Posted on April 14,2021 in Personal Injury Lawsuits

Personal injury claims are used to pursue financial compensation for losses caused by an injury. Nearly any type of injury may be the basis of a personal injury claim, but severe injuries typically result in higher settlements and awards. If you or a loved one have suffered an injury that resulted in a permanent disability, you may be able to seek monetary damages through a personal injury claim.

Understanding When a Successful Personal Injury Claim is Possible

A personal injury claim is a civil claim that may be based on either “negligence” or recklessness or intentional wrongdoing. There are four main components in any personal injury claim based on negligence:

• Duty – The defendant, meaning the person or entity from whom you are seeking compensation, owed a duty of care. This could be a driver’s duty to drive cautiously, a manufacturing company’s duty to prevent dangerous product defects, a property owner’s duty to maintain a safe property, or another type of duty.

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 Posted on April 07,2021 in Pedestrian Accidents

There were over 5,000 pedestrian collisions in Illinois in 2018. Many of these accidents resulted in severe and fatal injuries. If you were injured or a loved one was killed in a pedestrian accident, it is important to know your legal rights. Depending on the circumstances of the accident, the driver may be facing criminal consequences for striking you or your loved one. However, criminal penalties do not offer any financial restitution to the victim or the victim’s surviving loved ones. A personal injury case may allow a pedestrian accident victim to recover monetary compensation for the harm caused by the accident and hold the driver answerable for the crash.

Holding At-Fault Drivers Accountable for the Harm They Caused

Many pedestrian accidents are the result of a driver acting carelessly or negligently. The driver responsible for your accident may have been texting and driving, changing the radio station, looking down at a GPS screen, or otherwise not paying attention to the road at the time of the accident. The driver may have been intoxicated by drugs or alcohol. Whatever the reason, drivers who act negligently and strike a pedestrian should be held responsible for their actions. A personal injury claim may be brought in addition to criminal charges, or it may be brought in the absence of criminal charges. The standard of proof for civil claims including personal injury claims is much lower than the standard of proof required for criminal cases. Therefore, it is possible to bring a successful personal injury lawsuit even if the driver avoids criminal culpability for the accident.

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 Posted on March 30,2021 in Recreational Vehicle Accidents

All-terrain vehicles (ATVs), quads, or four-wheelers can be useful and enjoyable. Unfortunately, these vehicles can also cause severe and often fatal injuries. If you or a loved one were hurt in an ATV accident or you were hurt by someone riding an ATV, you may have questions about your legal rights. Are ATV accidents treated the same as car accidents? Do ATV riders have to carry insurance? Will I be compensated for my medical bills after an ATV collision? The answers to these questions will depend on many different factors, so it is important to speak with a skilled injury attorney for individualized guidance.

16-Year-Old in Lake County Suffers Traumatic Brain Injury in ATV Incident

In January of this year, a 16-year-old Lake County girl suffered a traumatic brain injury after being ejected from an inner tube being pulled by an ATV. She was unresponsive for several days following the accident but is now awake and relearning how to function. Although this ATV incident was atypical in that it involved a person being towed behind the vehicle, ATV accidents causing injury or death are not uncommon. In 2018 alone, there were over 81,000 ATV accidents in the U.S. Over a quarter of these accidents involved children.

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 Posted on March 26,2021 in Premises Liability

Most parents vividly remember the first day that their child went to school. Placing your child in the hands of teachers and other school staff and trusting them to keep your child safe is no easy task. Unfortunately, serious injuries and even deaths do occur in school. In some cases, a child’s injury is directly caused by the school’s negligence or even the intentional acts of a teacher or other staff member. If your child was injured in a school bus accident, playground accident, or another incident at school, it is important to know your rights. You may be able to hold the school or other at-fault party answerable for your child’s injury and recover damages via a personal injury claim.

Determining Liability in Personal Injury Lawsuits for School Injuries

Children are often rambunctious, energetic, and prone to injuries. However, when a child’s preventable injury is caused by the negligent or wrongful acts of another party, that party should be held accountable. A personal injury lawsuit may be used to hold a school liable for intentional abuse or injuries caused by the school’s negligence or carelessness.

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 Posted on March 24,2021 in Car Accidents

Everyone knows that speed limits are posted for a reason. The risk of a car accident resulting in serious injury or death increases as the speed of the vehicle increases. However, this does not stop a large percentage of drivers from driving above the speed limit.

Automotive technology has changed dramatically in recent decades. While self-driving cars are still a rare sight, more and more standard vehicles are coming equipped with technology like adaptive cruise control. Although this technology is intended to make driving safer, a recent study suggests that drivers are actually more likely to speed when their vehicle is equipped with this technology.

