Injured in Illinois? Make no mistake: Your chance to recover maximum compensation improves when you have a top Schaumburg personal injury attorney on your side. Our law firm has the experience you need and will fight for your rights.
We have over five decades of combined experience in personal injury law and have collected millions of dollars for our clients. We know the Illinois legal system backward and forward. We stick with you and help you Claim Your Justice™.
Call us now at 847-434-3555. The sooner you start, the better chance you have at getting the money you deserve.
Injured victims deserve justice. We deliver justice. If you or a family member are injured due to the recklessness or carelessness of another person, doctor, hospital, or corporation, monetary recovery may be available.
We are dedicated personal injury attorneys in Schaumburg, Chicago, and beyond. We help you Claim Your JusticeTM, facing off against even the most powerful organizations. We don’t back down until you get what you deserve.
Our personal injury lawyers have more than 50 years of combined experience representing injured victims throughout Illinois. Insurance companies know us, and they know we mean business when it comes to protecting our clients.
We know how to pursue those responsible for your personal injuries. It all starts with a free, no-obligation, personalized consultation. To Claim Your Justice™, call us today at 847-434-3555. We offer home, virtual, and hospital visits. Plus, there is no fee unless we win for you.
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Car accidents are among the leading causes of serious injuries. Our law firm handles the full range of traffic collisions, including car crashes, motorcycle wrecks, taxi crashes, semi-truck accidents, pedestrian collisions, and bicycle accidents. If you or your loved one were seriously injured in a car accident, call our lawyers before you speak to an insurance company. SJ Injury Law is here to help.
Construction companies have a duty to look out for the health and safety of their workers, employees of other firms, and members of the general public. If a construction accident occurs, injured victims may be eligible to a monetary recovery through a workers’ compensation claim or a construction accident lawsuit. SJ Injury Law is here to help.
Property owners and businesses have a legal duty to keep their premises in a safe condition. When they fail to do so, serious injuries can happen. Our personal injury lawyers have the skills to handle the full range of these premises liability cases, including slip and fall accidents, negligent security claims, and dog bite injury cases. SJ Injury Law is here to help.
Filing a wrongful death claim can feel difficult after losing a loved one, but it is important to seek compensation if the deceased’s death resulted from someone else’s negligence or intentionally wrongful act. It’s time to Claim Your Justice™, and a wrongful death lawyer at our firm can speak with you today about your options. SJ Injury Law is here to help.
You trust residential care facilities to provide care, not to abuse your loved ones. If you suspect elder neglect or abuse at an assisted living facility or nursing home, call us to Claim Your Justice™. A nursing home injury can help you work through your options. SJ Injury Law is here to help.
Dog owners need to step up and take responsibility for the injuries their animals cause. Unfortunately, they rarely do this of their own free will. It’s time to Claim Your Justice™. An animal attack lawyer can help you decide on your next strategic moves. SJ Injury Law is here to help.
Claim Your Justice™. Call us now at 847-434-3555.
Personal injury law in every state is different. There are different legal theories that apply, and different municipal and state rules that could affect the outcome of your claim. Here are some important points about the system:
In Illinois:
Most personal injury cases don’t go to trial. Instead, you would probably arrive at an agreement with the person (or with the other people) in your lawsuit. This is called a settlement.
A settlement is a binding legal contract that gets you the compensation you deserve. It does not require a judge or a jury — instead, you negotiate with the other parties. However, the amount you get in your settlement should be based on the amount you would have received in court.
How do you know how much a personal injury claim is worth? What would the court give you if you went to trial? The only reliable way to answer these questions is to prepare your case like you’re going to trial.
That means gathering all of your evidence, doing all of your calculations, and structuring all of your arguments the same way that you would in court. Preparing for trial takes a lot of work, but we do not back down from the challenge. We believe that this level of preparedness is essential if you want to Claim Your Justice™.
Yes: You can afford a top personal injury lawyer here at our firm. The consultation is free, and we do not charge any initial fees.
We work on a contingency fee schedule. That means our only chance of getting paid is if we help you recover damages. Really: We don’t get paid until you do.
Don’t go it alone. We charge nothing upfront, and nothing at all until we recover for you. In fact, you might not be able to afford your future if you try to pursue the claim yourself.
We might even be able to improve your immediate financial situation in some cases. We understand the financial side of injuries. Give us a call now to get started — don’t wait until things get out of control.
Yes: In some situations, you can sue on behalf of a family member. The most common situation would be starting a claim when you are a:
Illinois law lets people start personal injury cases when they lose loved ones. We would pursue justice on behalf of your relative, and you could receive the compensation your family needs to survive and maintain your way of life.
