Premises Liability Attorneys

A property owner is liable for physical harm caused to their guests by a condition of their property if they:

• Know, or should know, of unsafe conditions that present unreasonable risk of harm to guests;
• Should expect that guests will not discover or realize the danger on their own; and
• Fail to exercise reasonable care to protect guests from that danger.

Under Illinois law, the Restatement (Second) of Torts provides a few exceptions, including the Distraction Exception and Deliberate Encounter.

Distraction Exception

A possessor of land is not liable for physical harm caused to invitees by any activity or condition on the land whose danger is known or obvious to others, unless the property owner should anticipate harm despite the obviousness of the potential for harm.

Deliberate Encounter

If the invitee is entitled to make use of public land in which there is a known or obvious danger, it stands to reason that the property owner should anticipate the potential for harm.

Generally speaking, a property owner does not have a duty of safety for anyone unlawfully entering property without permission. However, any intentional harm to a trespasser or disregard for their safety could warrant a claim in premises liability law.

Several factors come into play in determining liability, including whether the owner knew the trespasser was onsite or had advanced notice that it would be a possibility. For example, if a property owner knows that people commonly take a shortcut through their property, they could owe a trespasser a duty of reasonable care.

For more information on the duty of care for trespassers, refer to the State of Illinois’ Jury Instructions for premises liability claims.

The Illinois Civil Pattern Jury Instructions for premises liability establish different levels of duty of care for property owners and licensees, invitees, and trespassers.

Respective duties of care are as follows, in descending order:

• Absolute liability for hazardous or inherently dangerous activity;
• Highest degree of care (applies to common carriers);
• Ordinary care for the safety of any persons lawfully on the property; and
• Refraining from willful and wanton conduct to injure trespassers.

The State of Illinois’ Premises Liability Act and the Civil Justice Reform Amendments of 1995 attempted to place a $500,000 cap on compensatory damages for noneconomic injuries. The Supreme Court of Illinois, however, declared this limit as unconstitutional as a whole in its decision in Best v. Taylor Machine Works, 179 Ill. 2d 267, 689 N.E.2d 1057 (1997).

There is currently no cap on compensatory damages for noneconomic injuries.

In the State of Illinois, a premises liability claim must be filed within two years of the incident.