Feel free to shovel; you won't be sued

The old suburban wives' tale goes like this: If you shovel your driveway and someone slips and falls, you're more liable than if you had just left it packed with snow.

That's not so true, according to Illinois state law.

Joseph Klest, an attorney with offices in Chicago and Schaumburg who focuses on personal injury cases, said residents should use common sense when shoveling their property.

"The general rule in Illinois is that there's no liability by the natural accumulation of ice and snow," Klest said.

Essentially, state law does not require residents to remove snow -- though some towns do require it. But the state also doesn't punish them for doing so if somebody is injured on their property after the fact.

The key is that, "if they do remove it, they need to do it in such a way that doesn't make it more dangerous than it was," Klest said.

In cases he's dealt with, making conditions more dangerous has included leaving a water spout running, which creates an ice patch that wasn't originally there.

The Snow and Ice Removal Act of 1979 in its own way encourages residents to clean sidewalks by removing the fear that if they do, they can be sued.

The law is a little different for commercial property, where the owners have signed a contract for an outside company to clean snow.

If that obligation isn't fulfilled in a timely manner, that owner could be held liable if snow or ice causes an injury, Klest said.