Driving can be challenging, even when you prioritize safety. Not everyone shares the same level of caution, and accidents can happen despite your best efforts.
These collisions may leave you dealing with painful injuries, mounting medical expenses, lost wages, and other hardships. To make matters worse, the at-fault driver and their insurance company might not be cooperative in covering your losses.
When you or someone you care about has been injured in a car accident caused by another person’s negligence, securing the compensation you deserve is essential. Our team at The Personal Injury Lawyers™ is here to help. We offer a free consultation to discuss your case, with no obligation to proceed.
If you choose to work with us, you won’t owe us anything unless we successfully win or settle your case. Please contact us today to explore your options.
Do You Need a Wheaton Car Accident Attorney to File an Insurance Claim?
No, but a car accident lawyer can help you avoid many pitfalls of filing your own claim. It’s important to remember that the insurance adjuster assigned to your case will work to save the company money at every turn—which often means that you lose the money you deserve.
Here are just a few common issues you could encounter:
Shifting the Blame to You
One of the easiest ways for the insurance company to avoid responsibility is to blame you for the accident. Often, the other driver helps them out by also claiming you’re at fault.
At the scene, the responding officers will try to determine the truth, but they may have limited evidence and conflicting stories, leading to an inconclusive or even incorrect police report. Then, the insurance adjuster will seize on anything that suggests you were partially or totally at fault as an excuse to either reject the claim or reduce your payout.
Undervaluing Your Damages
The insurance adjuster might fail to take into account some of your damages, such as future medical bills or pain and suffering. They could undervalue these losses or refuse to pay for some treatments.
Most people who don’t work in the insurance industry have no clear idea of what their claim is worth, and it’s easy to mistake an undervalued offer for a good one. Remember that once you accept an insurance company’s offer, they have no further obligation regarding the accident, so you should always consult an attorney before making a decision.
Making a Quick Offer
This may sound ideal, but it’s frequently a sign you’ve received a lowball offer that doesn’t cover all your damages. In some cases, the insurer could even try to settle before you’ve completed treatment.
Your attorney will generally try to delay settling the claim until your treatment is finished in order to ensure all your medical costs are included. However, we may estimate your future healthcare costs in very severe cases requiring lifelong treatment.
An experienced car accident lawyer can help you with these challenges by fighting for a fair settlement. We’ll carefully calculate all your damages, including medical bills, related expenses, lost income, pain and suffering, and property damage.
If the insurance company argues you had any fault in the collision, our investigative team will gather more evidence, and we’ll work to build a strong argument that you have little or no responsibility.
What if You Think You Are at Fault in a Car Accident?
Here are two key points to remember if you suspect you have some fault in a car accident:
- Don’t admit fault at the scene. You should be honest when answering questions for the police, but you don’t need to express an opinion about fault. Keep your answers factual but brief.
- Contact a lawyer right away before making a statement to the insurance company. You may not actually be at fault. Many people tell us they think they made a mistake and caused the accident, but after analyzing the evidence, we realize their error didn’t affect the collision. Or, it might not have been an error in the first place. It’s natural to second-guess your own decisions after something unpleasant happens, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you are at fault.
Partial fault is also possible. Not every accident is entirely one driver’s responsibility, and in Illinois, you can still recover compensation if you are less than 50 percent at fault.
However, the insurance company can deduct whatever percentage of culpability they think you have. For example, being at fault by 15 percent could mean a 15 percent reduction in your settlement.
If you have $100,000 in damages, for instance, you would lose $15,000.
The danger is that the insurance adjuster could overestimate your contributions, costing you thousands of dollars that you deserve. In many cases where the injured person is not represented by an attorney, they might simply accept whatever the insurance company offers.
However, if you have a knowledgeable car accident lawyer, we will fight for a fair evaluation of each party’s fault. You should not be forced to pay for a higher percentage of fault than you actually have.
What Happens if a Drunk Driver Hits You?
Intoxicated drivers cause 47 percent of car accident fatalities in Illinois, as well as numerous injuries. If a drunk driver causes an accident, the responding officers will most likely make an arrest, but you’ll still be left with painful injuries and associated losses.
An insurance claim against an intoxicated driver’s policy can be even more complicated than usual. In some cases, the insurer might say they don’t have to cover your damages because the driver was intentionally negligent by driving drunk.
Or, they could claim you were partially responsible for the accident and reduce your settlement under Illinois’ modified comparative negligence laws—even though the other driver was drunk!
We’ll work to fight these insurance company tactics and secure the best settlement possible. However, even if we successfully pursue an insurance claim, there may be some situations where you still have unpaid damages.
