Slip, Trip and Fall Injuries in Illinois

Illinois does not divide lawful visitors into invitees and licensees: the Premises Liability Act abolished that common-law distinction, and the duty owed to people lawfully on the property is reasonable care under the circumstances. The official pattern instruction tells juries that an owner or occupier must exercise ordinary care to see that the property is reasonably safe for those lawfully on it, and the instruction's comment notes the owner must have actual or constructive notice of the dangerous condition and generally has no duty to warn of open and obvious conditions (subject to the 'distraction' and 'deliberate encounter' exceptions). Toward an adult trespasser, the duty is to refrain from willful and wanton conduct, plus a duty to warn of a known deadly condition the trespasser would not discover when the owner knew or should have anticipated the trespasser's presence.

Illinois follows the 'natural accumulation' rule: the official pattern jury instruction commentary states that for accumulations of snow and ice, an owner generally is not liable for resulting injuries, but a limited exception can impose liability if the owner aggravated the condition or acted in a way that turned a natural condition into an unnatural one (for example, ruts in an ice-covered sidewalk where the defendant directed all traffic onto that path).

In Illinois, a city, county or other local public entity must use ordinary care to keep its property, which can include sidewalks, reasonably safe for people it intended and permitted to use it. It is liable for an unsafe condition only if it had actual or constructive notice of the condition in time to fix it or guard against it. It does not have constructive notice if a reasonably adequate inspection system would not have found the condition, or if it ran such a system with due care and did not find it.

A lawsuit for an injury against a local public entity (such as a city or county) or its employees must be filed within one year from the date of the injury or when the cause of action accrued. Claims arising out of patient care have a 2-year limit (and no more than 4 years after the event). A local public entity does not have to pay punitive damages.

Modified comparative fault (51% bar). In negligence and strict product liability cases for bodily injury, death or property damage, a plaintiff whose fault is more than 50% of the cause recovers nothing. A plaintiff whose fault is 50% or less recovers damages reduced by his or her share of fault. No fault may be attributed to a plaintiff suing over childhood sexual abuse.

A lawsuit for injury to the person (and for false imprisonment or malicious prosecution) must be filed within 2 years after the cause of action accrued. Claims for damages from first degree murder or a Class X felony, where the perpetrator is convicted, are excluded from this limit.