When another person’s negligence causes a serious injury, the consequences can extend far beyond the initial accident. You may be dealing with medical treatment, pain, time away from work, uncertainty about your recovery, and an insurance company that is already evaluating how much it may have to pay.
At Robert Edens Law Office, we represent people injured in accidents throughout Lake County, McHenry County, Cook County, and surrounding Northern Illinois communities. Personal injury and workers’ compensation are the focus of our practice, and we have represented injured people for decades.
Our practice includes motor vehicle accidents, wrongful death, dog attacks, medical malpractice, nursing home injuries, construction accidents, bicycle and pedestrian accidents, truck crashes, motorcycle accidents, serious neurological and spinal injuries, premises liability, and insurance disputes.
Our role is to investigate what happened, identify potentially responsible parties and insurance coverage, document the full medical and financial effects of the injury, deal with insurers, and prepare the case for litigation when a reasonable resolution cannot be reached.
Call us at (847) 395-2200 or contact us to request a consultation about an Illinois personal injury claim.
A personal injury claim allows someone injured by another party’s legally wrongful conduct to seek compensation for the resulting losses.
Negligence claims generally require evidence that the defendant owed a legal duty, failed to exercise the required level of care, and caused an injury and damages as a result.
The facts necessary to prove the claim depend on the type of accident. A car accident may require traffic evidence, vehicle damage, photographs, electronic data, and witness testimony. A premises-liability case may depend on inspection records, surveillance footage, maintenance procedures, and evidence showing how long a dangerous condition existed. A medical malpractice claim requires analysis of the professional standard of care and generally involves qualified medical review.
An insurance company’s initial conclusion about fault or case value does not determine the legal outcome. We evaluate the evidence rather than assuming the adjuster’s position is correct.
Our personal injury practice includes a broad range of accident and serious-injury claims. Each type of case has different liability issues, evidence requirements, insurance considerations, and potential damages.
Car accidents are among the most common personal injury claims we handle. Collisions may involve distracted driving, speeding, unsafe turns, failure to yield, following too closely, impairment, lane violations, or other dangerous conduct.
A serious crash can also involve more than one source of insurance coverage. Depending on the circumstances, we may need to investigate the at-fault driver’s liability coverage, the injured person’s uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage, commercial policies, employer coverage, vehicle ownership, and additional responsible parties.
Our Illinois Car Accident Claims Guide provides a comprehensive explanation of liability, evidence, insurance issues, medical treatment, and settlement considerations.
Truck accident claims can involve a commercial driver, motor carrier, vehicle owner, maintenance provider, freight company, loading contractor, or other business.
Important evidence may include driver qualification records, hours-of-service information, electronic logging records, dispatch communications, inspection documents, maintenance records, electronic vehicle data, and company safety policies.
Because commercial evidence can be lost or overwritten, early investigation can be particularly important after a serious truck crash.
Motorcyclists, bicyclists, and pedestrians have limited physical protection when struck by a vehicle. These accidents can cause fractures, traumatic brain injuries, spinal injuries, internal trauma, nerve damage, scarring, and permanent physical limitations.
We handle motorcycle accidents, bicycle accidents, and pedestrian accidents involving negligent and unsafe drivers throughout Northern Illinois.
The severity of an injury does not eliminate the need to establish fault. We investigate both the accident itself and the long-term medical consequences.
When negligence results in death, Illinois law allows an action to be brought by the decedent’s personal representative for the benefit of qualifying surviving family members.
A wrongful death claim may involve loss of financial support, services, society, grief, sorrow, and other damages recognized under Illinois law. A related survival claim may address losses experienced by the deceased person before death.
These cases require careful analysis because wrongful death and survival claims involve different damages, beneficiaries, and estate-related considerations.
Illinois provides a specific statutory cause of action when a dog or other animal, without provocation, attacks, attempts to attack, or injures a person who is peaceably conducting themselves in a location where they may lawfully be.
A qualifying dog-bite or animal-attack claim does not necessarily require proof that the animal previously attacked someone or that its owner knew it was dangerous.
Dog attacks may produce puncture wounds, infection, nerve damage, orthopedic injuries, permanent scars, reconstructive treatment, and psychological consequences. We evaluate both the immediate injuries and any documented long-term effects.
Property owners and other parties responsible for premises can face liability when an unsafe condition causes an injury and the requirements of Illinois premises-liability law are established.
A slip-and-fall claim may involve water, ice, snow, defective flooring, dangerous stairs, inadequate lighting, merchandise, debris, uneven walking surfaces, or another hazardous condition.
These cases frequently turn on whether the responsible party created the condition, knew about it, or should reasonably have discovered it. Photographs, surveillance, inspection records, maintenance documents, witness testimony, and weather information may become important.
