To win a slip and fall or a trip and fall case in a Texas store, you must prove the owner had actual or constructive knowledge of the hazard, that it posed an unreasonable risk, that the owner failed to use reasonable care, and that this caused your injury. Since H-E-B v. Peterson (2026), evidence of how long the hazard existed is essential.
The four things Texas makes you prove
As a shopper you are an invitee, the strongest status which Texas premises law gives you. It still does not make the store responsible for every injury on its premises Under Keetch v. Kroger (Tex. 1992), an invitee has to prove four separate elements.
Miss any one of them and the claim fails, no matter how badly you were hurt. In practice, nearly every contested Texas store case turns on the first element: knowledge.
- Actual or constructive knowledge. The owner knew about the condition or should have known about it.
- Unreasonable risk of harm. The condition was genuinely dangerous, not trivial.
- Failure to use reasonable care. The owner did not clean it up, fix it, or warn you.
- Proximate cause. That failure caused your injury.
The time-notice rule: why “how long” decides the case
Actual knowledge means someone at the store knew: an employee caused the spill, a customer reported it, a manager walked past it. That is uncommon, and it is usually only provable from video or an employee’s own words.
Constructive knowledge is the fallback, and it is where most cases live. It means the hazard sat there long enough that a reasonably careful store should have found it and dealt with it. Texas requires you to prove that duration with evidence, not with an assumption.
In H-E-B, LP v. Peterson, decided April 10, 2026, the Texas Supreme Court restated the rule bluntly: “Absent temporal evidence of the duration the danger existed, the law does not charge a premises owner with constructive notice.”
Read that literally, because Texas courts do. Proving there was water on the floor is not enough. Proving you fell in it is not enough. Proving an employee was standing fifteen feet away is not enough. If nothing in the record shows how long the hazard had been there, the claim can be thrown out before a jury hears any of it. This single requirement makes Texas store cases materially harder than most online guides admit.
What duration evidence actually looks like
Duration is rarely proved by testimony alone. It is proved by records which the store controls and by details you capture in the first few minutes.
Physical detail matters more than people expect. Dried edges on a puddle, cart tracks or footprints running through it, melted ice, dirt mixed into the liquid, or produce that has already browned all support an argument that the hazard sat there. Photograph the condition itself before anyone cleans it, from several angles, with something in frame for scale.
Evidence
What it can show about duration
Why speed matters
Surveillance video
The minute the hazard appeared and the minute you fell
Store systems commonly overwrite footage on a rolling cycle measured in days or weeks
Sweep and inspection logs
When the aisle was last checked, and whether the check really happened
Routine business records get archived, replaced, or lost
Incident report
The store’s own same-day description of the hazard
Rarely handed over voluntarily after the fact
Employee statements
Who saw what, and when
Retail turnover makes witnesses hard to locate later
Your photos and video
Size, spread, and physical signs of age
The only evidence in this list that you control
Sources: elements from Keetch v. Kroger (Tex. 1992); duration requirement from H-E-B, LP v. Peterson (Tex. April 10, 2026).
Send a preservation letter before the video is gone
A preservation letter, sometimes called a spoliation letter, is written notice to the store and its insurer identifying the specific evidence you need and demanding that it be kept. It should go out in days, not weeks or months.
A useful letter names the store number, the date and approximate time, the aisle or department, and then lists what must be preserved: every camera angle covering that location for a defined window before and after the fall, sweep and inspection logs, the incident report, employee schedules and names, cleaning and maintenance records, and any photographs the store took.
Ask for the whole window, not just the fall. A four-second clip of you going down proves nothing about duration. What decides the case is the footage from before the hazard appeared through the cleanup.
This is the most time-sensitive step in a store case and the most common reason a strong-sounding claim quietly collapses. Once footage is overwritten, no amount of later effort brings it back.
What to do at the store and in the days after
You will not get a second chance at most of this. Six things are worth doing before you leave and in the week that follows.
- Report the fall before you leave. Ask for a written incident report and the report number. Do not let it be handled verbally.
- Do not guess at fault. Describe what happened. Do not say you were not looking, and do not say you are fine.
- Photograph everything including the substance, the surrounding floor, the presence or absence of warning cones, your clothing, and the soles of your shoes.
