Slip & Fall Lawyer in New Mexico

No. New Mexico courts have held that landowners owe a duty of ordinary care regardless of whether a hazardous condition is open and obvious. Unlike Kansas or Alabama, where open-and-obvious can eliminate the property owner's duty as a matter of law, New Mexico treats the open-and-obvious nature of a hazard as a comparative fault factor under pure comparative fault (§ 41-3A-1) — it may increase your attributed fault percentage, reducing your recovery proportionally, but it does not bar the claim. This means that even if the hazard was visually apparent when you fell, you can still recover your proportionate share of damages in New Mexico. The defense will argue that your failure to observe an obvious hazard was comparative negligence and try to maximize your fault percentage; your attorney responds by documenting why avoidance was impractical and why the owner's failure to maintain the property was the dominant cause.

NMSA § 41-4-16 requires written notice to the appropriate government entity within 90 days of any injury on government-owned or maintained premises. Notice must go to: the risk management division for state entities; the mayor for municipalities; the county clerk for county entities; the superintendent for school districts. The notice must describe the time, place, circumstances, and claimant. Failure to provide notice within 90 days is an absolute bar to the government entity claim — no exceptions, no equitable tolling, no exceptions for ignorance of the law. Because falls on government property in New Mexico often involve ambiguity about whether the specific surface was government-maintained (city sidewalk, state university path, county park trail), an attorney must immediately investigate the ownership and maintenance responsibility of the fall location and serve the correct entity within 90 days.

NMSA § 41-3A-1 establishes pure comparative fault with no percentage bar: your recovery is reduced by your fault percentage, but never eliminated regardless of how high your fault. A plaintiff found 60% at fault for not watching where they walked still recovers 40% of proven damages. There is no fault threshold that bars recovery in New Mexico private-property premises cases. Additionally, New Mexico applies proportionate several liability: each responsible party pays their own fault share. If both the property owner (60% fault) and the adjacent government entity (40% fault) are responsible, and each is properly sued, each pays their share. If the government entity claim was barred by missing the 90-day notice, the property owner pays only 60% — the plaintiff absorbs the government's 40% rather than recovering it from the solvent property owner.

Yes, but with an important modification. New Mexico retains the traditional tripartite categories: invitees (business visitors, customers) are owed the highest duty of inspect-and-remedy; licensees (social guests, permitted visitors) are owed a duty to warn of known non-obvious hazards; trespassers are owed minimal duty (refrain from deliberate harm), with child-trespasser exceptions under attractive nuisance. Unlike Kansas, which abolished the invitee/licensee distinction in Jones v. Hansen (1994), New Mexico still uses status classification as the threshold duty determination. However, the practical distinction between invitee and licensee is narrowed by the rule that property owners owe ordinary care for open-and-obvious conditions regardless of status — making the open-and-obvious doctrine a fault factor rather than a duty-elimination tool in New Mexico.

NMSA § 37-1-8 provides a three-year statute of limitations for personal injury claims, including premises liability falls. Three years runs from the date of the fall. For government entity claims, the 90-day notice requirement under § 41-4-16 is a separate and much more urgent deadline that must be satisfied within 90 days of the fall — failure bars the government claim permanently regardless of the three-year private SOL. Despite the longer three-year private SOL, surveillance footage (24-72 hours), maintenance records, and witness availability require immediate preservation action. Contact an attorney within the first week after any New Mexico slip-and-fall — particularly if the fall occurred on or near government-maintained property.