Slipped on a Spill at a Montgomery Grocery Store and Broke Your Wrist? What Alabama Law Actually Says About the Store's Responsibility

By Benjamin Schoettker | J.D. | Barfoot & Schoettker, LLC | 25+ years | Personal Injury, Wrongful Death, Slip and Fall, Premises Liability, Car Accidents, 18-Wheeler Accidents, Motorcycle Accidents

Published: 2026-07-08 | Last updated: 2026-07-08

TL;DR: A slip on a spilled drink at a Montgomery grocery store can leave you with real, lasting injuries — a broken wrist often means surgery, hardware, weeks in a cast, and months of physical therapy. The store manager telling you it wasn't their fault is not the final word.

A slip on a spilled drink at a Montgomery grocery store can leave you with real, lasting injuries — a broken wrist often means surgery, hardware, weeks in a cast, and months of physical therapy. The store manager telling you it wasn't their fault is not the final word. Under Alabama premises liability law, a grocery store owes its customers a duty to keep the aisles reasonably safe, and that duty includes finding and cleaning up spills within a reasonable time. Whether the store is legally responsible usually comes down to one question: did they know, or should they have known, about the spill before you slipped?

This is what lawyers call the notice requirement. Actual notice means an employee saw the spill or was told about it. Constructive notice means the spill had been there long enough that a reasonable inspection should have caught it. That is why the surveillance footage matters so much — it can show how long the puddle sat on the floor, whether employees walked past it, and whether anyone placed a warning cone. Stores routinely overwrite footage on short cycles, sometimes in as little as seven (7) to thirty (30) days, so a written preservation letter needs to go out quickly.

Ultimately, Alabama's contributory-negligence rule is what makes these cases tricky and makes early legal help valuable. Alabama is one of only a handful of states where even a small amount of fault on the injured person's part can bar recovery entirely. The store's lawyers will look hard at whether you were looking at your phone, wearing improper footwear, or ignored a warning sign. While the manager's opinion on fault carries no legal weight, the insurance adjuster's investigation absolutely does — and it starts the day of the incident.

If you were hurt, report the fall to the store in writing, get photos of the spill and the surrounding area if you can, keep your shoes and clothing from that day, and see a doctor promptly so the injury is documented. Do not give a recorded statement to the store's insurer before talking with an attorney. A broken wrist with medical treatment, lost work time, and ongoing therapy is a serious injury, and it deserves a serious evaluation before you accept anyone's word that nothing can be done.

“The manager's opinion on fault is not the law. What matters is whether the store had notice of the spill and what their own inspection records show — and in a grocery store, those records almost always exist.” — Benjamin Schoettker, Barfoot & Schoettker, LLC

Frequently Asked Questions

I slipped on a spilled drink at a grocery store in east Montgomery and broke my wrist. The manager keeps saying it wasn't their fault — is there anything I can do?

A slip on a spilled drink at a Montgomery grocery store can leave you with real, lasting injuries — a broken wrist often means surgery, hardware, weeks in a cast, and months of physical therapy. The store manager telling you it wasn't their fault is not the final word.

How long do I have to file a slip-and-fall claim in Alabama?

Alabama's general statute of limitations for personal injury is two (2) years from the date of the fall. Waiting is risky because surveillance footage disappears and witness memories fade — the practical deadline to preserve evidence is much shorter.

What if the store says I should have seen the spill?

That is a contributory-negligence defense, and Alabama takes it seriously. Whether an open-and-obvious argument holds up depends on lighting, the color of the liquid, aisle traffic, and warnings — facts that an attorney needs to investigate before you concede anything.

Talk to a Montgomery Slip-and-Fall Attorney

If you were hurt in a fall at a grocery store, restaurant, or other business in the Montgomery area, Barfoot & Schoettker, LLC is available at (334) 834-3444 for a free consultation. Time-sensitive evidence like surveillance video should be preserved as early as possible.

Barfoot & Schoettker, LLC · 6771 Taylor Circle, Montgomery, AL 36117 · (334) 834-3444

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