Property owners must clear snow, ice to avoid slip-and-fall lawsuits
DETROIT (FOX 2) - As another round of snow hits southeast Michigan, property owners should prepare their shovels.
A Michigan Supreme Court ruling made on July 28, 2023 overturned a 20-year-old system used to determine a property owner’s responsibility in slip-and-fall cases.
Under Michigan's updated slip-and-fall laws, it is mandatory for home and business owners to clear their property of any snow and ice. If they fail to do so, they may be held liable for any injuries or deaths that occur on their property due to these conditions.
"Now you have to take care of your property," said Chris Hunter, an attorney with Michigan Slip and Fall Lawyers. "Under the old law, I'd tell you ‘never plow anything – the worse it is the better off you are.’"
Previously, slip-and-fall lawsuits were often dismissed unless the accident was "unreasonably dangerous."
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"Now homeowners do have to really do something to really protect people coming to their house," Hunter said.
For some homeowners, what to do is obvious.
"We are responsible for our own sidewalks and our own individual properties," said Scott Clay, a Detroit resident. "Us as the homeowners have to solve for the ice because people are coming through, so got to make sure we do what we have to do."
Hunter says everyone should have insurance, regardless of the current slip-and-fall laws, to cover accidents on their property.
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