InjurySlip and fall
Slip and fall claims in Arizona
A property owner in Arizona owes the people it invites in a duty to keep the premises reasonably safe. If an owner's failure to fix or warn about a hazard, a wet aisle, an unlit stairwell, a broken railing, a pool gate that did not latch, injured you, you may have a claim. Outside the self-service setting, you generally must show the owner knew or should have known of the hazard, and the proof sits in the owner's own records: sweep logs, incident reports, camera footage. Those are overwritten in weeks, so the practical deadline is far shorter than the legal one: two years under A.R.S. § 12-542, or a notice of claim within 180 days if the property is public (A.R.S. § 12-821.01).
What Blueshoe does
The groundwork, in order, before you decide anything.
- 01
Send the preservation demand
A letter to the owner or manager in the first days, demanding that camera footage, sweep logs, incident reports, and maintenance tickets be held before routine overwriting takes them.
- 02
Fix the facts
Photos of the location, the hazard, and your footwear; witness names; the medical record that documents the injury and how it happened. Built now, while it still exists.
- 03
Match the facts to the duty
Whether you were an invitee, whether the mode-of-operation rule applies, whether the hazard was one the owner should have known about. Blueshoe tells you which theory the facts support.
- 04
An attorney can take it forward
A licensed Arizona attorney can review the file, present the claim to the owner's liability insurer, and file suit if it is not resolved fairly, on terms stated in writing first.
What the law says
What the law says about slip and fall claims in Arizona
What counts as a premises liability claim in Arizona?
Any injury caused by a property owner's failure to keep the premises reasonably safe for the people on it: slip-and-falls and trip-and-falls, merchandise falling from shelving, inadequate security, and pool incidents. The label matters less than the question: did the owner's negligence create the hazard or leave it in place?
The store says it did not know about the spill. Does that end my case?
Not necessarily. Under Arizona's mode-of-operation rule, a customer injured at a self-service business may not need to prove the store knew of the specific hazard, where the hazard is one that reasonably flows from the business's chosen method of operation. The fight shifts from whether they knew about this puddle to whether their precautions were reasonable.
Does it matter why I was on the property?
Generally, yes. Arizona premises law calibrates the duty owed to the visitor's status. Business invitees, including customers and tenants, are owed reasonable care to keep the premises safe; social licensees are owed warnings of known hidden dangers; trespassers are owed the least. Most injured customers and tenants are invitees, owed the highest duty.
The store says I should have seen the hazard myself. Do they win?
Not automatically. Defendants argue that an open and obvious hazard defeats the claim, but in Arizona the obviousness of a danger generally bears on comparative fault, not on whether you can recover at all. Under A.R.S. § 12-2505, blame is apportioned by percentage, and a partly-at-fault claimant may still recover a reduced amount.
How long do I have to bring a premises claim in Arizona?
Generally two years from the injury under A.R.S. § 12-542. If the property is public, a city park, a county building, a public sidewalk, A.R.S. § 12-821.01 requires a notice of claim served within 180 days and suit within one year. Surveillance footage is often overwritten in weeks, so the practical deadline is much shorter.
What it costs
No fee unless you recover.
Asking costs nothing. If you engage Blueshoe on a contingency basis, the fee is a percentage of what is recovered, stated in a written engagement agreement, and nothing is owed if there is no recovery. Case costs, such as filing fees and records, are set out in the same agreement, including whether they come out before or after the fee is calculated.
- Free to ask
- Written assessment before any fee
- Engagement terms in writing
- No billable hours
Questions people ask
Not necessarily. Claims survive without a same-day incident report, though the defense will make the gap an argument. What matters now is building the record that exists: medical care documenting the injury, photos of the location, witness names, and a prompt preservation demand for camera footage.
Legally reviewed by Catherine O’Grady, State Bar of Arizona No. 011647
Managing partner & chief compliance officer · 30+ years in practice · Reviewed 2026-10-08 · Full bio →