Car insurance claims in Illinois

Illinois is an at-fault state with a threshold written into the Code of Civil Procedure. Section 2-1116 bars a plaintiff from recovering anything if the trier of fact finds their contributory fault was more than fifty percent of the proximate cause of the injury or damage; at fifty percent or below, damages are allowed and reduced in proportion to the fault attributed to the plaintiff. A driver found forty percent responsible recovers sixty percent of the loss; a driver found fifty-one percent responsible recovers nothing. The section applies in terms to bodily injury, death and physical damage to property alike, so the same threshold decides the vehicle claim and the injury claim.

The two court deadlines pull apart, and that surprises people. An action for injury to the person must be brought within two years of accrual (735 ILCS 5/13-202). An action to recover damages for an injury done to property, real or personal, has five years (735 ILCS 5/13-205). Suing on a written contract, which is what an insurance policy is, carries ten years under the general rule (735 ILCS 5/13-206), but a motor policy will normally contain a much shorter suit clause of its own, and how that clause is tolled was not read for this page — treat the policy’s own clause as the deadline.

The insurer’s clock is set by regulation rather than by the statute. Section 154.6 of the Insurance Code makes it an improper claims practice to fail to acknowledge communications with reasonable promptness or to adopt reasonable standards for prompt investigation, but it fixes no day count. The Department’s Part 919 does: the company must affirm or deny liability within a reasonable time and offer payment within thirty days after affirming liability where the amount is determined and not in dispute, and must give a written explanation of a denial or a lower offer within thirty days (50 Ill. Adm. Code 919.50(a)). If a first-party physical damage claim is still unresolved forty calendar days after it is reported, the company owes the insured a written explanation for the delay (919.80(b)(2)).

Every registered vehicle must carry a liability policy of at least $25,000 for injury or death of one person, $50,000 for two or more, and $20,000 for property damage — amounts that apply to policies issued or renewed on or after 1 January 2015 (625 ILCS 5/7-203 and 5/7-601). Uninsured motorist coverage at those same limits is mandatory and cannot be rejected (215 ILCS 5/143a); what can be rejected is the top-up that raises uninsured motorist cover to match the policy’s own bodily injury limits (215 ILCS 5/143a-2). At the scene, a driver in a crash causing injury, death or damage to an attended vehicle must give their name, address, registration and owner details and render reasonable assistance (625 ILCS 5/11-403). The old driver’s written report to the state was repealed in 2021; the ten-day report now belongs to the investigating officer (625 ILCS 5/11-406, 5/11-408).