A Chicago Premises Liability Attorney Will Help With Your Claim So You Can Focus On Recovery

When people in Chicago are injured due to their encounter with unsafe conditions on someone else’s property, they may have a premises liability claim against that business. For example, if you slip and fall on spilled oil on the floor of a business, you may have a premises claim for the injuries you sustained.

Premises liability claims are a type of personal injury claim that people may assert against a property owner or property manager if they are injured in some way by a dangerous condition on the property owner/manager’s property.

If you have been injured while on someone else’s property, contact a Chicago premises liability attorney from Cameron and Kane LLC for an examination of your claim and your chances of recovering from your injuries.

How Do I Establish a Premises Liability Claim in Chicago?

To establish a premises liability claim in Chicago, you must prove the following four elements:

  1. The property owner or manager owed you a duty of care,
  2. The property owner or manager breached that duty of care owed to you,
  3. This breach caused you to suffer injuries, and
  4.  You did indeed suffer injuries.

Duty of Care 

Property owners owe varying duties to visitors on their land, depending on the visitors’ classifications. Visitors are typically classified as follows: invitees, licensees, and trespassers, but is a bit different in Illinois. 

  • Invitees And Licensees. Invitees are people who enter onto another’s property for some legitimate business purpose, e.g., customers. Licensees are people who enter onto another’s property with permission for a social purpose, such as guests at a social function, who are on the premises to attend events like parties or social gatherings. Traditionally, premises liability law distinguished these two groups and required separate duties for property owners for them. However, Illinois has removed the distinction between them; in other words, property owners owe the same duty of care to both invitees and licensees.

Under Illinois Compiled Statutes Section 740 ILCS 130/2, the duty of care for invitees and licensees is one of “reasonable care under the circumstances regarding the state of the premises or acts done or omitted on them.”

  • Trespassers. Trespassers, on the other hand, are those that enter another person’s property without permission. Because they lack permission to be on the premises, trespassers are owed the lowest duty of care, requiring property owners to merely exercise reasonable care to prevent reckless or intentional injury to trespassers when they are on the property.

Further muddying the waters is Illinois’ recognition of the Attractive Nuisance Doctrine. This doctrine refers to unenclosed objects or spaces on the dangerous property and naturally attractive to trespassing children, such as swimming pools, ponds, hot tubs, and even haylofts or power tools and machinery. If the property owner does not maintain the items or area in question and a trespassing child is injured, the property owner can be found liable.

The law analyzes several factors to determine if the object, area, or another item in question meets the definition of an attractive nuisance. There may also be issues of awareness and the type of duty owed. 

Breach of Duty

Breach of duty simply means the property owner breached or failed to perform the appropriate duty as described above.

Causation

Showing the breach of duty actually caused the injuries to the plaintiff; for example, showing you slipped on spilled oil, causing you to fall and break your wrist, which is again fairly simple to understand but can be challenging to prove.

Damages

Finally, a plaintiff has to establish their injury (e.g., broken wrist) has caused them damages, whether past or future medical damages, loss of a normal life, pain and suffering or psychological damages.

Let A Chicago Premises Liability Attorney From Cameron and Kane LLC Help You 

Premise liability claims are difficult to prove, and your insurance company will almost certainly try to talk you into an undervalued settlement amount. However, a Chicago premises liability attorney from Cameron and Kane LLC is experienced with premises liability claims and will look out for you and your claim, so you receive the maximum financial compensation. Contact us today for your free consultation.