[ Search ] [ Legislation ]
[ Home ] [ Back ] [ Bottom ]
| [ Introduced ] | [ Enrolled ] | [ Senate Amendment 002 ] |
91_HB0105eng HB0105 Engrossed LRB9100603WHcs 1 AN ACT in relation to assistance animals. 2 Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, 3 represented in the General Assembly: 4 Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the 5 Assistance Animal Damages Act. 6 Section 5. Definitions. As used in this Act: 7 "Blind person" means a person who has vision of 20/200 or 8 less with the best correction or has a visual field of 20 9 degrees or less. 10 "Guide dog" means a dog that is trained to lead or guide 11 a blind person. 12 "Deaf person" means a person whose hearing disability 13 precludes successful processing of linguistic information 14 through audition with or without a hearing aid. 15 "Hearing ear dog" means a dog that is trained to assist a 16 deaf person. 17 "Assistance animal" means any animal trained to assist a 18 physically impaired person in one or more daily life 19 activities, including but not limited to: 20 (1) guide dogs; 21 (2) hearing ear dogs; 22 (3) an animal trained to pull a wheelchair; 23 (4) an animal trained to fetch dropped items; and 24 (5) an animal trained to perform balance work. 25 "Daily life activity" includes but is not limited to: 26 (1) self-care; 27 (2) ambulation; 28 (3) communication; or 29 (4) transportation. 30 "Physically impaired person" means any person who is 31 permanently physically impaired, whose physical impairment HB0105 Engrossed -2- LRB9100603WHcs 1 limits one or more of daily life activities and who has a 2 record of impairment and is regarded by health care 3 practitioners as having such an impairment, requiring the use 4 of an assistance animal including but not limited to 5 blindness, deafness and complete or partial paralysis. 6 Section 10. Damages recoverable for harm or theft of 7 assistance animal. 8 (a) In addition to and not in lieu of any other penalty 9 provided by State law, a physically impaired person who uses 10 an assistance animal or the owner of an assistance animal may 11 bring an action for economic and noneconomic damages against 12 any person who steals or, without provocation, attacks the 13 assistance animal. The physically impaired person or owner 14 may also bring an action for such damages against the owner 15 of any animal that, without provocation, attacks an 16 assistance animal. The action authorized by this subsection 17 may be brought by the physically impaired person or owner 18 even if the assistance animal was in the custody or under the 19 supervision of another person when the theft or attack 20 occurred. 21 (b) If the theft of or unprovoked attack on an assistance 22 animal described in subsection (a) of this Section results in 23 the death of the animal or the animal is not returned or if 24 injuries sustained in the theft or attack prevent the animal 25 from returning to service as an assistance animal, the 26 measure of economic damages shall include, but need not be 27 limited to, the replacement value of an equally trained 28 assistance animal, without any differentiation for the age or 29 the experience of the animal. In addition, the physically 30 impaired person or owner may recover any other costs and 31 expenses, including, but not limited to, costs of temporary 32 replacement assistance services, whether provided by another 33 assistance animal or a person, incurred as a result of the HB0105 Engrossed -3- LRB9100603WHcs 1 theft of or injury to the animal. 2 (c) If the theft of or unprovoked attack on an assistance 3 animal described in subsection (a) of this Section results in 4 injuries from which the animal recovers and returns to 5 service, or if the animal is stolen but is recovered and 6 returns to service, the measure of economic damages shall 7 include, but need not be limited to, the veterinary medical 8 expenses, costs of temporary replacement assistance services, 9 whether provided by another assistance animal or a person, 10 and any other costs and expenses incurred by the physically 11 impaired person or owner as a result of the theft of or 12 injury to the animal. 13 (d) No cause of action arises under this Section if the 14 physically impaired person, owner or the person having 15 custody or supervision of the assistance animal was 16 committing a criminal or civil trespass at the time of the 17 theft of or attack on the assistance animal. 18 (e) The court shall award reasonable attorney's fees to 19 the prevailing plaintiff in an action under this Section. The 20 court may award reasonable attorney's fees and expert witness 21 fees incurred by a defendant who prevails in the action if 22 the court determines that the plaintiff had no objectively 23 reasonable basis for asserting a claim or no objectively 24 reasonable basis for appealing an adverse decision of a trial 25 court.