Property owners in Chicago must use reasonable care to keep their property safe. When they fail and you are hurt, Illinois law may allow you to recover compensation for medical bills, lost income, and pain and suffering. A fall on a wet store aisle, an icy entrance, or a broken stairway is not something you should have to absorb alone.
Our team at Herbert Rosner Connelly Law Firm represents people injured on commercial, retail, and rental property across the city, and we work on a contingency fee basis. If you are looking for a Chicago slip and fall accident lawyer, call for a free case evaluation.
Fall claims are won or lost on evidence that disappears quickly. Surveillance video is often overwritten within days, and maintenance records are rarely handed over without a formal demand. Our Chicago personal injury attorneys move on those items immediately.
Founding partners Daniel Q. Herbert, Adam R. Rosner, and Thomas M. Connelly built this firm around personal injury and workers' compensation claims for people in Chicago. Our published case results include a $9 million settlement in a premises liability matter involving a serious injury caused by unsafe property conditions. Every case turns on its own facts, and past results do not guarantee the outcome of any future claim.
Simply falling on someone else’s property does not automatically mean the property owner is legally responsible. A slip and fall claim usually depends on why you fell, who controlled the area, and whether the person or business responsible for the property failed to use reasonable care.
Under Illinois law, property owners and occupiers generally owe lawful visitors reasonable care under the circumstances regarding the condition of the property.
When we evaluate a potential slip and fall claim, some of the most important questions include:
Notice can be especially important when the dangerous condition was not created by the property owner or its employees. Illinois courts recognize both actual notice, meaning the defendant knew about the hazard, and constructive notice, which may exist when a condition was present long enough or was sufficiently noticeable that reasonable care should have led to its discovery.
The facts can vary significantly from one fall to another. Evidence such as surveillance footage, inspection records, photographs, witness statements, maintenance records, and prior complaints can help determine whether negligence contributed to the accident.
Falls send a striking number of Illinois residents to the hospital every year. According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, 841 Illinois residents ages 65 and older died from falls in 2014, and more than 106,600 fall injuries were treated at hospitals and emergency departments statewide.
Broken down by week, that same report counted 1,923 emergency department visits, 213 hospitalizations, and 16 deaths among older Illinois residents. Projected lifetime costs for that single year reached $2.35 billion.
Chicago adds its own pressure to those numbers. Freeze and thaw cycles, crowded sidewalks, aging stairwells, and transit platforms create hazards that other parts of the state simply do not see at the same volume.
No attorney can quote a number before reviewing your medical records and the evidence of how the hazard formed. What we can tell you is what moves the figure in either direction.
Two people can fall in the same doorway and have very different claims. A sprained wrist that heals in six weeks and a hip fracture that ends someone's independence are not comparable losses.
Be cautious with early settlement offers. Insurers often make them before the full course of treatment is known, and once you sign a release, you cannot reopen the claim if your condition worsens.
Illinois allows recovery for both financial losses and human ones. We document each category rather than accepting an insurer's first estimate.
Usually, yes. Illinois follows modified comparative fault under 735 ILCS 5/2-1116, which bars recovery only when your share of the fault is more than 50 percent.
If your share is 50% or less, you can still recover, but the award is reduced by your percentage. Suppose a jury values your losses at $100,000 and assigns you 20% of the blame. Your recovery would be reduced to $80,000.
This is exactly why property insurers argue that you were distracted, wearing the wrong shoes, or should have seen the hazard. Every percentage point they shift onto you lowers what they pay.
A hard landing on concrete or tile does real damage. Our office handles claims involving:
More than one party is often responsible, and identifying all of them protects your recovery.
Under the Illinois Premises Liability Act, the old common law split between invitees and licensees no longer applies. The duty owed to people who enter is reasonable care under the circumstances regarding the condition of the property.
Responsibility for common areas, stairwells, lobbies, and parking lots frequently sits with a management company rather than the owner on the deed. Leases and service contracts tell us who agreed to handle maintenance, and our work on Chicago premises liability claims usually starts with those documents.
Winter cases follow special rules. The Snow and Ice Removal Act protects residential owners who remove or attempt to remove snow from abutting sidewalks, unless their conduct was willful or wanton.
That protection has limits. It does not cover commercial property, and in 2016 the Illinois Supreme Court held that the immunity does not reach a negligent failure to maintain the premises, such as faulty drainage that lets water pool and refreeze across a walkway.
Separately, the City of Chicago requires owners and occupants to clear snow and ice from the sidewalks abutting their buildings under sections 4-4-310 and 10-8-180 of the Municipal Code.
Claims against a public body follow a shorter clock and additional immunities that private defendants do not get. Tell us right away if you fell on a transit platform, in a public building, on school grounds, or on park district land. Those cases are still worth pursuing, but they have to be identified early because the filing window closes sooner.
Four things have to line up:
The third element decides most cases. Actual notice means someone knew, and constructive notice means the hazard sat there long enough that reasonable inspection would have caught it. Proof comes from maintenance logs, prior complaints, 311 reports, surveillance timestamps, and employee statements.
Two defenses come up often. Illinois generally does not hold owners liable for injuries from natural accumulations of snow or ice, and defendants may argue a hazard was open and obvious. Neither defense automatically ends a claim, and both turn on facts worth investigating.
Most injury lawsuits must be filed within two years of the date the cause of action accrued under 735 ILCS 5/13-202.
Claims involving government property can have much shorter deadlines. Under 745 ILCS 10/8-101, most personal injury actions against an Illinois local public entity or employee must generally be filed within one year. The CTA is governed by a separate statute, but personal injury actions against the CTA are also generally subject to a one-year limitations period under 70 ILCS 3605/41.
Waiting also costs you evidence. Video gets erased, witnesses move, and conditions get repaired.
You do not have to sort out notice, immunities, and deadlines on your own while you are still treating. Our team at Herbert Rosner Connelly Law Firm will review what happened, explain the options available to you, and take over contact with the insurance company.
We handle these claims on a contingency fee basis, so representation costs you nothing upfront. Speak with a Chicago slip and fall accident lawyer today, and let us start protecting the evidence in your case.
