filed within one year and 90 days. NYCHA and the transit authorities apply the same 90-day notice through their own statutes. Miss the 90 days and you need a court's permission to file late, which is never guaranteed. It is an easy way to lose a good fall case. See also our page on subway and bus accidents.

Ice and snow.

An owner is not liable for snow or ice that builds up while a storm is still going on. Once it ends, the owner gets a reasonable time to clear the walk, and the City's rules set a few hours for sidewalks. A fall on old, packed or refrozen ice days after the last storm is a different case from a fall in the middle of a snowfall. Weather records, the time of your fall and photos from the same day decide most of these cases, so take pictures before the spot is salted or melts.

Stores, supermarkets and restaurants.

Spill cases are harder than defect cases, and an honest lawyer will tell you so. You must show the store caused the spill, knew about it, or let it sit long enough that an employee should have seen it. Some conditions repeat: a leaking cooler, a mat that always curls, an entrance that floods every time it rains. A store that knew about a recurring problem can be liable even for the day it did not see the puddle. The video is usually the case, and stores record over it within days or weeks, so a preservation letter has to go out right away.

Deadlines.

Your fall happened somewhere else, or something fell on you? See falling debris injuries, falls on construction sites and car and pedestrian accidents.

After a Fall in New York

FREE GUIDE

After a Fall
in New York

The first 72 hours: photos, witnesses and deadlines

HOCHMAN LAW PC

Read this first, free

After a fall or accident in New York: the first 72 hours.

How to photograph and measure the defect, who to call, what not to sign, and the deadlines that start on day one.

Read the free guide