Drivers in Elmhurst deserve professional, compassionate legal representation after a car accident. Our attorneys have helped many people in situations just like yours get compensation for their injuries and move forward with their lives.
Our attorneys can stand up to insurance companies and at-fault drivers, as well as trucking companies and other businesses, to get our clients the compensation they need. Car accident cases are often complex, and insurance may refuse to pay on very technical grounds, requiring us to take them to court to get your case paid.
For a free case review, call our car accident attorneys at Rhatigan Law Offices at (312) 578-8502 today.
Elements of a Car Accident Case
In a car accident case, you need to prove that the other driver did something wrong to cause the crash. This usually comes from a traffic violation or generally unsafe driving.
Specifically, there are four elements car accident lawyers need to prove:
- Duty – The defendant owed the victim a legal duty, usually supplied by traffic laws (e.g., no speeding, no drunk driving, stop at stop signs).
- Breach – The defendant violated that legal duty.
- Causation – The breach was what actually caused the crash; it would not have happened without the violation.
- Damages – The victim suffered injuries and other damages the court can compensate.
Generally, this means you cannot sue someone unless they did something wrong, unless they actually caused the crash, and unless you were actually hurt in the accident.
The Process of Suing for a Car Accident in Elmhurst
Car accident cases usually begin with an insurance claim, but they can go to court when the insurance company refuses to pay a fair value.
Insurance Claims
In an insurance claim, you file a third-party claim with the defendant’s liability insurance to get their policy to pay for your damages. This means you give them a statement and provide evidence of your damages, and they decide fault.
This puts enormous power in the insurance company’s hands and typically results in denied claims or low-dollar payouts. Our lawyers can negotiate for better compensation, but if the insurance company refuses to pay, we have no choice but to go to court.
Lawsuits
In a lawsuit, you file in court to have a judge handle the legal process and get a jury to review the facts at trial.
The early stages of a case see legal challenges to evidence and the case as a whole, but once the case moves to discovery, you can exchange evidence and build a stronger case. If insurance still refuses to settle after seeing all the evidence against them in discovery, we can move to trial.
At trial, we have to prove the four elements of negligence by a preponderance of the evidence – i.e., more than 50% – to win your case.
What to Do After a Car Accident
After an accident, take the following steps to secure evidence and get on the road to recovery:
Call 911
Any accident with injury or death must be reported to the authorities. Police will respond to write a crash report documenting the accident.
Also request an ambulance if anyone needs medical care.
Move to a Safe Location
Before or after you call 911, get yourself to a safe location. Always wait for the police in a well-lit area that is out of the way of traffic. If your vehicle is blocking traffic, you should also move it to the side of the road if it is still working.
Get Medical Attention
You should have the EMTs evaluate you and, if you need additional care, go to the hospital to get it. Urgent care centers and doctors’ offices might be unequipped to handle your care needs, and they may deny treatment or send you to the ER. Hospitals cannot deny treatment.
Getting medical care means creating medical records to document your injuries. It also helps you get better.
Collect Evidence
If you can stay at the scene of the accident, take the following steps to collect evidence:
- Take photos of the accident scene.
- Get the names, contact info, and insurance info for all drivers.
- Get the names and contact info for all witnesses.
- Get the make, model, color, and license plate number of all vehicles involved.
- Note the time, location, weather, lighting, and road conditions.
Our lawyers can collect further evidence like crash reports, security camera footage, medical records, and more.
Call a Lawyer
You should never try to handle your case alone or accept any money from the defendant without having your lawyer review it. Insurance companies often try to undervalue damages and push you into settlements that block you from getting any more money later.
Your lawyer is legally and ethically obligated to help you and fight for full compensation for your injuries.
Follow Through with All Medical Care
You need to continue getting medical care and following doctors’ orders. This means going to all appointments and listening to any restrictions they place on your ability to work so that you can avoid reinjury and get better as soon as possible.
What Evidence Do You Need?
When bringing a car accident injury case, you should have as much of the following evidence as you can. However, every case is different, and some of this might not be needed – or available – depending on the circumstances of the accident and what you need to prove.
Photos and Video
Photos of the accident scene help show what the intersection looked like, where the cars were positioned, and what signs and signals were present. You can also take photos of damage, license plates, and injuries.
If anyone caught the accident on video with a dash cam, cell phone, or security camera, we can also ask for that footage. You do not need to be the person who recorded it to use video evidence.
Appraisals and Repair Records
Damage appraisals and repair records will show how severe the crash was, what damage was noted (and where), and what you ultimately paid to fix your car.
We can compare repair records to the photos of the scene to help confirm who hit whom, where, and how fast, especially if we have accident reconstruction experts examine the case.
Eyewitness Testimony
Your testimony, as well as testimony from anyone else who saw the crash, will be the core evidence presented in your case. Witnesses can explain exactly what happened, and photos and other evidence can back up their story.
