Filing a car accident lawsuit in Illinois

Chicago alone logged 109,112 reported crashes in 2025, down slightly from 112,055 the year before, and another 9,461 in January 2026 by itself.¹² Most never turn into lawsuits. But when an insurer lowballs you or denies a valid claim, Illinois law sets the rules that decide what your case is worth and how long you have to file. Those rules are specific, and a few are easy to miss.

This page covers what is true in Illinois. For the general mechanics of a car accident claim, see the national hub this article sits under.

The deadline that ends your case

You generally have two years from the crash date to file a personal injury lawsuit in Illinois.³ Miss it and the court will almost certainly dismiss the case, no matter how badly you were hurt. The statute, 735 ILCS 5/13-202, says injury actions "shall be commenced within 2 years next after the cause of action accrued."³

Damage to your vehicle runs on a different clock. Property damage claims get five years under the general limitations statute, 735 ILCS 5/13-205, because Illinois has no auto-specific property deadline.⁴ A wrongful death claim runs two years from the date of death under 740 ILCS 180/2.⁵

Two shorter deadlines catch people off guard. If a city, county, transit agency, or other unit of local government is a defendant (a pothole claim, a CTA bus, a police cruiser), you have only one year, not two, under the Tort Immunity Act, 745 ILCS 10/8-101.⁶ And a claim against a bar or other alcohol seller under the Dram Shop Act is barred after one year as well.⁷ When a government vehicle or a drunk driver is involved, the two-year assumption can quietly cost you the case.

How Illinois splits the blame

Illinois follows modified comparative negligence with a 51% bar. Under 735 ILCS 5/2-1116, you can recover even if you were partly at fault, but your damages drop by your share of fault, and a jury that finds you "more than 50%" responsible awards you nothing.⁸⁹ Found 40% at fault on a $100,000 case, you keep $60,000. Found 51% at fault, you keep zero.

That line is exactly why insurers work to pin fault on you. The Illinois Department of Insurance lays out the rule in plain terms for consumers.⁹

What you can actually recover

Illinois does not cap compensatory damages in ordinary car accident cases. Economic losses like medical bills and lost wages, and non-economic losses like pain, disability, and disfigurement, have no statutory ceiling. That is settled law. The Illinois Supreme Court struck down a $500,000 cap on non-economic damages in Best v. Taylor Machine Works in 1997. It held the entire tort-reform package unconstitutional as special legislation and a violation of the separation of powers.¹⁰ The court did the same to a later medical malpractice cap in Lebron v. Gottlieb Memorial Hospital in 2010.¹¹

Punitive damages are available for willful or reckless conduct, which can matter against a drunk or hit-and-run driver. Since a 2023 amendment, the Wrongful Death Act allows punitive damages in death cases too, though not against a healing-art or legal malpractice defendant, or against the State or a local government.⁵

The insurance you're dealing with

Illinois is an at-fault state. There is no PIP requirement and no no-fault system here, and no statute forces insurers to offer medical payments (MedPay) coverage, so MedPay is optional and you either bought it or you didn't.¹² The at-fault driver's liability insurance is the primary source of payment.

Every Illinois driver must carry at least 25/50/20 in liability coverage: $25,000 per injured person, $50,000 per crash, and $20,000 for property damage.¹³ Those minimums have not changed since January 2015.¹³ They are also thin. One serious injury can exhaust $25,000 in a day, which is why uninsured motorist coverage carries real weight here. Illinois policies must include UM bodily injury coverage that matches your liability limits, so a 25/50 policy carries 25/50 of protection against uninsured and hit-and-run drivers.¹⁴

When the loss is to your car rather than your body, the value question outlives the repair. Even a well-fixed vehicle is worth less with a wreck on its history, and Illinois lets you pursue that gap; our Illinois diminished value guide covers how.