A poor medical result does not automatically constitute malpractice. A viable claim generally requires evidence that a healthcare professional or institution departed from the applicable standard of care and caused an injury as a result.
Illinois also imposes specialized procedural requirements on healing-art malpractice lawsuits, including the health-professional review requirements contained in Section 2-622 of the Code of Civil Procedure.
Medical malpractice cases also have specialized limitation periods. For many claims involving physicians, hospitals, nurses, or dentists, Illinois generally uses a two-year discovery period combined with a four-year statute of repose, although important exceptions apply.
Because these cases require medical and legal investigation, potential malpractice should be evaluated promptly.
Residents of nursing homes and long-term care facilities may suffer injuries because of falls, pressure injuries, medication errors, inadequate supervision, dehydration, malnutrition, abuse, neglect, or failure to provide appropriate care.
In a nursing home injury case, we may review medical records, care plans, incident reports, staffing information, facility policies, photographs, witness accounts, hospitalization records, and other evidence concerning what occurred.
The goal is to determine whether the injury was an unavoidable medical event or resulted from inadequate care.
A serious workplace accident may create more than an Illinois workers’ compensation claim.
When a contractor, property owner, equipment manufacturer, driver, subcontractor, or another third party causes an employee’s injury, the worker may potentially have a separate personal injury claim in addition to workers’ compensation benefits.
The two systems provide different forms of recovery. Workers’ compensation generally provides statutory medical and disability benefits, while a third-party personal injury action may permit recovery of damages that are not separately available under workers’ compensation.
The value and complexity of a personal injury case often depend more on the consequences of the injury than on the type of accident that caused it.
We have experience with claims involving traumatic brain injuries, concussions, spinal injuries, herniated discs, fractures, shoulder injuries, knee injuries, neurological damage, permanent scarring, amputations, chronic pain, and injuries requiring surgery. Our existing site documents case results and client experiences involving numerous serious orthopedic and neurological conditions.
Catastrophic injuries require evaluation of long-term consequences such as future surgery, medical equipment, rehabilitation, permanent restrictions, loss of earning capacity, home assistance, and diminished ability to perform ordinary activities.
A claim should not be evaluated solely by adding up past medical bills.
Illinois follows modified comparative negligence in covered negligence and strict-product-liability actions.
If you are 50 percent or less responsible for causing the injury, you may still recover compensation, but your damages are reduced according to your percentage of fault. If your contributory fault is more than 50 percent of the proximate cause of the injury, recovery is barred.
For example, if the proven damages are $200,000 and you are found 20 percent responsible, the recovery would be reduced by 20 percent to $160,000.
At exactly 50 percent fault, recovery is not completely barred. The claimant could recover 50 percent of the proven damages.
Insurance companies frequently raise comparative-negligence arguments during settlement negotiations. We evaluate those arguments against the available physical, documentary, electronic, and testimonial evidence.
The damages available depend on the injury and evidence.
A personal injury claim may potentially include past and future medical expenses, lost income, diminished future earning capacity, pain and suffering, disability, loss of normal life, emotional consequences, and disfigurement when those damages are legally recoverable and supported by evidence.
Property losses may also be recoverable in cases involving damaged vehicles or other personal property.
Future damages require particular attention in serious cases. Surgery, permanent restrictions, reduced earning ability, continuing medication, future therapy, or long-term care should be reasonably understood before the claim is resolved.
Once a full settlement release is signed, an injured person generally cannot seek additional compensation merely because the condition later becomes worse.
Our investigation begins by determining what must be proven and what evidence is available to prove it.
Depending on the case, we may obtain accident reports, photographs, surveillance, witness statements, medical records, diagnostic studies, employment documentation, insurance policies, electronic data, maintenance records, corporate documents, and expert opinions.
We also follow the medical progression of the injury. The diagnosis at an emergency room is not necessarily the final diagnosis. Symptoms may lead to additional imaging, specialist care, injections, surgery, rehabilitation, or permanent restrictions.
Claim value should be evaluated using the complete medical and employment picture rather than an early estimate made before the extent of the injury is understood.
An insurance adjuster investigates claims on behalf of the insurance carrier. The adjuster does not represent the injured person.
Insurers may question liability, argue that treatment was excessive, attribute symptoms to a preexisting condition, challenge lost wages, request broad medical authorizations, or make an early settlement offer before treatment is complete.
You should be particularly cautious about providing recorded statements to an opposing insurer or signing releases without understanding their effect.
When we represent you, we deal directly with the insurers involved in the claim and evaluate their positions against the evidence.
