I Slipped on Ice in a Parking Lot, Do I Have a Case?

FAQ,Personal Injury,Premises Liability,Slip and Fall - March 28, 2024 by Horwitz, Horwitz & Associates

Michael A. Silverman, a partner and trial attorney at Horwitz Horwitz & Associates answers a listener’s question on Free Legal Advice Friday’s:

I slipped on ice in a parking lot, do I have a case?

You may have a case if you slipped in a parking lot.

The law in Illinois is such that if it is a natural accumulation, meaning snow just falls from the sky and lands on the pavement, there is no responsibility or liability in that situation.
However, if a property owner, who is a business, takes actions to clear the snow or ice – let’s say plows it into a mound (and that mound is pretty high). Then the snow melts.  And then it freezes coming from the mound, and you slip and fall on that ice – then it is considered an unnatural accumulation because the property owner did something to disturb the natural falling of the snow by putting it into a mound.
In that situation you can have a cause of action against the property owner.Michael Silverman, a Partner at Horwitz Horwitz & Associates, answers the Free Legal Advice Friday listener’s question: I slipped on ice in a parking lot, do I have a case?

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