Illinois Personal Injury Intake: Deadlines and Fault Rules

This guide is for law firms. If you were injured, contact a licensed Illinois attorney.

Does Illinois use comparative or contributory negligence?

Illinois uses modified comparative fault: a plaintiff whose fault is more than 50 percent of the proximate cause of the injury is barred from recovering. The rule is 735 ILCS 5/2-1116. According to the notes to the Illinois Pattern Jury Instructions, the 1986 amendments abolished pure comparative fault for causes of action accruing on and after November 25, 1986. Fault of 50 percent or less reduces damages in proportion to the plaintiff’s share.

For intake, the threshold makes the liability facts worth recording with care. An Illinois intake specialist should capture the scene, the police response, any citation, the names of witnesses and what the other driver said, all in the caller’s words. The caller should not be pushed to estimate their own share of blame. A clean, factual record helps the attorney judge which side of the 50 percent line the case is likely to land on.

Source: Illinois Pattern Jury Instructions (Civil), Section 10.00, notes on 735 ILCS 5/2-1116, Illinois Supreme Court

Is Illinois a no-fault state?

No. Illinois is an at-fault state, so the injured person claims against the at-fault driver’s liability insurer. The Insurance Information Institute’s list of the twelve states with no-fault auto insurance laws does not include Illinois. Illinois callers will not have a PIP claim of the kind Florida or New York drivers do, though they may have medical payments coverage on their own policy.

Illinois auto intake therefore centers on the other driver and their coverage. The call should capture the other driver’s name and insurer from the information exchange, the caller’s own carrier, and whether the other vehicle was a commercial truck, a delivery vehicle, a rideshare car or a CTA or Pace bus. A public transit vehicle raises the Tort Immunity Act’s shorter deadline. A commercial truck brings federal motor carrier rules into the case, which our trucking accident intake guide covers.

Source: Background on: No-fault auto insurance, Insurance Information Institute

Which Illinois deadlines can run out before the statute of limitations?

A suit against an Illinois local public entity or its employees must be commenced within one year from the injury or from when the cause of action accrued. Section 8-101 of the Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act sets that one-year period, as quoted by the Illinois Appellate Court in Ferguson v. City of Chicago. One year is half the general two-year period under 735 ILCS 5/13-202, and the difference catches callers who assume every injury claim has the same clock.

Illinois intake should ask whether the incident involved a city, county, park district, school district or transit vehicle, or happened on public property such as a city sidewalk or a Chicago Housing Authority building. The dossier should record the entity the caller names and the incident date, so the attorney can check the one-year deadline and any exceptions that morning.

Sources: Ferguson v. City of Chicago (quoting 745 ILCS 10/8-101), Illinois Appellate Court; Zlatev v. Millette, 2015 IL App (1st) 143173 (applying 735 ILCS 5/13-202), Illinois Appellate Court (2015)

Does Illinois cap personal injury damages?

Illinois has no statutory cap on non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases, because its Supreme Court struck the cap down in 2010. In Lebron v. Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, decided February 4, 2010, the Illinois Supreme Court held the statutory limits on non-economic damages in medical malpractice actions unconstitutional.

For intake, the absence of a malpractice cap means a caller describing a hospital or surgical error can carry significant value, and should be routed to an attorney who handles medical negligence. Auto and premises cases in Illinois turn mostly on the fault threshold and the defendant’s coverage. An intake specialist should record the injuries, the treatment and any lasting effects in plain terms, so the attorney can judge the size of the claim before the callback.

Source: Lebron v. Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, 237 Ill. 2d 217 (2010), CourtListener (2010)

What does Illinois guidance say about lawyers using AI?

The Illinois Supreme Court announced a policy on artificial intelligence on December 18, 2024, finding that its current rules are sufficient to govern AI use. The policy followed a report from the Illinois Judicial Conference Task Force on Artificial Intelligence. In announcing it, Chief Justice Mary Jane Theis said the policy recognizes that current rules are sufficient to govern AI use, and that the Court will regularly reassess those rules as the technology evolves.

For law firms, that means the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct apply to AI intake the same way they apply to any staff member or vendor: competence, confidentiality and supervision. An attorney should be able to check any summary against the source, which is why each Della dossier includes the full recording and transcript. Our guide to ABA Formal Opinion 512 sets out the national framework.

Source: Illinois Supreme Court Announces Policy on Artificial Intelligence, Illinois Courts (2024)

Do Illinois intake calls need recording consent?

Illinois is an all-party consent state for recording phone calls, under 720 ILCS 5/14-1, 5/14-2. Applies to private conversations and communications made with a reasonable expectation of privacy. Because Illinois requires all-party consent for private conversations, the recording notice comes before the caller describes their injury. Every Call Della plan includes a recording disclosure set for the firm’s state, and Della plays it before the caller describes their matter. Our call recording consent by state table covers all 50 states and DC.

Source: Reporter’s Recording Guide: Illinois, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

What should a Illinois intake call capture?

A Illinois intake call should capture the facts that decide the deadline, the fault rule and the coverage, in the caller’s own words. The checklist below is the minimum for a Illinois auto or premises matter. It is a list of facts to record, not questions to argue with the caller.

1. Incident date and the city or county where it happened
2. Whether a city, county, park district, school or transit vehicle or property was involved
3. Police response, the report agency and any citation
4. Witness names and contact details, if the caller has them
5. Whether the other vehicle was a commercial truck, with the company name or USDOT number
6. Injuries, treatment so far, and whether the caller was admitted
7. The other driver’s insurer and the caller’s own carrier
8. Whether a workplace injury is involved, and the employer

How does Della handle Illinois intake after hours?

Della, Call Della’s intake specialist, answers an Illinois firm’s line in the firm’s name nights, weekends and holidays. She plays the recording disclosure, takes the facts above, and never gives legal advice. Each call becomes a dossier with a summary, urgency score, recording and transcript. Urgent calls send an email alert to the attorney on call, on every plan, and the rest arrive in the 7am morning brief.

Firms lose callers in the gap between the call and the reply. According to Lawyers Mutual NC (2019), reporting an ABA Law Practice Division secret-shopper study, lawyers took three or more days to reply to voicemails and online requests 42 percent of the time. See how Della runs after-hours personal injury intake, or compare Illinois with other states in our personal injury rules by state table.