A loose tile or an unaddressed spill on a casino floor or within a large Nevada retail mall can quickly turn a routine visit into a serious injury event. Flooring-related injury claims fall under Nevada premises liability law, which governs legal responsibility for hazards on property.
Unlike many states, Nevada significantly restricts reliance on the “open and obvious” defense. Property owners, including casinos and supermarkets, may still be liable even when a hazard is visible. Instead, attention is drawn to the reasonableness of the owner's action in keeping safe. It may be a poisonous amount of formaldehyde in laminate wood or a wet marble floor with no cautionary notice. However, victims must work within the state's modified comparative negligence rules, even if they have some degree of fault. Understanding these nuances is the first step toward securing justice after a fall, and we explain them below.
Common Types of Dangerous Flooring Defects
To detect a dangerous flooring defect, you need to look past the immediate pain of your fall to understand what environmental or structural failure had happened to cause your accident. Your primary risks in the hospitality industry begin with the materials used in the construction of the floors.
Polished Surfaces and Residue
Polished marble, granite, and other glossy hard-surface materials often present the highest slip risk. These high-gloss materials usually lack the necessary traction required for your safe passage through transition zones. Property owners sometimes prioritize aesthetic finishes over safety-rated traction levels. This preference increases the risk of an accident when they focus on achieving a mirror-like finish and not a safe coefficient of friction (COF).
This risk is heightened by maintenance workers using a waxy substance or cleaning agents that leave a microfilm residue on your path. Alternatively, it can also be increased by not placing high-visibility warning signs when regular cleaning operations are underway, so that you are unaware that your grip has been significantly reduced.
Structural Failures
The lack of surface traction often becomes a structural hazard when the physical integrity of the flooring material begins to break down underfoot. A slippery floor will cause your foot to slip out from under you, but the uneven cracks will make your foot stop abruptly, resulting in a trip forward.
According to ADA standards and common safety codes, changes in walking level greater than ¼ inch without a ramp or correction can create tripping hazards. Underground foundations in old retail stores or casinos often cause tiles to crack or floorboards to shift, exceeding safety standards. The defects usually blend into complicated patterns and are therefore unexpected, causing falls at high velocities.
Dangerous Transitions and Loose Hardware
The threat of vertical change in height extends even further to the hardware employed to support various parts of the room we are moving into. The metal or wooden elements (transition strips) between the carpet and tile or wood provide an essential safety passage, yet are often the cause of accidents. When these strips loosen, bend, or even go missing altogether, they leave an exposed edge or a sudden drop-off for you. When going out of a high-traction carpeted surface to a hard one, you anticipate a flat plane. A defective transition strip interferes with your muscle memory, and you are likely to trip within a highly trafficked commercial setting.
Latent Textile Hazards and Carpet Buckling
Beyond hard surfaces and metal transitions, there is a different group of hazards caused by the soft flooring material, carpeting, due to poor installation or a lack of timely maintenance. The result of this is the phenomenon known as buckling or rippling. These occur when the carpet on which you are walking is not effectively stretched or when the backing loses its tension, forming a series of small, wave-like mounds on your walkway. These ripples can snag the front of a shoe, causing you to trip and fall.
Equally, worn-out seams and ripped edges in the busiest convention centers also present an unending danger to your stability. Since these defects tend to be found in places where lighting is reduced because of ambiance, like the casino floor or theater, they are a serious violation of the responsibility of the owner of the property to provide you with a safe passage through.
The Nevada Premises Liability Law: What You Must Prove
The process of navigating a legal claim following a fall involves satisfying a particular burden of proving that the statutes set by the Nevada legislature and Supreme Court precedents do provide. To prove that you have fallen on property belonging to a business, it is not enough to establish that you fell on the business property. You should also prove that you were injured due to the failure of the owner of the business to act reasonably. The first step in this legal process is the creation of the "duty of care," which the casino, resort, or retail store owes you when you set foot on their premises.
Most customers are considered invitees, entitling them to reasonable protection and routine safety inspections by property owners. Unlike other jurisdictions that might shield owners from obvious risks, Nevada courts focus on whether the owner acted reasonably to maintain safe flooring. This does not require proving that the floor was in an immaculate state, but rather that the owner failed to carry out the routine inspections and maintenance that a reasonable person would have done. When a hotel or a supermarket neglects its own responsibility of maintaining walkways free of or of repairing a transition hazard known to them, they violate this basic responsibility to you.
