Collierville Slip and Fall Lawyer

Recovering from a fall that was not your fault means getting your medical bills covered, replacing the income you lost, and holding the property owner responsible for the hazard that put you on the ground. Fox, Farley, Willis & Burnette is a Tennessee personal injury law firm that represents injured people and their families, and a Collierville slip and fall lawyer from our team can take on the investigation, the insurance negotiations, and the courtroom work while you focus on healing. We serve Collierville and Shelby County, along with clients across the state.

Falls in a town like Collierville tend to happen in the places people go every day: grocery store aisles after a spill, restaurant entrances on a rainy evening, shopping center parking lots with cracked pavement, medical office stairways with poor lighting, and apartment or rental property walkways that were never repaired. A fall that looks minor in the moment can end in a broken hip, a torn rotator cuff, a fractured wrist, or a head injury that changes how a person works and lives for years.

These claims are won or lost on proof, and the proof does not last. Wet floors get mopped, broken handrails get fixed, and security video gets recorded over. The strongest slip and fall cases begin with someone moving quickly to find out what the owner knew, when they knew it, and what they did about it.

Common Collierville Fall Scenarios We Handle

• Wet and Slippery Floors: Grocery stores, restaurants, big-box retailers, and medical offices see spills, tracked-in rain, and freshly mopped tile. Liability often turns on whether employees knew about the hazard or whether it sat long enough that they should have found it, and whether any warning was posted.
• Parking Lot and Sidewalk Defects: Potholes, crumbling curbs, uneven pavement, and poorly drained lots around shopping centers and business parks cause serious ankle, knee, and wrist injuries. Responsibility can fall on the property owner, a management company, or a contractor who did the paving work.
• Stairways and Handrails: Missing railings, worn treads, inconsistent step heights, and dim lighting are frequent causes of falls in office buildings, apartment complexes, and older commercial properties.
• Inadequate Lighting: Dark entrances, parking areas, and stairwells hide the hazards that would otherwise be obvious. Lighting problems often appear alongside other defects and strengthen a claim that the owner failed to keep the premises reasonably safe.
• Weather Hazards: Ice and rain create dangerous walkways and entrances. A business that knows a covered entry floods or freezes, and does nothing about it, may be answerable for the resulting injuries.
• Rental Property and Apartment Falls: Landlords and property managers must address known repair issues such as loose flooring, broken steps, and failing balconies. Maintenance requests and prior complaints can become key evidence.
• Falls Involving Cluttered Aisles and Merchandise: Boxes, pallets, cords, and stock left in walkways cause trips in stores and warehouses, and a pattern of poor housekeeping can show the owner’s carelessness was routine rather than a one-time lapse.
• Falls Leading to Permanent Injury or Death: When a fall results in a spinal cord injury, a traumatic brain injury, or the death of a family member, the claim involves long-term medical needs, lost earning capacity, and in death cases, a wrongful death action brought by the proper family member or personal representative.

Why Choose Fox, Farley, Willis & Burnette for a Collierville Fall Injury Case

Our trial lawyers handle serious injury cases in state and federal court, and that courtroom experience shapes how we approach premises liability claims. Bruce D. Fox, co-founder, has tried more than 125 jury trials, is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, and received the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He is a past president of that association and has been selected to Mid-South Super Lawyers 17 times. Partner Brad C. Burnette holds an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell and sits on the association’s Board of Governors, as does partner John Willis, who is also a past president of the Anderson County Bar Association. Trial attorney Michael C. Beehan is fluent in Spanish and represents Spanish-speaking clients in their own language, and our team says hablamos español because language should never stand between an injured person and a fair result.

Two of our partners spent the early years of their careers defending insurance companies, trucking companies, and businesses before moving to the plaintiff’s side. In a fall case, that matters. Property owners and their insurers have a playbook: argue the hazard was open and obvious, claim the spill was too recent to be discovered, and shift blame to the injured person. Lawyers who have sat on the other side of the table know how those defenses are built and how to take them apart.

