Illinois Personal Injury Attorney

Have you recently been involved in a devastating accident where you suffered critical or life-threatening injuries? Were another party’s actions or negligence the cause of your injuries? If you are struggling to cope with the consequences of the accident, you may need the legal support of an experienced personal injury attorney at 844 See Mike.

Our team of dedicated attorneys will work tirelessly to help our clients maximize their financial compensation and bring the asphalt party to justice. Learn more about how the personal injury claims process works in the value of your damages when you contact our legal team for a free consultation.

When Should You Hire a Personal Injury Attorney?

As soon as you are capable of doing so, you should hire a personal injury attorney. You may not initially know whether you have grounds for a claim, but contacting a lawyer for help is crucial. If someone else is or could be liable for your injuries, and your injuries have had a significant impact on your life, you may be entitled to fair compensation for your damages.

You can contact a personal injury lawyer at 844 See Mike at the accident scene or once you arrive at the hospital. We can schedule a free consultation or even come to you if that is easier. This way, you can get started on your case immediately after the accident and access time-sensitive evidence that may only be available for a short period of time.

Why is 844 See Mike Different from Other Illinois Personal Injury Law Firms?

844 See Mike is different from the other personal injury law firms interested in taking on your case. We are a highly experienced and qualified legal team, having settled more than 8,000 personal injury verdicts in our careers. We are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and have an intense drive to fight for our client’s rights.

We are actively involved in the community and strive to help injured community members deal with the physical, emotional, and financial toll of their injuries. 844 See Mike has more than 1,400 5-star reviews across the Internet. When you are looking for an accredited business on BBB with an A rating, you can turn to 844 See Mike. Our legal team is qualified, attentive, and experienced in all aspects of personal injury law. We are here to help you bring the liable party to justice and get the most out of your lawsuit and insurance claims.

How Can a Personal Injury Lawyer Help Me?

Our personal injury attorneys are here to do more than just listen to your story. We put our client’s needs first and take the burden of the claims process off your shoulders. As soon as you contact 844 See Mike, we begin fighting for the personal injury compensation you are entitled to. Here is our unique process:

Accessibility – You can reach us 24/7 via website live chat, text, video conference, phone, or even email
Free consultations – You can speak with our legal team for free about your options
Contingency fees – Our personal injury attorney’s contingency fee is 1/3 of your settlement winnings, no matter how complex your case gets
Hiring your personal injury attorney – We can get started as soon as you sign your attorney-client agreement through DocuSign
The investigation – Your personal injury lawyer will investigate the cause of your accident and gather valuable evidence to support your case along the way
Get medical help – We can assist you in getting the medical attention you need, so you can heal and begin to rebuild your life
Property damage claims – We can help you settle your property damage claim free of charge
Dealing with the insurance company – We will negotiate with the insurance company on your behalf so you can devote your time to healing
Collecting evidence – We will collect witness statements, review medical records, and obtain other critical evidence to settle your case quickly
Attempt to settle outside of court – If we can get you maximum compensation by settling outside of court, we will do so
Pursue civil litigation – If the insurance company or liable party refuses to settle your claim fairly, we are not afraid to pursue your case aggressively at trial
The discovery process – Discovery is when both parties give depositions, answer the other party’s questions, and disclose documents and other evidence
Alternative dispute resolution – If mediation or an informal settlement is possible, we encourage you to accept settlement offers that meet your needs
Your personal injury trial – When insurance settlements are insufficient where the liable party’s insurance is not enough, we are prepared to fight for the compensation you deserve in court
Getting your settlement check – You did not have to wait for your settlement check to come in the mail, as we can direct deposit your money as soon as it comes in

What Types of Cases Do Personal Injury Attorneys Handle?

Our personal injury lawyers in Illinois are prepared to take on a wide array of lawsuits and insurance claims. Some of the most common types of cases we handle include:

Uber accidents
Truck accidents
Work accidents
Trampoline accidents
Spinal cord injuries
Slip and fall accidents
Pedestrian accidents
Nursing home abuse
Medical malpractice
Wrongful death
Motorcycle accidents
Dog bites
Burn injuries
Swimming pool accidents
Bicycle accidents
Traumatic brain injuries
Car accidents

Motor Vehicle Accidents

Motor vehicle accidents are some of the most common types of cases 844 See Mike handles. This includes not only car accidents but commercial truck accidents, motorcycle accidents, pedestrian accidents, bicycle accidents, and more. Some of the most common types of motor vehicle crashes we handle include:

