735 ILCS 5/2-1117
Why a Defendant at 8% Fault Can Still Carry Your Entire Medical Bill
Illinois runs modified joint and several liability, and the mechanics reward defendant-hunting in a way almost no other state does.
The line that decides who pays for everything. Above 25%, a single solvent defendant can be reached for the entire recovery.
< 25%
Severally Liable Only
A defendant under the line is liable only for its own proportionate share, and only of the non-medical damages. On paper, a minor defendant looks like a minor recovery.
25% or More
Jointly & Severally Liable for All Damages
Cross the line and that defendant is on the hook for the plaintiff's entire recovery, whatever the other parties can or cannot pay. Find one solvent defendant above 25% and the full judgment is collectible from them alone.
↓ And then the provision that changes the arithmetic ↓
The Medical-Expense Carve-Out
Every defendant liable to any extent is jointly and severally liable for all medical expenses.
The statute pulls past and future medical and medically related expenses out of the proportionality rule entirely. Five percent, eight percent — it does not matter. If a party is found liable at all, the plaintiff's whole medical bill can be collected from them.
So in a catastrophic Illinois file, where medical specials dwarf everything else, a minor defendant carrying a real commercial policy is not a footnote. That defendant can carry the case. The 25% line protects defendants far less than defendants expect it to — and that is precisely why a second defendant is worth finding even when their share of blame looks trivial.
One wrinkle that cuts the other way, and we screen for it. The 25% is measured against the total fault attributable to the plaintiff, every defendant sued, and any third-party defendants except the plaintiff's employer — which means the claimant's own share sits in that denominator. A defendant who looks dominant among two co-defendants can slip under 25% once comparative fault is added in. Settling defendants and the plaintiff's employer are counted for comparative fault but excluded from the joint-and-several calculation, with the remainder recalculated proportionally, per Ready v. United/Goedecke Servs., 232 Ill. 2d 369 (2008). That is why we capture the claimant's fault posture and the defendant count on the same call. In Illinois they are not separate questions.
