Largest Slip & Fall Personal Injury Settlements

A Cook County jury awarded $32 million to truck driver Stephanie Johnson, who developed Complex Regional Pain Syndrome after slipping on oil at an ExxonMobil facility, in what the Jury Verdict Reporter recorded as the largest CRPS verdict in Illinois history.

After a neurosurgeon slipped on a wet hospital pantry floor and developed reflex sympathetic dystrophy that ended his surgical career, an Evansville jury found St. Mary's Medical Center fully at fault and awarded $16.95 million, a verdict the Indiana Court of Appeals later affirmed.

A Kern County jury awarded William Kidd and his wife Elaine $16.2 million after he slipped at a Bakersfield El Pollo Loco and suffered a brain injury that later required surgery.

A Clark County jury held Lowe's responsible after Kelly Hendrickson slipped on liquid draining from store planters, fractured her skull, and permanently lost her senses of taste and smell.

A King County jury awarded Lesley Mettler Auld $13.1 million after she slipped on an algae-covered Seattle sidewalk in July 2021 and ruptured both quadriceps tendons. Jurors found both the City of Seattle and 14th & Dravus LLC, the owner of the adjacent apartment building, negligent, and split the fault 52 percent to the property owner and 48 percent to the city over an overgrown hedge that shaded the walkway and the moss and algae that grew under it. Auld, a longtime personal trainer and 14-time Ironman finisher, had three surgeries to repair the tendons, and her examining physicians said she would need at least three more operations on her right knee and could lose the right leg above the knee if those failed. The Washington Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment in March 2026, and 14th & Dravus has since asked the state Supreme Court to take up the case.

A Dallas County jury awarded $9.45 million to James Shelton McClure, 74, after he stepped into an unlit, drained fountain basin in the courtyard of Hotel Crescent Court while walking his dog just after midnight on March 6, 2021. McClure and his wife were staying at the hotel because Winter Storm Uri had knocked out power at their own home. The fall broke his ankle, requiring four surgeries and an eventual total ankle replacement, and aggravated a preexisting neck condition that left him with nerve damage in his dominant hand. After a weeklong trial, the jury found the hotel 95 percent responsible and McClure 5 percent responsible. Tim Newsom of The Law Offices of Frank L. Branson, P.C. led the trial team, with Debbie Dudley Branson and Linda Yee Villa. The trial court signed judgment on the verdict in September 2025, and the hotel operators appealed; the appeal is pending.

A San Diego County jury ordered Starbucks to pay roughly $7.5 million after chiropractor Anthony Zaccaglin slipped on a freshly mopped store floor, struck his head, and suffered a brain injury that ended his career.

An 11-day jury trial in Los Angeles ended with a $6.68 million verdict for a 56-year-old customer who slipped on a single grape in the condiments aisle of an El Monte Food4Less, sustaining serious spinal injuries.

A Los Angeles jury awarded Henrietta Castrellon $6,626,603 after she slipped and fell on an unsafe floor condition at a Home Depot store, in a result the Daily Journal described as potentially the largest such verdict against the company in California.

A Manhattan jury awarded $6.45 million to a 53-year-old avid salsa dancer who slipped on fish guts left on a Broadway sidewalk outside the Citarella gourmet grocery, dislocated her knee, tore three ligaments, and required at least 12 surgeries over 11 years.

A woman who slipped on grease in a common area shared by her employer and LAVO, a nightclub-restaurant then owned by a Madison Square Garden Entertainment subsidiary, suffered neck and back injuries requiring multiple surgeries and settled her case for $5.3 million in 2023.

A Miami-Dade jury returned a $4,877,775 verdict for Juan Del Valle, who slipped on water from a leaking produce refrigeration unit at a Winn-Dixie in Miami Lakes and underwent three spinal surgeries, leaving him with permanent hardware in his spine.

A Palm Beach County jury awarded $3 million to Darrell Phillips, a handyman who fractured his humerus and suffered permanent radial nerve damage after tripping over wire mesh concealed in a grassy area behind a convenience store where he had been hired to repair the beer-cooler AC unit.

A Manhattan building porter fell 14 feet through an unguarded third-floor hole after a general contractor's superintendent removed the only cover and left without any warning, resulting in three spinal surgeries and a $2.75 million settlement.

A Lexington County jury awarded $2 million to Donna Roland, 60, after she tripped on a three-inch gap in a county sidewalk and broke her arm in two places while dropping off an absentee ballot during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A McCracken County jury awarded a 64-year-old man $1,837,756.05 after he slipped on a puddle in a restroom at Kentucky Oaks Mall in Paducah and fractured himself onto the floor, requiring both lumbar and cervical spine fusion surgeries.

A federal jury found that a snow-covered crack in a Family Video parking lot caused Rosemarie Waddy's broken ankle, awarding $2 million before a 15 percent fault finding cut her recovery to about $1.7 million.

A Boise jury awarded more than $1.66 million to a commercial tenant who suffered permanent brain damage after falling on improperly installed stairs, a verdict affirmed on appeal by the Idaho Supreme Court.

A 62-year-old woman tripped over a broken Brooklyn sidewalk section in 2013 and suffered back and ankle injuries requiring multiple surgeries; the firm documented four years of constructive notice using Google Earth imagery and recovered $1.5 million at mediation.

A Tucson jury awarded $1.5 million to a woman who slipped on water leaking from a BCI Coca-Cola refrigerator at a grocery store, after the bottling company rejected a $150,000 settlement offer.

A Dallas County jury found Taco Bell 100% liable and awarded Deandre Gilkey $756,794 after store surveillance showed an employee had noticed a floor puddle 34 seconds before Gilkey slipped, fell, and ultimately underwent back surgery.

A Denver jury returned a $2.1 million verdict for George Hodge after he slipped on ice at a storage unit and suffered a complete retinal detachment that permanently ended useful vision in his right eye.

Louis Hollingsworth secured a $400,000 jury verdict for a Tucson woman who slipped and fell entering a Safeway store, netting $360,000 after a 10% comparative-fault finding against her.

A Marion County jury found Indianapolis landlords 85 percent at fault for a tenant's fall down a rental staircase that had no code-required handrail, awarding her $121,770 for permanent ankle and nerve damage.