Most motor vehicle wrecks are caused by negligent driving. This could include traffic violations, speeding, following too closely, running a red light, failure to check blind spots, and more. However, in addition to negligent driving, car accidents can also happen when the road conditions are dangerous or vehicle parts malfunction. You may have grounds for a claim against not only the driver that hit you but other parties, including:

The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT)
Local municipalities where the accident occurred
Vehicle parts designers, distributors, and manufacturers
Motor vehicle dealerships
Cargo loaders
Safety inspectors and vehicle technicians
Other third parties

On-The-Job Injuries and Accidents at Work

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Whether you work in an inherently dangerous industry or behind a desk every day, there is always the risk of injury. Construction accidents occur most often and are considered one of the most dangerous industries to work in. Some examples of common construction accidents include:

Electrocution
Slip and falls
Crushings
Equipment malfunctions
Bulldozer accidents
Falls from elevated heights
Being struck by falling objects
Crane or forklift accidents
Exposure to toxic substances

However, other industries also have the potential to cause injuries and illness. For example, if you were diagnosed with mesothelioma after being exposed to asbestos, you may have grounds for a claim. Repetitive stress injuries, including back injuries, neck injuries, and carpal tunnel syndrome, are common in some industries. There is also the potential to suffer injuries in a work-related motor vehicle accident. Thankfully, in addition to the compensation you could recover through your personal injury claim, you may also be entitled to compensation through your employer’s worker’s compensation insurance provider.

Premises Liabilities

Premises liability accidents involve injuries on someone else’s property. This could include private, public, or commercial properties. Property owners have a duty to maintain the safety of their premises for invited guests and patrons. Any failure to do so could be considered negligence and mean you have grounds for a claim. Attractive nuisances are also common in premises liability claims. These include unsecured pools and trampolines, which could cause devastating injuries in a trampoline or swimming pool accident.

Other types of premises liability accidents include:

Slip and fall accidents
Dog bites
Hotel accidents
Supermarket accidents
Parking lot accidents
Snow and ice accidents

Medical Malpractice Cases

You may have grounds for a medical malpractice claim if you believe your healthcare provider made a mistake or medical error that ultimately caused your injuries or damages. You should be able to trust your healthcare providers. When they hide their mistakes behind implied consent or standard side effects, they can be held accountable. Some of the most common types of medical mistake claims include:

Birth injuries
Medication errors
Anesthesia errors
Surgical mistakes
Medication errors
Delayed diagnosis
Failure to treat
Failure to provide follow-up care
Misdiagnosis

How to Recover Maximum Compensation After a Personal Injury in Illinois

When you hope to recover total compensation for your damages in an Illinois personal injury claim, it is important to be prepared to pursue justice across all potential avenues. Although you might hope to settle your case outside of court, doing so may not always be possible. Some of the most common ways to recover compensation after an accident or personal injury include:

Filing a claim with the at-fault party’s insurance provider
Consider filing an insurance claim with your personal insurer
Move forward with a personal injury lawsuit

In many cases, since insurance settlements do not cover non-economic damages, your settlement may not be enough to cover your losses in full. When this happens, settling outside of court with the liable party or filing a civil lawsuit against them may be the best way to recover the total value of your damages.

Illinois Personal Injury FAQ

If you were hesitant about pursuing a personal injury lawsuit in Illinois, you are not alone. It is common for injury victims like you to feel overwhelmed and intimidated thinking about going up against a massive insurance company or bringing your case to trial. You likely have many questions regarding how the personal injury claims in Chicago process works and what to expect from your case.

For this reason, we have answered some of the most commonly asked questions regarding Illinois personal injury cases below. If you have additional questions we do not address on this page, be sure to reach out to our dedicated personal injury law firm for answers.

What if I’m Partially at Fault for My Injury?

When you share blame for causing your injuries, you do not necessarily lose the right to recover compensation for your damages. Illinois operates under a modified comparative negligence system according to 735 ILCS 5/2-1116. The threshold for liability in personal injury claims is set at 51%. This means if you share more blame for causing the accident, you will be prohibited from recovering compensation for your damages.

