When you enter a mall, grocery store, restaurant, or other public entity, you are most often owed a legal duty of care. This responsibility means that the building owner is legally bound to take reasonable precautions to ensure the safety of everyone entering the premises.
An owner of the property may deviate from this standard of care when they fail to clean puddles and other slippery surfaces. When a person slips on this surface, they may have a negligence claim against the property owner.
To recover compensation in a slip and fall case in Illinois civil court, you need to show how defendants breached a legal duty they owed you and how that caused your injuries and damages.
Simply put, as the injured party you have the burden of proving that the property owner caused the danger or knew that the dangerous condition existed that was responsible for your slip and fall accident. This page will discuss how to prove a slip and fall case.
If you or a loved one sustained slip and fall injuries, our personal injury attorneys at Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers, LLC can assist you in a premises liability case. Contact our slip and fall accident lawyer today for a free consultation at (888) 424-5757 or by using the contact form to schedule an appointment.
Legal Duty Owed to Invitees, Licensees, and Trespassers
Slip and fall cases often hinge on whether a visitor falls under the legal definition of an invitee, licensee, or trespasser. There is no difference in the standard of care owed to licensees and invitees in Illinois. However, a distinction still exists in the standard of care owed to trespassers in Illinois.
Invitees include customers and their children, spectators, job applicants, firefighters, police officers, and independent contractors. These individuals enter the property for the economic benefit of the owner.
Licensees include social guests and those who come to the property for their benefit, not the owner’s interest.
Trespassers are those who enter onto land, even mistakenly, without the express permission or invitation of the owner.
Attorneys from our legal team can assist you with legal counsel regarding your slip and fall accident case and pursue financial recovery on your behalf.
Duties Of a Property Owner
Most customers in grocery stores, restaurants, malls, and other public places are considered invitees. A property owner owes invitees the duty of reasonable care to protect them from an unreasonable risk of harm or a dangerous situation while visiting someone else’s property.
Property owners also have a duty to –
- Inspect the property for any potential danger or unsafe condition
- Ensure that the property is safe in such a manner that an otherwise reasonable person would be able to notice a dangerous condition
Our law firm can review why the fall occurred and what duties the property owners owed you. Contact our law firm for a free consultation about slip and fall accidents.
Illinois Premises Liability Act
Illinois’ Premises Liability Act further details the legal duty that an owner of the property owes to licensees and invitees. The property owner may be liable for slippery surfaces and other dangerous conditions on land if they:
- Knew or should have known of the hazardous condition on the land
- Should have realized the condition posed an unreasonable risk of harm to invitees
- Expected that an invitee would not discover the hazard
- Failed to exercise reasonable care to protect invitees from the condition
An example is a grocery store customer who knocks over a bottle of soda or other liquid onto the floor. The grocery store owner has a legal duty to clean up that liquid. In failing to do so, the property owner can be held liable for the customer’s slip and fall accident.
Our lawyers can hold the responsible party liable for injuries sustained and recover damages in a personal injury lawsuit on your behalf.
What A Fall Lawyer from Our Law Office Can Do For You
If you have been injured in a slip-and-fall case, Illinois slip-and-fall accident attorneys at Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers, LLC are here to help you navigate the legal process and negotiate with the insurance company.
The first thing after your slip and fall accident is usually the accident report that the business owner might insist you complete. Before signing any statement or relaying the events, speak to a personal injury lawyer from our office. All shared information is protected under the attorney-client relationship.
Illinois slip and fall accident lawyers will take time to carefully assess the facts of your slip and fall claim to see whether it is valid and legal. We will investigate the dangerous condition that led to your slip and fall accident and examine how the fall accident occurred.
Should the fall case be viable, we will file a slip and fall claim and sue the property owner that harmed you for compensation for your loss and damages.
Speak to a personal injury lawyer today about a slip and fall suit after you suffer injuries.
What Financial Compensation Can You Receive in A Slip and Fall Claim?
A personal injury case might be viable if a property owner or staff’s negligence led to the dangerous condition where the fall occurred. Questions that could influence compensation are –
- Did the accident happen through negligence or ignorance?
- Did the property owner know about the dangerous condition?
- Did the property owner cause the hazardous condition?
