Documenting premises hazards: evidence preservation in Georgia

Documenting a premises hazard means capturing what you slipped or tripped on, how the area looked from your approach, and who saw it, before cleanup or repair removes the proof. A gap there can lose a Georgia case. In All American Quality Foods v. Britten, A24A1262 (2025), the injured customer never saw what caused the fall, and the Court of Appeals found no causal evidence.

Why the first record decides so much

Three decisions show what a thin record costs.

Decision	What was missing	Outcome
Britten	Evidence that a substance caused the fall	Store won on appeal
Season All Flower Shop v. Rorie, 323 Ga. App. 529 (2013)	A description of the moisture, beyond wet clothes	Chapel's appeal succeeded
Cooper v. Corporate Property Investors, 220 Ga. App. 889 (1996)	Evidence of who placed the board or knew of it	Defendants won

In Season All, a wedding guest was “positive” she slipped in moisture because her clothes were soaking wet, but she couldn’t describe a puddle or say how much water there was. The court said a plaintiff “must prove more than the existence of a slick or wet floor”. A photograph taken that minute might have changed the record.

On the day, in this order

Get medical care first. A companion or witness can do the rest.

1. The hazard, close up. Include a coin, a hand, or a tape for scale. Show color and texture, and any footprints or cart tracks through a liquid.
2. The hazard from your approach. Stand where you were before the fall, at eye level, and shoot toward the spot. Equal knowledge fights turn on what could be seen.
3. The wide view. Include aisle signs, doors, displays, and nearby employees, which fix the location and may show a distraction.
4. Warnings, or their absence. Photograph any cone or sign and its distance from the hazard.
5. Your shoes and clothes. Keep them unwashed and unrepaired in a bag.
6. Names. Get witnesses’ numbers, the manager’s name, and the report number.
7. Your own note. Write down the time, your route, what you were looking at, and whether you’d walked that way before.

If it was dark, go back at the same hour, because lighting only matters in relation to a hazard it hid. In Suddarth v. Lounsbrough, 369 Ga. App. 158 (2023), no pictures of the porch or steps were taken at the time, and the parties ended up disputing whether leaves were on them at all.

What each record proves

Record	Element	Limit
Photo of the substance	What caused the fall	Doesn't show how long it was there
Dirt or tracks in the spill	Time on the floor	An argument, not a clock
Photo from the approach	Whether it could be seen	Light and angle must match the moment
Witness who saw an employee nearby	Constructive knowledge	Employee must have been able to see easily
Your note about prior visits	Prior traversal	It can hurt, so be accurate
Shoes	Rebuts a footwear argument	May show wear that helps the defense

Don’t crop, filter, or edit the original files. Keep them with their dates. A photo comes in through a witness who can say it shows what it claims to show, under § 24-9-901. In Season All, the plaintiff couldn’t authenticate wedding photos said to show a mat and a caution sign, and the owner who testified about them hadn’t attended the wedding.

Asking the owner to keep things

Send a written request fast. It should name the date, time, place, cameras, logs, and the physical condition, and it should go with proof of delivery. Under Phillips v. Harmon, 297 Ga. 386 (2015), the owner’s duty can arise when litigation is reasonably foreseeable to it, whether or not a letter arrives, but a letter fixes the date. The fuller list is on surveillance footage, and sanctions are on spoliation.

The owner may repair a danger for safety’s sake, as it should. So ask for a chance to inspect first. After suit, § 9-11-34(a)(2) lets a party request entry on land to inspect, measure, photograph, and test. A change after the fall can tell a story too. In Brixmor and Hailu, the owner painted the feature yellow days or weeks later, so pictures from before the paint matter.

What the owner is creating

Owner's record	Why ask	Expected dispute
Incident report	Early account, names	Work product claim
Sweep or inspection logs	Whether a check happened	Timing and authorship
Work orders	Knowledge of a leak or defect	Scope
Prior complaints and falls	Knowledge of a recurring problem	Similarity
Insurer and counsel notices	When litigation was foreseeable	Privilege, though the fact of notice matters under Phillips

Don’t sign a statement of how it happened if you’re unsure, and don’t guess at what caused the fall. Say what you know. Your own words can come back under § 24-8-801(d)(2), and that includes social media.

Your duties

Phillips cuts both ways. If you plan to sue, keep your shoes, your phone data from the day, and any video you have. Don’t delete posts. Tell each medical provider how the injury happened, because medical records become part of the case.

Deadlines behind the evidence

Video can be overwritten long before the two-year limit in § 9-3-33 becomes a concern. A city claim can require written notice within six months under § 36-33-5, as sidewalk falls sets out. So identify who owns the place in the first days.

Sources

• All American Quality Foods v. Britten, A24A1262
• Season All Flower Shop v. Rorie, 323 Ga. App. 529
• Cooper v. Corporate Property Investors, 220 Ga. App. 889
• Suddarth v. Lounsbrough, 369 Ga. App. 158
• Phillips v. Harmon, 297 Ga. 386
• Brixmor New Chastain Corners v. James, 367 Ga. App. 235
• Hailu v. John Milledge Academy, A25A1130
• Official Code of Georgia Annotated, November 2022 public release: §§ 9-3-33, 9-11-34, 24-8-801, 24-9-901, 36-33-5

This page was last reviewed in November 2026 for general information. Laws and court decisions can change after that date. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship.