Premises liability lawyers for New Jersey and New York

A fall on someone else’s property can mean surgery, months away from work, and medical bills that arrive before you can walk normally again. Property owners in New Jersey and New York have a legal duty to keep their premises reasonably safe. That duty has limits, though, and the rules change depending on where you fell, who owned the property and what the owner knew.

This page explains how premises liability works in both states, including sidewalk falls, snow and ice, falls on government property and injuries caused by poor security. It is general information. Every fall is different, so talk with a lawyer about your own facts.

Common premises liability cases

Premises liability is the area of law that holds owners and occupiers of property responsible for injuries caused by unsafe conditions they should have fixed or warned about. Most cases fall into a few groups.

• Slip and fall. Wet floors, spilled food or liquid, leaking coolers, freshly mopped tile with no warning sign, and grease near restaurant kitchens.
• Trip and fall. Raised or broken sidewalk slabs, potholes in parking lots, torn carpet, curled mats, and boxes or cords left in aisles.
• Stairs and handrails. Missing or loose handrails, broken treads, uneven steps, worn edges and poor lighting.
• Snow and ice. Unshoveled sidewalks, untreated parking lots, and ice formed when snow piles melt and refreeze.
• Negligent security. Assaults in parking lots, apartment lobbies and stores where broken locks, dark stairwells or missing security made a crime easier.
• Landlord and tenant injuries. Collapsed ceilings, broken stairs, defective doors and unsafe hallways in apartment buildings.

What you have to prove

Most premises cases come down to four questions. Did the owner owe you a duty of care? Was there a dangerous condition? Did the owner know, or should the owner have known, about it in time to fix it or warn you? And did that condition cause your injuries? The details differ in each state.

The duty owed in New Jersey

New Jersey traditionally looks at why you were on the property. A business owes a customer (called an “invitee”) reasonable care to guard against dangerous conditions it knows about or should have discovered. A host owes a social guest a warning about dangers the host actually knows of and the guest does not, and a trespasser is owed much less. In Hopkins v. Fox & Lazo Realtors, the New Jersey Supreme Court said these labels are not the whole story. Courts also weigh the relationship of the parties, the nature of the risk, the opportunity and ability to exercise care, and the public interest in deciding whether a duty is fair.¹

“Notice” is usually the central issue. An injured customer ordinarily must show actual notice (the owner knew about the hazard) or constructive notice (the hazard existed long enough that a reasonably careful owner would have found it).²³

New Jersey makes an exception for some self-service businesses. Under the mode-of-operation rule, when the way a business operates makes a hazard foreseeable, such as a supermarket selling loose grapes in open bags that customers handle, the injured person does not have to prove notice. The law instead infers negligence, and the business must show it did what a reasonably prudent operator would do.²

The rule has limits. It applies only where customers serve themselves or handle products without an employee’s help, and only when there is a connection between the self-service activity and the spot where the person fell. In Prioleau v. Kentucky Fried Chicken, Inc., the rule did not apply to a customer who slipped near a restaurant restroom before she had ordered anything.³

The duty owed in New York

New York dropped the invitee, licensee and trespasser categories in Basso v. Miller. Every owner must act as a reasonable person in keeping the property reasonably safe in view of all the circumstances, including the likelihood of injury, how serious an injury could be, and the burden of avoiding the risk.⁴

You generally still must show that the owner created the hazard or had actual or constructive notice of it. For constructive notice, the Court of Appeals requires a defect that was visible and apparent and that existed long enough before the accident for the owner’s employees to discover and fix it.⁵ Apartment building owners carry an added statutory duty. New York Multiple Dwelling Law § 78 requires every multiple dwelling, and the lot it sits on, to be kept in good repair, and places that duty primarily on the owner.

Sidewalk falls

Who answers for a broken or icy sidewalk depends on the state, the town and the kind of property next to it. Sidewalk cases are common, and they are also among the most technical.

New Jersey sidewalks

Since Stewart v. 104 Wallace St., Inc., 87 N.J. 146 (1981), commercial property owners in New Jersey have been liable for injuries caused by their negligent failure to keep abutting public sidewalks in reasonably good condition. That duty includes removing snow and ice when failing to do so would be negligent.⁶

Homeowners are treated differently. In Luchejko v. City of Hoboken, the Court held that a residential condominium complex owed no duty to clear snow and ice from the public sidewalk, and it explained that residential owners are not liable unless they create or worsen a dangerous sidewalk condition. Whether property counts as commercial depends on how it is used, not on what kind of organization owns it.⁶

New York City sidewalks

New York City’s Administrative Code places responsibility for most sidewalks on the owner of the property next to them. Section 7-210 requires owners to keep the sidewalk reasonably safe and makes them liable for injuries caused by failing to do so, including negligent failure to remove snow, ice, dirt or other material.⁷

The law exempts one-, two- and three-family homes that are at least partly owner-occupied and used only as residences. For those properties, a claim for a sidewalk defect usually runs against the City instead.⁷ Claims against the City face an extra hurdle. Under Administrative Code § 7-201(c)(2), the City generally is liable for a street or sidewalk defect only if it received prior written notice of that specific condition.

Small defects and the trivial defect rule

New York defendants often argue that a raised slab or crack was too small to matter. There is no minimum height or depth that makes a defect actionable. Courts look at the width, depth, elevation, irregularity and appearance of the defect, along with the time, place and circumstances of the fall, under the test from Trincere v. County of Suffolk, 90 N.Y.2d 976 (1997).

In Hutchinson v. Sheridan Hill House Corp., the Court of Appeals confirmed that an owner seeking dismissal must show the defect was physically insignificant and that its surroundings did not make it more dangerous.⁸ Photographs with a ruler or tape measure in the frame, taken before anyone repairs the spot, often decide this fight.