Safety Benefits May Be Overshadowed by Driver Negligence

Approximately three million people are injured in car accidents each year in the United States. These injuries incur more than $75 billion in medical bills and lost productivity. It is in everyone’s best interests for drivers to drive cautiously and follow traffic laws. Adaptive cruise control adjusts the vehicle’s distance from the vehicle in front of it and reduces the need for the driver to manually adjust the cruise control setting as traffic patterns change. Technology like adaptive cruise control and automatic lane-centering is designed to help drivers, passengers, and pedestrians, stay safe, however, it may have the opposite effect.

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 Posted on March 19,2021 in Workers’ Compensation

While some professions are inherently more dangerous than others, the risk of injury at work exists for all employees. Some injuries are caused by a single traumatic event such as falling or being crushed by equipment. Others, such as repetitive motion injuries, occur slowly over time. If you were hurt at work, you may be left wondering how you will pay for medical expenses and other losses resulting from your injury. Workers’ compensation and/or a third-party claim may allow you to recover compensation.

Workers’ Compensation for Injured Employees in Illinois

In Illinois, employers with one or more employees must carry workers’ compensation insurance. This insurance reimburses an injured worker for the financial losses he or she suffers because of a work accident. Typically, two-thirds of an injured worker’s wages are recoverable through a workers’ compensation claim. Medical bills including emergency medical treatment, doctor’s appointments, surgery, and rehabilitative care are also covered under workers’ compensation. Although Illinois law mandates workers’ compensation insurance for exactly this purpose, injured workers can sometimes face obstacles getting the compensation they need. The insurer may offer much less than the worker actually needs to cover his or her expenses, miscalculate the worker’s income, or deny the claim altogether. A workers’ compensation lawyer can be a valuable source of advocacy in situations like these.

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 Posted on March 17,2021 in Defective Products

Most people do not think much about the grey, metallic guardrails lining the roads until they collide with one. Guardrails are a crucial safety component that has lessened the damage caused by countless car crashes. However, when a guardrail or other road barrier is defective in its design or manufacture, the barrier can do more harm than good in an accident. In cases such as these, a product liability claim may be brought against the party responsible for the defective road barrier.

Guardrails That Do Not Work as Intended

The purpose of a guardrail is to reduce the damage caused by an accident. Guardrails are often placed alongside steep slopes or on bridge ends to prevent cars from sliding down the incline. Median barriers are designed to prevent vehicles from crossing into oncoming traffic. A well-designed guardrail also helps absorb the impact of a collision and the end terminals curl inward when struck. However, some guardrails do not function as intended. Instead of reducing the harm caused by the impact, the barriers instead worsen the collision.

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 Posted on March 12,2021 in Car Accidents

Being the victim of a rear-end collision can be a shocking experience to go through. Most victims are not aware of the imminent danger they are facing until seconds before the crash. Many suffer neck injuries such as whiplash, head injuries, facial lacerations, and other painful and debilitating injuries. If you or a loved one were hurt in a rear-end accident, you should know that you may have a right to seek compensation for your injuries. You could be entitled to compensation for your medical expenses, lost earnings, physical pain, disfiguration, and more.

What You Must Prove to Get Compensation for Rear-End Collision Injuries

The purpose of auto insurance is to compensate car accident victims for their damages. However, the compensation available through the at-fault driver’s insurer may be insufficient. In cases such as these, the injured party may choose to file a personal injury claim.

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 Posted on March 10,2021 in Personal Injury Lawsuits

When an individual is injured because of another party’s actions, the injured person may have a right to pursue financial compensation for their damages through a personal injury case. Many personal injury claims are brought against the at-fault party’s insurance company. While personal injury cases vary substantially from case to case, most personal injury cases involve the same basic steps. If you or a loved one were injured in a truck accident, car accident, workplace accident, slip and fall, or another injury-causing incident, speak to a personal injury attorney to learn more about what may be involved in pursuing compensation for your damages.

Retaining Legal Counsel and Investigating the Cause of Your Injury

Once you decide on a personal injury lawyer, the first steps that he or she will likely take will be investigative in nature. Your lawyer will need to know how you were injured, the severity of your injuries, and whether another party’s negligence or intentional wrongdoing may have caused the injuries. Your lawyer will then begin to gather evidence to support your claim such as police reports, videos and photographs, and witness statements.

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 Posted on March 05,2021 in Truck Accidents

Truckers have a job that requires them to drive for long periods of time and cope with unpredictable sleep schedules. Trucking companies are under intense pressure to get truck shipments transported as quickly as possible. The combination of these factors can sometimes be disastrous. Truck drivers who are sleepy may make dangerous mistakes behind the wheel or even fall asleep while driving. If you or a loved one were hurt in a truck accident and you suspect that a fatigued truck driver may have been to blame, it is important to know your rights.

Truck Drivers Are Required to Follow Rules Regarding Drive Time and Rest Breaks

Sleepiness may seem like no big deal. However, when you are operating a massive vehicle like a semi-truck, being sleepy can lead to catastrophe. When a driver is sleep-deprived, he or she takes longer to respond to a sudden emergency such as a stalled vehicle or other object in the road. Sleepy drivers may also make mistakes like forgetting to check their blind spots before changing lanes.

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