Slip & Fall Lawyer in New Hampshire

New Hampshire abolished the traditional invitee/licensee/trespasser classification system in Ouellette v. Blanchard, 116 N.H. 552 (1976). All entrants — whether customers, guests, or others — are owed a single standard of reasonable care based on the totality of the circumstances. For business properties, this means the owner must inspect for hazardous conditions, fix them within a reasonable time, and warn visitors of known dangers that cannot be immediately repaired. The unitary standard eliminates the argument that you were merely a licensee owed lesser care, making the legal analysis more straightforward than in states that still use the trichotomy.

RSA § 508:4 provides a three-year statute of limitations for personal injury claims. However, if the fall occurred on government property — a state building, municipal sidewalk, or county facility — RSA 507-B:7 requires a written notice of claim within 60 days of the incident, which is one of the shortest notice windows in the country. Missing the 60-day government notice deadline permanently eliminates your claim against the government entity, even if the three-year civil SOL has not expired. Surveillance footage retention is often 24-72 hours — consulting an attorney within the first few days of the fall is critical to preserving the most important evidence.

The most valuable evidence is surveillance footage showing the fall, the hazardous condition before and after the fall, and whether property employees were nearby. If a business had prior written complaints, maintenance requests, or incident reports about the same hazard, that creates the actual or constructive notice needed to establish liability. Weather records, salt and snow-removal logs for outdoor falls, and inspection checklists for indoor falls are also critical. An attorney must immediately place the property owner on litigation hold — both to preserve surveillance footage before the recording loop overwrites it and to freeze internal maintenance documentation before litigation-motivated destruction becomes a problem.

Yes, under RSA § 507:7-d, New Hampshire applies modified comparative fault. Your recovery is reduced by your fault percentage, and you are barred only if your negligence is greater than the combined fault of the defendants. At 49% fault you recover 51% of your damages; at exactly 50% you recover half; above 50% you recover nothing. Property owners often argue that distraction, footwear, or not using a handrail caused most of the fall. Surveillance footage showing the hazard, plus evidence that the owner had prior notice and failed to act, is the main way to answer that.

In New Hampshire, sidewalk liability depends on who owns and maintains the sidewalk. Municipal sidewalks are government property, triggering the 60-day notice requirement under RSA 507-B:7. Private property owners are responsible for the sidewalks adjacent to their properties when they have assumed maintenance responsibility or created the hazardous condition. New Hampshire follows the traditional rule that adjacent landowners have a duty to maintain sidewalks when specifically imposed by ordinance or when the owner undertook maintenance. Ice and snow on sidewalks creates liability when the owner allowed an unnatural accumulation to form — such as an ice dam created by a downspout — separate from natural accumulation.