Author: robertedenslaadmin

If you are injured in a store in Illinois, you can receive compensation whether you are or aren’t at fault for the accident. This is according to the state’s comparative fault law in which the value of the settlement is based on the percentage of the fault.

Understanding the Comparative Fault Law

According to the law, you can collect damages even if the accident is partly your fault and the court can adjust the settlement accordingly. This is determined by the modified comparative fault rule.

To understand this law, let’s take a simple example. Say you are shopping in a grocery store and are reading the label on a can without looking where you are going. If you trip and injure yourself in this case, you will be partly at fault for your injuries.

As a person who is in charge of all of his/her mental and physical faculties, you have a duty of care to prevent such incidences. However, even in this case, you will be 5 percent at fault and the store will be 95 percent at fault. (If you slipped on a wet spot that wasn’t cordoned off properly, you may be eligible for more). If you are awarded $100,000 by the court and it is reduced by 5 percent, you will receive a generous $95,000 in compensation.

However, if the court determines you were 50 percent responsible for your injuries, that amount will be split in half and you would receive $50,000 in compensation. If you are more than 50 percent responsible, the verdict may be in favor of the store owners.

You have two (2) years from the date of the accident to file a personal injury claim with an attorney for your claim to be valid. In some cases, the statute of limitations may start running from the date you discovered your injuries from the accident (such as internal bleeding or a hairline fracture).

If you suffered a traumatic brain injury from the accident, you deserve each penny you receive from the store owners. The consequences of this injury can be life-altering and lifelong in some cases. Get in touch with us at The Law Offices of Robert T. Edens for a consultation today. We offer our services in Chicago, Waukegan, Woodstock, Libertyville and Antioch, IL. Our cases are usually retained on a contingency fee basis and we won’t even ask for it until you recover fair damages from your case.

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.