Illinois generally requires an action for personal injury to be commenced within two years after the cause of action accrues.
That two-year period is not universal.
Claims involving governmental defendants, medical malpractice, minors, product liability, wrongful death, intentional conduct, or other special circumstances may be governed by different statutes, shortened periods, discovery rules, or statutes of repose.
The safest approach is to investigate the applicable deadline early rather than assuming every Illinois injury claim has exactly two years.
Waiting can also damage a case before the formal deadline expires because surveillance may be erased, vehicles repaired, dangerous conditions changed, and witnesses harder to locate.
Personal injury and workers’ compensation are the central areas of our practice. We represent injured people rather than trying to maintain a broad general-practice operation. Our website currently documents decades of injury representation, an extensive case-results archive, client video testimonials, and educational resources addressing personal injury and workers’ compensation.
We also believe clients should understand what is happening in their case.
That means discussing not only favorable evidence but also disputed liability, prior medical conditions, coverage issues, causation problems, comparative negligence, and the practical risks of litigation.
No attorney can responsibly guarantee a settlement amount or case outcome. Our objective is to develop the evidence, identify the compensation available under Illinois law, and pursue a resolution supported by the facts.
A potential case generally requires evidence that another person or entity was legally responsible for causing your injury and that you sustained compensable damages. We evaluate liability, causation, insurance coverage, medical evidence, and losses before recommending how to proceed.
Address immediate safety and medical needs first. Report the accident when appropriate, preserve photographs and witness information, obtain medical attention based on your symptoms, and keep copies of accident and insurance records.
Avoid speculating about fault or signing an insurance release before you understand your injuries and legal rights.
You generally are not required to provide a recorded statement to the opposing party’s liability carrier. Your own insurance contract may impose cooperation requirements, so communications with your own insurer require a different analysis.
A preexisting condition does not automatically prevent recovery. The issue is whether the accident caused a new injury or aggravated an existing condition.
Prior records can actually help establish how your condition changed after the accident. Trying to conceal earlier treatment generally creates unnecessary credibility problems.
You may still recover if your contributory fault is 50 percent or less, although your damages are reduced by your percentage of responsibility. Recovery is barred when your fault exceeds 50 percent.
Many claims resolve through settlement, but litigation may become necessary when liability, causation, insurance coverage, or damages cannot be resolved fairly through negotiation.
We evaluate a case with litigation in mind even when settlement remains the goal.
There is no reliable average settlement. Value depends on liability, comparative negligence, injury severity, medical treatment, permanent impairment, future care, lost income, earning capacity, insurance coverage, and the quality of the supporting evidence.
Another person’s settlement does not determine the value of your claim.
Settling too early can be risky when the final diagnosis, prognosis, future treatment, or permanent limitations remain unknown.
Before resolving a significant claim, we generally want enough medical information to understand the injuries and reasonably anticipated future consequences.
Yes, in some workplace accidents. When someone other than your employer or a protected coworker caused the injury, you may potentially have both a workers’ compensation claim and a separate third-party personal injury action.
The claims must be coordinated because the workers’ compensation carrier may have reimbursement and lien rights.
Visit our consolidated Illinois Personal Injury And Workers’ Compensation FAQs for additional information about insurance claims, deadlines, medical care, damages, workers’ compensation benefits, and settlements.
A serious injury can create medical, financial, employment, and insurance problems simultaneously. You do not have to determine on your own whether the insurance company’s position is correct or whether a settlement adequately accounts for the consequences of the accident.
We represent injured people throughout Lake County, McHenry County, Cook County, and surrounding Northern Illinois communities.
Call Robert Edens Law Office at (847) 395-2200 or contact us to request a consultation about your personal injury claim.
Every case depends on its individual facts and evidence. Prior results do not guarantee a similar result, and this page provides general information rather than legal advice concerning a particular accident or claim.
The Law Offices of Robert T. Edens, Personal Injury and Workers' Compensation Law Office, have offices in Antioch, Waukegan, Grayslake, Woodstock and Barrington. We represent clients throughout the communities of Antioch, Waukegan, Grayslake, Barrington, Woodstock, Buffalo Grove, Deer Park, Gurnee, Lake Zurich, Round Lake, McHenry, Cary, Crystal Lake, Libertyville, Lincolnshire, Mundelein, Vernon Hills, Wheeling, North Chicago, Zion, Inverness, Palatine, Wauconda, Island Lake, Fox Lake, Barrington Hills, Spring Grove, Lake Bluff, Lakemoor, Long Grove, Lake Villa, Kildeer, Wadsworth, Indian Creek, Fox River Grove, Lindenhurst and other cities within Lake and McHenry Counties Illinois.
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