However, if your portion of the liability is less than the threshold, you have the right to pursue your case. You should also be prepared to have your injury settlement reflect a shared liability deduction. The amount your settlement will be reduced will depend on your portion of liability. For example, let’s say you suffered devastating injuries in a Chicago motorcycle accident. If you were not wearing your motorcycle helmet at the time of the crash and were struck by a drunk driver, the judge might still consider you partially responsible for your traumatic brain injuries. If they assessed your portion of fault at 28%, you could expect your motorcycle accident settlement to be reduced by 28%. If you were awarded $250,000 for your damages, you could reasonably expect your motorcycle accident settlement to be reduced by $70,000, leaving you with a $180,000 settlement. Although $180,000 is still a sizable motorcycle accident settlement, you also lost $70,000 due to your portion of the fault.

Even if you are not partially liable for causing your injuries, do not be surprised if the liable party or insurance company blames you for causing the accident. Since Illinois is a modified comparative negligence state, the at-fault party could reduce their financial liability by proving the injury victim is partially responsible for their injuries. Your experienced personal injury lawyer will carefully evaluate these specific details of your case and protect you from unfair claims of shared culpability. This way, you can maximize your financial compensation and get the most out of your claim.

What Compensation Am I Entitled to After Being Involved in a Personal Injury?

It is our personal injury lawyer’s top priority to ensure you are repaid for every loss you experience due to another party’s reckless or negligent actions. In personal injury law, you have the right to be “made whole.” This means you have the right to a total reimbursement of your economic and non-economic damages.

Economic Damages

Economic damages describe the various losses you serious that are monetary or financially based. Examples of potentially recoverable economic damages could include:

Your lost income and inability to continue earning a living
Being permanently incapable of going back to work
Employee-related benefits, including retirement savings contributions, health insurance coverage, and paid time off or salary increases and bonuses
Damage to your credit score or report
Vehicle repair costs and replacement fees if you were involved in a car accident
Medical bills, including co-pays, transportation costs, and future healthcare expenses, including therapy, mental health counseling, prescription medications, and alternative treatment options
Loss of household services, including the cost of childcare, home maintenance, and upkeep

The economic damages are the easiest to calculate as they have set financial values. This might include analyzing copies of your medical bills, bank statements, receipts, repair quotes, and other records. However, the same is not true for non-economic damages.

Non-Economic Damages

Non-economic damages describe the various ways your life has been affected by the injuries you sustain. These are not financial losses, but due to their substantial impact on your life, it is crucial to ensure you receive their restitution for them. Some examples of these damages could include:

Reduced quality of life
Loss of consortium
Physical pain
Mental anguish and emotional distress
Inconvenience and embarrassment
Anticipation, apprehension, and fear
Indignity, shock, and shame
Reputational damages

Since these types of damages do not have monetary value initially, it will be up to your experienced attorney to review their impact so we can determine how much compensation you should be awarded. To do this, we can analyze personal journal entries that detail the daily hardships you face, speak with friends and family members who can attest to the severity of your trauma, And obtain opinions from your healthcare providers as well. This way, we can ensure you are awarded reasonably for these losses.

Punitive Damages

Punitive damages are not losses that you are entitled to recover as part of your personal injury lawsuit. Instead, they are only awarded in cases where the Illinois civil court system determines the defendant’s actions are punishable. They may aim to deter future negligence from occurring by punishing the defendant in your case. For this reason, the defendant’s conduct must generally be abhorrent, intentional, grossly negligent, or reprehensible. Otherwise, the judge and jury are unlikely to award punitive damages in your case. If we can show that the defendant’s actions are not outside the norm of their behaviors or they have a history of similar conduct, this could help prove grounds for punitive damages.

Does Illinois Have Caps on the Amount of Damages Received?

No, there is no cap on the amount of compensation you can recover in economic or non-economic damages. Some states may limit how much you can be awarded for nine economic losses. However, Illinois is not one of those states, and you can be awarded total restitution for your damages.

How are Pain and Suffering Calculated in Illinois?

Your personal injury attorney will calculate the value of your pain and suffering damages in multiple ways. The multiplier method determines the value of your non-economic damages by multiplying a fixed figure, usually a number between one and five, by the total value of your economic damages.

Alternatively, your attorney might use the per diem method by assigning you a fixed amount of compensation for every day that you suffered due to the injuries or emotional trauma you sustained in your accident. You could reasonably expect your attorney to use both methods to determine which one results in a higher monetary figure. This way, you can get the most out of your personal injury claim.

What is the statute of limitations for personal injury in Illinois?

