Personal injury lawsuits such as those arising from a Chicago automobile accident are usually third-party common-law cases. There are three conditions that you need to prove as a plaintiff in order to win your case and recover money:
A duty was owed to you.
The party you’re bringing the claim against breached that duty.
There is a causal connection between the breach of that duty and the damages that you sustained and the injuries you are complaining of.
Once those are established you have to prove the nature and extent of your damages or the dollar amounts to which you are entitled.
What You Can Do to Help Your Case
Gather as much accurate contact information for witnesses to the car accident as you can. This is essential because so many times it’s necessary to verify what a client is saying about what happened. Sometimes the person who was injured didn’t see what happened, exactly. Each witness will have a different piece of the puzzle that will help a good automobile accident lawyer arrive at a clear picture of what happened.
Accurately gather all information about the injury. We need all available information concerning medical providers and bills, plus any kind of documentation that helps show what happened to you as a result of the accident.
Perhaps most importantly, get in touch with an attorney as quickly as possible after you’ve been injured in an auto accident. You can be sure that if it’s a serious injury, the other side already is doing that.
In a personal injury case, a third-party tort case, you usually have two years from the date of the injury to file a legal claim. Sometimes those injured in a car accident wait to contact a lawyer until they have all the information they think they will need for their cases, but it’s important to see a good Chicago auto accident lawyer as quickly as you can following the accident, even before a lot of the information becomes. We can go find it if you lead us in the right direction, but we want to get working on your case as soon after the actual occurrence as we can.
Common Misconceptions About Auto Accident Injury Cases
In personal injury cases, we’ll often have people call us who are seriously injured and have never had anything like this happen to them before. They’ve never gone to a lawyer for an accident case and they’re afraid what other people are going to think. They don’t want to be known as somebody who is litigious. The fact of the matter is that nobody who is logical, reasonable, and mature is going to look critically at you because you take advantage of your rights to pursue compensation when you’re seriously injured. Nobody is going to think poorly of you because you hire a lawyer. If you are seriously injured in an accident and cannot work, you really don’t have much choice, because you’re without income. You’re running up large medical debts and oftentimes facing the possibility that you’ll be permanently disabled and not be able to pursue your normal activities.
