New York City Slip & Fall Accident Lawyers

Slip and Fall Statistics in New York and Nationwide

Slip and fall injuries are not minor and they are not rare. The data tells the story:

• More than 1 million emergency room visits per year in the United States are caused by slip and fall accidents. (Source: National Floor Safety Institute)
• 1 in 5 falls results in a serious injury such as a broken bone or traumatic brain injury. (Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• Falls account for more than $30 billion in direct medical costs annually in the U.S. (Source: CDC)
• In New York City, the average slip and fall settlement ranges from $15,000 to $45,000, with reported averages around $23,000 per case. (Source: NYC Comptroller's Office data, cited in 2023–2025 law firm reports.)

Those averages, however, mask an enormous range. Cases involving severe injuries, such as fractures requiring surgery, traumatic brain injuries, herniated discs, or permanent disability, routinely settle or verdict in the hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars.

Slip and Fall vs. Trip and Fall: Why the Distinction Matters in New York

Although people use the terms interchangeably, slip and fall and trip and fall describe two mechanically different accidents, and New York courts, insurance adjusters, and defense attorneys treat them differently.

A slip and fall happens when you lose friction with the walking surface. Your foot slides forward (or sideways), your center of gravity shifts, and you typically land on your back, hip, or the back of your head. Common causes include wet floors, freshly mopped tile, leaked liquids, ice, snowmelt tracked into a vestibule, and over-waxed lobby floors.

A trip and fall happens when your foot is suddenly stopped by an obstruction while your body continues forward. You pitch forward and typically land on your knees, hands, wrists, or face. Common causes include raised sidewalk flags, broken curbs, torn carpeting, exposed cables, uneven thresholds, and defective steps.

Inconsistent reporting is one of the top reasons slip and fall claims get denied. If the incident report says "tripped" but the medical records say the client slipped on water, the carrier will use that gap to dispute liability. Getting the mechanism right from the first written statement onward is critical. This is where the experience of our New York slip and fall lawyers at The Law Offices of Michael S. Lamonsoff can help.

Why Slip and Fall Cases Get Denied, and How We Beat Those Defenses

Insurance carriers and defense firms recycle the same handful of arguments to deny slip and fall claims. Here are the five most common, along with how we counter them here at The Law Offices of Michael S. Lamonsoff.

• 1. "The condition was open and obvious." The defense argues the hazard was so visible that you should have avoided it. We rebut this with photographs, lighting analysis, and case law confirming that "open and obvious" goes to comparative fault, not to whether the owner had a duty to fix the condition.
• 2. "You were comparatively negligent." New York is a pure comparative negligence state, so defendants try to shift as much fault to the plaintiff as possible (looking at your phone, wearing the wrong shoes, etc.). We rebuild the timeline, secure witness statements, and use the property owner's own incident reports against them.
• 3. "We had no notice of the condition." The defense claims they didn't know about the spill, the broken tile, or the icy patch. We obtain cleaning logs, surveillance video, prior complaints, and 311 reports to establish either actual notice or constructive notice (the condition existed long enough that the owner should have discovered it).
• 4. "The defect was trivial." A favorite defense in sidewalk and stairway cases. We retain engineers to measure the height differential, document the location, and apply the Trincere v. County of Suffolk factors (width, depth, elevation, irregularity, time, place, and circumstances) to defeat the trivial-defect argument.
• 5. "Your injury was preexisting." The defense subpoenas decades of medical records to argue your injury existed before the fall. We work with treating physicians and independent medical experts to distinguish baseline conditions from aggravation and exacerbation, both of which are fully compensable under New York law.

[Read the full breakdown: Why Slip and Fall Cases Are Hard to Win →]

NYC Admin Code § 7-210: Sidewalk Liability Shifted to Property Owners

If your fall happened on a New York City sidewalk, NYC Administrative Code § 7-210 is almost certainly the controlling statute, and it's the single most important premises liability law in the five boroughs.
Before 2003, the City of New York was responsible for maintaining most sidewalks. Section 7-210 changed that. Since September 14, 2003, the duty to maintain a sidewalk in a "reasonably safe condition" has been shifted to the abutting property owner for:

• All commercial properties;
• All residential properties with four or more units.

This duty is non-delegable. A landlord cannot escape liability by claiming the tenant, the managing agent, or the snow-removal contractor was supposed to handle it. If you fell on a defective sidewalk in front of a commercial building or a 4+ unit apartment building, the owner of that building is the proper defendant, not the City.

There is one narrow exception: owner-occupied one-, two-, or three-family residential properties used exclusively for residential purposes are exempt. In those rare cases, the City of New York may still be the responsible party, which triggers a completely different (and far shorter) set of deadlines (see the 90-Day Rule section below).

Identifying the correct defendant under § 7-210 in the first 30 days after a fall is one of the most consequential moves in a sidewalk case. Suing the wrong party can be fatal to the claim. At The Law Offices of Michael S. Lamonsoff, our attorneys are experienced in navigating the complex legal processes to help you with your case.

Learn more about New York premises liability.

MTA and NYC Government Property Slip and Falls (90-Day Rule)

If you fell on a subway platform, a city sidewalk in front of a one-family home, a NYC public school, a NYCHA building, a city bus, a municipal hospital, or any other property owned by the City of New York or the MTA, the standard three-year statute of limitations does NOT apply to you.

When a local government entity is the defendant, General Municipal Law § 50-e controls, and the deadlines are dramatically shorter:

• 90 days from the date of the accident to file a formal Notice of Claim. Miss this deadline and your case is almost certainly over before it begins.
• 50-h hearing. After the Notice of Claim is filed, the municipality has the right to take your sworn testimony in a recorded examination called a 50-h hearing. You generally cannot sue until this is completed (or waived).
• One year and 90 days from the date of the accident to file the lawsuit itself.

(Source: New York General Municipal Law § 50-e.)

These rules apply to falls on MTA subway platforms, in stations, on buses, on Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North property, in NYC public schools, in NYCHA housing, on city-maintained sidewalks (the narrow § 7-210 exception), and on any other government-owned premises. If there is any chance a government entity owns or controls the location where you fell, you need to speak with a lawyer within days, not weeks.

It’s crucial you contact lawyers experienced in such cases, such as those at our firm, The Law Offices of Michael S. Lamonsoff.

Average Slip and Fall Settlement Amounts in New York

Settlement value depends almost entirely on injury severity, liability strength, and whether the case is litigated. Based on New York case data, settlements generally fall into three tiers:

• Minor injuries, $10,000 to $20,000. Soft-tissue injuries, sprains, contusions, and short-course physical therapy with no surgery and no permanent impairment.
• Moderate injuries, $30,000 to $75,000. Fractures that heal without surgery, longer rehabilitation, lost time from work, and some lasting limitation.
• Severe injuries, $100,000 and up, often well into the seven figures. Surgical fractures, spinal injuries, traumatic brain injury, hip replacements, and permanent disability or disfigurement.

The high end of that range is not theoretical. The Law Offices of Michael S. Lamonsoff’s verdict and settlement record on premises liability and slip-and-fall cases includes results in the multi-million dollar range, including a $5,000,000 recovery and a $4,155,000 recovery for severely injured clients. 

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