Personal Injury

People hire attorneys for the same reasons that they hire surgeons: it takes specific knowledge, experience, and skill to successfully perform a surgery. Similarly, a personal injury attorney has the knowledge, experience, and skill to win and maximize the value of the lawsuit. Lawyers, like doctors, undertake a rigorous course of study to understand the basics; however, the educational process does not stop after graduation. The law is continuously changing and ever evolving. A lawyer must continue to research, attend seminars, and be involved in professional associations to stay ahead of the changes and developments in the law.

Filing a lawsuit, especially a personal injury lawsuit, is a very complex and time-consuming task. It involves making claims against all the appropriate defendants; building the case by collecting medical records and witness statements, possibly hiring experts, and gathering other legal evidence.

Filing a lawsuit requires knowledge of several different areas of the law, including personal injury, the rules of evidence, and state and local procedural rules. A person must know how to file a lawsuit, where to file it, who must be served, what must be contained in the lawsuit, and when the deadline for filing a lawsuit is. These are not easy questions, and any mistakes could be detrimental to your case.

Not only does a lawyer have superior knowledge of the law, but attorneys have experience in negotiating with the insurance companies to maximize the value of your case. Therefore, what you are getting is not just superior legal knowledge, but superior negotiating experience, which can prove equally valuable.

In Illinois employees who are injured on the job have the right to high quality and fully paid medical care for the injury. Workers’ compensation is a statutory system that has taken the place of common law negligence. The legislature passed workers’ compensation legislation in order to eliminate the employee’s former right to:

1. Prosecute a negligence claim against the employer
2. Seek compensation for pain and suffering
3. Have their case heard by a jury

Instead, this common law system was replaced with a no-fault system. If you are injured on the job, you are entitled to compensation whether or not the employer is negligent or at fault. However, that compensation is limited by statute.

Illinois requires most employers to purchase workers compensation insurance to pay for work-related injuries that may arise. Even though workers’ compensation statutes generally make the employer immune from any liability over the amount allowed by the workers’ compensation statutory framework, other entities (or what we call “third parties”) involved in causing the injury, like general contractors or manufacturers, can still be held liable.

Call Urban & Burt at 708-687-5284 to speak with one of our experienced injury attorneys.