St. Louis County's dense retail corridors and shopping centers see a steady volume of slip and fall claims. We would rather show you our actual premises liability record, and what we have proven before a St. Louis County jury, than blur the two together.
Updated October 2026
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St. Louis County's retail corridors along Manchester Road, Olive Boulevard, and the county's many shopping centers see heavy foot traffic year-round, which means a steady volume of slip and fall claims against national chains, local property owners, and apartment complexes alike.
The county's roughly ninety separate municipalities each handle their own incident response in a public setting, but a fall on private commercial property is governed by the same premises liability law regardless of which municipality it happened in.
Proving a fall happened is rarely the problem. Proving the owner had actual notice of the hazard, or that it existed long enough to constitute constructive notice, decides most of these cases.
We tried an auto accident case to verdict before a St. Louis County jury after a driver ran a red light, causing injuries requiring multiple disc replacements and a lumbar fusion. The jury returned $10,000,000. It was not a premises case, and we say so directly.
National grocery and retail chains concentrated in the county's shopping centers tend to have corporate claims-handling processes and document retention schedules that differ meaningfully from a small local business, which affects how quickly evidence needs to be requested.
Most commercial surveillance systems overwrite footage within weeks, sometimes days. That footage is frequently the only evidence of how long a hazard existed, which is why a preservation demand needs to go out immediately.
We do not have a published slip and fall verdict from St. Louis County, and we would rather tell you that directly.
What we do have is a premises liability record built elsewhere in Missouri: a national grocery retailer offered $125,000 for an unguarded pallet that fractured our client's femur, after a previous firm had already declined the case. It settled for $2.5 million. In a separate case, a produce vendor struck by an uncertified, untrained forklift driver recovered $705,000.
And in this specific courthouse, a St. Louis County jury has already returned a verdict that reflected what a case was actually worth once it was tried rather than negotiated.
The verdict below is from St. Louis County, in an auto accident case, not a premises case, and we say so plainly. The premises results are from elsewhere in Missouri. Past results do not guarantee a future outcome.
A red light runner. Multiple disc replacements, a lower back fusion, and blood clots. A St. Louis County jury returned $10,000,000. Read full story →
A national grocery retailer offered $125,000 for an unguarded pallet that fractured our client's femur. A previous firm had declined the case. Read full story →
A produce vendor suffered life-changing injuries after being struck by an uncertified, untrained forklift driver. Read full story →
A fall that was never reported invites an argument that it never happened on the property at all.
Close up and from a distance, and anything suggesting how long it had been there.
A national chain may lease from a separate property management company responsible for common-area maintenance, which can matter for who is actually liable.
A written preservation demand sent immediately is the single most effective step, since most systems overwrite within days to weeks.
Yes, though not a slip and fall case. We tried an auto accident case to verdict in St. Louis County, obtaining $10,000,000 after a driver ran a red light. Our premises liability record, including a $2.5 million settlement for an unguarded pallet, comes from elsewhere in Missouri.
It means the hazard existed long enough that the property owner, exercising reasonable care, should have discovered and addressed it. The evidence is whatever shows duration: video, the physical state of the hazard, and the owner's own inspection records.
Generally in the Circuit Court of St. Louis County, the 21st Judicial Circuit, in Clayton. Venue may also be proper where a corporate defendant does business.
Not for the underlying premises liability law, which applies the same way across the county's roughly ninety municipalities. It can affect which police department responded if one did.
That argument generally reduces a recovery under Missouri's comparative fault system rather than barring the claim outright.
Yes. Missouri applies pure comparative fault, so your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault rather than eliminated.
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