Most of the slip-and-fall calls we get at Bergeron Clifford do not start with anyone thinking they have a “case.” They start with someone embarrassed. They fell in front of strangers, brushed it off, and only later, when the swelling did not go down or the pain did not stop, did they realize how serious it was. Below, we will be discussing an Ottawa Grocery Store Slip and Fall case.
Please note, to protect the identity of our client, the name used below is simply a placeholder.
One Grocery Trip Slip Changed Everything
Diane was 48, worked part-time as a bookkeeper, and stopped at a large grocery store in Barrhaven on a grey afternoon in February. Snow had been falling on and off all day, and the entrance vestibule was slick with the meltwater that dozens of customers had tracked in.
There was no floor mat past the first set of doors, no caution sign, and no employee in sight.
Diane’s foot went out from under her on the wet tile. She put her right hand down to catch herself and felt the wrist break on impact.
More Than A Broken Wrist After Ottawa Grocery Trip Slip and Fall
She had fractured her distal radius badly enough to need surgery, a plate and screws to rebuild the joint. During rehabilitation, her doctors also identified a torn rotator cuff in the same arm, likely from the way she had tried to break the fall.
For a bookkeeper who spends her day at a keyboard, a dominant wrist and shoulder that no longer work properly is not a minor inconvenience; it is a threat to her livelihood.
She developed chronic pain, could not return to her usual hours, and grew anxious about money on top of everything else.
The Wet Floor Was Only Half the Story
In Ontario, businesses and property owners owe visitors a duty under the Occupiers’ Liability Act to keep their premises reasonably safe.
“Reasonably safe” does not mean perfect, and a store is not automatically responsible every time someone falls. The question is whether the occupier took reasonable care in the circumstances.
Here, the facts lined up against the store. We obtained the surveillance footage, which showed the wet floor had gone unattended for a long stretch. The store’s own maintenance logs revealed gaps in the mopping schedule that afternoon. There was no mat and no warning cone where there clearly should have been one.
That combination, a known winter hazard, no system to manage it, and no warning, is exactly what the law expects an occupier to guard against.
We explain this duty in more detail in our article on being injured on someone else’s property.
Evidence Doesn’t Wait
Cases like this are won or lost on evidence gathered early.
Diane did one thing that helped enormously: she asked the store to complete an incident report before she left, so there was a contemporaneous record of when and where she fell.
We then moved quickly to preserve the footage before it could be overwritten, and we tracked down a customer who had seen the fall.
How witness recollection is used can get legally technical, something we have written about in our piece on hearsay evidence in Ontario personal injury cases.
The point for any injured person is simpler: the sooner the evidence is locked down, the stronger the claim.
A Day Of Mediation
After examinations for discovery and a full day of mediation, the case resolved for hundreds of thousands of dollars, covering Diane’s past and future income loss, her care and treatment costs, and her pain and suffering.
She avoided the stress and uncertainty of a trial, and she got the resources to focus on her recovery instead of her finances.
The Lesson Isn’t About the Money
Two deadlines matter more than most people realize.
First, in Ontario you generally have two years from the date of injury to start a lawsuit.
Second, and this one catches people constantly, if your fall was caused by snow or ice, the law now requires written notice to the responsible party within 60 days. Miss that window and an otherwise strong claim can collapse on a technicality.
Diane’s fall involved tracked-in meltwater rather than ice on a sidewalk, which kept her outside that particular trap, but it is a razor-thin distinction we would never want a client to gamble on.
Have You Had A Slip And Fall Accident?
If you have had a fall and you are not sure whether it is “worth” looking into, that uncertainty is exactly the moment to ask. Our note on when to contact a personal injury lawyer explains why an early conversation costs you nothing and can protect a great deal.
