Author: robertedenslaadmin

According to the Child Passenger Protection Act, children who are under the age of 12 have to ride in a car seat. The law was changed from 8 years to include 12-year-old’s under the consideration children grow at different rates. As parents, you need to familiarize yourself with these laws, so you don’t accidentally violate laws during a long drive, to grandma’s place or anywhere you take your kids in the car.

According to state law, if you are transporting a child who is younger than eight, you are liable for their safety. That means you need to ensure they are properly secured in the relevant child restraint system, such as a booster seat. This must be done whether your car has air bags or not.

This includes children who are younger than 16 years of age – according to the law, they must remain secure in the back seat with lap belts. This includes children who are under eight years of age and weigh more than 40 pounds IF there is no booster seat available to accommodate their size.

Similarly, children who are under two years of age have to be secured in a rear facing harness system. The only exception is children of this age who weigh over 40 pounds or are at least 40 inches tall. They can be secured with a forward facing seat.

Besides ensuring your children are secure in the back seat with the appropriate restraint systems, you also have to wear an adjustable seat belt while driving them around. This involves any driver who is under 18 years old who has a graduate driver’s license or until they reach 18 years of age. Plus, they cannot drive with more than one person who is under 20 years old.

It is the responsibility of the driver to ensure every passenger, young and old obeys safety belt laws and the provisions in the Child Passenger Protection Act. In case you are involved in an accident and the passengers are not secure, you will be the one held liable for their injuries.

If you secured your children properly and they were injured because of an accident, you can sue for damages if the guilty driver refuses to pay. If you find yourself in such a situation – whether you had passengers with you or not – get in touch with Bob Edens at the Law Offices of Robert T. Edens. Bob and his staff are dedicated when it comes to representing auto accident victims in Illinois. We offer our services in Chicago, Waukegan, Woodstock, Libertyville and Antioch, IL. Get in touch for a consultation today.

Very few teens wait until they are older to get behind the wheel. However, without proper training, they can become hazards on the road. If the teen’s vehicle isn’t insured, you can end up paying out of pocket and have to pay a fine of $500 to $1,000 for not having insurance.

Before your teens get you into trouble, you need to make sure they are trained to drive a vehicle. What better way to do that than making them go through the state’s stringent licensing protocols?

Getting A Driver’s License in Illinois

You have to be at least 15 to be eligible for a driver’s license in Illinois. You need to complete three (3) stages and each requires a parent’s permission if you just turned 15. At that point, you can get an instruction permit with written consent from your parents or legal guardians. However, you have to earn it by passing a driver education course, a written test and a vision test.

Once you have the permit, you can drive, but only if you are accompanied by an adult who is older than 21 or a parent who has a valid driver’s license. Plus, they need to sit in the front passenger seat, not the back, and the vehicle should not accommodate more people than the number of seat belts it has.

New or teen drivers must accumulate more than 50 hours of driving, as well as 10 hours of night-time driving before they are allowed to move onto the first phase of the licensing procedure. However, you cannot drive all day to make those up. According to Illinois law, drivers who only have an instruction permit cannot drive:

• Between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. Sunday to Thursday.
• Between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. Saturday and Friday.

Once the driver turns 16 and does not have a conviction on their permit for at least nine (9) months, they can apply for their initial license. However, to get it:

• Their guardian or parent of the driver must certify they completed the aforementioned hours.
• They need to provide proof they completed a state-approved driving course, along with proof they graduated from an accredited high school or GED program.
• Their parent or guardian has to go with them to the Driver Services facility to sign a form confirming their consent.
• You need to pass a driving test.

However, even when you get your initial driver’s license, you are not out of the woods yet. You will need to follow certain restrictions by law, such as the time limits mentioned before. Additionally, for the first 12 months after you get your driver’s license or when you turn 18, you cannot have more than one passenger under 20 in the vehicle with you unless the other passenger is your sibling, step sibling, child or step child.

Even the best drivers can get into accidents. If you or someone you love has been hurt by one, you deserve to get the compensation need and deserve. If you face disputes from the insurance company or the other driver, get in touch with us at the Law Offices of Robert T. Edens today. We have more than two decades of experience successfully representing victims like you in court. Call us today in Chicago, Waukegan, Libertyville, Woodstock or Antioch, IL, and get the compensation you deserve.

