Slip and Fall Cases in Michigan Are Harder Than You Think
Here's what most people don't realize about slip and fall cases: they're some of the hardest personal injury claims to win. Not because the injuries aren't real — a broken hip from a fall on ice can be life-altering, especially for anyone over 60. They're hard because Michigan property owners and their insurance companies have spent decades building legal defenses around a doctrine called "open and obvious." And until recently, it worked.
The Open and Obvious Problem
For years, Michigan's "open and obvious" doctrine meant that if a hazard was visible — ice in January, a puddle in a grocery store, a cracked sidewalk in daylight — the property owner owed you nothing. The reasoning: you should have seen it and avoided it. Courts routinely threw out legitimate claims based on this defense, even when the property owner had done absolutely nothing to address a known hazard. Under MCL § 600.2949a, Michigan adopted a modified comparative fault framework that interacted with the open and obvious doctrine to create an almost impenetrable shield for defendants.
The Michigan Supreme Court Shifted the Ground
Recent Michigan Supreme Court decisions narrowed the open and obvious doctrine significantly. The court recognized what should have been obvious all along: sometimes you can see a hazard and still can't avoid it. If every customer at a grocery store has to walk through the same icy parking lot to get inside, calling that ice "open and obvious" is absurd — it's effectively unavoidable. The court created a framework where property owners can't hide behind the doctrine when the hazard, even if visible, was practically impossible to avoid.
What Makes a Winning Slip and Fall Case in Michigan
A strong premises liability claim still requires showing the property owner knew (or should have known) about the hazard and failed to fix it within a reasonable time. The best evidence includes surveillance video showing the hazard existed for an extended period before your fall, maintenance logs showing the property owner was aware of ongoing problems, weather data showing ice or water accumulation, prior incident reports from other people falling in the same spot, and witness testimony. The statute of limitations is three years under MCL § 600.5805, but the real deadline is much shorter — surveillance footage typically gets overwritten within 14-30 days.
Common Michigan Slip and Fall Scenarios
Ice and snow in parking lots and sidewalks (the most common claim in Michigan by far), wet floors in grocery stores and retail locations, torn carpeting or uneven flooring in apartments and commercial buildings, potholes and cracked sidewalks on commercial property, and poorly lit stairwells in residential complexes. Each scenario has different evidentiary challenges, but all require acting fast to preserve the evidence.
The Injuries Are Often Serious
Slip and fall injuries disproportionately affect older adults, and the injuries tend to be severe: hip fractures requiring surgical repair, wrist and arm fractures from bracing the fall, traumatic brain injuries from hitting the head on pavement, spinal compression fractures, and shoulder dislocations. For elderly victims, a hip fracture can trigger a cascade of health complications. These cases often involve six-figure medical bills and permanent disability.
If you fell on someone else's property in Michigan, call Koussan Law at (313) 800-0000 before the surveillance footage disappears. Use our case calculator for an initial claim estimate.
