Slip and fall cases turn on evidence that can disappear within days if no one acts quickly. In this video, Keith E. Galliher, Jr., founder and principal attorney of The Galliher Law Firm in Las Vegas, explains what makes these cases distinct and why speed matters.
Having handled hundreds of slip and fall claims, Galliher describes the critical first step of placing a store or hotel on notice to preserve photographs, witness statements, and — most importantly — surveillance video that can reveal what was on the floor and how long it was there. He explains why that evidence is so often decisive, and why prompt action by an experienced attorney is essential to protect it before it’s lost.
Transcript
Slip and fall cases are a bit of a different animal. They generally occur in stores — department stores, supermarkets — and sometimes hotel casinos with marble floors. There are quite a few slip and fall cases, and I’ve handled hundreds of them in my career.
One of the first things you do is you place the store on notice, or the hotel on notice, of the fall, and you tell them they need to preserve any and all evidence of the fall. That means photographs, statements of witnesses, and, most importantly, surveillance video. Anyone who’s lived in Las Vegas for any length of time knows that virtually all hotels have surveillance video all over the hotel. So if there’s a fall, there should be surveillance video showing the fall, and that often answers questions — most importantly, about what was on the floor that caused the fall, and how long it was on the floor before the fall occurred. Those are crucial questions in litigation, which can be addressed by surveillance video, but only if the attorney puts the offending defendant on notice. Whether it be the supermarket or the hotel, you put them on notice right away: “I want you to preserve the surveillance video, the statements, and the evidence,” because if you don’t do that, it will be lost.
