Slip & Fall Lawyer in Maine

Maine's statute of limitations for premises liability claims is six years from the date of injury under 14 M.R.S. § 752, one of the longest in the country. That extended deadline is a genuine advantage — it allows time for the full medical picture to develop, which matters in fall cases where knee replacements, spinal surgeries, and traumatic brain injury diagnoses unfold over months or years. But the evidence that proves the case has a much shorter shelf life. Surveillance cameras at retail stores, restaurants, and commercial buildings typically overwrite footage on a 7-to-30-day loop. Maintenance and inspection logs are kept on varying schedules, and small businesses may discard them within months. Witness memories degrade rapidly — a store employee who mopped the floor or a customer who saw the puddle will not remember the details a year later. A spoliation letter sent to the property owner within the first week demanding preservation of all video footage, inspection records, cleaning schedules, and incident reports is the single most important early action. The six years protects your filing deadline; the preservation letter protects the evidence that makes the filing worthwhile.

Under 14 M.R.S. § 156, Maine follows modified comparative negligence with a strict 50% bar. If the property owner convinces the jury that you were equally at fault — 50% or more — you recover nothing. In slip and fall cases, the property owner's primary defense is always comparative fault: you weren't watching where you walked, you were wearing inappropriate footwear, you ignored warning signs, or you chose to walk through an area you knew was hazardous. Maine's freeze-thaw winters make this defense especially potent — "everyone knows Maine sidewalks are icy in January" is the property owner's implicit argument. Defeating it requires evidence that the specific hazard was unreasonably dangerous, that the owner had actual or constructive notice (meaning the condition existed long enough that a reasonable inspection program would have caught it), and that the owner failed to remedy or warn. Inspection logs showing no inspections were conducted, surveillance footage showing the puddle or ice patch was present for hours before the fall, and employee testimony about known recurring hazards are the tools that anchor fault on the property owner and keep your allocation below the 50% bar.

If the slip and fall occurred on government property — a city sidewalk in Portland, a state office building in Augusta, a public school in Bangor, a municipal parking garage, or a state park trail — the premises liability claim against the governmental entity requires a written notice of claim within 365 days under 14 M.R.S. § 8107. That one-year deadline is the real clock on a government-property fall, not the six-year statute of limitations. Missing the 365-day notice deadline bars the claim against the government defendant permanently, even though years remain on the main statute. Government-property falls are common in Maine: icy municipal sidewalks, poorly maintained state building entrances, frost-heaved public walkways, and snow-covered parking areas at government facilities are recurring hazard scenarios. The notice must be in writing and directed to the correct governmental entity. Filing it within the first few months — not near the one-year deadline — allows time to correct any deficiency the government identifies and preserves the maximum flexibility for the claim.

Premises liability claims in Maine often involve multiple potentially liable parties. In a commercial property fall, the building owner, the tenant operating the business, the property management company, the snow removal contractor, and the cleaning service may each bear a share of responsibility. Maine's modified comparative negligence system under 14 M.R.S. § 156 allocates fault among all parties — including the injured person — which means identifying every responsible party reduces the percentage attributed to you and increases the total insurance available to pay the claim. A fall on ice in a shopping center parking lot may implicate the property owner (who owed a duty to maintain safe conditions), the snow removal contractor (who was hired to clear and treat the lot), and the property management company (which was responsible for scheduling and overseeing maintenance). Each of those entities typically carries commercial general liability insurance. An attorney who identifies all responsible parties early — through lease agreements, property management contracts, and snow removal service records — builds a case with multiple recovery sources and a stronger fault allocation for the injured person.