Car Accident Attorneys in Evanston, IL
Car accident attorneys in Evanston, IL. Injuries from car accidents create unexpected financial, emotional and physical hardships. You need an aggressive Evanston, IL car accident lawyer that you can trust to to truly recover from every way that your injuries have affected you. Call Burger Law‘s car accident attorneys today at (314) 500-HURT or contact us online for a no-risk, no-obligation consultation.
If a negligent driver hurt you in Evanston, IL see how much your claim may be worth by filling out our free personal injury calculator.
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It is hard to know what to do after somebody crashes into you. You might be unsure how to get the right medical care, what the process for seeking compensation is and if there is anything else you can do to make sure that justice is served in this situation. First, get the immediate medical attention you require. Then call Burger Law.
The last thing on your mind after an injury should be worrying about how to battle an insurance company or understanding legal jargon. Our law firm has a proven track record of defending our client’s recovery and holding negligent drivers and insurance companies accountable.
We know it seems like the whole world is against you. Reach out to a lawyer at (314) 500-HURT or fill out our online form now. Our auto accident law firm, does not take any fees until you have your settlement check or verdict in hand, and we always fight to ensure our clients get 100 percent of the recovery they need. Do not settle for less than you deserve.
Evanston, IL Car Accident Attorneys That Get Results
In any kind of legal case, the outcome matters. You want to have full confidence in your lawyer’s abilities, and that they are going to fight hard to make sure you get the full compensation you deserve. A car accident lawyer saying they are the best is one thing; a lawyer with client testimonials and results that can prove it is another. Below are several of our car accident results:
What To Do After a Car Accident in Evanston, IL
Car Accidents can be traumatizing. It is imperative to take the right steps after an accident, however, a lot of people have never had to go through the injury claims process before. Below what you should do both right after an accident to ensure both a successful physical recovery and the success of your claim:
- Get to the side of the road if you can — If you can move and your car can drive, drive to a place where other vehicles will not hit you. If your vehicle will not drive, activate its emergency lights and wait until its safe for you to walk to the side of the road. Moving can make some injuries worse. Look to see if anyone else involved in the crash is injured. Render aid if you can.
- Call 911 or a police non-emergency line — If someone needs EMTs and/or an ambulance, always call 911. Either way, call for police so they can interview you and the other driver and make their report. Police are trained to ascertain negligence in a crash and a police report is invaluable when making a claim. If you are not sure whether you should call 911 or a non-emergency line, always call 911 and let the operator decide how to proceed.
- Talk to the other driver — Once you can do so safely, exit your vehicle and get the other driver’s information. Take a picture of their license and insurance information. If the other driver admits fault, ask some follow-up questions to try to get them to admit what happened. You do not need to feel like you are starting an argument, you are just asking for information.
- DO NOT admit fault — In conversations with police, the other driver and an insurance company, you can give a brief description of how things occurred as you saw them. But never admit fault. There may be details you do not know yet, and admitting fault will bring complications when you are attempting to seek a compensation.
- Obtain evidence from the scene — Take pictures of all the vehicles involved and the surrounding area, including any skid marks or any other property damage the accident caused. If there are eyewitnesses, get their contact information so they can corroborate your version of events when you make a claim.
- Get medical attention — If you were not treated at the scene or taken to an emergency room by ambulance, get to urgent care quickly, or see your general practitioner as soon as possible. Medical treatment is not only necessary to ensure you recover physically, but you need documentation in order to make an injury claim.
- Speak to Evanston, IL car accident attorneys — If you were injured because of another driver, it is more likely than not that a lawyer is the only way to get the full recovery you are owed. Have a list of questions ready to ask them, including what their fee structure is, if they have won your type of case before, how much they think your claim is worth and if they are ready to fight for you in a courtroom.
- Do not skip out on medical treatment — Get the full medical treatment you need to recover, whether that includes surgery, physical rehabilitation or spinal adjustments with a chiropractor. This is important not only so you can achieve maximum medical improvement, but can get the full extent of your damages once pain and suffering is taken into account. You discover how pain and suffering is calculated on our blog.
Burger Law has helped hundreds of injured parties in Evanston and throughout Illinois navigate the confusing aftermath of a car accident claim. Get in touch with our car accident attorneys now at (314) 500-HURT if you have any concerns about what the next steps are after an accident.
What Kind of Issues Come Up In Evanston, IL Car Accident Claims?
