At Ackerman Law Office, a Springfield Injury Lawyer, regularly handles personal injury claims involving negligence. Contact us if you have been injured by another person or a corporate negligence. We will promise you prompt action and personalized attention.
In general, a party could be liable for negligent conduct. Legally, negligence means duty, breach, causation and damages. For any lawyer to accept a case, a victim must show each of these elements. The burden of proof is on the plaintiff, or victim, to show each of these elements. From a practical standpoint this means someone did something they should not have done and caused an injury.
In Illinois, a person must bring a suit within two years of the date of an accident. However, there are exceptions. One exception applies to municipalities. You must file suit against a municipality within one year. You must also file a dram shop claim within one year. Things that can extend a statute of limitations includes injuries to a minor or situations where you did not know there was negligence. This is called the discovery rule. You would, in general, file suit within two years of discovering negligence.
In Illinois we have “comparative negligence.” This means that if an injury victim is more than 50% to blame for the accident, they lose. If they are less than 50% to blame, but are somewhat at fault, their claim is reduced by the amount of their negligence. So, if a person has a $10,000 claim, for which they are 25% at fault, their claim is reduced by 25%. In this case 25% would be $2,500, leaving a claim of $7,500.
We also have joint contribution in Illinois. This means that if two defendants are both negligent and injure someone, each defendant is jointly and severally liable for the entire loss. This protects the victim. If one of the defendants is insolvent, the other negligent party is also responsible for the loss. The law says the victim should not bear the loss when two people got together to cause their loss.
Ackerman Law Office handles negligence claims throughout Central Illinois. Negligence claims can involve simple negligence like an automobile accident or a slip and fall claim, animal attacks or something more complicated, like a professional negligence claim. Often, to make a professional negligence claim economically viable you must have more severe injuries or substantial losses than in a simpler negligence claim, like a car wreck.
Damages recoverable through negligence include loss of pay (past and future); pain and suffering (past and future); loss of enjoyment of life (also known as disability); medical bills (past and future); and, loss of consortium (loss of ability to enjoy sexual relations). Sometimes in negligence cases the parties will have to hire an expert to predict the future loss of a person.
Negligence claims can be complicated, especially predicting future losses. Get help from an experienced negligence claim attorney. Contact us at Ackerman Law Office at 217-789-1977. We believe injury victims should be able to afford an attorney so we handle these claims on a contingent fee with free initial consultations. All of our clients get prompt action and personalized attention. See what our clients have to say on our Client Reviews page. Read more on our Springfield Injury Lawyer Blog.