People are injured all the time, sometimes seriously. If injuries are caused because of someone else’s negligent or intentional actions, the injured victim can file a personal injury lawsuit.
A personal injury might consist of a wide variety of injuries and damages that relate to bodily harm. Common personal injury cases include car accidents, slip and falls, and equipment injuries, all of which might happen in and around Lincoln Park. When you sue for your damages, you must prepare a detailed complaint about your injuries and gather evidence of your damages. To be successful and get the compensation you deserve, we must prove that the defendant acted negligently when they caused your injuries. An attorney can help you with the initial complaint, fighting for damages, legal strategies, and other legal options that might work for your case.
Contact our personal injury lawyers for assistance with your case. For a free case review to kick off your lawsuit, call the Rhatigan Law Offices at (312) 578-8502.
Possible Personal Injury Cases in Lincoln Park
A personal injury is sometimes hard to define precisely because so many different bodily injuries might fall under this category. Generally, if you experienced bodily harm because of someone else’s bad behavior, you should speak to an attorney about filing a personal injury lawsuit. Our personal injury attorneys can help evaluate your case and advise you on what to do.
Many personal injuries arise in places of interest and tourist destinations around Lincoln Park. For example, a patron at the Lincoln Park Zoo might be injured by some equipment or fall on uneven walkways. Alternatively, someone visiting North Avenue Beach might be injured on the nearby pier.
Car accidents are another common cause of personal injury cases, and Chicago is full of heavy traffic and dangerous roads. For example, a person might be injured in an accident on North Lincoln Ave, one of the main arteries that run through the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Traffic in the city tends to move quickly, and drivers have little time to pause and think.
Accidents involving slipping or tripping and falling are also very common. A plaintiff might slip and fall in the West DePaul neighborhood or another area on some wet or slick walkway or in a store or shopping center. Chicago winters are notoriously cold and snowy, and icy walkways are common during the winter months, making slip and fall accidents a big problem if people do not shovel their walkways.
Suing for Personal Injuries in Lincoln Park
You can file a lawsuit against the person or people responsible for your injuries to recover damages such as the cost of medical treatment. Our personal injury lawyers can help you through the process of initiating a lawsuit and assessing your damages, so you get as much compensation as possible.
First, we must determine who should be held liable. For the most part, the defendant is the person who is directly responsible for the accident that caused your injuries. However, some parties might indirectly be responsible for the accident, and they can still be named as defendants in your lawsuit. For example, you can sue the manufacturer of a defective item or good if it malfunctioned and injured you even though the manufacturer was not present when the injury occurred.
Once we know whom you are suing, we must gather evidence and assess your damages for the initial complaint. The complaint is a formal legal document that must contain very specific details about your case. We must explain why we believe the defendant should be held liable and provide evidence backing up our claims, so the court knows these are not baseless accusations.
When you file a lawsuit, you might have the opportunity to reach a settlement agreement with the defendant. A settlement would cut short the trial process, and you would be paid compensation as agreed upon by you and the defendant. How much money you are paid must be negotiated, but it is often less than what your total damages are worth. The trade-off is that you do not have to go through a long trial or pay expensive legal fees.
Proving Negligence in Lincoln Park Personal Injury Cases
To have the defendant held liable for your injuries, we have to prove that they were negligent. Negligence is a legal concept made up of four critical elements. Our evidence must establish each element if you are to be awarded damages.
Duty is the first element and refers to the defendant’s legal obligation of care owed to the plaintiff. The nature of the defendant’s duty varies based on their relationship with the plaintiff. For example, in a car accident case, the defendant’s duty would be to drive with reasonable safety under the circumstances while obeying traffic laws.
The second element is how the defendant breached their duty. The breach is whatever the defendant did or failed to do in violation of their legal obligations. Again, exactly what this looks like varies from case to case. In a car accident case, speeding, running red lights, or other traffic violations may be considered a breach. In a slip and fall case, the breach might be the defendant’s failure to remove a hazard from their property.
The third element is known as causation and is the link between the breach and the accident. Essentially, we need evidence that the defendant’s breach of their duty was the direct and proximate cause of your injuries. This is especially important if the defendant tries to argue that some other intervening force caused your injuries or that you contributed to the accident.
Finally, our personal injury attorneys must establish your damages. Damages must be real and cannot be hypothetical or mere possibilities. You cannot sue for a near miss.
Call Our Lincoln Park Personal Injury Lawyers for a Free Case Assessment
If you were hurt and believe someone else’s behavior directly caused your accident and injuries, our personal injury attorneys can help you initiate legal action against the wrongdoers. For a free review of the case, call the Rhatigan Law Offices at (312) 578-8502.
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