West Palm Beach premises liability lawyer
Shalhoub Law Injury & Accident represents people injured on someone else’s property in West Palm Beach and throughout Palm Beach County. That includes claims against property owners and managers over hazards they should have fixed or warned about. Attorney Paul R. Shalhoub spent years defending insurance companies before he began representing injured people, and he handles every case himself, from the first call through trial.
Premises liability is the law that decides when the owner of a property is responsible for an injury that happened on it. It covers far more than a wet floor, and which rules apply to your case depends on three things: where you were hurt, why you were there, and what kind of hazard it was.
This page is the overview. Two specific situations have their own pages because the law treats them separately: a slip and fall on a spill in a business, which is governed by its own statute, and an attack made possible by inadequate security, which since 2023 has its own set of rules. Everything else — broken stairs, unlit parking lots, falling objects, defective handrails, pool and balcony injuries — is decided by the principles below.
Attorney Paul R. Shalhoub has tried a premises case to verdict against Walmart, at six times the offer the company made shortly before trial, and resolved a confidential premises claim arising from a commercial fire for $100,000.
Your attorney, Paul R. Shalhoub
| Attorney | Paul R. Shalhoub — the sole attorney at the firm |
| License | The Florida Bar number 88300, admitted 22 March 2011. Verify on The Florida Bar |
| Relevant background | Began at a Florida insurance-defense firm. Premises verdict against Walmart at six times the pre-trial offer, with fees and costs awarded |
| Premises results | That Walmart verdict, and a confidential settlement of $100,000 in a premises claim arising out of a commercial fire. More on case results |
| Who handles the case | Paul, start to finish. No other attorneys, no case managers |
| Office hours | Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Calls and messages answered 24 hours |
| Consultation | Free and confidential, at the office, your home, hospital, phone or video |
| Case costs | The firm advances them. You owe no fee and no reimbursement of costs unless it recovers compensation for you |
Why you were on the property decides what you are owed
Florida sorts visitors into three categories, and the duty owed to each is different. This is the first question in any premises case.
| Invitee | Someone on the property for the owner’s benefit or by public invitation — a customer, a hotel guest, a tenant, a delivery driver, a visitor to an office. The highest duty: the owner must use reasonable care to keep the property in a reasonably safe condition, and must warn of dangers it knows about that the visitor would not readily see |
| Licensee | Someone present with permission but for their own purposes — a social guest is the usual example. A lesser duty, centered on warning of known dangers |
| Trespasser | Someone with no invitation, express or implied. Florida section 768.075 sharply limits what is owed. Toward an undiscovered trespasser the owner must only refrain from intentional misconduct and has no duty to warn of dangerous conditions; toward a discovered trespasser it must refrain from gross negligence or intentional misconduct and warn of known dangers that are not readily observable |
Most injured people are invitees and do not realize the defense will try to move them out of that category. The statute defines an invitation by whether the visitor had an objectively reasonable belief that he or she has been invited or is otherwise welcome on the part of the property where the injury happened. So the argument is rarely whether you were invited into the building; it is whether you were welcome in the stairwell, on the roof access, behind the counter, in the closed section of the parking garage.
Two more provisions of the same statute are worth knowing. Immunity applies regardless of whether a trespasser was intoxicated, and an owner is not liable for negligence toward someone injured while attempting or committing a felony on the property.
The two duties, and why “it was obvious” does not end a case
This is the single most useful thing on this page, because it is the defense you are most likely to hear and it is more limited than it sounds.
A property owner owes an invitee two separate duties: to maintain the property in a reasonably safe condition, and to warn of dangers it knows about. The obvious danger doctrine says an owner is not liable for an injury caused by a danger that was known or obvious — unless the owner should have anticipated the harm anyway.
Florida courts have been consistent about what that does and does not accomplish. As the Fifth District put it, and as courts across Florida have repeated: while the open and obvious danger doctrine may in certain circumstances discharge the duty to warn, it does not discharge the landowner’s duty to maintain the property in a reasonably safe condition (Aaron v. Palatka Mall, 908 So. 2d 574, Fla. 5th DCA 2005, quoting Marriott International v. Perez-Melendez, 855 So. 2d 624, Fla. 5th DCA 2003).
