Winter Injuries in Luzerne County: Ice, Snow and What the Law Expects

Winter here is its own category of injury

Northeastern Pennsylvania averages a long, freeze-thaw winter. Snow falls, partially melts in afternoon sun, refreezes overnight into a sheet of clear ice on a walkway that looked fine at four in the afternoon. That cycle, repeated from December through March, produces a distinct set of injuries — wrist and hip fractures, head injuries, back injuries — and a distinct set of legal questions.

It also produces a rule that surprises almost everyone: in Pennsylvania, the fact that you fell on ice on someone else’s property does not by itself make that property owner responsible.

The rule that decides most of these cases

Pennsylvania courts apply what is called the hills and ridges doctrine. In general terms, when conditions are generally icy or snowy throughout the area, a property owner is not automatically liable simply because snow or ice was present.

There are important limits to that doctrine, and it does not apply to every fall. Because it decides so many winter cases, it has its own page — the hills and ridges doctrine, explained.

Who is responsible depends on where you fell

A parking lot, a public sidewalk, an apartment walkway and a store entrance are governed by different duties and sometimes different defendants entirely. A national retailer may have hired a snow removal contractor. A borough sidewalk may be the abutting homeowner’s responsibility under a local ordinance. An apartment complex has obligations to its tenants in common areas.

The pages in this section are organized by where the fall happened, because that is what determines the answer.

Winter driving is in here too

Snow and ice crashes raise a parallel question: whether “the roads were bad” excuses the driver who hit you. In Pennsylvania, generally, it does not.

See who is at fault in a snow or ice crash for how that plays out.

If you fell this week

Photograph the spot immediately, before anything melts or is treated. Note the time and the temperature. Keep the shoes you were wearing. Report it to the property owner or manager in writing and ask for a copy of the incident report.

Ice is the only evidence in a slip and fall case that destroys itself within hours. Everything else can wait; the photographs cannot.

Talk it through with someone local. If you have questions about your own situation, the attorneys at Joyce,

Carmody & Moran can review what happened and explain your options — no cost for the first conversation, and no obligation. We are based in Pittston and handle injury matters throughout Luzerne County.