Mount Carroll Personal Injury Lawyers
Legal Help After an Accident
We can help you understand your rights and give you guidance on what to do next.
Our personal injury law firm works in all aspects of injuries that could have been prevented. Our personal injury law firm has been trusted to fight for our clients in over 30 of 102 counties in Illinois.
Common Issues We Help With In Mount Carroll
- Car, Truck, Motorcycle, Pedestrian Accidents
- Medical Malpractice (Dentist, Nursing Home, Misdiagnosis)
- Workplace Accidents
- Premises Liability (Slip & Fall)
- Insurance Claims
Anytime you have an injury that could have been prevented you can call us to see if you have a case, how strong it is, and what you should do next. Hiring a personal injury lawyer is your best first step. We are a NO FEE law firm, you won’t pay anything unless we win.
Immediate Steps to Take if You Get Into an Accident
Here are some immediate steps to take if you get into an accident in Mount Carroll. It doesn’t matter if it’s a car accident, injury on someone’s property, medical malpractice, etc. If you are reading this after an accident and need immediate help, call us.
- Get to a safe space
- Take photos of the scene and of your injury
- Get medically checked out by a professional for any injury, soft tissue injuries can hide bigger problems.
- If you were hurt at a business, or work you must notify the owner or manager.
- Consider contacting a lawyer before speaking with any insurance company.
- Follow up with medical professionals and document everything.
What to do Right After A Car Accident in Carroll County, Illinois?
- First, assess the situation and call the police to report the accident if severe enough. Click to view Authorities to Contact in Carroll County After a Car Accident.
- Exchange insurance information with the police officer (if available) or the other driver.
- Preserve as much evidence of the scene as you can. Take video or pictures. If you move your vehicle pay close attention to where your vehicle is relative to any other involved automobiles. If you cannot take photos write down as much as possible.
- If there were any witnesses get their names, and numbers.
- Do not make admissions of fault. l
- Write down everything you remember or take video of yourself remember the incident.
- Seek medical attention for any injury you have or think you have. Head trauma in car accidents are nothig to mess with. If you cannot afford medical treatment, there are providers that will treat victims of motor vehicle accidents without upfront payment. You can call us for more information and we can help you get everything set up. It is significantly more difficult to litigate a claim if medical treatment is sought after a large gap in time following the date of the crash.
Carroll County Law Enforcment Authority Contact Information
In Carrol County the most likely responding law enforcement agencies to a car crash in your area would be:
- Lanark City Police at 111 S. Broad St. Lanark, IL 61046 815-493-6931 or on the web at https://lanarkil.gov/city-hall-city-services/
- In Mount Carroll, it would be the Mt. Carroll Police Department at 302 N. Main St. Mount Carroll Historic District, IL 61053 815-244-5313 or on the web at https://www.mtcarrollil.org/
- Additionally, the Carroll County Sheriff’s Department may respond to either location as well and they are located at 301 N. Main St. #107, Mount Carroll Historic District, IL 61053 815-244-9171 or on the web at https://www.carroll-county.net/county_departments/sheriff/index.php
Get a Copy of Your Police Report
For any insurance claim or personal injury claim, we’ll need a copy of the police report. You can get a copy of the report using the same contact information above. Likewise, if you contact our office and would like us to help you with your claim we have access to the report database for Carroll County. You won’t need to get the report if you work with us.
If you choose to file a claim alone you will need a copy of the police report so you can submit it to the insurance company. If you choose to do this and the insurance company comes back with a really low offer, or are being aggressive you can still contact us and we can help. Generally, when a lawyer gets involved the insurance company is much easier to work with.
Working With Our Car Accident Attorneys
Our car accident lawyers can help in tremendous ways. Not only will we guide you on what rights you have and what you can do next we can also:
- Assisting you with obtaining proper medical care
- Assisting with your medical billing and general record keeping
- Assist you with obtaining temporary financial relief with a third party financing company (if necessary) if your injury has impacted your ability to work and provide for your required expenses.
- Attend traffic court hearings with you, or on your behalf
- Resolve insurance issues
- And most importantly, fight for the compensation you’re entitled to.
A Car Accident is a Type of Personal Injury Claim
Get FREE consultation nOW – It’s your best first step
The most common type of personal injury claim is from motor vehicle accidents. This is not surprising since the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that one traffic accident occurs in the United States every ten seconds, Carrol County is no different. Accidents can happen in only a few short moments, but can have long-lasting effects on your life.
Car accidents and personal injury are similar in legal nature. There are separate laws that govern each type of personal injury case. To have your best chance at winning a case you can consult with a personal injury lawyer who frequently works that type of case in your home area. We commonly work on car accident cases in Carrol County. We also frequently work:
- Drunk driving
- Uninsured Driver Insurance Claims
- Underinsured Driver Insurance Claims
- Commercial Truck Accidents
- Commerical Vehicle or Bus Accidents
- Pedestrian Accidents – You might also like this blog post – Financial Recovery in Pedestrian Accidents
Illinois Car Accident Statistics
According to the Illinois Department of Transportation, 1,097 individuals died in vehicle accidents in 2017. In 2016, 1,017 individuals were killed in car accidents across Illinois. Cook County had the largest number of crashes, fatalities, and serious injuries of any county in the state, with 211 fatalities and 27,075 recorded injuries, 3,223 of which were rated significant. During the same year, more than 40,000 individuals were murdered in automobile accidents across the United States. According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates, motor vehicle accidents cost $871 billion in damages each year.
