Hurt in a Slip & Fall in Indianapolis?

After a fall, your first instinct may be to jump up quickly out of embarrassment. Resist that urge. Take a moment to assess whether you're hurt. Falls can cause broken bones, head injuries, back and spinal injuries, torn ligaments, and hip fractures — especially on hard surfaces like concrete, tile, or ice.

If you're in significant pain or can't move, stay still and ask someone to call 911. If you can move safely, get to a stable position and evaluate your condition before standing.

Whether you fell in a grocery store, a restaurant, an office building, a parking lot, or on a public sidewalk in Indianapolis, report the incident to the property owner, manager, or person in charge right away. Ask them to create a written incident report. Get a copy if possible.

If you fell on city property — a broken sidewalk, a city park, or a government building — report it to the appropriate Indianapolis/Marion County agency. This starts the clock on an important legal requirement.

If you fell on someone's residential property, document what happened and tell the property owner. Even if they're a friend or neighbor, this documentation matters.

Before anything is cleaned up or repaired, use your phone to photograph and video everything: the exact spot where you fell, the hazard that caused your fall (wet floor, uneven surface, torn carpet, ice, snow, broken step, poor lighting, missing handrail, debris), any warning signs — or the lack of them, your injuries (bruises, swelling, cuts, torn clothing), and the surrounding area from multiple angles.

If there were witnesses, ask for their names and phone numbers. Witness testimony is often crucial in slip and fall cases because it can establish how long the hazard existed before your fall.

See a doctor as soon as possible after your fall — ideally within 24 to 72 hours. Even if you think you just have a bruise, falls can cause concussions, hairline fractures, herniated discs, and internal injuries that don't show symptoms immediately.

In Indianapolis, IU Health Methodist Hospital, Eskenazi Health, Ascension St. Vincent, and Community Health Network all provide emergency and urgent care. Numerous urgent care clinics throughout Marion County can handle non-emergency evaluations.

A medical record that connects your injuries to the fall is one of the most important pieces of evidence in a premises liability case. Without it, the property owner's insurance company will argue your injuries came from something else.

Hazardous conditions get fixed. Ice gets salted. Wet floors get mopped. Broken steps get repaired. Once the hazard is gone, proving what caused your fall becomes much harder.

In addition to your photos and videos, take notes about the conditions — the date, time, weather, lighting, what you were wearing (especially your shoes), and exactly what happened leading up to the fall. If the property has security cameras, make a written request for the footage immediately — many systems overwrite recordings within days or weeks.

Keep the clothing and shoes you were wearing at the time of the fall. Don't wash or repair them.

The property owner's insurance company will contact you. Like all insurance companies, their goal is to minimize what they pay. They may ask for a recorded statement, request broad access to your medical records, or suggest you were distracted or wearing inappropriate footwear.

You are not required to give a recorded statement. Politely decline until you've consulted with an attorney.

In Indiana, property owners have a legal duty to maintain their property in a reasonably safe condition and to warn visitors of known hazards. To succeed in a slip and fall claim, you generally need to show that the property owner knew or should have known about the dangerous condition and failed to fix it or warn you.

Under Indiana Code § 34-11-2-4, you have two years from the date of your fall to file a personal injury lawsuit. Indiana's modified comparative fault rule (Ind. Code § 34-51-2-6) also applies — if you are found 51% or more at fault (for example, if you were texting while walking), you recover nothing.

Important: if you fell on government property — a city sidewalk, a Marion County building, a state highway rest stop — the Indiana Tort Claims Act (Ind. Code § 34-13-3) requires you to file a tort claim notice within 180 days for city/county claims or 270 days for state claims. This is much shorter than the standard 2-year deadline.

Slip and fall cases can be challenging to prove. You need to establish not just that you fell and were hurt, but that the property owner was negligent — that they knew or should have known about the hazard and failed to address it. An experienced premises liability attorney can investigate the property's maintenance history, obtain security camera footage, interview witnesses, and build the evidence needed to support your claim.

Most personal injury attorneys in Indianapolis offer free consultations and work on contingency — you pay nothing unless they win your case.