Slip and Fall Claims in Charleston: What Property Owners Owe You

The Incident

King Street, the Charleston City Market, Coliseum Drive in North Charleston, and the parking structures serving the peninsula’s hotels and restaurants are all locations where slip and fall accidents occur regularly. A wet tile floor with no warning sign, a broken handrail on an exterior staircase, ice on an uncleared walkway after a winter storm, or an uneven sidewalk abutting a commercial property can all cause falls resulting in broken bones, head injuries, and spinal damage. Whether the property owner is legally responsible depends on their knowledge of the hazard and their duty of care owed to the injured person.

What South Carolina Law Says

South Carolina premises liability law classifies visitors into three categories that determine the level of care a property owner owes:

• Invitees — people invited onto the property for the owner’s benefit (customers, shoppers, diners). Property owners owe the highest duty of care: they must inspect for hazards, repair them, or warn invitees of dangers they know about or should have known about through reasonable inspection.
• Licensees — social guests or others who enter with permission but not for the owner’s commercial benefit. Owners must warn of known hazards but have no duty to inspect for unknown ones.
• Trespassers — owners generally owe no duty to trespassers except to avoid willful or wanton harm, with an important exception for child trespassers under the attractive nuisance doctrine.

To prevail in a South Carolina slip and fall claim, an injured invitee must show: (1) the property owner owed a duty of care; (2) there was a dangerous condition on the premises; (3) the owner knew or should have known about the condition; (4) the owner failed to remedy or warn; and (5) the failure caused the injury and resulting damages.

Your Rights and Options

The “knew or should have known” standard is where many slip and fall cases turn. Evidence of how long the hazard existed — a maintenance log showing a broken light unreported for weeks, a prior incident report about the same wet floor — can establish that the owner had constructive notice. Photographs taken immediately after the fall, incident reports filed on scene, and witness accounts are critical. Property owners’ insurers often deny claims quickly after a fall, citing the injured person’s own negligence in not watching where they walked. South Carolina’s modified comparative negligence rule allows recovery as long as the injured person’s fault does not exceed 51%, but every percentage point attributed to the victim reduces their recovery.

What This Means for Charleston Residents

If you have been injured in a slip and fall on someone else’s property in Charleston or the surrounding area, preserve evidence as quickly as possible: photograph the hazard, request the incident report, and identify any surveillance cameras covering the area. Premises liability insurers investigate early and aggressively. Speaking with a Charleston personal injury attorney before giving any statement to the property owner’s insurer protects your ability to recover fair compensation.

This article is for general informational purposes and is not legal advice. You can request a paid legal opinion or contact Traywick Law Offices to discuss your slip and fall claim.