The Fourth District, which governs appeals from Palm Beach County, has said the same thing: simply because a hazardous condition is open and obvious does not necessarily mean the owner’s duty to maintain the property in a reasonably safe condition is discharged (Mashni v. LaSalle Partners Management, 842 So. 2d 1035, Fla. 4th DCA 2003). And the Florida Supreme Court set the backstop decades ago: where a reasonable occupier should anticipate an unreasonable risk of harm despite the visitor’s knowledge or the obvious nature of the condition, something more in the way of precautions may be required (Ashcroft v. Calder Race Course, 492 So. 2d 1309, Fla. 1986).
Darkness is the answer to “obvious”
Aaron is worth knowing because the facts recur constantly in this county. A man tripped over a parking lot bumper at about 9:15 in the evening in light drizzle. The bumper was nearly the same color as the surface of the lot, there were only two of them in the entire lot, and the lighting was poor. Summary judgment for the mall was reversed. The court’s language is the one to remember: hidden and concealed dangers are the antithesis of open and obvious dangers, and stretching the doctrine to cover a condition shrouded in darkness would obliterate the reason for the rule.
One technical point with real consequences: in Aaron the injured party had pleaded both duties, failure to maintain as well as failure to warn, and the court treated that as significant. A case pleaded only as a failure to warn can be ended by obviousness. One that also pleads failure to maintain usually cannot.
Which rules govern your case
Three different frameworks apply to injuries on property in Florida, and using the wrong one is how claims get mishandled.
| A spill or dropped object inside a business | Governed by section 768.0755. You must prove the business knew or should have known about the substance. See slip and fall |
| A criminal attack on the property | Governed by the 2023 negligent security statutes, which let a jury apportion fault to the attacker and give qualifying apartment owners a presumption. See negligent security |
| Everything else | Common-law premises liability. Broken stairs, missing handrails, raised walkways, unlit lots, falling merchandise, defective doors, pool and balcony hazards, inadequate maintenance. The duty to maintain the property in a reasonably safe condition, which section 768.0755 expressly leaves untouched |
The distinction matters because the knowledge requirement in the slip-and-fall statute does not apply in the same way to a condition that is part of the building. A step that has been broken for eight months is not a transitory foreign substance, and a defendant who argues it is has misunderstood its own best defense.
Palm Beach County has written down what owners must maintain
Local codes do not create a right to sue by themselves, but they are a public, quotable statement of the standard a property owner in this county is expected to meet.
The Palm Beach County Property Maintenance Code, at section 14-32(b), requires that all sidewalks, walkways, stairs, driveways, parking lots, parking spaces and similar areas shall be kept in a proper state of repair, and maintained free from hazardous conditions. Section 14-32(a) requires exterior premises to be maintained in a clean, safe and sanitary condition.
Section 14-31(b) places that responsibility squarely: the owner or occupant of the premises shall maintain the structures and exterior property in compliance with these requirements.
Specific provisions matter in specific cases:
- Hotels, condominiums and multi-unit buildings. Section 14-34(a) requires every owner of a structure containing a rooming house, hotel, dormitory, two or more dwelling units, or two or more nonresidential occupancies to maintain the shared or public areas and exterior property in a clean and sanitary condition.
- Stairs, decks, porches, balconies and handrails. Sections 14-33(j) and (l) and 14-34(e) to (g) require them to be structurally sound, in good repair, properly anchored, firmly fastened and capable of supporting imposed loads.
- Stairway lighting. Section 14-52(a) requires every common hall and stairway to be lit at all times, and every exterior stairway to be illuminated at a minimum of one foot-candle at floors, landings and treads. That standard is about stairways, not parking lots.
Inside West Palm Beach, the city code adds its own. For commercial property, section 18-105 requires every inside and outside stairway, porch and appurtenance to be constructed so as to be safe to use and capable of supporting normal loads, and maintained in sound condition.
“Our cleaning contractor was responsible”
Expect this where a store or building blames a janitorial company, a management agent or a maintenance vendor. West Palm Beach has addressed it directly. Section 18-263 of the city code provides that every owner of real property in the city must maintain it in compliance, and that such owner remains liable for violations regardless of any contract or agreement with any third party regarding such property. Florida law reaches a similar place through the doctrine of non-delegable duties: an owner cannot contract away the responsibility it owes to the people it invites in.
The maintenance and inspection records that decide these cases sit with the property owner, and nobody hands them over voluntarily.
