Board-Certified Trial Lawyers for Missouri City Slip and Fall Claims
A fall case is rarely about whether you fell. It is about what the property owner knew, or should have known, and how long the hazard had been sitting there. Fort Bend County cases are heard at the courthouse in Richmond, seven minutes from our office. Free consultation, in English or Spanish. You owe no attorney’s fee and no case expenses unless we recover for you.
Call (281) 238-5400 Tell Us What HappenedIf you fell somewhere in Missouri City, start with these four steps.
- Get checked, even if you’re embarrassed. Most people’s first instinct after a fall in public is to get up, apologize, and leave. Adrenaline hides injuries for hours, and the ones that matter here — wrists, hips, shoulders, heads — often announce themselves the next morning. Go the same day if you can.
- Report it before you leave, and ask for a copy. Tell a manager. Ask that an incident report be written up, and ask for a copy or at least the name of the person who wrote it. Businesses create that report for their own purposes; you are allowed to know it exists.
- Photograph the hazard itself, not just the aftermath. The spill, the mat, the broken step, the missing handrail, the burnt-out light — and put something ordinary in the frame for scale. Within the hour somebody will have cleaned or fixed it, entirely legitimately, and then the only proof it was ever there is on your phone.
- Note the time and who was working. Time matters more in a fall case than in almost any other kind, for the reason explained below. Write down when it happened, which employees were nearby, and anyone who stopped to help.
Then, whenever you’re ready — today or next week — talk to a lawyer before you sign anything from an insurance company or a claims service. The consultation is free either way.
These cases turn on notice.
The question in a premises case is rarely whether you fell, or even whether the floor was slippery. It is whether the owner or occupier knew about the hazard, or should have known about it, and failed to do something reasonable about it in time. A puddle knocked over moments before you walked through it is a very different case from the same puddle sitting there since the morning shift — same fall, same injury, opposite outcome. That is the whole fight, and it is a fight about time.
Which makes the evidence documentary, and perishable. Inspection and sweep logs show how often an area was supposed to be checked and whether anybody actually did. The incident report captures what the business itself wrote down on the day, before anyone had a reason to be careful about it. Work orders and maintenance files show whether a broken step or a bad light had already been reported. And surveillance video — usually the single most useful thing in one of these cases — is typically overwritten on an ordinary retention cycle within days unless somebody asks for it in writing first. Sending that request is one of the first things we do.
Your status on the property also changes what was owed to you. Texas distinguishes between someone who is there for the occupier’s own business benefit — a customer in a store, a guest at a restaurant — and someone who is on the property with permission but for their own purposes, and between both of those and someone with no permission to be there at all. The duty owed is highest for the first group and steps down from there. It is worth being precise about why you were on the property and who invited you, because the other side certainly will be.
Most of the falls we see in Missouri City happen in unremarkable places: the shopping centers along Texas Parkway and Cartwright Road, the retail strips off Highway 6, apartment stairwells and landings, and parking lots after rain. If you were hurt in a vehicle rather than on foot on someone’s property, our Missouri City car accident page is the better starting point, and our Missouri City personal injury page covers how Texas injury claims work generally.
Fort Bend County cases are tried in Richmond.
Most of Missouri City is in Fort Bend County, and Fort Bend County injury cases are heard at the county courthouse in Richmond — seven minutes from our office. Part of the city extends into Harris County, so the address of the property decides which courthouse hears the case. If the property belongs to a city, a county, a school district or another governmental body, different rules apply again, including a formal written notice that has to be given well inside the general two-year deadline. That is worth asking about early rather than late.
Two of our attorneys are Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. It is the credential the State of Texas itself administers for injury trial lawyers — examination, peer evaluation, documented trial experience — and you can read what it involves rather than take our word for it.
No recovery, no fee. No case expenses either.
The sentence below is the whole arrangement, and we don’t fine-print our way around it: You owe no attorney’s fee and no case expenses unless we recover for you. The consultation is free — and if we think you don’t need a lawyer at all, we’ll tell you that for free too.
Here’s what happens when you call.
- You tell us what happened, in English or Spanish. It doesn’t take long. No phone tree, no out-of-state intake center — you’re talking to the office in Richmond.
- We tell you honestly whether there’s a claim worth bringing. A fall where nobody could have known about the hazard, or where you got up unhurt, usually isn’t a case — and if that’s your situation, we’ll say so rather than sign you up.
- If you do have a case, we explain the next steps, send the agreement to your phone, and ask the property owner in writing to preserve the video and the logs before they cycle out.
Tell us what happened. We’ll call you back fast.
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Common questions
What does a slip and fall case actually turn on?
Notice. Whether the owner or occupier knew about the hazard or should have known about it, and whether they did something reasonable about it in time. How long the hazard had been there is usually the central question, which is why the logs and the video matter more than anything you can describe from memory.
How much does a slip and fall lawyer cost?
You owe no attorney's fee and no case expenses unless we recover for you. The consultation is free.
It happened a while ago. Is the video already gone?
Possibly, but not always — retention varies a great deal between businesses, and some systems hold footage much longer than people assume. It is worth asking straight away rather than assuming the worst; a written request stops the clock on anything that still exists.
I think I was partly at fault. Does that end it?
Not necessarily. Texas reduces a recovery by the injured person's share of the fault and cuts it off entirely once that share passes half — so someone found 50% or less at fault still recovers, reduced by their share. Expect the other side to argue you weren't looking where you were going. That argument is not the same as proof.
It was a minor fall. Do I even need a lawyer?
Often, no. If you got up, you're fine, and there's no real medical treatment involved, you probably don't need one — and we'll tell you that on the phone rather than sign you up. Bear in mind the general deadline for these claims in Texas is two years, and shorter where a governmental property owner is involved. Ask us; that answer costs nothing.