Common Injuries We See in Auto Accidents
While there is no disputing the devastating impact of an accident-related injury or death, we are devoted to making the legal procedure as stress-free as possible. We recognize that the tragedy of a car accident is tough to bear, and we are devoted to easing your concerns about a legal struggle. We fight for our client’s rights every day.
Some life-changing injuries include:
- Back and neck injuries (more about this on our Neck and Back Page, or Whiplash Page)
- Fractured bones
- Joint injury
- Paralysis
- Burn Injuries
- Amputation of limbs
- Death
Regardless of the scope of your injury, we can help you. We understand that no accident is the same, and will treat you with respect and individualized attention from your consultation and beyond.
Uninsured Drivers
According to the Illinois Secretary of State, all Illinois drivers are required by law to hold liability insurance coverage of $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident. Despite these restrictions, according to Insurance Research Council data, more than 13% of drivers on Illinois roads and highways travel without liability insurance.
Read more on our Uninsured Motorist Page, you’ll likely have to make a claim with your own insurance company.
So What Happens if an Uninsured Driver Causes a Crash That Injures You?
Recognizing the prevalence of uninsured drivers, most vehicle insurance companies provide uninsured motorist coverage (often referred to as UM coverage). In certain cases, after establishing that the at-fault motorist lacked insurance at the time of the accident, a claim may be filed to the injured party’s insurance company, which basically stands in the place of the individual who caused the accident.
While the logistics of presenting a claim to your auto insurance company for an accident that you did not cause may seem strange, you are entitled to the same types of damages that you would have had the offending driver had insurance.
On a similar note, when a driver who causes an accident has insufficient liability coverage to compensate an injured party for their injuries — either an underinsured motorist claim or UIM claim — may be made with the insured party’s auto insurer.
The Car Accident Settlement Process Roughly Flows in This Order
- The accident occurs.
- You seek treatment and a lawyer (we can refer you to various healthcare providers if you don’t have your own providers).
- You work on getting better through treatment (physical recovery). Yes, this can be a time-consuming process, but we take care of everything with your insurance, and handle your property damage claim to get your vehicle fixed in as short a time period as possible.
- We investigate your claim, and perhaps bring on an accident reconstructionist or other useful experts to build your case in preparation for a jury to hear your story.
- When you are back to how you were prior to your accident, or as close to 100% as your doctor believes you will get, we start to compile your medical bills.
- We then compile any of your lost wages (e.g., time missed from work for medical appointments, time lost to various treatments, and time you were out of work from the injury).
- We then assess how your quality of life has been impacted from your accident. So, if you can no longer participate in the activities you did prior to the accident, if you can’t pick your children up anymore, or if you have problems grocery shopping, among other limitations, we start to formulate what we may be seeking in pain and suffering amounts for an accurate idea of what to ask an insurance adjuster or jury to award you.
- We then submit what is known as a “demand” letter to the other driver’s insurance company, requesting a specific amount to avoid litigation. From there, they have the choice to accept the demand, counter offer a different amount, or reject settlement.
- If we cannot arrive at a resolution that you are satisfied with, the next step is to pursue a trial. Steps 2-9 can occur while a lawsuit is pending. If negotiations don’t work, we move into a trial or arbitration stage of your case, in which we make an argument to an Carroll County judge, jury, or panel of arbitrators, and argue over liability (i.e., who caused your accident) and/or what a fair amount of money is to resolve your case (i.e., damages).
What is My Accident Worth?
While we can never tell a client how much a case is worth, we can assess the value of a case by how much medical treatment someone had to suffer, and then discuss with the client how the injury impacted their day-to-day life.
- Were they able to play with their children,
- go to work, take a shower,
- pick up goods for home duties,
- drive to medical appointments, and so on?
After discussing with you what a realistic figure could be we send a demand letter to the offender’s insurance company asking for the financial recovery amount. If they agree to pay the specified amount this is called a “Settlement”. If they refuse to pay we would prepare a lawsuit.
When You and The Insurance Company Disagree on a Fair Financial Amount
If the insurance company refuses to pay an adequate amount we will then escalate the claim to a lawsuit, file it with our county circuit clerk’s office, have the defendant/tortfeasor served, and set the case ultimately for a trial. There is a chance the lawsuit can be settled out of court, but if an agreement cannot be made the lawsuit will have to be settled in a court of law.
Illinois Time Limits on Filing Suit
In most cases in Illinois, there is a two-year time limit on personal injury lawsuits.
A personal injury lawsuit in Illinois must be filed within two years in the state’s civil court system. This two-year time restriction, known as a “statute of limitations,” begins to run in most circumstances on the day of the accident. However, in other cases, the statute of limitations may begin to expire from the day you learned you were wounded rather than the date of the incident that harmed you. This subsequent date is referred to as a “discovery date.”
Get The Help You Need For Personal Injuries in Mt. Carroll
Call or text us privately at (815) 964-8303 or contact us here for an honest, and free, consultation regarding your Mount Carroll, Lanark, or Carroll County, personal injury case.
Remember, our service is completely free of charge unless we obtain a recovery on your behalf. Allow our attorneys to guide you or a loved one through the legal aspects of your case and fight for your financial recovery while you focus on your physical recovery.