Aurora Car Accidents

Motor Vehicle Collision Lawyers Assisting Victims in the Aurora Area

Aurora is a suburb of Chicago and the second-most populous city in Illinois. Its population was nearly 200,000 residents as of 2010. Major highways in Aurora include I-88, US 30, US 34, Illinois Route 25, Illinois Route 31, Illinois Route 56, Illinois Route 59, and Illinois Route 110. After being injured or losing a loved one in a car accident, you may be concerned about how you can pay the bills. Often, serious injuries are expensive. If you cannot work due to your injuries, or you have lost a loved one’s income, it can be very hard to pay for medical bills, a mortgage, household services, or property damage to a car. At Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca, our Aurora car accident lawyers can provide aggressive, skillful legal representation in a personal injury lawsuit.

Holding a Careless Driver Accountable for Your Injuries

Many car accidents result from the negligence of one or more drivers. To prove negligence, you will need to show that it is more likely than not that the defendant owed you a duty, the defendant breached this duty, and the defendant’s careless actions resulted in the accident. Drivers can breach the duty to use reasonable care in many ways. They may fail to check their blind spots, fail to abide by safety statutes, drive drunk, drive while fatigued, drive recklessly, tailgate, drive aggressively or fail to yield, or fail to maintain their vehicles.

You will need to prove the damages that you suffered. Assuming that you can establish liability, you should be able to recover compensatory damages. Compensatory damages are damages that make up for economic and noneconomic losses arising from the specific injuries sustained. They may include medical bills, rehabilitation, physical therapy, lost income, lost earning capacity, pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment, loss of consortium, and replacement services. A car accident attorney in the Aurora area can make sure that you pursue the full scope of the damages that you are owed.

In addition to establishing liability and damages, you will also need to show that the treatment and repairs that you undertook were necessary and that their costs were reasonable. For example, if you underwent a year of physical therapy and vocational rehabilitation after suffering fractures, and the treatment cost $30,000, you would need to show that the physical therapy and vocational rehabilitation were necessary and that the costs of them were reasonable.

In many cases, defendants raise the defense of comparative negligence. When comparative negligence is raised, the jury will evaluate not only the defendant’s fault but also your fault. They will determine damages and assign a percentage of fault to both the defendant and the plaintiff. Your damages will be reduced by an amount equal to your percentage of fault. However, in Illinois, you can be barred from recovering damages if the trier of fact determines that your comparative fault is more than 50% of the legal cause of the injuries or damages for which you are seeking recovery.

Sometimes, it is important to look at whether there are multiple people at fault for a car accident. This is especially important when the driver has insufficient insurance coverage to provide redress for catastrophic injuries or wrongful death damages. While ownership does not necessarily lead to liability, it may be possible to hold an owner accountable. Your Aurora car accident attorney would need to show that the driver was the owner’s agent or that the owner negligently entrusted the vehicle to the driver. Under a theory of agency, when one person is an employee of another entity, the employer can be held liable for the agent’s negligence in the course and scope of performing an act for the employer. For example, if a pizza delivery driver excessively speeds and crashes into you while delivering a pizza for his employer, the employer may be held liable for the speeding. Similarly, parents may be held liable under an agency theory in Illinois when a child drives negligently while running an errand for the parent. For example, if a teenager is going to the grocery store to pick up groceries for her mom, the mother could be liable under an agency theory.

Negligent entrustment exists if a car owner entrusts the car to someone whom he knows or should know is likely to use it in a way involving unreasonable danger to others. For example, if the driver was loaned the car by a friend who knows that he has had several DUIs, the friend may be liable for negligently entrusting the car to a driver who presents a threat to others on the road.

Consult an Experienced Car Accident Lawyer in Aurora

If you were injured in a serious crash, you should retain an experienced motor vehicle collision attorney at Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca. We understand the challenges that you are confronting, and we can fight tenaciously to protect your rights against insurers and other companies that may not treat you as you deserve. You can call us at 312-724-5846, or contact us online, for a free consultation.