Several People Injured in Chicago Porch Collapse Accident

Five people suffered injuries, including one person listed as being in serious-to-critical condition, after a second-floor porch collapsed onto them on October 27, 2018, in an apartment building on Chicago’s Northwest Side, according to news reports.

The accident occurred at around 2 a.m. when the raised porch “suddenly detached” from the apartment building located in the 2900 block of West Lyndale Street in the Palmer Square neighborhood, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. A city building inspector went to the scene shortly after the accident occurred to begin an investigation. The cause of the porch collapse has not yet been determined or announced publicly.

Emergency responders took three men and two women who had been located below the porch to nearby hospitals for treatment of their injuries, according to the Sun-Times. While one person was in serious-to-critical condition, the others had stabilized and/or were listed as being in good-to-fair condition.

What Are Your Legal Rights If You Suffer Injury Due to Property Hazards?

Under Illinois law, the individuals, companies, and government agencies who own or manage property generally owe a duty to those who are lawfully on their property to repair dangerous property conditions they either know about or, in the exercise of reasonable caution, should know about. At the very least, they must warn visitors about the hazards.

The duty of property owners and managers falls within an area of personal injury law called premises liability. A porch collapse, for instance, would fit into this category.

If a person suffers injuries due to the failure of a property owner or manager to fulfill this duty, the person has the right to seek full and fair compensation for the physical, emotional, and financial harm they suffer. That compensation may include:

• Current and future medical expenses
• Lost income and diminished future earning capacity
• Pain and suffering

If a person died due to the negligence of a property owner or manager, then surviving family members may be eligible to recover compensation through a wrongful death claim, including funeral and burial expenses and the loss of the loved one’s services and financial support. In exceptional cases, punitive damages may be available as well.

If you or a loved one suffered injuries due to dangerous property conditions, you should make sure to contact an experienced premises liability attorney as early as possible in order to protect your legal rights. A lawyer can launch an immediate investigation and take steps to pursue all compensation that you are entitled to receive.

Our Chicago Premises Liability Lawyers Can Help

To learn more about premises liability law and the rights of those injured by dangerous property conditions in Illinois, contact Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C. We have offices in Chicago and Waukegan, and we offer free, no-obligation consultations.

Our attorneys have extensive experience in this area of personal injury law. For instance, in 2016, our firm secured a $4.5 million settlement for a man who fell two stories due to a defective railing at an apartment building.

More recently, in August 2017, we obtained a $148 million premises liability verdict on behalf of a young woman who was paralyzed in a pedestrian shelter collapse at O’Hare International Airport – the largest personal injury verdict in Cook County history and the highest personal injury compensatory verdict award in the history of Illinois.