Practice Area

Kane County Construction Accident Lawyer

Construction workers work in dangerous conditions, often with many trades operating heavy equipment in a confined area. When someone is seriously hurt, a workers’ compensation claim is frequently only part of what the case is worth. From the office in Aurora, we handle jobsite injury cases throughout Kane County and the Chicago area.

Workers’ compensation is usually not the whole case

If you were hurt on a jobsite, the Workers’ Compensation Act bars a common law claim against your own employer. The exclusive remedy provisions are explicit: “no common law or statutory right to recover damages from the employer” is available to a covered employee, 820 ILCS 305/5(a), and the compensation provided by the Act “shall be the measure of the responsibility of any employer,” 820 ILCS 305/11.

What the Act does not bar is a claim against anyone else whose negligence contributed. On a typical site that can include:

• the general contractor or construction manager
• another subcontractor working on the site
• the property owner or developer
• an equipment lessor
• the manufacturer of a defective machine, tool, or component
• an architect or engineer, in some circumstances

These third‑party claims are where the meaningful recovery usually is. They are entirely separate from the comp case, they allow damages the Act does not — pain and suffering, loss of a normal life, disfigurement — and they are frequently not mentioned to an injured worker by anyone.

Common jobsite claims

• Falls from scaffolding, ladders, roofs, and unprotected edges
• Falling objects and inadequate overhead protection
• Trench and excavation collapse
• Crane, forklift, and heavy equipment incidents
• Electrocution and arc flash
• Defective or unguarded tools and equipment
• Struck‑by incidents involving vehicles and site traffic

How Illinois construction cases are actually proved

Illinois once had a Structural Work Act that gave injured construction workers a specific statutory remedy against anyone “having charge of” the work. It was repealed by Public Act 89‑2, § 5, effective February 14, 1995. Any website still describing a Scaffold Act claim in Illinois is working from very old material.

Since the repeal, construction injury claims proceed under ordinary negligence and premises liability principles, and the central question in most cases is retained control. Illinois follows section 414 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts: one who entrusts work to a contractor, but retains control over any part of it, owes a duty of reasonable care in the exercise of that control.

The controlling authority is Carney v. Union Pacific Railroad Co., 2016 IL 118984. Three points from that decision shape how these cases have to be built:

• Section 414 liability is direct, not vicarious — the claim is that the entity’s own exercise of retained control was negligent.
• The retained control must be real. It must be “such a retention of a right of supervision that the contractor is not entirely free to do the work in his own way.” Boilerplate contract language reserving general oversight is not enough; the analysis looks to control over the operative details of the work.
• The negligent‑selection duty under section 411 runs to third persons — not to the employees of the contractor or subcontractor.

What that means in practice is that these cases are won on evidence, not on labels: the subcontract and its safety provisions, the site safety plan, toolbox talk and pre‑task records, the general contractor’s superintendent’s daily reports, who ran the safety meetings, who had authority to stop the work, and who actually directed the sequence of the trades. Being a “controlling employer” for OSHA purposes is not by itself sufficient control under Illinois law — but the OSHA file is still worth having.

Illinois has a dedicated set of pattern jury instructions for these claims, IPI Civil 55.00 et seq. (Construction Negligence), including 55.02 on requisite control and 55.04 for cases where more than one entity had control. Those instructions are a useful map of what a case has to prove.

Move quickly

Jobsites change daily. The scaffold is struck, the trench is backfilled, the machine goes back to the rental yard, and the crew moves to the next project. Photographs, equipment inspection and rental records, the OSHA investigation file, and the identities of witnesses who have since left the trade are all easier to obtain in the first weeks than in the second year.

Questions we are asked

I’m already getting workers’ compensation. Can I still bring a lawsuit?

Not against your own employer — the Act’s exclusive remedy provisions bar that. But you can bring a claim against any other party whose negligence contributed: the general contractor, another sub, the owner, an equipment lessor, or a manufacturer. Those third‑party claims allow damages workers’ compensation does not.

Will bringing a case cost me my compensation benefits?

No. The third‑party claim is separate. Your employer or its carrier will assert a lien for what it has paid, and that is negotiated as part of resolving the case — but pursuing the claim does not forfeit benefits.

What if I’m an undocumented worker?

Injured workers in Illinois have rights regardless of immigration status. If this is a concern in your situation, raise it with a lawyer in a confidential consultation rather than deciding on your own not to pursue a claim.

Does the Structural Work Act still apply?

No. It was repealed effective February 14, 1995. Illinois construction injury claims now proceed under ordinary negligence and premises liability principles, with retained control as the central issue.

How long do I have to file?

Generally two years for personal injury, 735 ILCS 5/13‑202, and one year if a local public entity is involved, 745 ILCS 10/8‑101 — which happens more often on construction projects than people expect, because so much of the work is public. The workers’ compensation claim has its own separate deadlines.