Ideally, you would not have to fight to get the compensation you deserve. But far too often there are difficulties that arise and the other side does not want to be fair. Several of the problems our car accident attorneys see most frequently in Evanston, IL are:
- The other driver has no insurance — Illinois requires drivers to have at least minimum liability insurance coverage. But some drivers do not follow the rules, and that can cause doubt about how to proceed. Our car accident attorneys now how to file uninsured motorist claims for our clients against their own insurance companies . However, just because it is your own insurance does not mean they will readily agree to pay you – an attorney is usually still required to stand up to the insurance company and get you what you deserve.
- The other party does not have enough insurance — Depending on the policyholder’s policy limits, they may not have enough to fully compensate you. If are owed more money than what’s on the at-fault driver’s coverage, we can file an underinsured motorist claim on your own policy. Sometimes, we can uncover further insurance the other driver has that your accident falls under.
- The other driver will not admit fault — There are some reckless people out there who do not want to take accountability for their wrongdoing. If the other driver will not admit fault, we will gather evidence and take sworn depositions so the question of their liability is no longer in doubt.
- The insurance company is trying to lowball you — Insurance adjusters utilize numerous different deceitful tactics to devalue claims, and you will need an attorney to fight back against them. If they still will not be fair after our settlement demand letter, we will not hesitate file a lawsuit, litigate the case and prepare for trial. Often, once they know our car accident attorneys are on the case, it is only a matter of time before they accept our demands; they know they have no chance if we go to court. Many high settlements are offered right before a trial is set to begin.
Our car accident attorneys always try to settle a case quickly. However, if you have a more complicated case and the negligent driver and their insurance company do not want to see reason, we are prepared to take them all the way through trial. We do not stop fighting for our Evanston, IL clients until they are compensated. There is not type of car accident claim we have not seen before.
Most Common Types of Car Accidents in Evanston, IL
Each car accident is unique, and they can happen for any reason, at any time or place. However, most causes and types of accidents can be broken down into a number of distinct categories. Common examples are:
- Backup Accidents — Based on data from the National Safety Council, 25% of accidents can be blamed on improper backing techniques, and those accidents cause over 500 deaths and 15,000 injuries annually, many of them to children in parking lots.
If someone else backed into you or your car, the insurance adjuster will probably dismiss your claim, as most rear to front accidents are the fault of the rear driver. Skilled car accident attorneys will be able to prove how the front driver caused your injuries.
- Carpool and Rideshare Accidents — Uber or Lyft accidents themselves are not too different from any other car crash. However, while policy limits tend to be higher, there may be multiple parties at fault including the company, driver and a third party driver. A car accident lawyer can help level the playing field.
- Distracted Driving Accidents — Distracted driving is responsible for over 3,000 traffic-related fatalities per year. Looking at a phone for the average time it takes to read a text at highway speeds takes a driver’s eyes of the road for 120 yards. Common distractions include:
- Texting and driving
- Eating and/or drinking
- Looking for items in the car
- Adjusting system controls
- Grooming
- Participating in an avid conversation
- Daydreaming
- Drunk Driving Accidents — Drunk driving is responsible for about a third of all traffic fatalities. Drunk driving should never happen. Because of negligence per se, a drunk driver is automatically assumed liable for your injuries, but you will still need someone to fight for you to ensure all your damages are paid for.
- Fatal Car Crashes — Nothing is worse than having a loved one taken away by a negligent driver. While no lawyer can bring back your loved one, a wrongful death claim can bring a feeling of justice, and ease the financial burden their loss placed on you.
- Head-on Collisions — Head-on collisions are especially dangerous because both vehicles are going fast, and the driver and front passenger are exposed to flying glass and debris. They account for just two percent of all traffic accidents, but are responsible for 10 percent of all driving fatalities. In addition to fatalities, they can lead to catastrophic injuries.
- Intersection Accidents — According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administrations’s report on intersection-related crashes, over a third of all motor vehicle accidents happen at intersections. Intersection accidents are often caused by drivers not paying attention and drunk driving and illegal U-turns.
- Multi-Vehicle Accidents — Multi-vehicle accidents are often “chain reaction” accidents where more than one driver is responsible. Because of that, each driver’s insurance will try to pin liability on the others. Burger Law’s Evanston, IL car accident attorneys will prove how each negligent driver contributed to your injuries.
- Rear-End Accidents — These are the most common auto accidents, making up three out of 10 traffic accidents. Common injuries include whiplash and brain injuries like concussions.
- Road Construction Accidents — Construction companies are obligated to make sure their construction sites are safe for drivers, including having sufficient warning zones and that cones are placed to keep drivers out of dangerous areas. In addition to a negligent driver, we can sue a construction company if they were negligent and their negligence injured you.
- Speeding Accidents — Statewide in 2020, speeding contributed to 31.9 percent of all crashes, 44.9 percent of fatal crashes and over a third of personal injury crashes. Speeding is dangerous because it increases the the probability that a driver will lose control of their car and dramatically reduces stopping distance.