Illinois laws that help prove the other driver was at fault

Two statutes come up constantly. Handheld phone use behind the wheel, including calls, texting, video, and social media, is banned statewide under 625 ILCS 5/12-610.2, and it is a primary offense, so police can stop a driver for that alone.¹⁵ Fines run from $75 up to $150 for repeat offenses. When the violation causes a crash with great bodily harm, permanent disability, or disfigurement, it becomes a Class A misdemeanor carrying a $1,000 minimum fine; if it kills someone, it is a Class 4 felony.¹⁵ A phone record showing the other driver was texting is strong evidence of negligence.

The Dram Shop Act, 235 ILCS 5/6-21, is Illinois' route after a drunk driving crash. It lets an injured person sue the bar, restaurant, or store whose sale caused the driver's intoxication, in addition to suing the driver.⁷ Recovery against the seller is capped and adjusted for inflation each year by the Illinois Comptroller. For 2026 the cap is $90,411.55 per injured person and $110,503.00 for loss of means of support or loss of society.¹⁶ The one-year filing deadline applies to these claims.⁷

Fault documentation usually starts with the official crash report. You can request an Illinois crash report and see what to do with it on our Illinois crash reports page.

Getting help

The value of an Illinois claim turns on specifics: the fault percentage a jury might assign, the coverage actually available, and whether a bar or a government entity belongs in the case. If you are weighing a lawsuit, and especially if a one-year deadline is in play, talk to a lawyer early. You can find one through our Illinois legal directory.

This is general information about Illinois law, not legal advice.

Sources

1. Chicago Year-over-Year Crash Report, 2025 vs 2024, thatcarhitme.com. https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/illinois/chicago/2025-annual-report

2. Chicago Crash Report, January 2026, thatcarhitme.com. https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/illinois/chicago/january-2026-report

3. 735 ILCS 5/13-202, Illinois General Assembly. https://www.ilga.gov/documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/073500050K13-202.htm

4. 735 ILCS 5/13-205, Illinois General Assembly. https://www.ilga.gov/documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/073500050k13-205.htm

5. 740 ILCS 180/2 (Wrongful Death Act), Illinois General Assembly. https://www.ilga.gov/documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/074001800K2.htm

6. 745 ILCS 10/8-101 (Tort Immunity Act), Illinois General Assembly. https://www.ilga.gov/documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/074500100K8-101.htm

7. 235 ILCS 5/6-21 (Dram Shop Act), Illinois General Assembly. https://www.ilga.gov/documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/023500050K6-21.htm

8. 735 ILCS 5/2-1116, Illinois General Assembly. https://www.ilga.gov/documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/073500050K2-1116.htm

9. Comparative Negligence, Illinois Department of Insurance. https://idoi.illinois.gov/consumers/consumerinsurance/comparative-negligence.html

10. Best v. Taylor Machine Works, 179 Ill. 2d 367 (1997), CourtListener. https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2244731/best-v-taylor-mach-works/

11. Lebron v. Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, 237 Ill. 2d 217 (2010), Illinois Supreme Court. https://www.illinoiscourts.gov/Resources/ae6bf489-539e-4961-8eab-5f7e3d1cd774/105741.pdf

12. Auto Insurance Shopping Guide, Illinois Department of Insurance. https://idoi.illinois.gov/consumers/consumerinsurance/auto-insurance-shopping-guide.html

13. 625 ILCS 5/7-203, Illinois General Assembly. https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext?DocName=062500050K7-203

14. 215 ILCS 5/143a, Illinois General Assembly. https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext?DocName=021500050K143a

15. 625 ILCS 5/12-610.2, Illinois General Assembly. https://www.ilga.gov/documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/062500050K12-610.2.htm

16. Dram Shop Liability Limits 2026, Illinois Office of Comptroller. https://illinoiscomptroller.gov/__media/sites/comptroller/assets/File/Agencies/resource-library/statutorily-required/DRAM%20SHOP%20LIABILITY%20LIMITS-2026.pdf