Personal injury suits are filed in response to a wide range of accidents, including car crashes, slip and fall accidents, animal attacks, and more. These types of claims give injured parties the opportunity to collect compensation for both their economic losses, such as medical bills and lost wages, as well as for their non-economic losses, which could include pain and suffering and emotional distress. However, before a plaintiff can recover damages, he or she must be able to establish that someone else’s negligence was the primary cause of the accident. This can be a difficult task, especially for those who are not represented by an attorney, so if you were injured in an accident and have questions about filing your own claim, please contact a member of our experienced Hoffman Estates personal injury legal team for an initial consultation.
Only plaintiffs who are able to demonstrate that another person or entity was at fault for their accident and related injuries can recover damages. This requires evidence of negligence or recklessness, which only exist if:
Fortunately, Illinois is a comparative negligence state, which means that even when injured parties were partly to blame for an accident, they will not necessarily be barred from recovery. Instead, their damages will be reduced by their degree of fault in causing the accident. Only injured parties who were more than 50 percent responsible for an accident will be barred from collecting compensation for their losses.
When plaintiffs are able to establish that someone else’s negligence caused their accident, they could be awarded damages to cover the following economic losses:
These losses can all be assigned a dollar value with relative ease, as long as the plaintiff retains all medical records, receipts, and invoices related to the accident. Non-economic damages, which are intended to compensate accident victims for more intangible losses, such as pain and suffering, however, are more difficult to calculate, so before making an award, courts are required to take a number of factors into account, including the type of injury sustained, whether the victim suffers from permanent disfigurement or disability, and the plaintiff’s projected recovery time. Collecting these types of damages can make all the difference in a plaintiff’s ability to begin the recovery process.
To speak with an experienced attorney about your own accident-related injuries, please contact the SAM LAW OFFICE LLC at 847-255-9925 today.