You could file a claim against individuals, corporations, or governments if you sustained an injury due to their negligence. You would need to prove that they had a duty, failed to uphold it, and that failure caused you a definite loss.
Examples of breaches of duty might include a drunk driver crashing into you in an intersection, a dog owner letting a dangerous animal attack you, a doctor using hazardous technology to deliver your baby, a nursing home employing abusive staff members, or an engineering firm designing faulty automotive parts.
Injuries range: birth injury, poisoning, bruises, sexually transmitted diseases, pharmaceutical interaction, burns, traumatic brain injury, emotional trauma, whiplash, joint damage, soft tissue injuries, electrocution, bedsores, stress disorders, crushed limbs, blindness, and death are all examples.
Compensation for personal injury lawsuits in Illinois should equal the amount of responsibility times the total loss. This is called contributory negligence. For example, if someone was 90 percent responsible for your million-dollar loss, that person should pay you 90 percent of a million: $900,000.
What if you have more losses than one party can pay for? What if there are many people responsible for your injury? What if you are not sure how much you are to blame? These are complex problems with equally complex solutions, but we can help.
Call SJ Injury Law at 847-434-3555 to Claim Your Justice™.
The bottom line here is that the law is complex. You need one of our attorneys on your side — someone who fits all of the following requirements:
Claim Your Justice™. Call us now at 847-434-3555.
Illinois personal injury law allows people who have been harmed by another person, business, property owner, healthcare provider, or organization to pursue compensation for qualifying losses. The answers below address common questions about liability, insurance claims, compensation, filing deadlines, and the Illinois personal injury claims process.
A personal injury claim may arise when another person or organization causes an injury through negligence, an unsafe condition, a defective product, an intentional act, or another legally recognized form of misconduct.
Common Illinois personal injury cases include car accidents, commercial truck crashes, motorcycle accidents, pedestrian and bicycle collisions, slip and fall accidents, construction injuries, dog attacks, nursing home abuse, medical negligence, defective products, and wrongful death.
An accident does not automatically create a valid personal injury claim. There must generally be evidence connecting another party’s conduct to the injury and the resulting damages. Because liability rules differ depending on how and where an injury occurred, an Illinois personal injury attorney should evaluate the specific circumstances of the case.
You may have a valid personal injury case if another party owed you a legal duty, violated that duty, caused your injury, and left you with measurable damages.
For example, drivers must operate their vehicles with reasonable care. Businesses must take reasonable steps to protect lawful visitors from dangerous property conditions. Nursing homes must provide residents with legally required care and supervision.
A successful personal injury claim generally requires evidence showing that:
You should not assume that you have no case merely because an insurance adjuster has denied responsibility or claimed that you caused the accident. Liability often becomes clearer after accident reports, photographs, surveillance recordings, witness statements, medical records, and other evidence have been examined.
Most Illinois personal injury lawsuits must be filed within two years of the date the injury occurred. This deadline is known as the statute of limitations.
Missing the applicable filing deadline can prevent an injured person from recovering compensation, regardless of how strong the underlying claim may have been.
Not every Illinois injury case has the same deadline. Claims involving local governmental entities may be subject to a shorter filing period. Medical malpractice, childhood injuries, occupational injuries, product liability cases, and claims involving the delayed discovery of an injury may also be governed by different rules.
An attorney should review the applicable deadline as early as possible. Waiting can also create practical problems because surveillance footage may be deleted, vehicles may be repaired, dangerous property conditions may change, and witnesses may become difficult to locate.
Yes. Illinois law recognizes certain exceptions, extensions, and shorter filing deadlines.
Many claims against local public entities or public employees must be filed within one year. This may affect claims involving municipalities, public transportation agencies, public schools, park districts, and other governmental bodies.
The filing period may also be extended in certain cases involving injured minors, legal disabilities, fraudulent concealment, or injuries that could not reasonably have been discovered immediately.
However, specialized claims such as medical malpractice cases may be subject to separate statutes of repose that impose an absolute deadline regardless of when the injury was discovered.
These exceptions are highly fact-specific. An injured person should never assume that an exception will preserve a claim without obtaining legal advice.
Yes, provided you were not more than 50 percent responsible for the accident or injury. Illinois follows a modified comparative fault rule.
When an injured person is found to be 50 percent or less at fault, the available compensation is reduced according to that person’s percentage of responsibility.
For example, if your total damages were $200,000 but you were found 20 percent responsible for the accident, your recoverable compensation would generally be reduced by 20 percent to $160,000.
If you are found to be more than 50 percent responsible, Illinois law generally prevents you from recovering compensation from the other party.
