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Getting hurt on someone else’s property leaves you with medical bills piling up and a landlord, store, or property manager who suddenly stops returning your calls. Chicagoland property owners are required under Illinois law to use reasonable care in the maintenance of their premises for the safety and security of people who come onto their property.
If you are hurt because of a dangerous or unsafe condition on someone else’s property, whether due to a slip-and-fall, assault, dog bite or animal attack, our team of Chicago premises liability attorneys at D&W Law Group can help you hold that property owner accountable and pursue the compensation your recovery actually requires.
The Illinois Premises Liability Act requires property owners to use reasonable care in maintaining their premises for all persons lawfully on their property. The law no longer makes any distinction between invited guests and persons on the property to conduct business; the same standard applies to all.
Depending upon the circumstances, this duty owed to the public may require property owners to make periodic inspections of their property and fix any known hazards, or warn the public that a danger exists.
The longer the time that a hazard exists without a warning or repair, the more likely it is that the owner did not exercise reasonable care. At D&W Law Group, our experienced Chicago personal injury attorneys use industry experts and gather evidence from eyewitnesses and security camera footage to aid in determining property owner liability when slip/trip-and-falls or other accidents occur.
Notice matters as much as the hazard itself. A property owner who never inspects a stairwell, a loading dock, or a parking garage cannot later claim they had no way of knowing about a defect, because the duty to inspect is part of the reasonable care standard itself. We build our cases around proving what the owner knew, or should have known, and when.
Illinois law generally gives injury victims two years from the date of the injury to file a premises liability lawsuit, under the personal injury statute of limitations. Miss that window and the court can bar the claim entirely, regardless of how strong the evidence is.
That two-year clock changes if the property involved is owned by a government body, and the exact rule depends on which entity is responsible.
If you were hurt in a Chicago Housing Authority building or on a sidewalk maintained by the City of Chicago, the filing deadline shortens to one year under the Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act.
If instead you were hurt on a CTA platform or vehicle, the claim falls under the Metropolitan Transit Authority Act, which sets a one-year deadline and also requires a written notice of your injury within six months.
We treat any claim involving public property as urgent from the first phone call, because the runway to act is short and the notice requirements are unforgiving.
Property owners and their insurers often argue that the injured person was careless too, whether that means not watching where they stepped or ignoring a posted sign. Illinois follows a modified comparative negligence rule: you can still recover damages as long as your own share of fault is 50 percent or less, though your award is reduced by that percentage.
If a jury or insurer decides you were more than half responsible, Illinois law bars recovery entirely. That rule is why insurance adjusters push hard, early, to shift blame onto the injured person, and why the evidence we gather in the days after a fall matters as much as the injury itself.
Chicago premises liability cases often involve hazards unique to the city’s climate, infrastructure and municipal regulations. Snow and ice removal presents one of the most common issues.
Illinois follows the “natural-accumulation rule,” which generally protects property owners from liability when injuries result solely from natural accumulations of snow or ice.
However, liability may arise if an owner creates or worsens a dangerous condition. For example, faulty gutters that refreeze water onto walkways or negligent snow plowing that piles snow in a way that melts and refreezes can create an unnatural accumulation.
Under Chicago’s Municipal Code, property owners and occupants are responsible for clearing snow and ice from the public sidewalks that front their building or lot. Violations of local ordinances may support a claim, particularly when a business ignores repeated complaints about the same stretch of sidewalk.
Building code violations are another source of Chicago claims. Defective stairwells, loose handrails, porch or balcony collapses and improperly maintained elevators can all form the basis of liability. Chicago’s building regulations impose detailed requirements for structural integrity and ongoing maintenance.
Failure to comply with these standards may demonstrate that a property owner did not exercise reasonable care.
The partner advantage matters in complex cases. Lance C. Dale and Scott B. Wolfman, each with over 30 years of experience, personally lead investigations into serious premises liability claims. Lance C. Dale has practiced law in Illinois since 1991, and Scott B. Wolfman since 1993, which means the two founding partners bring more than sixty years of combined Illinois experience to a claim before a single expert is ever retained.
They work with industry experts, review maintenance records and analyze security footage to establish how and why an incident occurred.
If a dangerous property caused your injury, reach out to our team to talk through what happened and what deadline applies to your case.
The duty to maintain a safe premises includes taking reasonable, common sense security measures. These may include something as simple as maintaining adequate lighting in parking garages and stairwells, or higher expense measures such as requiring keyed and gated entry or providing security personnel.
The level of security which is reasonable for a given property may depend upon the nature of the premises, its location and the presence of criminal activity in the area. Property owners can be held liable for assaults, robberies or other harm which was committed in part due to negligent security.
Chicago’s mix of high-rise residential buildings, mixed-use retail corridors, and large parking structures makes negligent security claims common. If a landlord ignored a broken security gate or a business removed its lighting to cut costs and someone was assaulted as a result, that history of neglect becomes central evidence in the claim.
