Chicago Slip-and-Fall Accident Attorney

In most cases, the cost of your medical treatment, lost wages, out-of-pocket expenses, and pain and suffering will be covered by the building owner's insurance policy, so you should not feel any hesitation to demand compensation when you've been injured on someone else's property.

Illinois law also allows fall victims to sue for their economic and non-economic harms. Normally, non-economic damages double or triple a plaintiff’s out-of-pocket bills. This rule of thumb helps claimants predict their own recovery. Of course, a more precise estimate can be calculated with an attorney who has experience litigating slip and fall injury cases.

Responsibility in trip and fall accidents is determined by negligence standards. Any unreasonable conduct that contributes to the plaintiff’s fall may be blamed for the incident. That means the victim can sue that party in court for all their damages. The list below summarizes some common defendants in Illinois slip and fall accidents.

• Premise Owners. Property owners, commercial and private, have certain duties to keep their land safe. If other people slip and fall on their premises, they can be sued if the action or inaction was unreasonable for the circumstances.
• Maintenance Companies: When maintenance companies are hired to clean or maintain a business or office and fail to do so, they can be held accountable for the injuries an individual sustains.
• Architects & Builders: If an architect or builder does not follow an applicable building code or negligently following a building standard and a person is injured as a result, they may be held accountable in court.
• Cities. Cities have a duty to keep some areas safe. They need to make sure people do not slip on roads, sidewalks, and other places. If people do fall, then a lawsuit might be brought against that municipality.
• Third Parties. If a third party causes a victim to fall, then that person might be sued in court. The action or inaction needs to be unreasonable. Examples of acts that warrant a lawsuit include shoves or trips.

Other things factor into responsibility for slip and fall cases. This answers the basic issue of who and when people can be sued for this accident.

Plaintiffs need to prove four things to win a slip-and-fall case in Illinois.

First, the defendant owed the plaintiff a duty. This can be as simple as noting the landowner needed to keep the area safe.

Second, the defendant breached the duty. This can be established by demonstrating the property owner was aware of the defective condition, yet failed to take corrective action.

Third and fourth, the breach caused the plaintiff’s damages. In other words, plaintiffs need to connect the dots of how the defendant’s unreasonable conduct contributed to the plaintiff’s harms. Yes, plaintiffs must actually assert and prove damages. Damages in slip and fall cases are the injuries the plaintiff or injured party sustained due to the fall. This includes all medical expenses, lost wages and pain related to the injury.

You have two years to file a lawsuit in Illinois after a slip and fall accident. 735 ILCS 5/13-212. If victims do not notice their injuries, courts might award them more time to file. However, since these incidents are so traumatic and obvious, plaintiffs find it difficult to seek and obtain additional time. Therefore, one must assume that a case must be brought two years from the day of the accident. Consult with a Chicago slip and fall accident attorney to determine the statute of limitations in your situation.

Cases for Chicago slip and fall accidents are worth as much as the victim suffered. Plaintiffs can seek compensation for all of their damages. There is no cap. Normally, the most obvious loss is economic. Out-of-pocket costs like medical bills and lost wages are incredibly common in slip accidents. Yet, a larger form of recovery is intangible damages. This includes pain, suffering, disability, and any other kind of non-economic harm the victim sustained. These can fetch as much as two- or three-times economic damages total. Wrongful death or punitive damages might be possible if the conduct was outrageous or ended in death. Yet, these rarely arise in slip and fall cases. Slip and fall cases are worth as much as the victim shows how he or she suffered from the event.

• $166,200: Woman who fractured her arm while exiting a favorite restaurant when she tripped over a tangled doormat.
• $300,000: Settlement to a carpenter who injured his back and hip in a construction site fall over scattered construction debris.
• $85,000: Woman who fractured her foot in a slip and fall on ice that had unnaturally accumulated in front of a busy store.
• $2,100,000: Settlement realized during a mediation session for a woman who fractured her leg and hip in a parking lot fall.