South Florida has had another wet stretch this October — heavy rain flooded homes in Deerfield Beach after October 17, and Miami started Tuesday, October 20 with morning showers in the forecast. Rain does more than flood streets. It gets tracked into grocery stores, pharmacies, restaurants, and apartment lobbies on shoes and umbrellas, and it pools at entrances where mats are missing, curled, or soaked through. A fall on that water can break a wrist, injure a back, or worse — and Florida law does not make the store automatically responsible just because you fell inside it. What you can prove, and how quickly you preserve it, usually decides the claim.

Florida’s Knowledge Rule: § 768.0755

For a slip on a transitory foreign substance — spilled liquid, dropped food, cleaning residue, or tracked-in rainwater — in a business establishment, Florida Statute § 768.0755 requires the injured person to prove the business had actual or constructive knowledge of the dangerous condition and should have taken action to remedy it.

Actual knowledge means the business knew about the hazard — for example, an employee saw the spill or a customer reported it. Constructive knowledge can be shown with circumstantial evidence that the condition existed long enough that the business, using ordinary care, should have known about it, or that the condition happened regularly and was therefore foreseeable. A wet entrance on a rainy day, with no mat, no warning sign, and no one mopping, raises exactly those questions: how long was the water there, how often does it happen when it rains, and what did the store’s own inspection routine show?

A Wet-Floor Sign Helps the Store — It Does Not End the Case

Stores often point to a yellow wet-floor sign as a complete defense. It is not. Where the sign was placed, whether it was visible before you reached the hazard, whether the area was still unreasonably dangerous, and whether the store addressed the source of the water all matter. The same is true of a mat that is saturated or bunched up: a precaution that does not actually make the entrance reasonably safe is evidence to examine, not a conversation-ender.

What If You Were Partly at Fault?

Expect the insurer to argue you were looking at your phone, wearing the wrong shoes, or should have seen the water. Florida follows modified comparative negligence for these claims: your compensation is reduced by your percentage of fault, and if you are found more than 50% at fault, you cannot recover damages. That is why early evidence matters — photographs of the floor, the lighting, your footwear, and what was (or was not) warning you can change the percentage fight. Do not give a recorded statement about fault before you understand the claim.

The Evidence That Disappears First

Surveillance video often shows how long the hazard existed — the core constructive-knowledge question — but many systems overwrite footage within days to a few weeks, and a store generally has no obligation to keep it until preservation is requested in writing. The hazard itself is mopped within minutes. Inspection and sweep logs, incident reports, and employee schedules are in the store’s hands, not yours. Photograph the scene and your injuries if you are able, get witness names and phone numbers, report the fall to a manager and ask for an incident report, and keep the shoes and clothing you were wearing, unwashed and unworn, until they can be documented.

Deadlines: Two Years to File, Much Less Time to Prove

Florida generally gives you two years from the date of the fall to file a personal injury lawsuit. That deadline is real, but the evidence deadline arrives far sooner. Waiting months to ask about video, logs, or witnesses can leave a valid claim with no way to prove the store knew — or should have known — about the hazard. Falls at apartment complexes, on broken stairs, or because of poor lighting or a missing handrail are analyzed as general premises-liability claims rather than under § 768.0755, but the same urgency about evidence applies.

What to Do in the First 48 Hours After a Fall

1. Get medical care the same day — some injuries worsen over hours, and treatment records connect the fall to the injury.
2. Report the fall to a manager and ask for a copy of the incident report.
3. Photograph the floor, the entrance, any sign or mat, the lighting, and your injuries.
4. Get witness names and phone numbers before you leave.
5. Keep your shoes and clothing as-is.
6. Do not give a recorded statement to the property’s insurer before getting legal advice.
7. Ask, in writing, that surveillance video be preserved — or have an attorney do it immediately.

If you were hurt in a slip, trip, or fall in Miami-Dade or Broward County, Tacher Law offers free consultations for slip-and-fall and other personal injury matters. Call (305) 644-2211 or visit our contact page to discuss your situation.

Tacher Law, 16445 Collins Avenue, Suite 1625, Sunny Isles Beach, FL 33160.