Intoxicated drivers often speed or fail to react typically to other cars, sometimes resulting in severe injuries. If their car insurance policy is minimal, you might have more damages than the policy limit will cover (This can also happen in crashes that don’t involve alcohol).
Should the insurance policy prove insufficient, your lawyer will consider other options for pursuing compensation. Suing the intoxicated motorist is a possibility, but we often advise against it if we can’t find a way to recover a judgment.
The reality is that the drunk driver may have spent all their money defending themselves in criminal court, and if they have no assets we can seize, a lawsuit would be a waste of your time. However, in some situations, there may be other options.
What Is the Illinois Dram Shop Act?
The Illinois Dram Shop Act allows people injured by an intoxicated individual to pursue a claim against establishments that serve alcohol, like bars or restaurants, in certain circumstances. So, if the drunk driver’s insurance policy doesn’t cover all your losses, and recovering from the driver is not an option, we may consider a dram shop claim.
However, we will need to prove the following:
- The negligent party has a valid license to serve liquor.
- This establishment served or sold alcohol to the at-fault party in your case.
- Consuming the alcohol contributed to that person’s intoxication.
- The intoxication was the proximate cause of your injuries.
How Do You Prove a Dram Shop Case?
Proving some of these points can be tricky, but an experienced attorney will pursue every avenue to uncover evidence. We can sometimes rely on police evidence, such as blood alcohol or breathalyzer tests, to show the other driver was intoxicated at the accident scene.
However, their criminal defense attorney may attack these tests, claiming the police mishandled the equipment or blood samples, waited too long to perform tests, etc.
Even if evidence from the scene is solid, it could also be challenging to prove where the person was served or how much they were served, especially if there is no video evidence from the bar or restaurant. Sometimes, we can find witnesses, but not always.
Securing the evidence you need to prove your case is one reason why it’s essential to contact an attorney right away after you’re injured in a drunk driving accident. Security camera video can be erased quickly—especially if the bar owner or manager hears that an intoxicated patron caused a severe accident after leaving the establishment.
Reliable witnesses are more challenging to find as time passes—not many people remember who they saw in a bar months ago or whether that person seemed drunk. So, the sooner we start investigating your accident, the better prepared we’ll be if a dram shop claim is necessary.
Here’s another reason to act quickly: Personal injury claims like those involving car accidents typically have a two-year statute of limitations. However, dram shop claims must be filed within one year of the accident or injury.
Is There Anything You Can Do About a Hit-and-Run Accident?
Yes. You should report the accident to the police immediately and provide as much evidence as possible to help them find the other driver. Giving them the license plate number is ideal, but logistically, it isn’t always possible to see the license plate before the other driver speeds off.
However, you can describe the car to the best of your abilities.
Unfortunately, without a license plate number, the police may find it difficult to track down a hit-and-run driver. It can be frustrating to know that the errant motorist hasn’t been caught, but you also have to deal with damages like medical bills and property damage.
The good news is that you are probably not out of luck in recovering at least some of your damages.
Illinois requires $25,000 in bodily injury liability coverage for uninsured motorist accidents, so if you have car insurance, you should have this much available. If you made the choice to buy more than the minimum coverage, you could recover up to the policy limit.
When the hit-and-run driver is unknown, you can assume they are uninsured and file a claim on your uninsured motorist policy. The insurance company may stall in the hopes that the driver will be found, but eventually, they should pay your claim.
Your Wheaton personal injury attorney will fight to recover the compensation you need if the insurance adjuster tries to find a way out of paying. If the hit-and-run driver is found later, the insurance company can try to recover from the driver in a process called subrogation.
Do You Have to Go to Court for Your Car Accident Case?
It’s possible but highly unlikely. Only a small percentage of car accident cases are decided with a court case. In most circumstances, neither party wants to spend time and money on a lengthy trial, and attorneys for both parties will try to agree on a settlement.
Often, the insurance company will make several settlement offers before we reach an agreement. We will discuss each of these offers with you and answer any questions you have about the value of your claim or what the settlement offer covers.
Early offers are frequently too low, and if you want to pursue a better deal, we’ll negotiate for a fair settlement. In the majority of cases, we eventually arrive at an offer that the client approves.
However, there are a few rare cases in which the insurance company refuses to make a reasonable offer. If this occurs, we’re prepared to pursue your case in court and fight for the compensation you deserve.
How Can You Get Help From a Wheaton Car Accident Law Firm?
When you have any questions or concerns regarding your car accident claim, please reach out to The Personal Injury Lawyers™ for a complimentary consultation. Established by attorney Robert S. Fakhouri, our firm has successfully secured millions of dollars in compensation for car accident victims and their loved ones.
Our dedicated team is here to review your case, outline your legal options, and address any inquiries you may have. Contact us today at 312-999-9990.
