Illinois car accident laws

The rules in one table

Deadlines can be shorter or longer for minors, for injuries found later, and for claims against a government. A lawyer licensed in Illinois can tell you the date that applies to you.

Next steps after an Illinois crash

Questions

Sources

1. Deadline to sue for an injury (735 ILCS 5/13-202): www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=073500050K13-202

   Sec. 13-202. Personal injury - Penalty. Actions for damages for an injury to the person, or for false imprisonment, or malicious prosecution, or for a statutory penalty, or for abduction, or for seduction, or for criminal conversation that may proceed pursuant to subsection (a) of Section 7.1 of the Criminal Conversation Abolition Act, except damages resulting from first degree murder or the commission of a Class X felony and the perpetrator thereof is convicted of such crime, shall be commenced within 2 years next after the cause of action accrued

2. Deadline for vehicle damage (735 ILCS 5/13-205): www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=073500050K13-205

   Sec. 13-205. Five year limitation. Except as provided in Section 2-725 of the "Uniform Commercial Code", approved July 31, 1961, as amended, and Section 11-13 of "The Illinois Public Aid Code", approved April 11, 1967, as amended, actions on unwritten contracts, expressed or implied, or on awards of arbitration, or to recover damages for an injury done to property, real or personal, or to recover the possession of personal property or damages for the detention or conversion thereof, and all civil actions not otherwise provided for, shall be commenced within 5 years next after the cause of acti…

3. Deadline for a wrongful death claim (740 ILCS 180/2(d) (Wrongful Death Act)): www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=074001800K2

   (d) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (e) of this Section, every such action shall be commenced within 2 years after the death of such person but an action against a defendant arising from a crime committed by the defendant in whose name an escrow account was established under the "Criminal Victims' Escrow Account Act" shall be commenced within 2 years after the establishment of such account.

4. Claims against a government body (745 ILCS 10/8-101(a) (Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act)): www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=074500100K8-101

   (a) No civil action other than an action described in subsection (b) may be commenced in any court against a local entity or any of its employees for any injury unless it is commenced within one year from the date that the injury was received or the cause of action accrued.

5. Insurance system (Triple-I, Background on: No-fault auto insurance): www.iii.org/article/background-on-no-fault-auto-insurance

   Twelve states and Puerto Rico have no-fault auto insurance laws. Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania have verbal thresholds. The other seven states—Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Dakota and Utah—use a monetary threshold. Three states have a "choice" no-fault law. In New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Kentucky, motorists may reject the lawsuit threshold and retain the right to sue for any auto-related injury.

6. If you were partly at fault (735 ILCS 5/2-1116): www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=073500050K2-1116

   Sec. 2-1116. Limitation on recovery in tort actions. In all actions on account of bodily injury or death or physical damage to property, based on negligence, or product liability based on strict tort liability, the plaintiff shall be barred from recovering damages if the trier of fact finds that the contributory fault on the part of the plaintiff is more than 50% of the proximate cause of the injury or damage for which recovery is sought. The plaintiff shall not be barred from recovering damages if the trier of fact finds that the contributory fault on the part of the plaintiff is not more tha…

7. Minimum liability coverage (625 ILCS 5/7-203): www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=062500050K7-203

   However, every such policy or bond is subject, if the motor vehicle crash has resulted in bodily injury or death, to a limit, exclusive of interest and costs, of not less than $25,000 because of bodily injury to or death of any one person in any one motor vehicle crash and, subject to said limit for one person, to a limit of not less than $50,000 because of bodily injury to or death of 2 or more persons in any one motor vehicle crash, and, if the motor vehicle crash has resulted in injury to or destruction of property, to a limit of not less than $20,000 because of injury to or destruction of …

8. Dog bites (510 ILCS 5/16 (Animal Control Act)): www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=051000050K16

   Sec. 16. Animal attacks or injuries. If a dog or other animal, without provocation, attacks, attempts to attack, or injures any person who is peaceably conducting himself or herself in any place where he or she may lawfully be, the owner of such dog or other animal is liable in civil damages to such person for the full amount of the injury proximately caused thereby.

Read October 2, 2026. Laws and fees change; the linked page is the authority.