Where these injuries happen
| Apartment and condominium buildings | Exterior stairs, walkways, unlit breezeways, balconies, pool areas and parking. Common areas are the association’s or the landlord’s responsibility, and this is not a “business establishment,” so the slip-and-fall statute does not govern |
| Hotels and resorts | Pool decks, lobby floors during storms, bathroom surfaces, balconies and stairwells. Covered expressly by the county’s shared-areas provision |
| Stores and shopping centers | Falling merchandise, damaged flooring, unmarked level changes, entrance mats, carts, and the parking lot |
| Restaurants and bars | Steps between dining levels, patio surfaces, poorly lit exits |
| Parking lots and garages | Wheel stops, potholes, unmarked curbs, broken lighting — the Aaron pattern |
| Construction and job sites | Open holes, unguarded edges, debris. An injury to your own employer’s worker usually runs through workers’ compensation, which this firm does not handle, but an injury to someone else on the site may be a premises claim |
| Public buildings, parks and sidewalks | A claim against a city, county or state agency under section 768.28, with written notice required before suit and its own shorter deadlines |
The hazards that produce most of these claims
Each of these turns on a different question, which is why a general injury lawyer and a lawyer who has tried a premises case do not approach them the same way.
Stairs, steps and handrails
The most common serious premises hazard, and the most measurable. Stair cases turn on whether risers are uniform, whether a handrail existed and was firmly fastened, whether a single step was marked, and whether the surface was worn smooth. Palm Beach County’s maintenance code requires stairs, railings and guards to be structurally sound, in good repair and firmly fastened, and the West Palm Beach code requires commercial stairways to be safe to use and maintained in sound condition. A single unmarked step between two floor levels in a restaurant is a classic case, because it is exactly the kind of hazard an owner should anticipate causing harm even when a visitor could have seen it.
Lighting
Poor lighting rarely causes an injury on its own. What it does is defeat the argument that a hazard was obvious, which is why it so often decides a case. The county requires every common hall and stairway to be lit at all times and every exterior stairway to carry at least one foot-candle at floors, landings and treads. In the downtown master plan area of West Palm Beach, buildings must light entrances and adjacent sidewalks from dusk to dawn at a minimum of 0.6 foot-candles measured at the back edge of the curb, with unshielded fixtures prohibited — a standard that applies to that overlay district rather than citywide. Where a measurable standard exists, the question stops being a matter of opinion.
Falling objects
Merchandise stacked above shoulder height, items on a top shelf, unsecured displays. These are rarely about notice of a spill and almost always about the method of stacking or storing, which puts the focus on the store’s own procedures rather than on how long something sat there.
Pools and water features
Florida has specific residential swimming pool safety requirements, and commercial pools carry their own regulatory standards covering barriers, gates, depth markings and drains. A pool case usually begins with which standard applied to that pool and whether the barrier or signage complied with it.
Balconies, railings and walkways
An elevated-structure failure is the most catastrophic category in premises law, and in a county with this much multi-story coastal construction it is not rare. Florida’s milestone structural inspection requirements for certain condominium and multi-family buildings have produced inspection reports that document known structural deficiencies, and those reports become central evidence where a building knew about a defect and did not act.
Dog bites and animal attacks
Treated separately in Florida and handled on its own page. A dog owner’s liability does not depend on the animal having bitten anyone before, which makes it quite different from the premises rules described here. See dog bite claims.
The defenses, and the deadline
Your share of fault
Section 768.81(6) bars recovery entirely for a party found more than 50 percent at fault for their own harm. At or below that line, damages are reduced by your percentage. In a premises case the arguments are predictable: your footwear, whether you were watching where you walked, whether you had been in that building before, whether you had a drink, and whether you went somewhere you were not meant to be.
The time limit
Two years for a negligence claim that accrued after 24 March 2023, under section 95.11(5)(a). Claims that accrued on or before that date keep the former four-year period. Claims against a government body run under section 768.28 and are shorter and stricter, with a written notice requirement before suit.
What the owner has that you do not
Maintenance records, work orders, inspection logs, prior complaints about the same condition, contractor agreements and surveillance footage all sit with the defendant. Since 1 January 2025, Florida’s initial disclosure rule requires a defendant to produce the documents it may rely on and a copy of any applicable insurance policy within 60 days of being served, without anyone asking. Video, though, is usually overwritten long before a case is filed, which is why a preservation demand goes out early.
Two years is less time than it sounds once records have to be requested and experts retained. An early call costs nothing and keeps the options open.