Whether an injury is caused by a car accident or a dog bite, it may require a trip to the emergency room – and many other facilities, to get you to Maximum Medical Improvement (MMI). In addition to stress, pain and loss of employment, your injuries can place a serious strain on your finances – especially when you start to receive medical bills. If your injuries require surgery, you will likely spend months in recovery doing Physical Therapy (PT) and/or Occupational Therapy (OT), which will certainly result in a mounting pile of medical bills, which will make you question: Who is responsible for paying these bills?

The Negligent Party Determines the Compensation Amount

Ask yourself: Do you have money to take care of all the expenses associated with your injury? Fortunately, Illinois is a fault state, which means you can demand compensation from the responsible party. However, these cases can be complicated, and you may end up being denied compensation if you are found partially responsible for the accident which caused your injuries.

In this case, Robert “Bob” T. Edens, an attorney with more than 27 years of experience in representing clients who have been injured as a result of the negligence of others, can fight for your rights. Bob can put his years of experience to work and help you understand your responsibilities and how the at-fault driver can be forced to pay you the most amount of money you deserve for you injuries and, if necessary, your property damage.

Illinois is a contributory fault state, which means the damages you can recover from the at-fault party are reduced by the amount of negligence that can be assigned to any other party, including yourself. For example, if you were in an accident where a vehicle in front of you struck another vehicle that was pulling out from a private drive, who could be held liable for the accident? The answer, most likely, would be the vehicle pulling out of the private drive. However, if the vehicle in front of you was distracted due to texting on his/her phone and could have stopped, that driver could also be held liable. Finally, if you were tailgating the vehicle in front of you, you could also be can be held liable.

Although they may act like it, insurance adjusters are not the final word on how fault will be allocated amongst responsible parties. The allocation of fault is determined by the judge or jury after hearing all evidence.  Anything you say to the insurance adjusters can and will be used against you. Therefore, except for the adjuster assigned to your case from your own insurance company, it is in your best interest to call Bob Edens and get a free consultation before giving any insurance adjuster a recorded statement.

Any statement you provide to an adjuster from an insurance carrier, other than your own insurance carrier, will result in them using your statement to allocate less fault on their insured and more fault on you. Simply put, if the judge or jury finds that you were 50 percent at fault for the accident, you may not receive compensation. However, if you are found to be less than 50 percent at fault, the total amount of damages you receive will be reduced by the percentage of fault attributed to you.

In order to win a claim based on the negligence of another party you must prove four (4) things:

1. The defendant owed a duty to do something or refrain from doing something, AND;
2. The defendant failed to do what he/she was supposed to do, or did what he/she was supposed to refrain from doing, AND;
3. The defendant’s failure to do what he/she was supposed to do, or he/she failed to refrain from doing something resulted in you being damaged in some way, AND;
4. What damages and/or injuries were caused by the defendant’s failure to do what he/she was supposed to do, or as a result of the defendant’s failure to refrain from doing something he/she was supposed to refrain from doing.

If the defendant refuses to pay damages, despite being guilty of all the above elements, you can file a complaint against the at fault individual or company. Their insurance carrier will hire an attorney for them and pay any damages a judge or jury imposes up to the limits of the policy of insurance in most cases.

Illinois’ No-Nonsense Dog Bite Law

However, this does not mean Illinois treats all personal injury claims the same. To understand how seriously the state takes personal injury claims, just take a look at its strict dog bite laws.

Unlike other states where most dog owners are protected from liability the first time their pet bites someone, dog owners in Illinois are strictly liable the first time around. In other words, even if their dog has never exhibited aggressive behavior, owners are responsible for any injury they cause to other people.

This will be the case if their dog attacks or tries to attack another person without provocation – wherever they are. The injuries resulting from the attack are damages the dog owner must pay to the injured party.

Whether you were injured because you slipped and fell on someone’s property or because of a dog attack, get in touch with the Law Offices of Robert T. Edens P.C. today. We have been representing and protecting the rights of our clients for more than 20 years and are conveniently located in Libertyville, Waukegan, Woodstock and Antioch, Illinois.