- Were there warning signs?
- Did the victim ignore the warning signs?
Another factor influencing compensation is your injuries. The compensation depends upon how you were injured and involves the following categories of damages:
- Medical bills
- Lost income
- Pain and suffering
- Disability
- Lost quality of life
A fall attorney from our firm can help injured victims with serious injuries when proving negligence in a slip and fall case or other personal injury cases.
How Long Do I Have to Bring A Slip and Fall Claim Against A Property Owner?
In Illinois, you typically have two years from the date of an accident to file a case per 735 ILCS 5/13-202. This time period usually is only extended for situations involving children, fraud, and latent injuries.
Some of the challenges that need to be addressed before pursuing a slip and fall case –
- Seek medical attention and ensure that you keep a record of your injuries and expenses, loss of income, and other damages
- Investigate if the defendant failed to act as a reasonably prudent person would have acted under the circumstances resulting in the slip and fall accident
- Obtain legal representation to prove negligence and obtain maximum compensation under the law
A slip and fall claim could render a fair settlement for medical bills paid and lost wages if you sustained injuries. Our law firm has won many fall cases and can discuss a fall injury claim or a related fall injury case with you.
Cases Involving Slips and Falls
$1,225,000 Award:
A pastor in his late sixties was out walking his dog at night when he slipped on some ice on a neighbor’s driveway and seriously injured his head. He sustained a traumatic brain injury and a subdural hematoma that required cranioplasties and craniectomies.
The pastor sued the neighbor. He alleged the water was an unnatural accumulation from a downspout that turned into black ice. The defendant claimed the pastor was drunk or, in the alternative, that the ice was a natural accumulation, open and obvious. The matter was settled to end the litigation.
Settlement – $1,225,000 for economic damages (medical expenses) and non-economic damages (pain and suffering).
$400,000 Award:
A construction worker worked at a Jewel grocery location when he slipped on ice and fell to the ground. He was fifty-five and suffered spinal damage at L4 and L5.
His economic and non-economic damages were:
- $100,000 – Medical expenses, pain, and suffering
- $100,000 – Loss of income
Settlement: $400,000
$110,000 Award:
A condominium owner brought this injury claim against a condominium association. She was just forty-six at the time of the accident. The woman slipped on some ice in the parking lot and aggravated a prior lower back injury at the L5-S1 spot on her spine.
While leaving snow unattended might not ordinarily incur liability in Illinois for slip and fall accidents, the association was supposed to clear it per its bylaws.
Her economic and non-economic damages were:
- $50,000 – Surgery and other medical treatment
- Loss of income
Settlement – $110,000
$325,000 Award:
A man in his early sixties tripped down a flight of stairs at a local Chicago-area theater. He ruptured a tendon in his quadriceps resulting in a disability with partial loss of a leg.
He sued the theater and claimed the property owner failed to ensure the premises were safe for invitees, maintaining that handrails and anti-slip tape should have been installed.
His economic and non-economic damages were:
- $40,000 – Surgery and other medical treatment
- $100,000 – Loss of income
Settlement – $325,000
If a property owner failed in their duty and neglected to warn invitees or licensees of potential danger with signs and other safety measures, they are liable for damages.
If you have suffered damages, contact our attorneys to discuss each legal concept of a slip and fall claim and how you can obtain financial compensation.
Talk To a Slip-And-Fall Accident Lawyer
Talk to Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers, LLC about a slip-and-fall lawsuit today. We have recovered more than $250 million for our clients. Let us use the latest technology and expert witness testimony to prove your case.
We can gather evidence; examine incident reports and witness testimony; investigate how the defendant acted; look for dangerous area indicators; check medical records, and scrutinize other negligent behavior.
Call us today for a free consultation at (888) 424-5757 or schedule an appointment by using the contact form.
Contingency Fee Agreement
Our injury attorneys accept all injury claims and fall cases on a contingency fee agreement. This arrangement immediately ensures our clients have legal representation without paying any upfront out-of-pocket expenses.
Our law firm advances all expenses in resolving a claim and gets paid only when negotiating a settlement or winning a jury trial award. Our “No-Win/No-Fee” Guarantee is simple: We do not get paid if you do not win!