- Collect names and phone numbers for witnesses and for the employee who responded.
- See a doctor promptly. A gap between the fall and the first medical visit becomes the insurer’s main argument.
- Keep the shoes and clothes you were wearing, unwashed, in a bag.
Shared fault, deadlines, and getting help
Stores routinely argue you caused your own fall: you were on your phone, you wore the wrong shoes, the hazard was open and obvious. Texas applies a 51% bar. You can recover if you are 50% or less at fault, and your award is reduced by your share (CPRC §33.001, §33.012). Being partly at fault shrinks a claim; it does not automatically end one.
The deadline to file suit is two years from the date of the fall (CPRC §16.003). Treat that as an outer limit, not a working timeline. The video, the logs, and the witnesses that decide the case disappear long before two years pass.
Jim Ross Law Group offers a free consultation, in person or by phone, at 817-275-4100, and there is no fee unless we win.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long do I have to report a slip and fall to a store in Texas?
There is no statute setting a reporting deadline, but report it the same day. A same-day incident report fixes the date, location, and condition in the store’s own records, and it is one of the few documents created while the evidence still exists. The separate two-year deadline (CPRC §16.003) applies to filing a lawsuit, not to notifying the store.
Does the store have to give me the surveillance video?
Not voluntarily. Stores are generally not required to hand footage to a customer who asks, and many decline. What creates the obligation is a written preservation letter followed, if necessary, by a formal request in litigation. Send the letter fast, because a store that has not been told to keep the footage is usually free to let its system overwrite it.
There was a wet floor sign nearby. Is my case over?
No, but it matters. A warning cone is evidence the store used reasonable care, which goes to the third Keetch element. Placement and timing still count: a sign around the corner, behind a display, or dropped after your fall is not an effective warning. Photograph where the sign actually stood relative to where you fell.
I slipped in the parking lot, not inside the store. Is that different?
The legal test is the same, and so is the duration problem. You still have to show the owner knew or should have known about danger such as the pothole, the ice, or the spilled oil, and how long it had been there. Parking lot cases often add a question of who controlled the lot, which can be the store, a landlord, or a management company.
The manager offered to pay my emergency room bill. Should I take it?
Be careful about what you sign rather than about the offer itself. Payment of a specific bill is not the same as a settlement, and a document releasing the store from all claims can end everything for the price of one visit. Read anything presented to you, keep a copy, and get advice before signing a release.
What if I never saw what I slipped or tripped on?
It is a harder case, but not automatically a lost one. Photographs of what you slipped or tripped on, your clothing and shoe soles, the incident report, the store’s cleanup response, and video can identify the substance after the fact. Say what you actually know rather than guessing, because a wrong guess in the incident report follows the claim all the way through. Additionally, testimony from a premises liability expert can be invaluable in proving your case.
An employee was right there. Doesn't that prove the store knew?
Not by itself. Texas courts have rejected the idea that proximity alone establishes notice. What matters is whether the employee saw the hazard, created it, was told about it, or whether the hazard existed long enough that a careful store should have found it. That is still a duration question under H-E-B v. Peterson. Statutes, city ordinances, and national standards In many circumstances, hiring a premises liability expert can be very useful in proving your case. The issue of static co-efficent of friction can come into play when alleging that a floor was too slippery. In addition, whether you should have seen the thing which you slipped on or tripped on, in, or over, may be regulated by national standards which may require expert testimony from a premises liability expert. Statutes, city ordinances, and national standards In many circumstances, hiring a premises liability expert can be very useful in proving your case. The issue of static co-efficent of friction can come into play when alleging that a floor was too slippery. In addition, whether you should have seen the thing which you slipped on or tripped on, in, or over, may be regulated by national standards which may require expert testimony from a premises liability expert.
Statutes, city ordinances, and national standards
In many circumstances, hiring a premises liability expert can be very useful in proving your case. The issue of static co-efficent of friction can come into play when alleging that a floor was too slippery. In addition, whether you should have seen the thing which you slipped on or tripped on, in, or over, may be regulated by national standards which may require expert testimony from a premises liability expert.
This page is for general information only and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Every case is different and past results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future case. Jim Ross Law Group, P.C., 2201 E Lamar Blvd #110, Arlington, TX 76006.