The key to winning your case is to demonstrate that you have met the burden of the "notice," proving that the owner had a fair chance to repair the defect before your accident. This evidence is divided into two broad categories, which are:
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Actual notice
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Constructive notice
You can prove actual notice by establishing that an employee had actual knowledge of the hazard by having a witness identify the defect or that a former guest had notified management about the defect. Most cases rely on constructive notice, arguing that the hazard existed for a sufficient period that a reasonable inspection would have discovered and corrected it. You do so by proving that the hazard was present for a considerable period of time that any reasonable inspection cycle would have unearthed it.
For example, if a spill is tracked through several series of footprints in a casino, it may indicate that the hazard has been present long enough for staff members to notice, which puts the owner on notice.
The last and most crucial link to your claim is causation. You need to demonstrate that you were injured due to a specific fault in the floor. You have to show that it was with the loose tile, or the buckled carpet, or the slick residue that you would not have fallen. This requirement prevents defendants from arguing that you already had these injuries or that they were a result of other unrelated causes. Associating the structural failure or maintenance lapse directly with your physical damages, you turn an ordinary accident into a legal claim of damages.
Since Nevada adheres to modified comparative negligence, a clear chain of causation helps to prove that, even though the defense may attempt to transfer some of the blame onto you, the primary cause of the situation is the careless property owner.
Understanding Flooring Risks in Nevada Casinos
When you walk into a casino or resort, you encounter a very different set of sensory experiences. However, you are also subjected to very special flooring hazards, which are often intentionally designed. The safety standards of the law in these 24/7 settings remain the same. However, the high number of people on the streets and the complex environment present a challenging task in identifying and proving a defect that is unique to you. Some of the common risks include the following:
Patterned Carpet Hazard and Visual Confusion
Casinos often use highly patterned carpets that conceal wear but may visually camouflage flooring transitions. Nonetheless, these complex designs may produce visual confusion, which hides hazardous transitions, short steps, or liquid spills.
At a point where a design is so overwhelming that it disturbs your ability to notice a shift in the level of the floor or a pool of water, the design itself can be claimed as a form of negligence. You need to demonstrate how the aesthetic design selected by the owner of the property created a direct interference with your ability to recognize an otherwise blatant hazard and place the burden back on the casino for creating a confusing environment.
Floor Spills in 24/7 Casinos
Spills of cocktails or melting ice buckets are statistically unavoidable in establishments that operate 24 hours a day. You must prove constructive notice to win the case. You do this by demonstrating that the casino was aware of a spill. The establishment’s strict cleaning and monitoring systems will help.
As casinos have cameras both inside and outside their property, to make a legal claim, you often have to obtain the camera footage before it is overwritten. If the video reveals that several employees passed over the spill, which caused you to fall, without taking any action, you can still prove notice, even though the spill had been there for only a few minutes.
The courts have ruled that where an employee is in proximity to a hazard and takes no action, the time the hazard has been present becomes secondary to the staff member's inability to perform their duty.
Heavy Traffic Slips and Beverage Stations
You are most vulnerable in the transition zone, like between carpeted slot banks and tiled walkways or around self-service beverage stations. These are places where friction and dampness are prevalent, and flooring adhesives and surface traction would degrade very quickly.
If you slip near a soda fountain or a bar, it might be the difference between having an upheld case where the casino had "slip-resistant" mats or when the floor around the area had become wet. Within these high-stakes settings, it is up to the casino to demonstrate that they put in place an inspection cycle as often as possible to keep you safe in a setting where a hazard can appear and cause an injury, in a matter of seconds.
The Critical Evidence Needed for a Fair Settlement
Preserving evidence promptly is crucial in Nevada claims, as casinos often repair hazards quickly. The fact that property owners, especially large casinos, will hasten to fix faults and overwrite computer files also makes having the ability to freeze the scene as quickly as possible the most powerful tool in your arsenal. You can preserve the evidence by using any of the following:
The Preservation Letter
You should prioritize making sure that the property owner does not erase the surveillance video of your accident. Most resorts and retail centers in Nevada have a looping recording system, which automatically overwrites video after every 30 to 90 days. You need to instruct your legal department to deliver an official Preservation of Evidence Letter (or spoliation letter) as soon as possible. This document serves as notice to the business under the law that a claim is pending and constitutes a bar to the business destroying video reels, sweep sheets, and maintenance logs.
