People hear "slip and fall" and picture something minor. The reality is often a broken hip that ends someone's independence, a shattered wrist that needs surgery, or a head injury with effects that last for months. For older adults especially, a single fall can be the event that changes everything — and insurance companies count on the phrase sounding trivial so they can treat a life-altering injury like a stubbed toe.
I'm Scott DeSalvo, and premises cases have been a steady part of my DuPage County work for almost 30 years. If you fell in a Willowbrook store, restaurant, parking lot, or apartment building along Kingery Highway or 75th Street, here's how these cases actually work — and the consultation is free.
The injury is the reason to take a fall seriously, and the insurer's whole strategy is to minimize it. They'll comb your medical history for any old ache to argue the fall changed nothing, and they'll lean on the idea that a fall is just clumsiness. Fighting that starts with thorough medical documentation and refusing to let the injury be waved off. A fall that puts you in surgery or keeps you from work is not a minor claim, no matter how the adjuster frames it.
In Illinois, a property owner isn't automatically responsible just because you were hurt on their property. You must show the owner knew, or should have known, about the hazard and did nothing to fix it or warn you. Lawyers call this "notice," and it decides these cases.
That's why the first days are so important. How long had that spill been on the floor? Was the same hazard a repeat problem? Did a camera capture how long it sat before you fell? The evidence that answers those questions gets recorded over, thrown away, or misplaced quickly. Act fast and it still exists; wait, and it becomes your account against an owner who has had time to clean up and rehearse a different one.
Expect the property owner's insurer to try to pin the fall on you. Under Illinois's comparative negligence rule, if they can convince a jury you were more than half at fault for not watching your step, you recover nothing — so they'll argue the hazard was "open and obvious" and you should have avoided it. That defense is real, and it's why premises cases are harder than car cases. It's also beatable with the right evidence and someone who knows how to counter it.
Bottom line: a fall you're tempted to shrug off can turn into the most disruptive injury of your life — get treated, document everything, and don't let an insurer decide it was nothing.
Because our winters are what they are, many Willowbrook falls happen on ice — and Illinois has a rule that surprises people. Generally, an owner isn't liable for ice that accumulated naturally from the weather. But if the owner made it worse — plowing snow into a pile that refroze across a walkway, letting a downspout drain onto a sidewalk, or leaving pavement that traps and freezes water — that unnatural accumulation can support a claim. Whether the ice was natural or man-made can decide the whole case.
Evidence is slipping away by the day, so don't put this off. Call me, walk me through where and how you fell, and I'll tell you straight whether the notice and fault picture supports a case. If it does, we move at once to secure the proof. It's free, and you pay nothing unless I win for you.
I'm available any time, day or night. Call 312-500-4500.
Falls are just one kind of injury I handle. For everything else, see my Willowbrook Personal Injury Attorney page.
Generally two years from the date of your fall against a private owner. But a fall on public or government property — a village sidewalk, a park district lot, a public building — can carry special notice rules and much shorter deadlines, sometimes around a year. Those government deadlines are easy to miss, so reach out as soon as you can.
Yes, because falls often turn out worse than they first feel, and some injuries take days to fully show. A free call costs you nothing and gets the facts documented while everything is fresh. If it turns out to be minor, no harm done — but if it's serious, you'll be glad you didn't wait.
It depends on whether the ice was natural or man-made. Owners generally aren't on the hook for ice that formed naturally, but if they created the hazard — refrozen plow piles, a draining downspout, or bad pavement — you may have a strong claim. It's a technical line and the one insurers fight on, so it helps to have someone who can prove an unnatural accumulation.
Not necessarily. Illinois uses modified comparative negligence, so being partly at fault doesn't end your claim unless you were more than half responsible — your recovery is just reduced by your share. Insurers always push to get you past that line with the "open and obvious" argument, and countering it is a central part of what I do.
Nothing out of pocket. I handle these on contingency — my fee comes only from what I recover for you, and if there's no recovery, you owe nothing. I also advance the costs of investigating the case, like securing camera footage and expert analysis. You never pay me to get started.
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.
No Fee Unless You Win | Free Consultation | 24/7 Availability Call or Text: (312) 500-4500
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