Snow and ice

Winter falls follow special rules in both states, and timing matters a great deal.

In New Jersey, the Supreme Court adopted the ongoing storm rule in Pareja v. Princeton International Properties. A commercial owner generally has no duty to remove snow or ice until a reasonable time after the precipitation stops. The Court recognized two exceptions, where the owner’s own conduct increases the risk and where the danger existed before the storm began.⁹

In July 2026, in Gallardo v. Walmart, the Court held that ordinary steps such as salting a parking lot during an active storm do not create the kind of “unusual circumstances” needed for the first exception.¹⁰ That makes the start and end of the storm, the condition of the property before it, and the owner’s snow removal contracts especially important in New Jersey cases.

In New York, an owner is not liable for injuries from ice that forms during a storm in progress or for a reasonable time after it ends.¹¹ Once that window passes, the ordinary duty of reasonable care returns, and in New York City many owners are responsible for clearing the abutting sidewalk.⁷

Certified weather records, snow removal logs and contractor invoices are often the most important evidence in these cases.

Falls on public property

Falls on government property, such as a town sidewalk, a public building, a county park or a transit station, follow special rules with short deadlines. Our guide to notice of claim deadlines for public entities covers them in more detail.

In New Jersey, the Tort Claims Act makes a public entity liable for a dangerous condition of its property only if the condition created a foreseeable risk of the kind of injury that happened, and either a public employee created it or the entity had actual or constructive notice in time to fix it. Even then, the entity is not liable unless its action or failure to act was “palpably unreasonable,” a standard that is harder to meet than ordinary negligence.¹²

You must present a written notice of claim within 90 days after the claim accrues. You generally cannot sue until six months after the entity receives the notice, and the lawsuit must be filed within two years.¹³ The Act also bars pain and suffering damages unless the injury involves permanent loss of a bodily function, permanent disfigurement or dismemberment and medical treatment expenses exceed $3,600 (N.J.S.A. 59:9-2(d)).

In New York, claims against cities, counties, towns and other public corporations generally require a notice of claim within 90 days, and the lawsuit usually must be filed within one year and 90 days (N.Y. Gen. Mun. Law §§ 50-e, 50-i). In New York City, the prior written notice rule described above also applies to many street and sidewalk claims.

Negligent security

Property owners are not insurers against every crime. Both states do hold owners responsible when they fail to take reasonable steps against crimes they should have foreseen.

In New Jersey, Clohesy v. Food Circus Supermarkets, Inc. involved a customer abducted from a supermarket parking lot. The Supreme Court rejected the idea that a victim must show prior similar crimes on the property. Courts instead look at the totality of the circumstances, including crime in the surrounding area, the design of the property and nearby businesses, to decide whether a crime was foreseeable and what security was reasonable.¹⁴

In New York, Nallan v. Helmsley-Spear, Inc. holds that landlords have a common-law duty to take minimal precautions to protect tenants from foreseeable harm, including foreseeable criminal conduct by third persons.¹⁵ Broken entrance locks, unlit stairwells and building doors that do not close or lock are frequent issues. These cases often turn on how the attacker got in and whether reasonable security would have kept them out, so early investigation is essential.

Evidence disappears fast

Premises cases are often won or lost in the first few weeks. Stores and buildings routinely record over security video on a set schedule. Owners repair broken steps and sidewalks, mop up spills and replace mats, and once the hazard is gone, proving its size and condition is much harder.

If you are able, or if a family member can help, these steps protect your claim.

1. Report the fall to the manager, landlord or owner and ask for a copy of the incident report. At a minimum, write down the name of the person you spoke with.
2. Photograph the hazard from several angles with something in the frame for scale. Photograph your shoes and the lighting too.
3. Get names and phone numbers of witnesses, including employees.
4. Get medical care right away and tell the provider exactly how you fell.
5. Keep your shoes and clothing as they were, unwashed and unrepaired.
6. Do not give a recorded statement to the owner’s insurance company before talking with a lawyer. Our guide on talking to insurance adjusters explains why.
7. Call a lawyer quickly so a preservation demand for video and records goes out before they are deleted.

Deadlines and shared fault

In New Jersey, most injury lawsuits must be filed within two years (N.J.S.A. 2A:14-2(a)). In New York, the general deadline is three years (CPLR 214(5)). Claims against public entities have much shorter notice deadlines, as explained above. Our statute of limitations guide covers the exceptions.

Owners often argue that you should have seen the hazard. Both states reduce your recovery by your own percentage of fault. New York allows recovery even when the injured person was mostly at fault (CPLR 1411), while New Jersey bars recovery if your share of fault is greater than that of the defendants (N.J.S.A. 2A:15-5.1). Our guide to comparative negligence explains how this works in practice.

How Parra Klein handles premises liability cases

We start with the evidence that is most likely to vanish. That means written preservation demands for surveillance video, incident reports, inspection and cleaning logs, maintenance and repair records, and snow removal contracts. Our investigation includes documenting the scene with photographs and measurements and obtaining weather data when snow or ice is involved.

We identify everyone who may share responsibility, which can include the property owner, a tenant business, a property manager, a maintenance company or a snow removal contractor. When a public entity may be involved, we prepare and serve the notice of claim within the deadline.

We work with your treating doctors to document your injuries, surgery and future care, and we handle communication with the insurance carriers so you do not have to. We prepare each case with trial in mind from the start.

Arlene Parra and Juan Carlos Reyes are fluent in Spanish, and we serve clients in Spanish from start to finish. We meet clients at our offices in Elmwood Park and Union City, New Jersey, and in Manhattan, and we also offer remote consultations. There is no attorney’s fee unless we recover money for you.