Another example of fault apportionment run amok

For the Defense

By Donald P. Eckler and David Warnick

Donald “Pat” Eckler is a partner at Goldberg Segalla focusing on professional liability defense, insurance coverage litigation, and general tort defense. He is the legislative chair of the Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel. David Warnick is an attorney at Johnson & Bell focusing on transportation, product liability, and general tort defense. He is a member of the Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel civil practice committee. His views are his own and not those of his firm or its clients.

Posted August 11, 2021 11:12 AM

In this space on July 28, Illinois’ fault apportionment system was described as a Rube Goldberg device. There are few better examples of this than the odyssey of Barnai v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. that had its latest chapter recently decided by the Illinois Appellate Court, 1st District.On Oct. 16, 2007 (that is not a typo), Frank Barnai, an employee of Summit Fire Protection Company was injured while working on a construction site of a Wal-Mart store. Barnai sued Wal-Mart, International Contractors (the general …

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