By the time you get home from the ER, the store has already mopped the floor, tossed the "wet floor" sign back in the closet, and started telling itself the spill was never there. Slip-and-fall cases are won or lost in the first few days, because the evidence — the hazard itself — usually disappears almost immediately. That's the part nobody warns you about.
I'm Scott DeSalvo. For almost 30 years I've handled premises cases across DuPage County, and I can tell you the single biggest reason people lose them: they wait, the proof vanishes, and it becomes their word against a property owner who's had time to clean up and lawyer up. If you fell in a store, a parking lot, or a stairwell in Glendale Heights, here's how these cases really work — and the consult is free.
Here's the truth most people don't know: in Illinois, a property owner isn't automatically responsible just because you got hurt on their property. You have to show they knew, or reasonably should have known, about the dangerous condition and failed to fix it or warn you. Lawyers call that "notice," and it's the heart of every slip-and-fall case.
That's why timing is everything. Was the spill there long enough that a reasonable employee should have caught it? Is there a pattern of the same hazard? Did a surveillance camera catch how long it sat? The answers live in evidence that gets overwritten, discarded, or "lost" fast. Move quickly and that proof still exists. Wait, and it's the owner's word against yours.
If you slipped on ice in a Glendale Heights parking lot, you may have just run into one of Illinois's strangest rules — and it cuts both ways.
Under Illinois's "natural accumulation" doctrine, a property owner generally is NOT liable for a fall on snow or ice that accumulated naturally. Snow fell, it got slick, you fell — by itself, that's often not a case. BUT if the owner created an UNnatural accumulation — plowed snow into a pile that melted and refroze across the walkway, left a downspout draining onto the sidewalk, or made the natural condition worse — now you may well have a claim.
Most people assume any icy fall is automatically the owner's fault. It isn't. The whole case can turn on whether that ice was natural or man-made, which is exactly the kind of distinction a property insurer will use to deny you if you don't know to fight on it.
It's not always the obvious party. Depending on where you fell, liability might rest with the store or restaurant that occupied the space, the company that owned the building, a separate property-management firm, a janitorial contractor hired to keep the floors safe, or a snow-removal company that did a sloppy job. In a strip mall along North Avenue or Bloomingdale Road, all of those can be different companies with different insurers — and each will happily point at the others.
Picture this: you fall on a slick patch just inside a shop entrance where snowmelt kept getting tracked in and no mat was down. The store blames the landlord's leaky vestibule, the landlord blames the store's housekeeping, and both blame you for "not watching where you were going." Sorting out who's really on the hook — and making sure someone is — is the work.
Look, the premises insurer has two favorite moves and they run them on nearly every case. First: blame you. In Illinois, if they can pin more than 50% of the fault on you for not paying attention, you recover nothing — so they'll argue the hazard was "open and obvious" and you should have avoided it. Second: minimize the injury. They'll dig for any prior back or knee complaint in your history and claim your fall changed nothing.
What most lawyers won't tell you is that these cases are harder than car cases, precisely because of that "open and obvious" defense and the notice requirement. That's not a reason to walk away from a real injury — it's a reason to have someone who knows how to get past those defenses.
A property owner's insurance company knows which lawyers investigate a fall the day it happens — securing the surveillance footage before it's erased, photographing the hazard, identifying every responsible company — and which ones send a demand letter and hope. The prepared ones get taken seriously and get real offers. That preparation, backed by almost 30 years of trial training at Gerry Spence's Trial Lawyers College and the Keenan Trial Institute, is what moves a premises case toward a fair settlement instead of a denial.
A serious fall — a broken hip, a torn rotator cuff, a head injury, a shattered wrist — can mean surgery, months of physical therapy, and time you can't work. Illinois law lets you pursue your medical bills past and future, your lost income and reduced earning ability, your physical pain, and the loss of your normal day-to-day life. Older adults in particular can suffer life-changing consequences from a single fall, and the law takes that seriously.
Bottom Line: "I just slipped" often turns into the most disruptive injury of someone's life — treat it, document it, and don't let an insurer wave it off.
Generally two years from the date of your fall for a claim against a private property owner. But if you fell on public or government property — a village sidewalk, a park district lot, a public building — special notice rules and much shorter deadlines can apply, sometimes as little as a year with a formal notice requirement. Because those government deadlines are easy to miss, call as soon as you can so we don't lose the claim on a technicality.
Maybe — it depends on whether the ice was "natural" or "unnatural." Illinois generally doesn't hold owners liable for ice that accumulated naturally from the weather. But if the owner created the problem — piling plowed snow that refroze, a gutter draining onto a walkway, or defective pavement that trapped water — you may have a strong claim. The distinction is technical, and it's exactly what the insurer will use against you, so it's worth having someone who knows how to prove an unnatural accumulation.
Not necessarily. Illinois uses modified comparative negligence, so even if you were partly at fault, you can still recover as long as you weren't more than 50% responsible — your compensation is just reduced by your share. The owner's insurer will always try to push that number over the line with the "open and obvious" argument. Fighting that fault allocation is a big part of what I do on these cases.
Nothing out of pocket. I take these on contingency — my fee comes only from money I recover for you, and if there's no recovery, you owe nothing. I also front the costs of investigating the case, like obtaining surveillance footage and expert analysis. You never write me a check to get started.
If you can, report it to the store or property manager and ask for a written incident report. Take photos of exactly what caused the fall and the surrounding area before anyone cleans it up. Get the names of any witnesses. See a doctor promptly, even if you think you're just sore. Then call me quickly, so I can move to preserve the surveillance video and other evidence before it's gone.
Scott DeSalvo founded DeSalvo Law to help injured people throughout Chicago and surrounding suburbs. Licensed to practice law in Illinois since 1998, IARDC #6244452, Scott has represented over 3,000 clients in personal injury, workers compensation, and accident cases.
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