Personal Injury Law

Illinois Slip and Fall Lawsuits Filed Over Personal Injuries from Snow and Ice Accumulation

The wintertime brings another Illinois slip and fall hazard to premises: the accumulation of snow and ice on the ground. Serious injuries can result from slipping and falling on ice or melted snow, which is why property owners must attempt to clear potentially hazardous patches as soon as possible. In Illinois, the ice or snow cited in a slip and fall accident must have been a result of unnatural accumulation for a property owner to be held liable.

Recently, Lori A. Wallace filed an Illinois slip and fall lawsuit seeking damages from the owners of a building in Godfrey. Wallace says she was visiting friends when she fell on an unnatural accumulation of ice on a driveway that was from a broken sewer line. She contends that the premise owners, Glori McGaughey and David McGaughey, not only failed to remove the ice, but also they neglected to warn that it was there. Wallace is also suing the village of Godfrey for failing to repair the sewer line. She is seeking over $100,000 plus costs and other relief. Wallace says she lost income, incurred medical costs, suffered disfigurement and disability, experienced pain and suffering, and was made sick, lame, sore, and disordered.

Meantime, Marilyn Gilmer is also seeking compensatory damages for her Illinois slip and fall injuries that she says she sustained in Fairview Heights in 2009. She says the black ice that she fell on had accumulated in front of a building?s entrance.

At the time of the Illinois slip and fall accident, Gilmer was visiting defendant National Vision. She claims that slipping on the black ice, which had accumulated after melting from the building?s roof and then froze up again during the night, caused her to suffer permanent and significant injuries.

Gilmer is accusing National Vision and building owners Bluma and Phillip Hirsch and America's Best Contacts for failing to use salt to melt the ice, not correcting a design flaw that allows the snow from the roof to melt onto the floor in front of the building entrance, and failing to get rid of the black ice that was an unnatural accumulation.

Proving that the snow or ice that caused your Chicago slip and fall accident can be tough, which is why you must work with a premises liability law firm that knows how to handle this type of injury case.

Godfrey business owner sued over ice accumulation, The Record, February 17, 2011

Refrozen melted snow turned to black ice and slip and fall, The Record, February 15, 2011

Related Web Resource:
Slip and Fall, Nolo

More Chicago Injury Attorney Blog Posts:
Chicago Slip and Fall: Woman Settles Cook County Injury Lawsuit with Brookfield Zoo, Chicago Injury Attorney Blog, November 2, 2010

Target is Sued for Illinois Slip and Fall, Chicago Injury Attorney Blog, July 6, 2010

Shopper Files Illinois Slip and Fall Lawsuit Against Schnuck Markets, Chicago Injury Attorney Blog, June 11, 2011

Full post as published by Chicago Injury Attorney Blog on February 21, 2011 (boomark / email).