As a Chicago resident, you likely do your fair share of navigating around ice and snow piled up on sidewalks during our bitterly cold winters. After all, even if there is a municipal code on the books requiring property owners to maintain the sidewalk outside their home or business, many do not. While shoes with good soles on them can minimize your chances of slipping and falling, it is still possible for an accident to occur.

Throughout the remainder of this article, we’ll highlight laws that apply to snow and ice removal and address liability when accidents occur, resulting in injuries. This insight should give you a better idea of what you can expect to happen if you slip and fall on a sidewalk in Chicago.

Many discussions around the personal injuries that follow car accidents, slip-and-falls, instances of medical malpractice, and other serious accidents focus on recovery. Recovery looks different for every injury victim, so aspects of these discussions might not apply to everyone.

For some injury victims, a full recovery is not possible. Instead, these individuals will reach their maximum medical improvement (the point at which their condition is not expected to improve any further) without getting close to where their physical health was prior to their accident.

The personal injury field is an area of the law that allows individuals who were hurt due to someone else’s negligence (the plaintiff) to hold the party who caused the injuries (the defendant) liable for their actions. Examples of personal injury incidents include plane crash, motor vehicle accidents, motorcycle crash, pharmaceutical injuries, slip and falls, dog bite, product liability, medical malpractice, and any other injury that may leave you hurt.

Unless you’re incredibly unlucky, it’s unlikely that these different incidents affect you regularly. The irregularity of these events is a good thing. However, their infrequency makes it challenging to know what to do when they occur.

We trust our insurance providers to be there for us in those challenging situations when we suffer unexpected injury, loss, or damage. But what if the companies we pay to protect us when things go wrong don’t hold up their end of the bargain? What can you do when an insurance company is dishonest or denies your claim without a valid reason? Can you file a lawsuit against an insurance company? In many cases, yes, depending on the circumstances.

In March of 2020, a 25-year-old Chicago woman suffered from a serious concussion when a light pole that was rusted at its base started falling and crashed through her windshield. Originally, the Chicago Police tried to say that she crashed into the pole which caused it to fall, but the police report proves differently. CBS2 Chicago reports that rusted light poles are an issue that has been a danger in the city for years now, causing the poles to fall and potentially injure nearby pedestrians and motorists.

This wasn’t the first time that a rusted city light pole fell on its own and injured a citizen—just the most recent. In November of 2019, another woman was injured in the Loop by a falling light pole. CBS2 Chicago reports that there have been nearly 8,000 complaints of leaning or falling poles to the city since 2014. There have been almost 500 reports of property damage and 75 reports of injury from the rusted city light posts.

Despite restrictions put into place by airlines, travelers are regularly hurt and injured by falling overhead compartment luggage. Size limits for carry-on luggage are meant to prohibit passengers from bringing on bags that won’t fit in the overhead bins, but size limits don’t stop the overhead compartments themselves from becoming unlatched during a flight or upon the plane’s landing. Additionally, it’s common for overhead compartments to become unbalanced when multiple heavy bags shift around in the compartment during flight. Both instances may result in injury despite airline restrictions.

Minor injuries are one thing, but who is liable when someone is seriously injured due to falling luggage? What about in cases where the luggage falls on another passenger when someone is stowing their bags? Determining liability can be complex in these situations.

States are always trying to improve their laws to protect its citizens. It’s important to stay informed about law changes happening in your state so you know your rights. Illinois is having a few major changes in 2018 that will affect different areas of the law.

What’s Changing for Drivers in Illinois?

There are a few changes to the law that Illinois drivers should know about.

First, in regard to driver safety, a law has been passed about dealership stickers/paperwork on cars during test-drives.  Often at car dealerships, the windows have stickers or paperwork that could obstruct the driver’s view and create a major hazard. Now, car dealers can’t let motorists drive from their property if the vehicle’s windows have anything that would hinder the driver’s sight of the road.

On Friday, May 11th at 10 p.m., CBS 2 Investigator Dave Savini reported on the case of a partially verbal autistic nine-year-old boy who was repeatedly slapped and hit by a bus aide over a period of months who was given the responsibility of safely getting children to and from school.

Appalling video reveals how the bus aide, who was convicted in criminal court in DuPage County, taunted and even slapped the child who was unable to communicate for months because of his autistic condition.