Insurance companies frequently use comparative fault allegations to reduce what they must pay. They may claim that an injured driver was speeding, a pedestrian was distracted, or a customer failed to notice an obvious hazard. These allegations should be tested against the available evidence rather than accepted at face value.
Your priorities should be obtaining medical care, reporting the incident, preserving available evidence, and avoiding statements that could be used to minimize your claim.
Depending on the circumstances, helpful steps may include:
Do not delay medical care simply because an injury initially appears manageable. Head injuries, neck injuries, back injuries, fractures, and internal injuries may become more apparent after the shock and adrenaline of the accident have subsided.
The most valuable evidence establishes how the incident occurred, who was responsible, what injuries resulted, and how those injuries affected the victim’s life.
Evidence in an Illinois personal injury case may include:
Different claims require different evidence. A truck accident investigation may involve driver logs, electronic logging device data, maintenance records, and company safety policies. A slip and fall case may depend on surveillance footage, inspection procedures, and employee testimony. A construction accident may require contracts, safety records, and evidence identifying the companies that controlled the worksite.
Evidence can disappear quickly. Businesses may overwrite surveillance footage, vehicles may be repaired, and responsible companies may dispose of documents unless they receive a legally appropriate preservation notice.
An injured person may seek compensation for both financial losses and the personal consequences of the injury.
Depending on the circumstances, recoverable damages may include:
Punitive damages may be available in limited cases involving particularly reckless, malicious, fraudulent, or intentional conduct. The damages that may be pursued depend on the evidence, the nature of the defendant’s conduct, and the long-term effects of the injury.
The value of an Illinois personal injury claim depends on the severity and permanence of the injuries, the available insurance coverage, the strength of the liability evidence, and the full effect of the injury on the person’s work and daily life.
Important valuation factors may include:
There is no reliable online calculator or universal settlement formula. Two people with similar diagnoses may have very different claims because their occupations, treatment needs, recovery periods, insurance coverage, and long-term limitations are different.
A claim should not be valued until the available evidence has been reviewed, the medical prognosis is understood, and all potentially responsible parties and sources of insurance coverage have been identified.
You should generally consult a personal injury attorney before giving a recorded statement to another party’s insurance company.
An insurance adjuster may ask carefully framed questions designed to obtain statements that can later be used to dispute liability, minimize the seriousness of your injuries, or allege that your medical problems existed before the accident.
The adjuster may ask you to speculate about speed, distance, visibility, prior injuries, or how you currently feel. Even an innocent statement such as “I am doing fine” may later be cited as evidence that your injuries were minor.
Your obligations to your own insurance company may be different because your insurance policy may require reasonable cooperation. However, cooperation does not mean that you must answer unclear or misleading questions without preparation.
An attorney can determine whether a statement is required, prepare you for appropriate questions, and help prevent the insurer from expanding the interview beyond legitimate issues.
You should not accept a settlement until you understand the full extent of your injuries, future medical needs, lost income, legal rights, and the consequences of signing a release.
Early settlement offers are often made before an injured person reaches maximum medical improvement or learns whether surgery, injections, therapy, or long-term treatment will be required.
The offer may account for current medical bills while overlooking future treatment, reduced earning capacity, pain and suffering, disability, disfigurement, or loss of a normal life.
A personal injury settlement normally requires the claimant to release the responsible parties from further liability. Once the release is signed, the claim generally cannot be reopened merely because the injury worsens or additional medical expenses arise.
Every proposed settlement should be evaluated against the likely value of the fully developed claim rather than the claimant’s immediate financial pressure.
Most personal injury cases are resolved through negotiated settlements. However, every serious claim should be prepared as though it may proceed to trial.
A lawsuit may become necessary when the insurance company:
Filing a lawsuit does not necessarily mean that a trial will occur. Negotiations often continue while the parties exchange evidence, question witnesses, take depositions, and obtain expert opinions.
Thorough trial preparation can strengthen settlement negotiations because an insurance company is more likely to take a claim seriously when the evidence is organized and the attorney is prepared to present the case to a judge or jury.
An Illinois personal injury case may take several months or several years, depending on the medical recovery, disputed issues, number of defendants, available insurance coverage, and whether litigation becomes necessary.
A relatively straightforward claim involving clear fault and completed medical treatment may resolve without filing a lawsuit.
A catastrophic injury, commercial truck crash, disputed premises liability case, construction accident, medical malpractice claim, or wrongful death lawsuit may require extensive investigation, expert testimony, depositions, and court proceedings.
Settling too quickly can be harmful when the injured person’s medical prognosis remains uncertain. A reasonable case timeline should allow the medical condition to be evaluated properly while also preserving evidence and meeting every applicable filing deadline.
