Effingham Truck Accidents

Effingham Lawyers to Recover Damages For You After a Truck Accident

Effingham is part of the Illinois Micropolitan Statistical Area and located in South Central Illinois. The city, which has 14,104 households, is served by several highways: Illinois Route 33, U.S. Route 45, Interstate 57, and Interstate 70. As of 2021, the median household income of Effingham County households was $72,279. This income level may not be enough to address all the costs associated with the catastrophic injuries. If you were injured, call the seasoned Effingham truck accident lawyers of Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca. We have more than 60 of legal experience on which you can rely if you entrust us with representing you in your lawsuit.

Liability for Truck Accidents in Effingham

To recover damages on your behalf, our lawyers will likely need to establish the defendant truck driver’s negligence by showing: (1) the defendant owed you a duty of reasonable care, (2) breach of this duty, (3) causal connection between the breach and your losses, and (4) actual damages from those losses.

All drivers, including truck drivers, owe a duty of reasonable care to those with whom they share the road. Numerous circumstances can indicate breach of this duty. The jury may find a truck driver breached the duty to use reasonable care if he had:

• falsified his logbooks,
• sped,
• wove in traffic,
• failed to hit the brakes in time,
• failed to obey traffic signs and signals,
• or was under the influence.

However, others may also bear responsibility for a truck accident. Once retained, our lawyers send someone out to the accident scene and take other steps to reconstruct the accident and determine who should be held responsible for injuries arising out of it. Potential defendants include not only the truck driver, but also the trucking company for which he or she worked, the manufacturer of the truck, mechanic, third party loading company, a property owner, and other drivers.

The trucking company may be responsible under a theory of direct or indirect liability. It could be responsible for your damages, for instance, if it negligently supervised, hired, or trained the truck driver who caused the accident.

Comparative Negligence

Your damages can be reduced by an amount equal to your percentage of fault. Additionally, Illinois follows the modified comparative negligence rule, which bars recovery if a plaintiff was 50% or more responsible for causing the accident. If, for example, you were concentrating on drinking a hot beverage rather than shifting road conditions, and a drunk driver was also not paying attention and rear ended you so that you both crashed, the jury is likely to find that both of you contributed to the serious collision. If your damages were $500,000 in that case, but you were found 60% at fault, you would be barred from recovering damages.

Damages

In many cases, the damages that are recoverable in a truck accident case are compensatory, meaning that the jury or judge awards them to make up for the losses suffered. Our lawyers will need to prove those damages; we cannot speculate about an appropriate amount. Damages may can include:

• lost wages,
• medical bills,
• emergency care,
• prescription drugs,
• replacement services (such as the cost of a housekeeper),
• pain and suffering,
• loss of consortium,
• emotional distress,
• and disfigurement.

Call Seasoned Trial Lawyers After an Effingham Truck Accident

If you found yourself injured a truck accident, you may be worried uncertain of what the appropriate next steps are. Be sure to preserve anything that could be evidence: documentation, debris, photographs of the accident. And call the effective lawyers of Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca a for legal representation at 312-724-5846 or contact us via our online form. With more than 60 years of experience advocating for accident victims in court, we fight for best results for all of our clients. We also handle SSDI and disability claims.