An Illinois wrongful death lawsuit is a type of civil personal injury case. It could help you obtain payment from someone who was wholly or partly responsible for your loved one’s death. You might be entitled to compensation for various losses, most notably:
This page is a legal information resource for surviving loved ones of accident victims, but we urge you to call us immediately and schedule a free consultation if you have lost someone. Sometimes, these things make much more sense when a real human being is explaining them to you.
Losing a loved one is a devastating experience no matter how the death occurs. A death that could have been prevented is even more tragic.
It might seem difficult to think about recovering compensation right after a family member wrongfully dies, but urgent action might be necessary. Insurance companies and responsible parties could be counting on delays.
Filing a wrongful death lawsuit in the weeks or months after your loss does not mean you have to postpone coming to terms with your grief. Our wrongful death attorneys in Schaumburg will support you in your grief, taking care of everything they can, putting as little stress on you as possible.
In fact, our clients often find their losses easier to process. They are taking positive action, holding responsible parties accountable, and obtaining the compensation they deserve.
Our wrongful death attorneys in Schaumburg know that financial compensation cannot bring your loved one back. What it can do is help secure your future.
Compensation can allow you to begin paying hospital bills incurred by your loved one after the accident. It can help with funeral and burial costs. It can also provide you with a replacement for your loved one’s future lost wages, particularly if you would have needed that money to survive and maintain your family’s quality of life.
Nobody wants to start one of these cases, but timeliness is important. The sooner you get in touch, the sooner we can get started on your case — and the better the outcome is likely to be.
We are your advocates, your champions, and your organizers. We help negotiate with other parties, investigate the details of your case, and tirelessly argue to protect your interests. We handle all of your paperwork, keep all of your schedules, and inform you about any and all pertinent developments in your case.
Finally, we are always here to answer your questions and settle any doubts you might have about your strategy, the legal context of your case, or what your future might hold as you deal with the loss of your loved one.
If you recently lost a loved one because of another party’s carelessness or harmful action, you may be eligible to file a wrongful death claim. Read on for some of the distinctions between wrongful death law and personal injury law, and information about who is eligible to seek compensation.
The Wrongful Death Act (740 ILCS 180/) governs Illinois wrongful death law. It is a type of personal injury law: A lawsuit filed under this act allows a plaintiff to seek damages from a negligent party.
The main idea in both wrongful death and personal injury is that the person who caused the injury (or death) should pay for the loss. There is a major difference, however, in how these two categories of cases work.
In a personal injury lawsuit, the party who sustained the injuries is the one who files a lawsuit. In a wrongful death claim, the law recognizes the fatally injured person as the plaintiff. Living people start the case and benefit from the outcome, but the deceased person is the party to the lawsuit.
If you are eligible to begin the process, the court will let us pursue an injury case on behalf of your loved one. We could seek compensation for medical bills, lost earning potential, and other types of losses. There will probably also be special types of damages that are unique to death, such as the pain and suffering of losing a loved one.
A wrongful death case and a homicide charge might result from the same loss. However, the two processes are very different. The key differences are the burden of proof, the court system, and how the court treats punishment.
Wrongful death has a lower burden of proof. This means that it is often easier for you to secure damages for a loss than it is for prosecutors to secure a guilty verdict in a homicide case.
Wrongful death is a civil matter. You can hire a personal injury attorney that specializes in wrongful death to represent you, which we would highly recommend doing. Homicide is a criminal matter. The state attorney pursues charges based on the best interests of the people of Illinois.
Finally, penalties in wrongful death cases are often financial. The point is to make you as whole as possible after your devastating loss. As you probably know, convictions in criminal homicide cases could carry extensive jail sentences, punitive fines, and other official sanctions.
Your preferred civil strategy could change based on the progress of a criminal charge. If you are concerned about this relationship, please contact us immediately for a free, in-depth analysis.
Under the Illinois Wrongful Death Act, a personal representative of the deceased’s estate can file a wrongful death lawsuit. The personal representative is typically a close family member, such as a
For example, a child who lost a parent due to nursing home negligence might initiate a suit. The parent of a child lost on a college campus could also potentially file, as could a wife whose husband died in a construction accident.
The statute of limitations for a wrongful death claim states that cases must be filed within the time limit set by the statute of limitations for the underlying type of case. That is normally two years for an adult or within one year of the date of the deceased person’s death, whichever date is the latter.
In practice, you should file as soon as possible. For the absolute best outcome, we need to begin the process before evidence degrades, memories of the events fade, and witnesses become unreliable.
The world is not as safe as we would like it to be. However, some places are more dangerous than others. Unfortunately, higher risks also come along with more aggressive insurance company tactics and more complicated wrongful death claims.
Any case involving a death requires the attention of a dedicated personal injury attorney. However, there are some situations in which defense strategies are particularly notorious for minimizing peoples’ claims.
Car accident injuries are risks we accept when we go out on the road. We drive cautiously and hope that others will do the same.
Unfortunately, that is not always the case. People drive drunk, they get distracted with mobile devices, they drive while fatigued — they speed, race, and treat these powerful, deadly machines as if they were toys.
Even if it seems like the other driver is completely at fault, please do not try to handle this type of case alone. Call us to Claim Your Justice™ on behalf of your loved one.
From a legal perspective, construction sites are complex. They are places of work. They are also highly regulated. Finally, they have many different types of tools, equipment, and machinery that a wide range of parties, such as maintenance companies, rental agencies, designers, manufacturers, and sellers are responsible for.
Getting full compensation for a loss in this situation is a challenge, so please leave it up to our experienced attorneys.
Nursing homes and long-term senior care facilities operate under strict guidelines, especially if they receive federal funding. Accidental death in this environment should be much less frequent than it is.
Insurance companies and nursing home managers might try to manipulate your emotions or take advantage of you. Your relationship with your loved one was worth more to you than they can ever know — let us help you show them that you do not take this negligence lightly.
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 Schaumburg law firm can speak with you today about your options.
Contact our Schaumburg wrongful death lawyers or call SJ Injury Law at 847-434-3555 to discuss your case. We represent injury and wrongful death victims in Schaumburg and throughout the greater Chicago area, including in Cook County, Will County, McHenry County, and Kane County.
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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.
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