Accidents and injuries happen much too often in and around Schaumburg, and they frequently occur because someone else — someone other than the victim, that is — was negligent.

Schaumburg Illinois Personal Injury Lawyers Representing Plaintiffs

If another party’s careless or reckless behavior caused your injuries, let us help. Get in touch with a Schaumburg injury attorney to Claim Your Justice™.

Types of Injury Cases We Handle

Our Illinois personal injury attorneys assist plaintiffs in getting the best possible settlement for their personal injury cases. We stand up to insurance companies, big companies, and even governments to get injured people the compensation they deserve.

Auto Accidents

Even the simplest auto accidents would involve more than just a dispute between you and another driver. We know that because our office handles cases that go well beyond the norm:

• Truck and other commercial vehicle accidents
• Injuries on or involving public transport, including PACE and CTA busses
• Rideshare passenger injuries and taxi passenger injuries
• Crashes involving multiple vehicles (pileups)
• Collisions with stationary objects
• Defective safety equipment, maintenance work, or vehicle design (product liability)

Regardless of the details, you have to investigate the accident, negotiate with insurance, and analyze case law — and that’s just the beginning. If your case goes to court, you need an experienced car accident trial lawyer who will stand by your side until you get a fair deal. 

Pedestrian Accidents

The problem with pedestrian accident cases is balancing the rules of the road with the rules of common sense. People outside cars are much more vulnerable than those in them. Illinois courts routinely decide in favor of pedestrians injured by vehicles, even if people were walking outside of crosswalks, off of sidewalks, and so on. Claim Your Justice™ by letting our Illinois personal injury attorneys analyze your case and tell your story.

Bicycle Accidents

In Schaumburg and throughout the Chicago area, bicycles are gaining popularity as commuter vehicles, recreational gear, and fitness equipment. Unfortunately, infrastructure isn’t quite up to the demand yet. 

Governments are painting bike lanes onto narrow streets, motorists aren’t taking the risk of injuries seriously, and some drivers seem to actively resent the presence of cyclists on the road. Call our Illinois personal injury attorneys today if you have any bike injury, but especially one of the following:

• A collision in a bike lane
• Getting doored (when someone in a parked car opens the door and causes your injury)
• Intersection injuries
• Crashes involving turns, merges, and so on
• Collisions with other cyclists
• bicycle-pedestrian collisions

Motorcycle Accidents

Motorcycles are certainly more dangerous to operate than passenger vehicles, but they are far from the death traps that popular media sets them out to be. The real damage typically only comes when one or more parties to the accident were negligent.

If you are a trained biker with a well-maintained vehicle, your risk should not be too high. If you’re using protective gear on well-maintained roads in favorable conditions while keeping aware of your surroundings, the risk is even lower.

There’s usually an obvious reason for motorcycle accident injuries such as burns, broken bones, road rash, or even death. It’s often someone in a large vehicle who speeds, drives distractedly, crowds, tailgates, or change lanes without checking blind spots.

This is the type of negligence our Illinois personal injury attorneys look for when building a case. More often than not, the evidence shows that the motorcyclist does not bear significant responsibility for the injury.

Boating Accidents

Like it or not, some people see the open water of Lake Michigan and get the idea that it’s a free-for-all. There are rules of boating just like there are rules on the road.

A serious crash on a boat could be just as dangerous as the same type of crash on land. If the other boater (or the negligent operator of a boat in which you were a passenger) was drinking, operating the vehicle recklessly, speeding, or ignoring weather conditions, you could have a very strong personal injury claim.

Tour operators on the Chicago River and Navy Pier also have obligations to uphold. Our Schaumburg Illinois personal injury attorneys are experienced in this area. Call us to Claim Your Justice™. 

Medical Malpractice

Almost every type of medical treatment involves some kind of risk. To offset that risk, doctors receive intense training and hospitals must comply with strict organizational and ethical requirements. If someone didn’t live up to the high standards of the medical profession, you could have a malpractice case. Common examples include:

• Birth injuries to the mother or baby (Erb’s palsy, suction injuries, and so on)
• Misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose
• Surgical chart errors (wrong site, wrong patient, or wrong-site wrong-patient)
• Surgical operational errors (anesthesia, leaving instruments inside the patient, and so on)
• Pharmaceutical errors and interactions

Slip and Fall Accidents

Slip and fall accidents are when you receive an injury on somebody else’s property. That “somebody else” can be an individual property owner, a company, or even the government.

