New Brunswick winters produce black ice on sidewalks and parking lots every week from December to April. Heavy snow, freezing rain and a freeze-thaw cycle that repeats every few days leave sheer ice under fresh snow. If you were hurt in a slip and fall on ice because a property was not maintained, you can sue the occupier for your losses. This page sets out what that lawsuit involves in New Brunswick, what you have to prove, and what it pays.
The Freeze-Thaw Cycle Makes New Brunswick Winters Dangerous for Pedestrians
The danger is the freeze-thaw cycle. Meltwater runs across a walkway in the afternoon and freezes flat and clear by evening. A dusting of snow hides it. The next person to walk across has no warning.
Property owners know this happens. Many still delay shovelling, skip the salt, or hire a snow contractor who does not show up. When that happens the person who falls pays the price in fractures, surgeries and months off work. That is the usual starting point for a lawsuit over a slip and fall on ice in this province.
Injuries from falling on ice are rarely minor. Ice does not give. The wrist, the hip or the back of the head takes the full impact. Recovery runs months, treatment runs longer, and the income loss can be permanent. A lawsuit is how you recover those costs from the party responsible.
What Does Suing for a Slip and Fall on Ice Entail?
Suing for a slip and fall on ice means starting a civil action in negligence. You are the plaintiff. The property owner, operator or tenant is the defendant. You have to prove the defendant failed a legal duty to maintain the property in a reasonably safe condition, and that the failure caused your injury. The remedy is money paid to cover what the fall cost you.
Ice on its own is not enough. The plaintiff must prove the occupier knew, or should have known, about the ice and did not take reasonable steps to deal with it. An owner who salted at 7 a.m. and had no reason to know a pipe burst at noon may not be liable. An owner with no salting routine at all usually is.
The process involves gathering evidence, drafting pleadings, and negotiating with an insurer whose adjusters are paid to minimize or deny the claim. Our injury lawyers in Moncton run these files from the first phone call through settlement or trial.
Businesses, Homeowners and Municipalities All Owe a Duty to Keep Property Safe
New Brunswick law puts a duty of care on whoever occupies or controls property. That covers businesses, homeowners and municipalities. Each must keep the premises reasonably safe for the purpose visitors are there for.
Commercial Property Owners
Grocery stores, malls and office buildings are expected to have a winter maintenance system: scheduled inspections, prompt clearing, and sand or salt applied and reapplied as conditions change. The absence of such a system, or a system that exists on paper only, is the most common reason a commercial occupier ends up defending a slip and fall on ice.
Residential Property Owners
Homeowners owe the same duty on their driveways, walkways and steps. If a delivery driver or a guest falls on an untreated driveway, the claim runs against the homeowner’s insurance policy. These claims are a regular part of New Brunswick trip and fall accidents.
Municipal and Government Properties
A fall on a city sidewalk is a harder case. Municipalities get statutory protections and short notice requirements. In New Brunswick you must give the municipality written notice of the claim within a short period after the fall, and missing it can end the claim outright, whatever the injury. Municipalities also run large snow-clearing operations under written policies, and a municipality that followed its own approved policy is usually protected. Suing one is a specialist job.
A Negligence Claim Needs Duty, Breach, Causation and Damages
To win a lawsuit over a slip and fall on ice, you must prove four things. Miss one and the claim fails.
Duty of Care
The defendant owed you a duty. This is normally the easiest element. If you were lawfully on the property, the occupier owed you a duty to maintain it in a reasonably safe condition. Trespassers are treated differently under the law, with a narrower duty owed to them.
Breach of the Standard of Care
The defendant fell below the standard of a reasonable occupier. The practical question is what inspection and maintenance measures the defendant had in place for the winter conditions everyone in New Brunswick knows are coming. We obtain the maintenance logs and the snow removal contract and compare what they promised against what was done on the day.
Causation
The ice caused the fall and the fall caused the injury. It is not enough that the lot was icy; the evidence has to connect that ice to your broken wrist. Medical records and, where needed, expert evidence do that work.
Damages
You suffered a real, measurable loss. A fall with no injury and no expense is not a lawsuit. Damages can be physical, psychological or financial, and each has to be documented.
Walkways Carry a Higher Standard of Care Than Parking Lots
Where you fell changes the standard. On a walkway, entrance, steps or staircase, the courts apply a higher standard of care, requiring the occupier to clear ice from those areas promptly. In a parking lot, the courts have applied a consistently lower standard. A slip and fall on ice in a parking lot is still a claim, but the evidence of the occupier’s failure has to be stronger.
The Contributory Negligence Argument
The most common defence is that you were partly or wholly to blame. The defendant will say you wore the wrong footwear, were looking at your phone, or walked too fast for the conditions.
If the court agrees, your award is reduced by your share of fault. A $100,000 award with 25 percent contributory negligence pays $75,000. We anticipate the argument and gather the evidence that answers it.
The Reasonable Maintenance Defence
Defendants also argue they met the standard even though you fell. They produce a log showing the lot was salted hours earlier. The law asks for reasonableness, not perfection, so this defence can work. We answer it by testing the accuracy of the logs, the timing of the last inspection, and whether the routine matched the weather that day.
Treatment, Photographs, Witnesses and Your Boots Preserve the Claim
What you do at the scene becomes the evidence the lawsuit runs on.
Seek Medical Attention
Go to the emergency room or your doctor the same day. Delay harms your health and your case: defence counsel treats a gap in treatment as proof the injury was minor or came from somewhere else.
Document the Conditions
If you can, photograph and video the exact spot: the ice, the absence of salt or sand, the weather. Ice melts or gets salted within hours and the evidence is gone. Photographs are usually the strongest evidence in an occupiers’ liability claim.
