A "typical" slip and fall case may take 1-2 years to bring to trial, however, every case is different. If your mother had serious injuries, required surgery, or if there was some other unique situation involving her or the defendant then it can take much longer. If the defendant was involved in bankruptcy, those cases are usually stayed, sometimes for many years, until the bankruptcy is resolved. If your mother had a serious injury then the attorney may have been waiting for her to achieve maximum medical improvement before trying the case. Without knowing more it is hard to say, however, 8 1/2 years is much longer than normal absent some unsual circumstance.

There are many reasons why a case could take a long time to resolve. The most common reason in a personal injury case would be a case with serious injury and continued treatment; in which case the attorney would want to ensure the treatment has ceased to maximize the damages and the potential recovery.

Most of the Judges in Cook County are good at moving cases alone; it's unlikely they would let a personal injury case take this long if there wasn't a good reason.