Everyone in Georgia is welcoming the recent rains, especially in light of last year’s drought. That is unless you are one of the many people who have slipped and hurt yourself when entering a business.Such injuries are called “slip-and-falls.” It occurs where someone slips or trips and then falls on someone else’s property. When a business opens its doors to the public, it has a duty to make the premises safe for the general public. For the business to be at fault, it must have either caused the defective condition; known about the condition but did nothing about it; or should have known about the condition because a reasonable person would have discovered it and fixed it. There can be all sorts of reasons why someone slips/trips, such as loose carpeting, broken/cracked tile, and spills on the floor. The one hazard that causes the most frustration in Georgia, however, is slipping on a wet floor caused by rain. While a business owner has the duty to keep their premises safe from slips and trips, there is an important exception when it comes to rainwater. The exception says a Plaintiff is responsible for their injuries when he/she has equal or superior knowledge of the condition. In other words, the hazard is out in the open and a reasonable person would have seen and avoided it. When it comes to rainwater, Georgia courts have consistently said every “reasonable” person knows floors get slippery when it is raining out. The Georgia Court of Appeals says it is “common knowledge that water accumulates on the ground on rainy days, and the risk of harm imposed by this accumulation is not unreasonable but is one to which all who go out on a rainy day may be exposed and which all may expect or anticipate.” Georgia courts have even gone so far as to say the absence of mats in entryways does not make a difference because everyone can see that there are no mats present. So where does that leave victims of rainy slip-and-falls? It does not mean you should not have an attorney review your case. In fact, you need an attorney to look for other contributing factors to escape the rainy day cases. For example, were there missing hand rails (a building code violation) or was the business putting down an unreasonably slick wax/floor polish on its floors?