I fell at a Florida business and the manager wants me to fill out some paperwork known as an incident report. What should I do?

In the state of Florida if you’ve fallen at a local business and the manager or the owner asks you to fill out an incident report shortly after the accident, we get this question all the time, what should you do? Do I have to fill it out? Am I required to fill it out? Should I fill it out? The answer is typically you should help fill it out. Oftentimes in premises liability cases, the actual fault or the comparative negligence is very hotly disputed, so it’s always a case of who is at fault: the business owner, the manager, or the actual injured party.

One of the things that filling out an incident report helps us do is helps us establish that this incident actually happened at their property, the time that it happened, and it allows them notice to help get that surveillance footage so we can help prove exactly what happened. If there was some sort of hazard on the ground, one of the most important things that we have to prove is how long was it there, so that surveillance footage becomes extremely important. The question of are you required to fill out an incident report if you’ve fallen at someone’s store and the manager’s saying you’re required? The answer to that question is no. You are not required to fill out an incident report. However, as we’ve already discussed, it’s almost always a good idea.