The firm has represented injured people and families across Tennessee and has recovered over $100 million for clients, with more than 170 years of combined attorney experience. Recent results include $3.4 million for the family of a man killed in a Morgan County collision, $2.3 million for a Knox County motorcyclist who lost his leg, and $1.5 million for a Knox County roofer who suffered a traumatic brain injury when his safety harness failed. Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Our attorneys are regularly voted among Knoxville’s Top Attorneys by CityView Magazine.

There are no attorney fees in a personal injury case unless we recover compensation for you, and every consultation is free. If your injuries make travel difficult, we can meet you at home or in the hospital.

Serving Collierville and Shelby County Fall Injury Clients

We represent fall victims in Collierville and throughout Shelby County, including people hurt in neighboring communities such as Germantown, Bartlett, Cordova, Memphis, Lakeland, and Arlington. Our work reaches clients from Memphis to Nashville to Johnson City, and across East Tennessee in Knox, Sevier, Blount, Anderson, Roane, and Campbell counties. If you were hurt while visiting Tennessee, or hurt here and now live elsewhere, we can handle the investigation and court filings while keeping you informed wherever you are recovering. Property owners and insurers do not change their tactics based on where a client lives, and neither do we change our commitment to building a thorough case.

What to Do After a Fall in Collierville

Start with your health. Get medical attention right away, even if you think you only twisted something, because fractures, concussions, and soft tissue tears often reveal themselves hours or days later, and a gap between the fall and your first treatment gives an insurance adjuster room to argue you were not really hurt. Tell the medical provider exactly how the fall happened and every body part that hurts, so the record reflects the full picture from the beginning.

Report the fall to the business, landlord, or property manager and ask that an incident report be written. Request a copy, or at least the name of the person who took it. Do not give a recorded statement to the owner’s insurance company before you have spoken with a lawyer, and do not guess about fault or minimize your injuries when an adjuster calls. Early, casual comments are routinely used later to shrink a claim.

If you are able, photograph the exact spot where you fell, the hazard itself, your shoes, the lighting, any warning signs or the lack of them, and your visible injuries. Get names and contact information for witnesses. Keep the shoes and clothing you were wearing without cleaning or repairing them. Then have a lawyer send a preservation demand quickly, because surveillance video, maintenance logs, cleaning schedules, and inspection records can be overwritten or discarded in the ordinary course of business.

The clock matters more in Tennessee than in most places. Personal injury lawsuits generally must be filed within one year of the injury, and that period can extend to two years in a narrow situation where criminal charges are brought against the person who caused the harm and the injured person sues that same party. Claims against a city, county, or other governmental entity fall under the Governmental Tort Liability Act, which requires filing within 12 months and limits damages. If the injured person was a child, the one-year period is paused until the child turns 18. In a death case, the one-year period runs from the date of the injury, not the date of death. Because a fall on public property or a government-owned building changes the rules, tell your lawyer exactly where it happened.

Cases arising in Collierville are typically filed in Shelby County, which is part of Tennessee’s 30th Judicial District. Depending on the amount at stake, claims may be heard in General Sessions Court, which has limited civil jurisdiction, or in Circuit Court, the trial court of general jurisdiction. Cases with out-of-state parties can raise federal court questions, and the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee sits in Memphis. A lawyer can tell you which forum fits your claim.

How Fault and Damages Work in a Tennessee Fall Claim

Tennessee follows modified comparative fault. You can recover as long as you are less than 50 percent at fault, and your award is reduced by your share of the blame. At 50 percent or more, the claim is barred. Tennessee also abolished joint and several liability in most negligence cases, and fault can be assigned to people who are not even parties to the lawsuit, such as a contractor or a prior tenant. That is why insurers in fall cases work so hard to push blame onto the injured person, claiming distraction, bad footwear, or failure to watch where they were walking. A careful investigation is what keeps that percentage low.

To win, an injured person generally must show that the owner or occupier created the dangerous condition, or knew about it, or should have discovered it through reasonable inspection, and failed to fix it or warn visitors. Proof of notice often comes from employee testimony, inspection and cleaning logs, prior complaints, incident reports, and video. Photographs of the hazard and medical records tying your injuries to the fall complete the picture.

