Slip And Fall Lawyers – Rockford, Illinois and Surrounding Areas
Experienced Slip and Fall Lawyers, Rockford, Illinois
Also called premises liability claims
Have you been injured due to property neglect?
If you or a loved one has been injured on someone else’s property – a business, at a bar, a restaurant, a store, or at someone’s home – there may be a way for you to recover from your injuries. For further questions about a Premises Liability, slip, and fall, or trip and fall injuries, contact The Rockford Personal Injury Lawyers. Experience – Honest – Reliable
Common Types of Premise Liability
The most common type of premise liability cases are “slip and fall” cases. There is a misconception among the general public about these types of claims; this belief is that if you walk onto somebody’s property, fall down, and get injured, that you automatically have a personal injury claim. It’s not that simple. Popular culture makes light of “faked” injuries where people pretend to slip or exaggerate the extent of their injuries.
We’ve represented countless victims who have walked into areas not marked as having a wet floor or have had other dangerous conditions on the property. Injuries from a slip and fall can vary from relatively minor aches and pains all the way to broken bones, head injuries, and other significant injuries. These cases are not a laughing matter, and people often can have life changing injuries from something as simple as an unexpected fall.
When Slip and Fall Injuries Can Be Avoided
Generally speaking, for liability against a business or property owner, the owner must have done something wrong, or something negligent which led to your injury. Typically, this means that that the property owner either did something to create a dangerous condition, failed to warn about the dangerous condition, or failed to take steps to get rid of the dangerous condition on the property.
Determining Premises Liability Responsibility
In determining a property owner’s level of responsibility, the law concentrates on whether the owner makes an effort to keep the property safe and clean. Here are some initial questions you can ask to determine whether a property or business owner may be liable for your slip-and-fall or trip-and-fall injuries:
- If you tripped over a torn, broken, or bulging area of carpet, floor, or ground, or slipped on a wet or loose area, had the dangerous spot been there long enough that the owner should have known about it?
- Does the property owner have a regular procedure for examining and cleaning or repairing the premises? If so, what proof does the owner have of this regular maintenance?
- If you tripped over or slipped on an object that someone had placed or left on the floor or ground, was there a legitimate reason for the object to be there?
- If there had once been a good reason for the object to be there, but that the reason no longer exists, could the object have been removed, covered or otherwise been made safe?
- Was there a safer place where the object could have been located, or could it have been placed in a safer manner, without much greater inconvenience or expense to the property owner or operator?
- Could a simple barrier have been created or a warning been given to prevent people from slipping or tripping?
- Did poor or broken lighting contribute to the accident?
- Did an employee injure you or a loved one?
- Was there a previous issue on that premises that resulted in someone else being injured that was not fixed or properly corrected?
Fall and Injury Liability
Liability is generally an issue with slip-and-fall or trip-and-fall cases, as the insurance company almost always tries to find some nuance to dispute the claim.
Documentation is extremely important, and having photographs, video footage, witnesses at the scene, or documented correspondence that demonstrates prior knowledge of a dangerous condition by a business or property owner can greatly strengthen a claimant’s position. Not all injuries result in a viable personal injury claim.
An experienced attorney can give you an unbiased opinion on whether your claim is worth pursuing, and, if so, how to properly document and preserve crucial evidence.
Common Types of Premises Liability Claims
When someone has suffered an injury on someone else’s property, they may be able to file a lawsuit in order to obtain compensation for lost earnings, medical bills, permanent physical disabilities, disfigurements, and pain and emotional distress caused by the accident. The following are examples of common types of premise liability cases in Illinois:
- Slip and fall accidents on wet floors, staircases, escalators, etc.
- Attacks by dogs or other animals
- Exposure to hazardous or toxic substances like lead, mold, asbestos, or unsanitary conditions
- Drowning
- Burns
- Foreign materials/objects served in food
- Structures that have been neglected or improperly maintained
- Catastrophic accidents involving machinery, heavy equipment, farm equipment, agricultural equipment, or large vehicles that could seriously hurt or kill someone
- Workplace accidents – if machinery or structure collapses, grain elevator accidents, heavy equipment causing an injury, explosions, or other dangers
Illinois Statute Of Limitation for Premise Liability Cases
Or the amount of time you have to file a claim from an accident that caused you an injury.
Illinois sets a time limit of two years to file a premise liability lawsuit in the state’s civil court system. In most cases, this two-year time limit, known as a “statute of limitations,” begins to run on the date of the accident. Sometimes, however, a statute of limitations might run from the date that you discovered you were injured, rather than the date of the event that injured you. This later date is known as a “discovery date.”
For injury claims against a city or county, you have one year to file a lawsuit. The time limit to sue the state is generally two years, but you must file a formal claim within one year in order to sue.
A qualified personal injury attorney can help guide you through this difficult time and alleviate some of the stress you may be dealing with based on your premises liability case.
It’s very important to define and get professional help regarding the timing of your injury. Our office has the experience to help – Call Us Today to Speak to an Attorney – (815) 964-8303
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Email us at contact@rockfordpersonalinjuryattorney.com
We want to talk about your premises liability case. We service cases in Rockford, Belvidere, Freeport, Rochelle, Oregon, Loves Park, Byron, Machesney Park, Roscoe, Rockton, or elsewhere in the State of Illinois. We offer in-office consultations, and routinely make visits to clients’ homes, hospital rooms, nursing homes, and other off-site locations to make retaining our services as easy as possible.