According to Illinois law under 735 ILCS 5/13-202, the statute of limitations for Illinois personal injury lawsuits is set at two years from the date of the accident in most cases. Although two years may seem like more than enough time to file a personal injury lawsuit, there are many instances in which personal injury victims are unsure how much longer they have to file. If you are filing a claim with the insurance company, the amount of time you have to file the claim could be much less than two years. In fact, many insurance companies require claimants to file claims within 30 days of the incident. Otherwise, the insurance company has a valid reason to deny you the benefits and full and fair compensation you would have otherwise been entitled to.

Exceptions to Illinois’ Statutes of Limitations

There are several instances in which there may be exceptions to the Illinois personal injury statute of limitations of two years. For example, if your child suffered injuries, the statute of limitations may not begin until the child reaches 18. At that point, you would have up to two years from their birthday to pursue personal injury litigation.

It is also possible you may be dealing with delayed symptoms or diagnosis. If this happens, you may not receive medical treatment or an official diagnosis for your injuries until days, weeks, months, or even years after the accident. The statute of limitations in cases like these would occur two years from the date you discovered or should have discovered your accident-related injuries. Since the statute of limitations is often unclear, the best way to protect yourself is by having your personal injury attorney review the exact details of your case and ensure your claim is filed before time runs out.

What Percentage Do Most Personal Injury Lawyers Take?

When you work with an Illinois personal injury attorney, you will likely be able to enter a contingency agreement. Contingency agreements allow all injury victims to pursue justice in their cases without having to pay their Illinois personal injury attorneys upfront. Instead, your lawyer will cover all the costs associated with your case. We will cover your court filing fees, hire experts to testify on your behalf, and pay for any other costs that may arise as we move forward with your personal injury claim.

We have a “no fee unless you win” guarantee. This means if we do not recover compensation in your personal injury case, you are not expected to pay anything for attorneys fees. This way, your personal funds are not at risk if your attorney loses your case. The exact percentage you might be expected to pay out of your personal injury winnings will be based on the terms of the contingency agreement. The percentage could vary widely depending on the extent of your injuries, how complex your case is, whether multiple parties share the blame, whether you can settle outside of court with the insurance company or liable party, and whether your case will need to go to trial.

Should I Accept a Settlement Offer From the Insurance Company?

It is never a good idea to accept a settlement offer from the insurance company without discussing your legal options with your personal injury lawyer. Most insurance companies are not in the business of making fair settlement offers. When they settle your claim, they will lose money. Therefore, you can expect them to take steps to reduce their payouts wherever possible. For this reason, it should come as no surprise if the settlement you received from the insurance company is substantially less than the value of your claim. By reviewing potential settlement offers with your attorney, you can protect yourself and renegotiate the settlement terms for a more reasonable payout.

Can I File a Catastrophic Injury Lawsuit for My Child’s Injuries?

Yes, if your child suffers injuries in an accident, they still have the right to compensation for their losses the same way adults do. Additionally, child injuries are often far more impactful than adult injuries. Although children are resilient, when they suffer injuries, these injuries could have a substantial impact on their futures. Some children suffer permanent disabilities that prevent them from being able to live their lives normally or earn a living in the future. Accessing the financial compensation they are entitled to is crucial to improve their quality of life and setting them up for success as they cope with the fallout of their injuries for the rest of their lives.

What Damages Do Insurance Companies Cover?

If you were hoping to avoid going to court by settling with the insurance company alone, you may be surprised to learn that insurance settlements are rarely enough to cover a victim’s needs. Unfortunately, insurance companies generally only cover personal property damages and medical bills. They do not generally cover loss of income, household services, or non-economic damages such as pain and suffering or diminished quality of life. These types of damages must be sought after through an out-of-court settlement with the liable party or a lawsuit in civil court.

Connect With Our Best Personal Injury Lawyers Today

The impact your injuries will have on your life not only now but well into the future is undeniable. When another party’s negligent actions are the cause of your injuries, you should not be stuck covering the costs. Our experienced personal injury lawyers at 844 See Mike are here for you, ready to help you seek compensation for your suffering and serious injuries. With our firm fighting for your rights to maximum compensation, you can heal from your injuries while we build a powerful case against the culpable parties.

Find out more about how much compensation your personal injury claim could be worse when you contact our office for a 100% free consultation. 844 See Mike has multiple locations strategically placed in Chicago and across Illinois. You can find us in Elmhurst, Peoria, Springfield, Joliet, Naperville, Aurora. Fill out our quick contact form or call us to get started on your personal injury lawsuit and insurance claims today.

Personal Injury Attorney in Illinois