Icy Sidewalks in DC: What Property Owners Must Do About Snow — and When You Can Sue After a Fall
Every Washington winter follows the same script: snow falls, some blocks are shoveled to bare concrete within hours, and others remain glaciers for a week. People fall on the glaciers. Hips and wrists break — disproportionately among older residents for whom a fall on ice can be the beginning of a permanent decline. And then families call us with a reasonable question: the owner never shoveled — that's illegal, isn't it? So we can sue, right?
The honest answer: it is illegal, but the lawsuit is more complicated than that. Here is how DC's snow-removal law actually interacts with injury claims.
The shoveling law
D.C. Code § 9-601 requires the owner of property fronting a paved sidewalk to clear a path — the width of the sidewalk, up to 36 inches — within the first 8 hours of daylight after snow or sleet stops falling. Where ice cannot be removed without damaging the sidewalk, the owner must instead make the walk reasonably safe with sand or a similar treatment.
For decades this duty was famously toothless. That changed with the Winter Sidewalk Safety Amendment Act, signed in 2015, which gave the District real enforcement authority: fines of $25 for residential and $150 for commercial property owners who don't clear their walks, with exemptions available for seniors and residents with disabilities.
The catch: the fine is the government's remedy, not yours
Here is what surprises people. The snow-removal statute's duty runs to the District, not to individual pedestrians — it is enforced by fines, and DC law does not give an injured pedestrian a private lawsuit against an owner merely for violating it. Under the long-standing common-law rule in the District, an abutting owner is generally not liable to someone who slips on a natural accumulation of snow and ice on the public sidewalk.
So when does an injured pedestrian have a claim? The realistic paths:
| Where and how you fell | Potential defendant and theory |
|---|---|
| Natural snow/ice on a public sidewalk, owner simply never shoveled | Claim against the abutting owner is generally unavailable — the shoveling fine is the sanction |
| Ice created or worsened by the owner — a downspout draining across the walk, snow piled so melt refreezes over the path, negligent half-clearing that leaves polished ice | Negligence claim against the owner for creating the hazard |
| Fall on private property — building entrances, interior walkways, parking lots, apartment steps and common areas | Ordinary premises liability: owners owe invitees and tenants reasonable care to clear or treat hazards within a reasonable time |
| Hazard on District-maintained property or resulting from the District's own negligence | Claim against the District — subject to the strict § 12-309 six-month written notice requirement |
Two of those rows deserve emphasis. First, the "artificial accumulation" cases are more common than people think: gutters, drainpipes, grading, and careless plowing create refrozen hazards all over the city, and those are genuine negligence claims. Second, falls on private premises — the apartment building's front steps, the store's entrance, the office parking garage — are governed by ordinary reasonable-care principles, not the public-sidewalk rule, and they are the bread and butter of winter injury litigation in the District. Tenants have an additional angle: landlords generally owe a duty of reasonable care in the common areas they control — lobbies, stairwells, walkways, parking areas — and a lease or house rule assigning snow removal to management is evidence of who bore responsibility for the hazard that caused the fall.
The contributory negligence warning
The District still applies contributory negligence to premises claims: if the defense convinces a jury that you were even slightly careless — hurrying, looking at a phone, wearing slick-soled shoes, choosing an obviously icy path when a clear one existed — recovery can be barred entirely. That makes scene evidence critical: photographs showing that the ice was effectively invisible (black ice, ice under fresh snow, unlit walkways) or that no safer route existed can be the difference between a case and no case.
What this means for injured people in the District
If you fall on snow or ice this winter: photograph the spot immediately and from angles that show what created the ice and why it couldn't be seen; note the weather timeline (when the storm ended matters legally); report the fall to the property owner or building management; keep your footwear; and get medical attention promptly. Then get legal advice quickly — especially if any DC government property is involved, because the six-month § 12-309 notice clock starts at the fall, not when you finish treatment.
If you or a loved one has been hurt, call Posey Lebowitz at (202) 524-0123 or send us a message for a free consultation.
Part of our DMV case law archive, compiled in 2026 to reflect the archive of some of the most important decisions in injury law.