Your Testimony About Pain and Suffering
What you can tell the court about your pain and suffering and recovery process will help show them how much to pay you for these damages.
Expert Testimony
Sometimes crashes involve scientific questions about drunk driving, tired driving, and vehicle parts. Other times, they need accident reconstruction experts to talk about the damage and cause or doctors to talk about the injuries and ongoing care needs.
These experts did not witness the crash, but they have important scientific or technical evidence or knowledge to apply to the case.
Medical Records
Your medical records are the core evidence of what happened to you and how the accident affected your life.
Bills and Financial Records
Pay stubs, medical bills, repair costs, and other financial records show the economic damages you faced.
FAQs for Car Accident Cases in Elmhurst
Do I Need a Lawyer for a Car Accident Claim?
You should always work with a lawyer in a car accident case. The defense will have a lawyer provided through insurance, so you need one, too.
Bringing a lawsuit on your own is often impossible if you are recovering from injury. Plus, we can put our experience to use in your case and help you understand what your case is truly worth before you accept a settlement.
Is Illinois a No-Fault Car Insurance State?
Illinois is an at-fault state, not a no-fault state. In no-fault states, everyone uses their own insurance to cover their injuries regardless of fault, and the ability to sue is limited to serious injury cases only. In an at-fault state like Illinois, everyone files against the other driver’s insurance for coverage and can sue the at-fault driver instead, if they choose to.
What Does My Insurance Cover?
The other driver’s insurance typically covers your injuries in a car accident case in Illinois, but your insurance might have other supplemental coverage. This might pay for some medical bills, vehicle repairs, and other costs through Medpay coverage and collision coverage.
What if the Other Driver’s Insurance is Too Low?
If the other driver’s insurance is too low to cover your case in full, you may have underinsured motorist coverage to help pay for the remaining damages.
What if the Other Driver Doesn’t Have Insurance?
If the other driver is uninsured, you can use your uninsured motorist coverage to pay for your damages in their place.
Illinois law requires drivers to have at least $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident in uninsured motorist coverage for bodily injuries. This covers things like medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering, but not vehicle repairs.
How Long Do I Have to File a Claim?
Illinois law gives car accident victims 2 years under our personal injury statute of limitations to file their case.
What Damages Can I Claim?
Victims can claim any economic or non-economic damages that resulted from their accidents. This often means claiming…
- Medical bills
- Lost wages
- Pain and suffering
- Vehicle repairs
- And more.
How Do You Calculate Pain and Suffering?
Pain and suffering has no bills or financial records, making it harder to estimate. Our lawyers can use a few different calculation methods to value your pain and suffering, all based on the overall severity of your injuries:
- The multiplier method chooses a multiplier based on the severity and multiplies your economic damages by that number to get pain and suffering damages.
- The per diem method chooses a per-day cost for how much your pain and suffering is worth and charges that for each day you suffered.
These are merely starting points, and we can adjust as needed.
Can You Claim Emotional Distress for a Car Accident?
If the other driver hurt you, you can claim compensation for any resulting damages, including mental anguish and emotional distress. These are typically factored into “pain and suffering.”
What is the Burden of Proof in a Car Accident Case?
Car accident cases are civil injury cases, meaning they use the “preponderance of the evidence” standard instead of the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard. This means you need to prove it is more likely than not that your claim is true – essentially a “more than 50%” standard.
Can I Sue if I Was Partially at Fault?
Illinois law allows victims who contributed to their own accident to still sue for injuries; it just reduces their damages. Courts assign a whole-number percentage of the blame to each party, and you lose a percentage of the total damages to reflect your percentage of fault.
You are only blocked from suing if your share of fault was over 50%.
Who Determines Fault?
If you file an insurance claim, the insurance company determines fault and only pays up if they think there is strong evidence that their driver was at fault. Even so, settlements usually involve no official finding of fault; the case is simply dropped in exchange for a payout.
If you go to trial, the jury determines fault. If you use a bench trial, there is no jury, and the judge determines fault instead.
Can I Sue After Settlement?
If you accept a settlement, your case is over. You cannot request more damages later, and you cannot sue.
Settlements usually include a release of liability that says you are dropping any further legal claims against the defendant for this event. Even without signing anything, accepting money from the defendant or their insurance may function as a settlement and close your options for future damages.
How Much Does My Lawyer Cost?
Our attorneys take a reasonable fee from a percentage of the winnings in your case. We can discuss the specific terms and percentage before doing any work on your case.
This “contingency fee” system means that anyone can afford a lawyer without paying up front, and that you pay nothing unless we win your case.
Call Our Car Accident Lawyers in Elmhurst Today
Contact Rhatigan Law Offices at (312) 578-8502 for a free case evaluation with our car accident attorneys today.
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