Economic damages, meaning medical expenses, lost wages, and lost earning capacity, are not capped in Tennessee. Noneconomic damages for pain, suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life are generally limited to $750,000, rising to $1 million for a defined catastrophic loss such as paraplegia or quadriplegia from a spinal cord injury, amputation of both hands, both feet, or one of each, or severe burns over a large part of the body or face. The jury is not told about the limit; the judge applies it afterward. The cap does not apply in certain situations, including where the defendant intentionally caused the injury, was intoxicated, or destroyed evidence. Punitive damages, where available, have their own separate limit.

Collierville Slip and Fall Questions Answered

How long do I have to file a slip and fall lawsuit in Tennessee?

Most personal injury lawsuits, including slip and fall claims, must be filed within one year of the date you were hurt. Property damage claims have a longer three-year period. Claims against government entities have their own 12-month rule, so the sooner you speak with a lawyer, the more options you keep.

What do I have to prove to win a fall case against a property owner?

You generally need to show that a dangerous condition existed, that the owner or operator created it or knew about it or should have found it through reasonable inspection, and that the failure to fix or warn about it caused your injuries. Evidence like incident reports, maintenance logs, and surveillance video often decides whether the owner had notice.

Can I still recover if I was partly at fault for my fall?

Yes, as long as you are less than 50 percent responsible. Your compensation is reduced by your percentage of fault. If you are found 50 percent or more at fault, Tennessee law bars recovery entirely, which is why insurers frequently argue that the injured person was not paying attention.

What if the hazard was “open and obvious”?

Owners often say a visitor should have seen and avoided the danger. Under comparative fault, an obvious hazard does not automatically end a claim, but it can raise the share of fault assigned to you. Whether a property owner should have anticipated that people would still encounter the hazard, such as a distracting display or a lighting problem, is often a central dispute.

Does it matter if I fell at a store, a restaurant, or a rental property?

The setting shapes who is responsible. In a store it may be the retailer or a cleaning contractor; at a rental it may be the landlord or management company; in a shopping center it may be the owner of the common areas. Identifying every responsible party matters because fault can be divided among them.

How much does it cost to hire a Collierville slip and fall attorney?

Personal injury clients pay nothing up front. We work on a contingency fee, so we are paid only if we recover compensation for you, and the first consultation is free with no obligation.

Should I accept the insurance company’s first offer?

Early offers are usually made before the full extent of your injuries is known. Once you settle, you cannot reopen the claim if surgery, therapy, or permanent limitations develop later. It is wise to understand the long-term picture of your recovery before signing anything.

Will my health insurance cover treatment while my claim is pending?

Your health insurer may pay for treatment while the case is open, and many people use it for exactly that reason. The insurer may later seek reimbursement from a settlement, so those rights should be sorted out as part of the case rather than discovered at the end.

What if I fell while on the job in Collierville?

Workers’ compensation is generally your only remedy against your own employer. But if someone else, such as a property owner, contractor, or equipment maker, contributed to the fall, you may have a third-party claim that can include pain and suffering and the full value of lost earning capacity.

Can a family member bring a claim if a fall caused a death?

Yes. In Tennessee the right to pursue a wrongful death claim passes to the surviving spouse, then to the children or next of kin, or to a personal representative. The one-year deadline runs from the date of the fall, not the date of death, so waiting for an estate to be opened can cost a family precious time.

What if I was visiting Collierville from out of state?

You can still bring a claim, and you do not have to relocate for it. We handle the investigation, negotiations, and filings in Tennessee while updating you by phone and email wherever you live.

Is it worth hiring a lawyer for a fall that did not seem serious at first?

Often, yes. Injuries such as hairline fractures, concussions, and torn ligaments can worsen or surface later, and the short Tennessee deadline can pass while you are waiting to see how you feel. A free consultation costs nothing and tells you where you stand.

Talk to a Collierville Slip and Fall Attorney Today

If a fall in Collierville has left you with medical bills, missed paychecks, and an insurance adjuster asking for a statement, speak with a Collierville slip and fall attorney at Fox, Farley, Willis & Burnette before you say anything that could be used against you. We will review what happened, explain how Tennessee’s one-year deadline and comparative fault rules apply to your situation, and tell you plainly what your claim may be worth pursuing. Call us for a free consultation, and if your injuries make it hard to travel, we can come to you at home or in the hospital.