Burger Law’s Evanston, IL car accident attorneys have seen claims involving any conditions and circumstances imaginable — and gotten great results for our clients while working on them. We know how to gather the facts to substantiate your claim and prove how the other party is responsible for your injuries.
How Much Compensation Will I Receive For My Evanston, IL Car Accident Injuries?
Financial recoveries in car accident claims typically compensate you for two types of damages: economic damages, such as your cost of treatment and lost wages, and non-economic damages, commonly called pain and suffering An experienced car accident attorney like those at Burger Law know how to calculate the full extent of someone’s damages. We will demand justice in your case.
To determine the full extent of your damages, we will first add together the entirety of your economic damages. This includes:
- Money lost from time spent off work recovering and lost earning potential
- Any medical appointments, surgeries, proscriptions and/or tests
- Assistive devices such as crutches
- Medical costs you might incur in the future, such as additional surgeries, replacement wheelchairs, or eventual replacement of artificial joints
- Out-of-pocket expenses like help with household chores while you were recovering
If you are likely to incur future economic damages, we consult with economic experts to value how much those will cost in the future, and include estimated inflation in our settlement demand package.
After knowing the full extent of your economic damages, we will put a monetary value on the less tangible ways your life has been affected. Usually, your attorney will use the “multiplier method,” multiplying your economic damages by a number between 1.5 and five.
For instance, if you have $30,000 in economic damages, and your injuries caused you to be in pain for several weeks, your car accident attorney might decide your economic damages should be multiplied by three. Therefore:
$30,000 X 3 = $90,000
Your final compensation would then be $120,000.
Three is used most frequently, and multipliers of four and five are usually only for more serious injuries that greatly affect someone’s physical comfort, state of mind and their independence.
What Factors Go Into How Much My Claim Is Worth?
More serious injuries result in more compensation. Things that increase or decrease your compensation include:
- The type and severity of your injuries
- How much medical treatment you needed, and if you will need more treatment in the future
- If your injuries resulted in disfigurement or disability
- The amount of time spent off work
- If you can no longer earn a living as you used to and have lost earning capacity damages
- If your injuries affected your quality of life and independence
- If you contributed to the accident in any way
Often, insurance adjusters try to devalue claims through a variety of tricks and dishonest tactics. We will not let them get away with that. In our more than 30 years of experience fighting back against insurance adjusters, and to date have secured over $200 million for our clients.
How Much Time Do I Have to File a Car Accident Claim in Evanston, IL?
Each state has its own statute of limitations for injury claims. Under 735 ILCS 5/13-202, Illinois’ is relatively short at just two years. There are three noteworthy exceptions:
- For wrongful death claims you have two years from the date of that loved one’s death – not the date of the accident.
- If you or your loved one was a minor when the accident occurred, you have two years from their 18th birthday.
- If you or your loved one was under a “legal disability” at the time of the accident, you have two years from the date the disability was removed. If you came under a legal disability after than accident but within the two-year time limit, that time is not counted against you. In Illinois, “legal disability” means:
- Someone who, either by mental or physical impairment, is not able to manage their person or estate
- A person with a mental illness or developmental disability that keeps them from managing their person or estate
- Someone who, because of “gambling, idleness, debauchery or excessive use of alcohol or drugs,” cannot manage their estate to the extent that it causes them or their family to “want or suffer”
Two years is not as long as it sounds. Do not wait to call a car accident attorney immediately. If you are wondering if any of the exceptions apply to you, speak to an attorney at Burger Law today at (314) 500-HURT to go over the specifics of your case.
Other cases we take on in Evanston, IL include:
Speak to Our Evanston, IL Car Accident Attorneys Today
Burger Law’s car accident attorneys are committed devoted to getting each of our Evanston, IL clients the best possible results in their claims. You did not ask to be put in this situation, and you should not have to pay for another person’s mistakes. We will fight back against bullies like resistant insurance companies. To start on your true road to recovery, speak to Burger Law‘s car accident attorneys immediately at (314) 500-HURT or fill out our online contact form for a no-risk, no-obligation case evaluation.
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Client Reviews
What our clients are saying about us
This law firm is absolutely amazing. They took on my case, when nobody else would! They fought hard for me when it seemed there was no hope. They kept me informed and always asked for my input before making decisions on my case. Gary puts himself into every case unlike most law firm owners. Gary and his team really care about every one of their clients, and fights hard to get you a fair settlement. They actually won my case out of court, and then reduced my fees to make sure I could get my car fixed and be able to get back to some normality. I would recommend Burger Law over and above any other firm! If you go somewhere else you aren’t getting the best!