The injuries these cases produce
A premises case is usually about a fall, and a fall onto concrete, tile or a stair edge is not a minor mechanism of injury.
| Hip and pelvis fractures | The injury that most often ends independent living. Surgery, rehabilitation, and frequently a permanent change in how someone lives |
| Head injuries | Concussion and bleeding on the brain, which can appear hours later. Anyone on a blood thinner who strikes their head needs evaluation the same day |
| Spine injuries | Compression fractures and disc herniations, including aggravation of degeneration that was present but silent before |
| Shoulder, wrist and elbow | From bracing against the fall. Often requiring hardware |
| Falls from height | Balconies, unguarded edges and defective railings produce the most catastrophic outcomes in this category |
| Burns and smoke injuries | Where the hazard is fire, blocked egress or a missing detector rather than a walking surface |
How treatment gets paid for
There is no personal injury protection coverage in a premises case the way there is after a car crash. That surprises people. Health insurance generally pays, subject to a lien that must be resolved out of any recovery. Where someone has no coverage, certain providers will treat under a letter of protection and wait for payment until the case ends; those arrangements carry specific Florida requirements and should be reviewed before they are signed.
Pre-existing conditions
Arthritis, an old injury or prior surgery is not a defense, although it will be argued as one. Florida law allows recovery for the aggravation of a pre-existing condition. Tell every treating doctor your complete history: records that look like a concealed history do far more harm than the history itself.
How these cases are actually built
Premises cases are won on documentation of a condition that the owner will repair within days of learning someone was hurt.
What is gathered, and from where
| Photographs and video of the condition | Including the lighting as it was at the time of day the injury happened. A daytime photograph of a night-time hazard proves the wrong thing |
| The incident report | Written by a manager on the day, usually before anyone has become careful about wording |
| Maintenance and inspection records | How often the area was checked and by whom, and whether the condition had been noted before |
| Work orders and repair invoices | Frequently the strongest evidence in the case, because they date the problem. A repair order raised three weeks before the injury is difficult to explain |
| Prior complaints | From residents, guests, customers or staff about the same condition |
| Contracts with vendors | Cleaning, landscaping, lighting and maintenance agreements, which establish who was supposed to do what and when |
| Code enforcement history | Public records in most cases, and a direct line to whether the condition had already been cited |
Expert testimony
Many premises cases need someone qualified to say what the standard required: a lighting engineer for an illumination case, a building code or safety expert for a stair, handrail or walking-surface case, a human factors expert on whether a hazard was genuinely visible. That is part of why case costs exist, and why the firm advancing them matters to an injured person who cannot fund a case.
Who the defendant actually is
This is less obvious than it sounds and it decides whether there is anything to recover. The property may be owned by one entity, managed by another, leased to a third and maintained by a fourth. A commercial lease frequently allocates responsibility for a specific area between the landlord and the tenant. Identifying every party with a duty, and every applicable policy, is work that happens at the start rather than at the end.
What happens after you call
Most people have never made a claim before and have no idea what the sequence looks like. It is shorter than you would think at the start and longer than you would like in the middle.
- The first conversation. Free, with Paul, and usually about twenty minutes. Where it happened, why you were there, what the condition was, what treatment you have had, and whether anyone photographed anything. The honest answer sometimes given on that call is that there is no claim worth pursuing.
- Preservation. If the case is taken, written demands go out quickly to the owner, the management company and any insurer, requiring surveillance, incident reports and maintenance records to be kept.
- Investigation. The property is examined and photographed as it was, witnesses are located, public records and code enforcement history are requested, and the ownership and insurance picture is established.
- Treatment. The medical course runs its own timeline, and pushing a claim to settlement before a doctor can say whether an injury is permanent is how claims get undervalued.
- The demand. Once the medical picture is clear, the claim is presented with the evidence behind it. Many premises claims resolve here.
- Suit, if it is worth filing. Filed where it raises what the client recovers, typically when the carrier’s valuation does not reflect what the evidence shows. Filing starts the discovery clock, including the 60-day initial disclosures.
- Mediation, then trial if necessary. Most cases resolve at or after mediation. The ones that do not are tried.
Throughout, you deal with Paul. There is no case manager, and the person who evaluates the claim is the person who would try it.
What a premises claim is worth
No honest lawyer gives you a number from a web page. What moves it: how serious and permanent the injury is, whether the hazard was documented or photographed, how long the condition had existed, whether there were prior complaints, how much fault a jury would assign to you, and the insurance available — which for a small commercial property or a condominium association can be the binding constraint no matter how strong the liability case is.
