What Sets Illinois Personal Injury Law Apart?

Personal injury laws can vary dramatically from state to state. Some states have shorter statutes of limitation for injury victims to file claims or have caps on maximum rewards an injury victim can win. Illinois laws tend to fall more in favor of the personal injury victim rather than the negligent party.

• Illinois personal injury law requires personal injury victims to file a claim within two years of their injury. In some situations, however, the time limit may be extended – specifically if you didn’t discover you were injured by someone else’s negligence until later. This type of situation can occur in some medical malpractice or product liability cases, where a doctor’s mistake or the injury caused by prolonged use of a product isn’t discovered until well after the initial injury began to be inflicted. In those situations, personal injury claimants have two years after the discovery date, rather than the injury date itself, however the claim must be brought no later than 4 years after the alleged injury actually occurred.
• The other Illinois rule pertaining to time limits is specifically targeted at injury claims relating to negligent actions by municipalities and their employees. If you were injured by a city or county worker while they were on duty and performing their designated functions, you have only one year to file a lawsuit. If a state worker caused the injury, you have the full two years to file suit.
• In a modified comparative fault state such as Illinois, you can only collect the percentage of the final verdict for which you were not at fault. If you were found to be 20 percent at fault for your injuries, you will only be awarded 80 percent of the final verdict judgement. If you were injured by a driver running a red light but you were making an illegal turn at the time, you may be considered partly at fault for the accident. In that example, if the judgement were $25,000 you would only receive $20,000. It’s important to understand that if you are found to be 50 percent or more at fault for an injury, you cannot collect any compensation from the other negligent party.
• Illinois requires all drivers to carry $25,000 per person/$50,000 per accident in bodily injury insurance to cover injury victims, however it is possible to purchase policies which carry higher limits. Additionally, all insurance policies must also include at least $25,000 per person/$50,000 per accident in uninsured motorist bodily injury insurance coverage.
• Dog bite laws in Illinois favor dog attack victims. In one bite states, dog owners can’t be held liable for injuries their pet causes if they can prove that the dog never had a previous history of aggressive or worrisome behavior that would lead them to suspect the dog was potentially dangerous. In a strict liability dog bite state, like Illinois, dog owners can be held liable the first time their dog bites someone.
• Unlike some states that cap damages for personal injuries caused by medical malpractice, Illinois has no such laws. There was a time when Illinois had a cap on medical malpractice damages, but that cap was struck down by the state’s Supreme Court in 2010.