Legal Question in Personal Injury in Illinois

You may have a claim of your own if your neighbor was negligent in hitting your dog.

The events leading up to the collision and the facts surrounding the collision itself need to be known.

Illinois has adopted a modified version of the rule of comparative fault. That means that, where two or more parties are at fault for the same unintentional injury, only the party or parties who are less than 50% at fault may recover, but their recovery will be reduced by the percentage of their own fault. Thus, if Person A is 85% at fault in an accident and and Person B is 15% at fault, B can recover 85% of his damages from A while A cannot recover anything from B.

The central issue in your case would be the relative degrees of fault of you and your neighbor. If you negligently let your dog run free and if your neighbor was careful but hit the dog anyway, there is a good chance that you will have to pay for some or all of her losses. If you were careful and she was negligent, then the case might go the other way -- but only if you file a cross-complaint.

If you have homeowner's or renter's insurance, you may want to turn this matter over to the insurance company.

Good luck.

Mr. Hoffman is correct. Call your homeowner's insurer and report the claim. Most Chicagoland municipalities require dogs (and sometimes cats) to be leashed when off premises. It might be considered negligent to allow your dog to run around unsupervised. However, unless the dog darted out directly in front of the neighbor, a cyclist still has a duty to watch out for people, animals, and other objects in the road, particularly in a residential area. In other words, she might be negligent too. Finally, as to the damage claim, I recommend you let your insurer work with the neighbor. That is what you are paying them to do.