Identify Witnesses
Ask anyone who saw the fall, or who noticed the ice earlier, for a name and phone number. A witness with no stake in the outcome carries real weight with a judge.
Preserve Your Clothing and Footwear
Keep the boots and clothing you wore. Do not wash them or wear them again. Defendants blame worn treads. The boots in a bag answer that.
Winter Falls Cause Head, Bone, Soft Tissue and Spinal Injuries
Traumatic Brain Injuries and Concussions
Feet slide forward, the body goes back, and the head hits the ground. Concussions and traumatic brain injuries follow. Memory loss, headaches and cognitive problems can last years and are easy for an insurer to dismiss because they do not show on an X-ray.
Orthopedic Injuries and Fractures
Wrists break because people put their hands out. Hips, ankles and kneecaps break on impact, especially in older adults. Surgery and months of physiotherapy are the norm.
Soft Tissue Damage and Sprains
Even without a fracture, the twist of a fall tears ligaments and strains muscles. Insurers call these minor. Some of them become chronic pain that limits mobility for years.
Spinal Cord and Back Injuries
Landing on the back or tailbone can herniate discs or fracture vertebrae. The worst cases cause partial or total paralysis and require lifelong care.
Compensation Covers Pain, Expenses, Lost Income and Future Care
The goal of the lawsuit is to put you back in the financial position you were in before the slip and fall on ice. Compensation is awarded under several heads of damages.
General Damages for Pain and Suffering
General damages compensate for pain, distress and loss of enjoyment of life. There are no receipts for these; Canadian courts set the figure by comparing earlier decisions on similar injuries.
Special Damages for Out-of-Pocket Costs
Special damages reimburse every documented expense: prescriptions, crutches, travel to appointments, home modifications. Keep every receipt. We use that record to claim full reimbursement.
Compensation for Lost Income
If you cannot work, you claim wages lost from the accident to settlement or trial. If the disability is permanent, you claim the loss of future income. A severe fall sometimes also means dealing with an insurer’s disability policy, and a long-term disability lawyer may be needed alongside the injury claim.
Future Medical and Care Costs
Care that continues after the lawsuit ends is claimed now: future physiotherapy, counselling, equipment, and in catastrophic cases personal support workers and nursing care. We work with life care planners to cost those needs.
The Lawsuit Must Be Filed Within Two Years
The law does not let a claim wait indefinitely.
The Two-Year Limitation Period
In New Brunswick the general limitation period for a personal injury claim is two years, counted from the day the injury was known or ought to have been known. File the statement of claim after that and the court will almost certainly dismiss it. Get legal advice well before the deadline; the investigation takes time.
A Lawsuit Runs From Statement of Claim Through Discovery to Settlement or Trial
Most cases settle. We prepare every one for trial from the start, because insurers price their offers on whether the plaintiff’s lawyer will actually go.
Filing the Statement of Claim
We draft and file a statement of claim setting out the facts, the allegations of negligence and the damages sought. It is served on the defendants, who then file a statement of defence within the time the rules allow.
The Discovery Process
Both sides exchange documents. You attend an examination for discovery and answer the defence lawyer’s questions under oath. Our legal professionals prepare you for it and attend the examination with you. We examine the defendant’s representative on the maintenance practices in the same way.
Settlement Negotiations and Mediation
After discovery the parties usually negotiate, often through a formal mediation with a neutral mediator. A mediated settlement ends the case without the cost and uncertainty of trial.
Proceeding to Trial
If no fair offer comes, the case goes to a judge. Both sides call evidence and witnesses and make closing arguments. The judge decides liability and the amount. Trials are uncommon, and we are ready for them when they happen.
New Brunswick Statutes and the Common Law Govern the Claim
A claim has to be built on the correct statutes and case law. In New Brunswick the framework for occupiers’ liability and negligence comes from New Brunswick provincial legislation and the common law, and the rules of court set the requirements for every filing.
We check the statutes that govern property standards and the procedural rules for each document, and we follow new decisions as they come out. That is routine work, and it is where claims are won or lost.
The Firm Takes Winter Fall Claims on a No Win, No Fee Basis
The firm has practised litigation in Atlantic Canada for over 40 years. Michael B. Murphy, KC, leads it and has over 100 reported decisions.
A winter fall costs a family money, mobility and time. We give direct advice about what the claim is worth and handle the legal work while you rehabilitate.
We take personal injury clients on contingency. No win, no fee. You pay no legal fees unless we recover compensation for you.
FAQ
Is Suing for Slip and Fall on Ice Worth It for a Minor Injury?
Injuries that seem minor at first sometimes become chronic. Have a lawyer assess the claim before deciding.
Can I Still Sue If There Was No Salt or Sand on the Ice?
Yes. The absence of salt or sand is often the key evidence of negligence, because it shows the occupier did not take a reasonable step against a known winter hazard. Photograph it right after the fall.
How Long Does Suing for Slip and Fall on Ice Usually Take?
It depends on the injury and the defendants. A straightforward claim can settle within a year or two. A claim against a municipality, or one involving a permanent injury, can take several years.
What If I Was Wearing Sneakers When I Fell on the Ice?
The defence will argue contributory negligence. You can still sue; the court may assign you a percentage of fault and reduce the award by that percentage.
Do I Have to Go to Court If I Hire a Lawyer for a Slip and Fall?
Most New Brunswick personal injury claims settle by negotiation or mediation. Trial happens when the insurer will not offer a fair amount. We prepare every case as if it will go to trial, which is what makes the settlement offers reasonable.