An injured person may still be able to pursue compensation through uninsured motorist coverage, hit-and-run coverage, underinsured motorist coverage, or another applicable insurance policy.
Uninsured motorist coverage may apply when the responsible driver has no automobile insurance or leaves the scene of the accident and cannot be identified.
Underinsured motorist coverage may apply when the responsible driver has insurance, but the available liability limit is insufficient to compensate the injured person fully.
Additional coverage may be available through:
These claims may involve strict notice requirements, policy definitions, arbitration provisions, and disputes with the injured person’s own insurance company.
Possibly. An injured employee may have both a workers’ compensation claim and a separate personal injury claim against a negligent third party.
Workers’ compensation generally provides benefits for qualifying work-related injuries without requiring the employee to prove that the employer was negligent.
A third-party personal injury lawsuit may arise when someone other than the employer or a co-worker caused the injury.
Examples may include:
Third-party personal injury claims may provide damages that workers’ compensation does not, including compensation for pain and suffering and loss of a normal life.
Illinois law may also give an employer or workers’ compensation insurance carrier reimbursement rights when an employee obtains compensation from a third party. The claims must therefore be coordinated carefully.
An Illinois dog owner may be liable when the animal, without provocation, attacks, attempts to attack, or injures a person who was peaceably present in a place where the person had a lawful right to be.
An injured person generally does not have to prove that the dog previously attacked someone or that the owner knew the animal was dangerous.
Important issues may include:
Dog-related claims may involve puncture wounds, infections, nerve injuries, fractures, facial scarring, reconstructive surgery, and psychological trauma. Children may suffer especially serious physical and emotional harm.
Evidence should include photographs, medical records, witness information, animal-control reports, and information identifying the animal and its owner.
An Illinois wrongful death lawsuit is generally filed by the personal representative of the deceased person’s estate for the benefit of the surviving spouse and next of kin.
Depending on the circumstances, recoverable damages may include compensation for:
The estate may also have a separate survival claim for medical expenses, lost income, pain and suffering, and other damages the deceased person experienced between the injury and death.
Wrongful death cases may arise from fatal motor vehicle accidents, unsafe property conditions, defective products, medical negligence, nursing home abuse, construction accidents, or other wrongful conduct.
These cases involve specialized procedural requirements, including the appointment of an estate representative. Families should seek legal guidance promptly so evidence can be preserved and all applicable filing deadlines can be identified.
Most Illinois personal injury attorneys handle qualifying cases under a contingency fee agreement.
A contingency fee means that the attorney’s legal fee is calculated as an agreed percentage of the compensation recovered rather than being charged as an hourly fee at the beginning of the case.
The written agreement should explain:
Clients should review the agreement carefully and ask questions about medical liens, health insurance reimbursement claims, expert expenses, filing fees, deposition costs, and other potential deductions.
SJ Injury Law offers free consultations to personal injury victims in Schaumburg, the greater Chicago area, and communities throughout Illinois. Call 847-434-3555 to discuss your accident, injuries, and available legal options.
The information provided in this FAQ section is for general educational purposes and is not a substitute for legal advice about a specific accident, injury, insurance policy, or filing deadline.
When you start an injury claim, you’re usually not just going up against the person who injured you. More often than not, you’re facing a powerful insurance company with a team of well-paid attorneys, a highly structured bureaucracy, and a mountain of rules, regulations, and forms to delay, distract, and frustrate you. We’ve seen it all before. We know how to cut through the red tape with arguments and evidence the other side can respect and understand. The experienced and aggressive Illinois personal injury lawyers at SJ Injury Law in Schaumburg know how to Claim Your Justice™. Call us now at 847-434-3555.
We are highly experienced personal injury lawyers. We know how to help accident victims receive the full financial compensation they deserve. Our Winning Team is focused, dedicated, and sensitive to each of our client’s needs. We are here to help you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
With more than five decades of combined experience handling personal injury claims, our Illinois personal injury attorneys know exactly how the insurance companies operate. We are prepared to use our unique skills to fight for your rights. Our attorneys put the best interests of our clients first—working closely with them through every step of the claims process. Among other things, we will:
The bottom line: We get results. Our law firm will work aggressively to make sure that you and your family recover every penny that you are rightfully owed. If the defendant or insurance company fails to offer you a full and fair settlement, our trial-tested personal injury lawyers are ready to take your case to court to get you justice.
At SJ Injury Law, our personal injury attorneys are standing by, ready to fight for your rights. To set up a free, fully confidential case evaluation, please call us today at 847-434-3555. We represent injury victims throughout the state of Illinois.
1990 E. Algonquin Rd,
Schaumburg, IL 60173, United States
