Premises Liability

Slip or trip and fall accidents are often referred to as premises liability cases.  Illinois has outlined its standards for such cases in a law called the Premises Liability Act, which states that landowners and occupiers must use reasonable care to keep a property safe.  740 ILCS 130/1.  However, they are not required to protect you from dangers that you know about, defects that are open and obvious, defects that are reasonably discoverable, defects that they do not know about, or from your own misuse of the land.  How those concepts are applied to each case can get complicated, and we can help you work through that.

Automobile accidents typically involve submitting your side of the story to a jury and letting them decide if you win, if the case doesn‘t settle first.   The court’s formal position is that in “the trier of fact must determine that it was the duty of the Respondent at the time of the occurrence to use ordinary care for the safety of the Claimant, and that his failure to do so caused the injury or property damage to the Claimant.”  Young v. State, 48 Ill. Ct. Cl. 416  (Ill. Ct. Cl. May 7, 1996).

The court also factors in “comparative fault”, meaning that you must have been 50% or less at fault for you to recover anything. 735 ILCS 5/2-1116.

Illinois law requires that any lawsuit “for damages for an injury to the person... shall be commenced within 2 years next after the cause of action accrued.”  735 ILCS 5/13-202.  You therefore have a limited time to get moving once injured.  Do not delay.  Give us a call immediately to make sure you do not file too late.  Furthermore, if a government entity is involved, the time may be even shorter.