A dog bite or animal attack can be extremely serious; injuries can include facial scarring, broken bones, nerve damage, even death. Psychological injury is a common element to a vicious animal attack as well. Under Illinois law, an animal owner is strictly liable for bites or other injuries inflicted on a person.
Strict liability means the injury victim does not have to prove that the owner was somehow negligent in keeping the dog, and it doesn’t matter if the owner had any reason to believe the animal might be vicious or attack a human.
So long as the victim was lawfully on the premises where the attack occurred and did not provoke the attack, the owner can be held liable for the full extent of damages caused.
This rule comes from the Illinois Animal Control Act, and it applies broadly: an owner, keeper, or anyone who knowingly harbors the animal on their property can be held responsible, not just the person listed on a license. We understand the serious nature of dog bite/attack injuries and work to get you the maximum in compensation that you will need.
Premises liability claims in Chicago tend to cluster around a handful of property types, each with its own patterns of neglect. We see recurring claims from:
Illinois law allows an injured person to recover both economic and non-economic damages in a premises liability claim. Depending on the severity of the injury, that can include:
Attorney Mark Curran III brings a finance degree into how the firm calculates future medical costs and lost earning capacity, which matters most in cases involving long-term injuries where the settlement offer has to account for decades, not months, of impact.
We start every premises liability claim the same way: securing the evidence before it disappears. Security footage gets overwritten, maintenance logs get “lost,” and a hazard gets repaired the moment a property manager hears from a lawyer.
Our attorneys send preservation letters immediately, walk the property when possible, and pull permit and inspection records from the relevant city department.
D&W Law Group is a member of the American Association for Justice and the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, and the firm holds an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.
We also serve clients in English and Spanish, which matters in a city where so many premises liability victims, from tenants to store employees to visitors, communicate more comfortably in a language other than English.
Case results depend on the facts of each claim, but our past premises liability work shows what is possible when the evidence is gathered early and the case is prepared for trial.
| Outcome | Case Type |
|---|---|
| $1.8 million | Premises liability, customer struck by a malfunctioning automatic door, resulting in a fractured hip |
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Most premises liability lawsuits arising in the city of Chicago are filed at the Richard J. Daley Center, located at 50 West Washington Street, Chicago, Illinois 60602.
Cook County’s Circuit Court splits civil filings by dollar amount: the Law Division at the Daley Center hears cases seeking more than $30,000, while smaller claims go to the Civil Division in the same building.
If your injury happened in a suburban Cook County municipality, your case may instead be filed at one of the county’s suburban district courthouses in Skokie, Rolling Meadows, Maywood, Bridgeview, or Markham, depending on where the property is located.
Here are some of the questions we hear from individuals throughout Chicago about premises liability claims.
Under Illinois law, property owners are generally not responsible for injuries caused by natural snow or ice. However, if the owner created an unnatural accumulation through negligent snow removal, defective drainage or similar conduct, liability may attach. Each case requires careful factual analysis.
Most premises liability claims in Illinois must be filed within two years from the date of injury.
If the property is owned by the city or another local government body, that deadline shortens to one year, and if the claim is against the CTA it carries a one-year deadline plus a written notice of injury due within six months, so it is worth speaking with a lawyer as soon as possible after the fall.
A warning sign may demonstrate that the owner recognized a hazard, but it does not automatically prevent liability. If the condition was hidden, inadequately addressed or allowed to persist for an unreasonable period, a claim may still be viable.
Being partly at fault does not automatically end your claim. Illinois allows recovery as long as your share of fault is 50 percent or less, with your award reduced by that percentage. Anything above that threshold bars recovery entirely, which is why disputing an inflated fault percentage matters.
Yes. Claims against city-owned property in Chicago generally follow a shortened, one-year filing deadline instead of the standard two years. A claim against the CTA also runs on a one-year deadline, but it adds a written notice of injury that must be filed within six months. Treat these claims as time-sensitive from day one.
Cases arising from an injury in the city of Chicago are generally filed at the Richard J. Daley Center at 50 West Washington Street. If the property is located in suburban Cook County, the case may be filed at one of the county’s suburban district courthouses instead, depending on where the injury occurred.
It depends on who had control over the condition that caused your injury. If a contractor created the hazard, for example by leaving a work area unmarked, that contractor may share liability alongside the property owner. Each case turns on who had control and notice of the dangerous condition.
No. Consultations are free, and the firm does not collect a fee unless it recovers compensation for you.
Yes. Our team serves clients in English and Spanish, so language should never be a barrier to getting your case reviewed.
If you or a loved one was hurt because a property owner failed to keep their premises safe, the clock on your claim may already be running, and it runs faster if a government entity is involved. Contact D&W Law Group today for a free consultation.
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