Especially if you have a claim against the government, it is important to act quickly and strategically in these types of cases. It seems like you have plenty of time when you look at the law, but the fact is that you might find yourself with less evidence as time goes on. Right now is the best time to Claim Your Justice™ by calling our experienced Illinois personal injury attorneys. 

Product Liability Claims

If you want to sell to Americans, you have to make sure your product is up to the standards of the marketplace. If you release something dangerous, even if you only partially contribute to the danger, you could be held liable.

Faulty or defective medical equipment, vehicles, pharmaceuticals, food, supplement, toys tools, electronics: These do not belong in this country. If you were injured by any type of product, or if a defective feature made your injuries worse, you might be able to hold the following people liable for your injuries:

• Designers
• Manufacturers
• Retailers
• Labelers

Nursing Home Abuse

It seems unthinkable, but some people actively set out to abuse elders financially, emotionally, physically, and even sexually. They insinuate themselves into positions of authority specifically for this purpose. 

Nursing home operators and owners know about the risk of elder abuse and neglect. They should have robust systems in place to screen employees and prevent this type of predatory behavior. When they fail to do this, they could be liable for the injuries your loved ones incur while in long-term senior assisted living facilities.

As our population ages, nursing home abuse will continue to be a threat. Our dedicated Illinois personal injury attorneys have the skill and experience to help you Claim Your Justice™. 

Filing a Personal Injury Lawsuit in Illinois

Most of the types of injury claims cited above operate on a theory of negligence. In other words, the plaintiff must prove that 

• The defendant owed a duty of care,
• The defendant was negligent in breaching that duty of care, and 
• That the plaintiff’s injuries resulted from the negligence.

In short, to Claim Your Justice™, our Illinois personal injury attorneys have to prove that someone should have done (or not done) something and that their irresponsible decisions led directly to your injury. 

Demonstrating Duty

Depending on the specific type of accident or injury, you might need to provide additional evidence that the defendant was negligent. Sometimes, the duty is clear. 

In traffic accident cases, a motorist owes a reasonable duty of care to other drivers and pedestrians simply by getting behind the wheel. In medical malpractice, a healthcare provider owes a duty of care as soon as the doctor-patient relationship begins. 

However, for a slip and fall accident, the plaintiff may need to provide additional information about why and when she was on the property in order to prove that the defendant owed a duty of care. A Schaumburg Illinois personal injury lawyer can help.

Statute of Limitations for an Illinois Personal Injury Lawsuit

The statute of limitations (735 ILCS 5/) is the law that provides rules about when you can file a personal injury claim. Filing a claim begins the legal process. For most non-lawyers, “statute of limitations” is synonymous with “deadline”.

Injury lawsuits in Illinois usually have a limit of two years from the date of the injury. In a bicycle accident or pedestrian accident, for example, you must file a claim within two years from the date the accident happened.

Some cases have longer time limits. A medical negligence injury might allow you longer than two years. A case of an injured child might. Still, it is almost always best to contact an attorney and begin the planning process as soon as you discover the injury.

How Comparative Fault Could Impact Your Illinois Injury

Illinois follows a modified comparative fault rule (735 ILCS 5/2-1116). The most important part of this is that if you are partially at fault for your injuries, you might be able to recover some damages. Everyone pays in proportion to their responsibility.

Here’s an example of how Illinois comparative fault law works. Imagine you began a car accident and a court decided you were 49 percent at fault. You could potentially recover damages, but only up to the remaining 51 percent. 

However, once someone proves you’re 51 percent or more at fault, she is barred from recovery. In short, you can’t be the one who contributed the most to the injury in your lawsuit. If the other parties were more to blame than you, it’s time to Claim Your Justice™.

Contact Our Personal Injury Lawyer in Schaumburg

Were you injured in an accident? Our Schaumburg personal injury lawyers can help with your case. An advocate at SJ Injury Law can discuss how it’s time to Claim Your Justice™. Contact our Schaumburg law firm online or call our Illinois personal injury attorneys at 847-434-3555 to learn more about how we help plaintiffs with injury cases in Illinois. We represent injury victims throughout the greater Chicago area, including in Cook County, Will County, McHenry County, and Kane County.