If you were on your phone when you fell, you can still have a case. The store’s insurance company will push hard on that detail, and it may cost you a percentage of your claim. It does not erase the fact that someone left a hazard on the floor.
Many people in Las Vegas who were glancing at a text, a map or a shopping list when they went down assume the fall was their own fault. That guilt is exactly what the other side is counting on. Here is how Nevada law actually treats phone use in a fall, and what to do next so a few seconds of looking down doesn’t become the whole story.
Yes, You Can Still Have a Case If You Were on Your Phone When You Fell
A fall claim starts with the hazard, not with you. If a store, restaurant or apartment complex let a spill, a broken tile or loose mat sit where people walk, that hazard is what put you on the ground. Looking at your phone may explain why you didn’t spot it. It doesn’t explain why it was there.
Nevada uses modified comparative negligence under NRS 41.141. If you share some of the blame, your compensation is reduced by your share. You are only barred from recovering if your fault is greater than the fault of the parties you’re claiming against.
For example, if your losses total $100,000 and a jury puts 20% of the blame on you for looking at your phone, you would recover $80,000. You can see more examples of how those percentages work in our guide to comparative negligence in Nevada.
Why Stores Reach for the “You Were on Your Phone” Defense
Glen Howard spent years as an insurance defense attorney before he started representing injured people. He knows the phone argument well, because it is one of the cheapest defenses an insurer has.
It changes the question. Instead of asking what the store knew about the hazard and when, everyone starts asking what you were doing. If the adjuster can get you to agree you weren’t paying attention, they can offer less money while never addressing the spill, the missing warning sign or the skipped floor check.
That is why the store’s claims team may ask about your phone in the first conversation. They aren’t curious. They’re building a fault percentage.
How Phone Use Actually Affects Your Claim in Nevada
Being on your phone is not automatic proof that you caused your fall. A jury, or an adjuster sizing up what a jury might do, looks at the full picture. These are the questions that usually decide how much weight the phone gets.
Would You Have Seen It Even Looking Up?
Many floor hazards are close to invisible. Clear liquid on polished tile, a single grape in the produce aisle, a cracked threshold the same color as the floor, a wet entryway at a Spring Valley grocery store after a rare Las Vegas rainstorm. If a careful person looking straight ahead could have missed it too, the phone matters far less.
The Store Still Had to Find It and Fix It
Property owners in Nevada owe visitors reasonable care. That means inspecting, cleaning up and warning about hazards they knew about or should have found. Your phone has nothing to do with whether an employee walked that aisle in the last hour. Proving that usually comes down to records, which is why it helps to know how to get store inspection logs after a slip and fall.
Stores sometimes argue a hazard was so obvious you should have avoided it. In Nevada, an obvious danger does not automatically excuse the owner. It is weighed as part of what was reasonable for both sides.
Standing Still and Reading vs. Scrolling While Walking
There is a real difference between stopping to check a text and walking fast while typing. Someone standing still who stepped forward onto a spill is in a very different position than someone who walked into a wet-floor sign without looking up. Details like this can move the fault percentage a lot.
“Everyone Looks at Their Phone”
The test is what a reasonable person would do. Reasonable people check a grocery list in a store, look at a map in a casino walkway or read a parking reminder in a garage. Businesses know their customers do this, and a well-run property plans for it.
Can Your Phone Be Used Against You?
Yes, which is why it pays to know where that evidence comes from.
Store Video
Cameras may show you looking down. They may also show the spill sitting there for 40 minutes while employees walked past it. Footage cuts both ways, and stores often record over it quickly. Learn how long stores keep surveillance after a fall and why the request needs to go out fast.
The Incident Report and What You Said
A manager may write “customer was looking at phone” based on one comment you made while you were hurt and embarrassed. Read whether you should sign an incident report after a slip and fall before you put your name on anything.
Phone Records and Social Posts
If a claim turns into a lawsuit, the defense can ask for phone activity from around the time of the fall. Courts generally keep those requests tied to what’s relevant, and an attorney can push back on overly broad demands. Posts about the fall, or about how active you’ve been since, can be used too.
Do not delete texts, photos or posts. Deleting evidence after an injury can hurt your claim far more than the phone use itself.
How Your Phone Can Help You
Your phone is also one of your best tools. Photos of the hazard taken right after the fall, timestamps, a video of the floor, names and numbers of people who stopped to help: this is often the evidence that proves the store’s side of the fault.
What to Do Now If You Were Looking at Your Phone
- Don’t volunteer it, and don’t lie about it. If you’re asked directly, be honest. You don’t need to bring it up on your own with the store or its insurer.
- Don’t give a recorded statement to the store’s insurance company before talking to a lawyer.
- Keep everything. Photos, texts, the shoes and clothes you wore, any paperwork from the store.
- Move quickly on the footage. Stores can lose video within days.
- Get medical care and follow through. Gaps in treatment give the insurer a second argument.
If you fell inside a resort on the Strip, the property likely has its own claims team and surveillance department, so a Las Vegas casino injury case moves on a different clock.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you sue for a slip and fall with no witnesses?
Yes. Many falls happen with no one watching, and Nevada does not require an eyewitness to bring a claim. The evidence usually comes from other places: store surveillance, the incident report, inspection and cleaning logs, photos you took, your medical records, and the condition of the floor itself. Employees who responded after the fall may also be witnesses to the hazard, even if they didn’t see you go down. The bigger risk with no witnesses is that the store tells its version first, which is why preserving video and your own photos early matters. An attorney can request records the store won’t hand over at the counter and build the timeline around them.
Can I get my broken phone paid for after a fall?
Often, yes. If your phone cracked or stopped working when you fell, the cost to repair or replace it can generally be included as property damage in your injury claim against the at-fault property owner. Keep the damaged phone, take photos of it and save any repair estimate or receipt. The same goes for glasses, a watch or clothing ruined in the fall. If someone broke your phone on purpose, such as during an argument or a theft, that is a separate matter that may involve the police and is not part of a fall claim.
How much does being on my phone reduce my settlement?
There is no set percentage. It depends on how hidden the hazard was, how long it sat there, whether there was a warning, whether you were walking or standing still, and what the video and reports show. In some cases phone use barely moves the number. In others, the insurer argues it should take a large share. Nevada only bars recovery if your share of the fault is greater than the defendants’. Because the percentage is negotiated, and sometimes decided by a jury, having an attorney who knows how insurers calculate it can make a real difference in the final amount.
Looked Down for a Second? Find Out What the Store Knew First
Glancing at your phone doesn’t mean you deserved to get hurt. The store had a job to keep its floor safe, and the evidence that proves whether it did that job is usually in the store’s hands, not yours.
Glen Howard used to defend insurance companies against claims like yours. He knows how they use the phone argument, and he knows how to turn the focus back to the hazard. If you’re wondering whether you have a case, our team can review what happened, explain how fault might be split, and tell you honestly where you stand.
The review is free, and you pay no fee unless we win. Talk to a slip and fall attorney in Las Vegas about your fall, learn more about how we handle premises liability claims in Nevada, or request your free case review today.
