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Public Act 91-0480
HB0105 Enrolled LRB9100603WHcs
AN ACT in relation to assistance animals.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the
Assistance Animal Damages Act.
Section 5. Definitions. As used in this Act:
"Blind person" means a person who has vision of 20/200 or
less with the best correction or has a visual field of 20
degrees or less.
"Guide dog" means a dog that is trained to lead or guide
a blind person.
"Deaf person" means a person whose hearing disability
precludes successful processing of linguistic information
through audition with or without a hearing aid.
"Hearing ear dog" means a dog that is trained to assist a
deaf person.
"Assistance animal" means any animal trained to assist a
physically impaired person in one or more daily life
activities, including but not limited to:
(1) guide dogs;
(2) hearing ear dogs;
(3) an animal trained to pull a wheelchair;
(4) an animal trained to fetch dropped items; and
(5) an animal trained to perform balance work.
"Daily life activity" includes but is not limited to:
(1) self-care;
(2) ambulation;
(3) communication;
(4) transportation; or
(5) employment.
"Physically impaired person" means any person who is
permanently physically impaired, whose physical impairment
limits one or more of daily life activities and who has a
record of impairment and is regarded by health care
practitioners as having such an impairment, requiring the use
of an assistance animal including but not limited to
blindness, deafness and complete or partial paralysis.
Section 10. Damages recoverable for harm or theft of
assistance animal.
(a) In addition to and not in lieu of any other penalty
provided by State law, a physically impaired person who uses
an assistance animal or the owner of an assistance animal may
bring an action for economic and noneconomic damages against
any person who steals or, without provocation, attacks the
assistance animal or exposes the assistance animal to any
chemical that is hazardous to the assistance animal; however,
an action against a person for exposing an assistance animal
to a chemical that is hazardous to the assistance animal may
be brought under this Act only if the person against whom the
action is brought knew or reasonably should have known that
the assistance animal was present and that the chemical was
hazardous to the assistance animal. The physically impaired
person or owner may also bring an action for such damages
against the owner of any animal that, without provocation,
attacks an assistance animal. The action authorized by this
subsection may be brought by the physically impaired person
or owner even if the assistance animal was in the custody or
under the supervision of another person when the theft,
attack, or exposure occurred.
(b) If the theft of or unprovoked attack on an assistance
animal or exposure of the assistance animal to any chemical
that is hazardous to the assistance animal described in
subsection (a) of this Section results in the death of the
animal or the animal is not returned or if injuries sustained
prevent the animal from returning to service as an assistance
animal, the measure of economic damages shall include, but
need not be limited to, the veterinary medical expenses and
the replacement value of an equally trained assistance
animal, without any differentiation for the age or the
experience of the animal. In addition, the physically
impaired person or owner may recover any other costs and
expenses, including, but not limited to, costs of temporary
replacement assistance services, whether provided by another
assistance animal or a person, incurred as a result of the
theft of or injury to the animal.
(c) If the theft of or unprovoked attack on an assistance
animal or exposure of the assistance animal to any chemical
that is hazardous to the assistance animal described in
subsection (a) of this Section results in injuries from which
the animal recovers and returns to service, or if the animal
is stolen but is recovered and returns to service, the
measure of economic damages shall include, but need not be
limited to, the veterinary medical expenses, costs of
temporary replacement assistance services, whether provided
by another assistance animal or a person, and any other costs
and expenses incurred by the physically impaired person or
owner as a result of the theft of or injury to the animal.
(d) No cause of action arises under this Section if the
physically impaired person, owner or the person having
custody or supervision of the assistance animal was
committing a criminal or civil trespass at the time of the
theft of or attack on the assistance animal or exposure of
the assistance animal to any chemical that is hazardous to
the assistance animal.
(e) The court shall award reasonable attorney's fees to
the prevailing plaintiff in an action under this Section. The
court may award reasonable attorney's fees and expert witness
fees incurred by a defendant who prevails in the action if
the court determines that the plaintiff had no objectively
reasonable basis for asserting a claim or no objectively
reasonable basis for appealing an adverse decision of a trial
court.
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