McKinney · Slip & Fall
McKinney Slip & Fall Lawyer
A slip-and-fall or premises liability claim in McKinney arises when a hazardous condition on someone else's property — a wet floor in a restaurant near the downtown square, a broken step at a retail center along US-380, or an uneven walkway in an apartment complex — causes an injury to an invited visitor. The property owner owes customers and guests a duty to inspect the property, correct known hazards, and warn of dangers that cannot be immediately fixed. The hardest element to prove is usually notice: whether the owner knew about the hazard or whether it had existed long enough that a reasonable owner conducting regular inspections would have found it. Suits in Collin County are filed at the Russell A. Steindam Courts Building in McKinney, and the two-year limitations period under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003 applies.
Why McKinney cases are different
Premises injuries in McKinney concentrate where the foot traffic does: the restaurants and bars around the historic downtown square and the retail along the busy US-75 and US-380 corridors. Texas premises law turns on what the property owner knew about the hazard and whether they had a fair chance to fix it.
Property-owner duty and the notice requirement
Under Texas premises-liability law, a business owes its invited customers a duty to keep the property reasonably safe and to warn of hidden dangers it knows about or should have discovered with reasonable care. The decisive question in most McKinney slip-and-fall cases is notice: did the owner know about the spill, the broken step, or the uneven walkway, or had the condition existed long enough that a careful owner would have found it. A puddle that appeared seconds before a fall is treated very differently from one that sat for an hour while staff walked past. Around the downtown square, where restaurants and bars draw dense weekend crowds, and at the retail centers feeding off US-75 and US-380, proving notice often depends on surveillance footage and incident reports. As elsewhere in McKinney, that footage carries short retention windows, so requesting preservation early is what keeps the timeline evidence alive.
Venue, comparative fault, and building the file
A McKinney premises suit against a Collin County business is filed at the Russell A. Steindam Courts Building on Bloomdale Road and assigned at random to the civil district courts. Collin County juries trend conservative on pain-and-suffering damages but respond to clean liability and well-documented economic loss, which shapes strategy: the strongest premises file is built on proof of the hazard, the owner's notice, and a thorough medical record rather than on the severity of the fall alone. Texas comparative fault applies here too, and defense counsel routinely argues the customer should have seen and avoided the danger, shifting percentage points onto the injured person. Photographs of the condition, the incident report, surveillance footage, witness accounts, and complete medical follow-up, including the orthopedic and physiatry workups that appear in the days after the ER, are what keep liability anchored where it belongs.
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Other ways we help McKinney injury victims.
Frequently asked
McKinney slip & fall questions
- Not automatically. Texas premises law requires showing the business knew about the hazard or that it had existed long enough that a careful owner should have found it. A spill that appeared moments before your fall is harder to pursue than one staff ignored for an hour. Surveillance footage and the incident report often decide that question, so preserving them early matters.
- No. Texas uses comparative fault, so even if part of the responsibility is assigned to you, you can recover as long as your share is not more than 50 percent, with any award reduced accordingly. Photographs of the hazard, the incident report, footage, and witness statements are what keep the percentage assigned to the property owner where the facts support.
- Against a Collin County business, at the Russell A. Steindam Courts Building, 2100 Bloomdale Road, in McKinney, with random assignment to the civil district courts. The McKinney docket has run faster than the Dallas County average, which can favor a plaintiff who keeps a well-documented case moving rather than letting it drift.
- Two years from the date of injury under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003. If the fall occurred on government-owned property — a City of McKinney facility, a Collin County building, or an MISD campus — the Texas Tort Claims Act requires a pre-suit notice letter within six months. But the most important preservation deadline is the surveillance footage window, typically 14 to 30 days, which is far shorter than the legal filing deadline.
- It depends on who controls and maintains the parking lot under the lease. Exterior common areas like parking lots and walkways are frequently the landlord's responsibility, while interior spaces belong to the tenant. Both may be liable depending on the facts. We identify who controlled the hazardous area and which insurance policy covers it before building the demand.
- Very. The incident report creates a contemporaneous record of where you fell, what caused the fall, and what the property was aware of. It also documents the identity of any staff who responded, who may later be deposed. However, the incident report is not the whole case: surveillance footage, inspection logs, and your complete medical records from Medical City McKinney or Baylor Scott and White McKinney are what give the demand its value.
Where we work from
Downtown Austin. McKinney clients welcome.
Our office is in downtown Austin; we represent McKinney-area clients statewide and travel to McKinney for case-specific needs (scene visits, medical-records consultations, court appearances). Home and hospital visits when injuries make travel difficult.
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