Premises Liability

Chicago Premises Liability Attorneys

Call Us After an Accident on Someone Else’s Property

If you were injured while visiting someone else’s home, while shopping, or while on property owned by anyone other than yourself, you might be able to file an injury under Illinois premises liability laws. The process of determining if you can take legal action to pursue compensation is complicated, and holding a negligent property owner responsible is challenging. To give yourself the guidance and support that you need to confidently progress your claim or lawsuit, come to Hilliard Law today.

Our Chicago premises liability lawyers have been helping people pursue compensation after premises liability accidents and incidents for more than 40 years. Using the experience and insight we have accrued throughout the decades and in highly contested legal environments, we will be ready to help you pursue every penny owed to you.

Ask about our contingency fee agreements for personal injury clients in Chicago. Call (312) 535-7883 or submit an online contact form now.

What is the Illinois Premises Liability Act?

The Illinois Premises Liability Act is an important piece of legislation that established the bulk of laws and rules regarding premises liability in the state. Overall, it describes how property owners – usually relating to residential and commercial property owners – must maintain their premises in a safe condition, warn visitors of any known hazards, and take reasonable steps to correct any known hazards before someone can be injured by them. If a property owner fails to uphold these expectations and someone is injured, the Act may allow the injured party to file an injury claim against the property owner.

Licensees, Invitees & Trespassers in Illinois Law

Under Illinois premises liability laws, people who are on someone else’s property can be categorized as:

Licensees: Someone who enters another person’s property with permission but without an implied or expressed invitation. A customer in a retail store is a common example of a licensee.
Invitees: Someone who enters another person’s property with an implied or expressed invitation. A plumber making a house call is a common example of an invitee.
Trespasser: Someone who enters another person’s property without permission in any form or who enters with the intent to commit a crime while there. A burglar breaking into a home is a common example of a trespasser.

Were you considered a licensee, invitee, or trespasser when you were injured in a premises liability accident? The answer is important because the property owner will owe you a specific duty of care based on the type of visitor you were. Licensees are owed a significant duty of care, invitees are owed a lessened duty of care, and trespassers are owed a minimal or nearly nonexistent duty of care.

Common Premises Liability Cases

A premises liability case can derive from all sorts of property-related accidents. At Hilliard Law, our Chicago team of attorneys has seen or worked on virtually every kind, so you can know that your case is in good hands when you come to our law firm for legal counsel.

A few of the most common types of premises liability cases include:

Slip/trip-and-fall accidents
Swimming pool accidents
Dog bites
Negligent security issues
Elevator and escalator accidents

Illinois also has an attractive nuisance doctrine that could be relevant to your situation. Under this law, property owners must take reasonable steps to prevent children from entering their property and accessing a hazard that a child might not understand is dangerous. For example, homeowners with pools should lock exterior fences and possibly even install a smaller fence around the pool itself to prevent children from trying to swim unsupervised. If your child was injured on someone else’s property but was there without permission, ask our attorneys if the attractive nuisance law will let you start a premises liability case.

Elements of a Premises Liability Case

If you are injured on someone else’s property, you will understandably want to file an injury claim against them. But will you have the option? The legal grounds to allow a claim are important, and not every premises liability incident will lead to a claim or lawsuit.

Usually, a premises liability claim will be justified if it can be proven that:

A hazardous condition existed on the property, and it presented an unsafe risk.
The property owner (defendant) knew or reasonably should have known about the hazardous condition.
The property owner failed to take reasonable steps to address the hazardous condition before someone was injured by it.
You (the plaintiff) were injured by the hazardous condition and as a result of the property owner’s failure to reasonably address it.

Choose a Winning Law Firm for Your Case

At Hilliard Law, our attorneys are no strangers to complex cases involving premises liability laws and challenges. Throughout our decades of collective practice experience, we have won many newsworthy and groundbreaking premises liability cases for our clients.

To name just a few of our most significant premises liability case results:

Confidential settlement to an oil field worker whose lower leg had to be amputated after it was hit by equipment positioned too close to an access ladder.
Jury verdict for a 90-year-old woman who suffered a crushed hip when caught in a hospital’s sliding door. (This result was the third-highest Texas verdict for premises liability cases in 2011.)
Jury verdict awarding compensation to a prisoner who was stabbed 13 times after the prison’s defective cell door system failed to contain other prisoners.
Jury verdict awarding compensation to a wind farm worker who suffered a head injury and broken bones after falling due to a defective weld.
Record-breaking jury verdict for the widow of a man who died after falling through a roof after his employer asked him to replace a skylight.

Past results cannot guarantee future results, but they can show what our team is capable of when working on difficult cases. If you want to be confident in your choice of legal counsel after a premises liability accident in Chicago, you’ll want to talk to us first.

Get a FREE case review by calling (312) 535-7883 now.

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