Among the most common personal injury actions are those which occur as the result of  unrepaired defective conditions, such as by slips, trips, or falls. In order to establish a prima facie case of liability arising out of such a defective condition, a plaintiff must show that the defendant either caused and created the dangerous condition or had actual or constructive notice of it.

Actual notice is self-explanatory. Defendant saw the condition ,was told about the condition or knew someone had been previously injured as a result of the condition but failed to remedy it. Prior written notice is perhaps the best known example of actual notice.

Where there is no evidence that defendant caused or created the condition or had actual notice, it is necessary to explore whether defendant can be held liable under principles of constructive notice. To constitute constructive notice, a defect must be visible, apparent, and exist for a sufficient length of time to permit defendant or its employees to discover and remedy the condition. Constructive notice may be established where there are witnesses who can demonstrate that the defect existed for a sufficient time to allow defendant to discover it. For example, acceptable proof could be testimony by someone who saw the defect a sufficient period of time before the accident, so that a timely inspection by defendant would have allowed the defective condition to be corrected in time to prevent the accident. Constructive notice may also be shown where the defect itself exhibited proof of its long-standing existence, such as visible rust, vegetation growing out of the crack at issue or other proof of an aging defect.