If they do erase a recording following the receipt of this letter, the courts can allow a rebuttable presumption. This means the jury can assume that the lost video would have been used to demonstrate the negligence of its owner.
Photos and Video Recordings from Your Phone
You should not only take a general view of the room when you take photos of the flooring defect. You have to have a sense of scale to demonstrate a breach of the 1/4-inch rule or a slick residue. Before you take the snapshot, put an ordinary object, a coin, a key, a ruler, and so forth directly next to the tilted tile and the buckled carpet. These reference points prevent the defense from arguing that the hazard was "de minimis" or too small to be dangerous. Use photos taken at your eye level to show what you saw approaching the hazard, and close-ups at ground level to capture the depth and severity of the defect.
Maintaining Your Shoes
Shifting the blame to your shoes, claiming they were worn out or had no proper grip, is one of the most common defense strategies. After an incident, preserving footwear may provide valuable evidence of residue or traction conditions. Consult a personal injury attorney before modifying any physical evidence. Do not clean them. The soles might show microscopic traces of the wax, oil, or liquid that caused you to slip.
When you save your footwear in its exact condition right after the accident, you will provide your professionals with the material they will test to determine whether it is slip-resistant or not. This material can be used to refute any claim of comparative negligence by establishing that your shoes were in good condition and that the fault lay with the floor, not with your shoes.
Documenting Witnesses and Incident Reports
You must obtain the contact details of any bystanders who may have witnessed your fall or commented on the condition of the floor before you left the premises. These independent voices tend to be more convincing to the jury as compared to employee testimonies. Furthermore, as much as you should work hand in hand with security to make an incident report, you should also be mindful of your words. Stick to the facts of the defect, for example, that the carpet was bunched up, rather than speculating on your own movement.
Always have a copy of this report or a picture of it on your phone, as it is the official document. It will indicate to the property owner that you were notified of your injury upon the occurrence of the same.
Comparative Negligence in Dangerous Flooring Lawsuits
When you file a flooring lawsuit, the defense will almost certainly argue that you should have seen the hazard and avoided it. This is usually framed as the open and obvious defense. However, in the case of state law, it is to your advantage. A property owner cannot avoid liability simply because a hazard was open and visible. On the contrary, Nevada employs a modified comparative negligence system, specifically the 51% bar rule. This means that you can still claim compensation provided that you are established to be 50% or less at fault.
If a jury concludes that you were 20% negligent in looking down, then your ultimate award is 20% less. It is simply that you lose the right to recover when your portion of the blame reaches 51%.
Damages and Compensation
The value of your claim depends on how the flooring defect has altered your life, categorized into economic and non-economic damages.
Economic Damages
Economic damages refer to financial losses, including emergency room treatment, surgery, physical therapy, and any lost earnings or reduced earning capacity resulting from the inability to work. In Nevada, the maximum amount of these damages is not limited in cases of general negligence.
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages are your pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of pleasure in life. In contrast to medical malpractice cases, there is no statutory limit to pain and suffering in lawsuits brought against flooring companies in Nevada. A jury is free to award what they believe is actually fair.
Punitive Damages
You can secure punitive damages in rare cases where the owner of a property exhibits conscious negligence regarding safety, for example, by being aware that a floor is dangerously slick for months and by refusing to remedy the situation. They are meant to punish the accused and not recompense you. These are generally limited to three times your compensatory damages under the NRS 42.005 in case your award exceeds $100,000, or $300,000 in case your award is lower.
Find a Personal Injury Attorney Near Me
Whether it involves a disastrous slip-and-fall incident or the long-term health consequences of toxic substances, hazardous flooring litigation in Nevada requires vigorous litigation. Property owners and companies have a duty to ensure that their surfaces are safe. When they prioritize profits over people's lives, they must be held accountable.
Navigating Nevada’s complex premises liability and product defect laws requires a seasoned advocate by your side. Las Vegas Personal Injury Attorney Law Firm is available to help pursue compensation for medical bills, lost wages, and other damages. Contact us at 702-996-1224.