One factor deserves its own mention, because it disappoints people who have a strong case. The available insurance is often the real ceiling. A small commercial building, a restaurant or a condominium association may carry a policy far below what a serious injury is worth, and no amount of liability evidence creates money that does not exist. Establishing early what coverage applies, and whether more than one policy or more than one responsible entity exists, is part of why the ownership question gets worked out at the beginning rather than the end.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every case turns on its own facts, its venue and the coverage that actually exists.
Common questions
What is premises liability, in plain terms?
It is the law that decides when a property owner has to pay for an injury that happened on its property. The core duty, for anyone invited onto the property, is to keep it in a reasonably safe condition and to warn about known dangers that a visitor would not readily see.
The hazard was obvious. Do I still have a claim?
Possibly, yes. Florida courts have held repeatedly that an obvious danger may discharge the duty to warn but does not automatically discharge the duty to maintain the property in a reasonably safe condition. Poor lighting, in particular, undercuts the argument that something was obvious at all.
I fell in my apartment complex, not a store. Which law applies?
Common-law premises liability, not the slip-and-fall statute, because an apartment or condominium common area is not a business establishment. The landlord or association is responsible for maintaining common areas, and the county’s maintenance code states that expectation directly.
The owner says the cleaning company is to blame.
That is rarely an answer. West Palm Beach’s code says an owner remains liable for maintenance violations regardless of any contract with a third party, and Florida recognizes duties that an owner cannot delegate to a contractor. The contractor may be added as a defendant, but that does not remove the owner.
What if I was trespassing?
Then very little is owed to you, under section 768.075. But the label is argued more often than it applies. The statute asks whether you had an objectively reasonable belief you were welcome in that part of the property. Guests of tenants, customers in a service corridor and delivery drivers are routinely mislabeled by an insurer.
Does a code violation mean the owner automatically loses?
No. A maintenance-code provision does not by itself create a lawsuit. What it does is establish publicly what a reasonable owner in this county is expected to do, which is evidence of the standard of care and is difficult for an owner to argue against.
I fell on a public sidewalk. Can I sue the business next to it?
Usually not. There is no Florida statute making an abutting private owner responsible for maintaining a public sidewalk, and no West Palm Beach ordinance imposing a general continuing duty to repair one. The claim is normally against the government entity responsible for that right of way, under section 768.28 with its own notice requirements.
How long do I have?
Two years for claims accruing after 24 March 2023. Earlier claims follow the old four-year rule. Government claims are governed by section 768.28 and are shorter, with written notice required first.
What should I do right after an injury on someone’s property?
Photograph the condition before it is repaired, including the lighting as it was at the time, get the names of witnesses, report it and ask for a copy of the incident report, keep your footwear, and get medical attention promptly. Repairs happen quickly once an owner knows someone was hurt.
Can I sue my own landlord or condo association?
Yes. A tenant injured in a common area by a condition the landlord or association was responsible for maintaining can bring a claim, and the lease does not waive it. Associations carry liability coverage for exactly this. Where the injury happened inside your own unit, the question becomes who was responsible for that component under the declaration or the lease.
The property was repaired right after I fell. Does that help or hurt?
It is a reason to photograph the condition immediately, because the repair itself is generally not admissible to prove negligence under Florida’s subsequent remedial measures rule. The work orders and invoices for that repair, though, are usually obtainable in discovery and can establish what was wrong and when it was known.
Do I have a case if there was a warning sign?
Possibly. A sign addresses the duty to warn. It does not necessarily satisfy the separate duty to maintain the property in a reasonably safe condition, and a cone left in place for weeks is evidence of a hazard the owner chose not to fix rather than evidence of care.
What if the business is a national chain?
It changes the logistics rather than the law. National retailers and hotel groups have in-house claims departments, retained defense counsel and standardized procedures for incident reports and surveillance retention. They also keep inspection records that can help, which is why a preservation demand and early discovery matter more, not less.
What does it cost to hire a lawyer?
The consultation is free and confidential. The firm advances case costs, and you owe no attorney’s fee and no reimbursement of those costs unless it recovers compensation for you.
Related claims
The two situations with their own rules, and the injury that most often results. See every practice area
Talk to Paul about what happened
Free, confidential, and with the attorney who would handle the case. Conditions get repaired quickly once an owner knows someone was hurt, so the photographs and records matter early.
Call (561) 208-5058 Free case review
This page describes Florida law as of 22 October 2026 and applies to claims in Florida. It is general information, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.