Palatine Personal Injury and Car Accident Lawyers

Palatine Personal Injury Lawyers

Located within Cook County, IL, our Palatine personal injury lawyers know that Palatine is a place of celebration and culture. For those who live in or near Palatine, top activities throughout the year include Oktoberfest, a large Fourth of July celebration that features a carnival, and Streetfest.

Modeled off of Taste of Chicago, Streetfest features music, games, and dozens of food vendors lining the streets. In addition to festivities, residents of Palatine also are able to enjoy the Palatine recreation center, as well as the many community parks, such as Cottonwood Park.

At SJ Injury Law, our attorneys have lived and worked in Palatine and the surrounding areas of Cook County for years. We know how unique this place is, and also know that when you’ve been injured, you want the support of a skilled professional. If you’ve been involved in an accident, our Palatine personal injury law firm can advocate for you. Call us today to learn more about the services we offer.

Types of Personal Injury Claims Our Palatine Personal Injury Lawyers Handle

Our Palatine personal injury lawyers work on a wide range of personal injury case types. If you have been injured and you believe that someone else’s actions were to blame, we want to help you. While no two types of personal injury cases are exactly the same, many have structural and process similarities. Some of the most common types of personal injury claims our law firm works on include:

• Nursing home abuse. Nursing home residents (and their loved ones) have an expectation that they will receive a high level of care; indeed, it is for this reason that they move into a nursing home in the first place. As such, nursing home injuries that stem from abuse or neglect can be particularly shocking. Abuse in a nursing home can take the form of physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional and psychological abuse, and financial exploitation. While abuse is explicit—and often illegal, too—neglect can be more subtle but equally as serious. Signs of neglect might include weight loss, poor hygiene, bedsores, and unexplained injuries.
• Auto accidents. Auto accidents are one of the most common causes of injury and death among residents of Illinois. Our law firm has experience working on a range of auto accident types, including commercial vehicle crashes, motorcycle accidents, pedestrian accidents, and bicycle accidents. We also work on passenger vehicle crashes that involve rollovers, single vehicles, multiple vehicles, head-on crashes, rear-end crashes, and more. We can assist you in proving fault of the responsible party and navigating the insurance and liability system.
• Slip and fall. A slip and fall accident may, on its face, sound relatively unserious—after all, most people have slipped or tripped at some point in their life. A slip and fall accident can be severe, though, and the risk of injury is greater for elderly persons. In some cases, a slip and fall could lead to a bone fracture, a traumatic brain injury, a back or neck injury, soft tissue injuries, and even a spinal cord injury in the most severe of cases. While some slip and fall accidents are a result of the victim’s own clumsiness or fault, in some cases, slip and falls occur because of dangerous conditions on a property. If your slip and fall happened because of a dangerous property condition, such as depression in walking areas, loose cords or wires, or unremoved snow or ice, you may have a premises liability suit for damages.
• Wrongful death. Losing a loved one at any time can be extremely trying, even if the loved one was aged and died from natural causes. What can be particularly shocking, though, is losing a loved one unexpectedly in a severe accident that’s caused by the fault of another party. Car accidents, defective drug or product accidents, workplace accidents, and more can all result in catastrophic and fatal injuries. If you have lost a loved one in an avoidable accident caused by the wrongful actions of another party, you may have a wrongful death claim for damages. Our Palatine wrongful death attorneys can help you to understand your rights and how to start filing your wrongful death claim today.
• Construction accidents. Construction workers are absolutely vital to our nation’s economy, and we have them to thank for the many structures and buildings that make our world go ‘round. But working in construction is a risky business, and construction workers are injured and killed in the industry every year. Top causes of worker injuries and deaths include electrocution accidents, caught-in/between machinery accidents, falls and falls from heights, and struck by object accidents. While most construction workers are covered under workers’ compensation insurance, this type of insurance is capped and doesn’t allow for the recovery of noneconomic losses, such as pain and suffering. Our lawyers can help injured construction workers and their families understand whether or not there is a cause of action for a third-party liability claim—a type of personal injury claim brought against a third party (someone other than the employer) whose negligence was to blame for the construction accident. In addition to representing workers, we can also represent passersby who are injured at construction sites.
• More. The above outlines some of the most common personal injury focus areas, but the list is not inclusive. Our team can also represent you in your medical malpractice claims, premises liability claims, product liability claims, and more. Please reach out to us directly if you’ve been injured and need legal counsel. We offer free consultations.

How Do I Know If I Have a Personal Injury Claim?

It can be difficult to understand whether you have a personal injury claim. If you’ve been injured, how do you know if you can hold another party liable for harm?

The first thing to ask yourself is whether your injuries are serious. If you have been seriously injured and have suffered a large amount of economic and non-economic damages, you should talk to one of our Palatine personal injury lawyers. When your losses are significant, pursuing a personal injury claim can provide the financial compensation you deserve.

The second thing to think about is whether or not someone else was to blame for your losses and, if so if you can prove it. In a personal injury lawsuit, there are four elements that must be satisfied: duty, breach of duty, causation, and damages. This essentially means that you must be able to prove that the defendant (the party against whom you’re filing a claim) did something negligent, that the negligence was the proximate cause of your harm, and that you’ve suffered damages.

Damages Recoverable in a Personal Injury Claim

By filing a personal injury claim in Palatine, you can seek damages—or monetary compensation—for your losses. Types of damages that are recoverable in a Palatine personal injury claim include:

• Economic damages. Economic damages are damages to compensate you for the value of your economic, out-of-pocket losses. This includes compensation for the value of your medical expenses, property damage losses, and lost wages, and future lost wages. If your injuries prevent you from returning to work and cause permanent disability, you can seek compensation for the value of the wages you could have earned but for your injuries, including the value of your lost benefits.
• Non-economic damages. Non-economic damages are more difficult to quantify because they are not based on economic losses. Instead, non-economic damages are paid to compensate you for the value of things like the value of your diminished quality of life and the value of your pain, suffering, and emotional distress.

Statute of Limitations in Illinois

When you have been injured in Illinois, it’s important to file a claim as early as possible. If you don’t provide the insurance company with notice of your accident and claim within a reasonable amount of time, they may have grounds to deny it—the insurance company has a right to learn of the claim in a reasonable amount of time so that it can investigate the accident.

There’s also a state law called a statute of limitations that puts a limit on how much time you have to file a personal injury lawsuit. In Illinois, the statute of limitations is two years from the date of injury. If you wait longer than two years from the date of your accident to file a personal injury suit in court, you will be permanently barred from recovery. Our SJ Injury Law Palatine personal injury lawyers strongly recommend commencing the personal injury claims process as soon as possible to ensure that your right to bring forth a lawsuit, should you need to do so, is preserved.

How to Get Started with Our Palatine Personal Injury Lawyers

We know that when you’ve been involved in a severe accident and are dealing with catastrophic injuries, you may feel overwhelmed by the idea of bringing forth a claim and hopeless about the future. Our Palatine personal injury lawyers will aggressively advocate for you and work hard to get you a fair settlement. To learn more about your options and how we can help, please call our law firm directly today at 847-434-3555 or send us a message requesting more information. We are here for you.