Quincy Car Accidents

Motor Vehicle Collision Attorneys Representing People in the Quincy Area

Quincy is known as the Gem City and is home to over 40,000 people. I-72 passes just south of Quincy, while I-172 passes just to the east. Other major roads in the area include Illinois Route 96, Illinois Route 57, and U.S. Route 24. Car accidents on any of these roads can have devastating consequences. Sometimes a collision results in broken bones, bruises, and lacerations, but in other cases, it might result in head trauma, spinal cord damage, paralysis, crushing injuries, amputations, and other catastrophic injuries, or even death. Afterward, even if liability is clear, the insurance adjuster for the other party may call you to ask questions and try to get you to admit fault. It is important not to talk to the adjuster before talking to a Quincy car accident lawyer. If you are injured in a car accident, you should consult the experienced personal injury attorneys at Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca.

Pursuing a Car Accident Claim in Illinois

Most lawsuits seeking damages after a car accident proceed on a theory of negligence. To show 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 conduct caused your accident. Drivers can breach their duty of using reasonable care while operating a motor vehicle in many different ways, including drunk driving, distracted driving, failing to obey traffic signals and signs, tailgating, weaving, or speeding. If these actions or omissions have a causal relationship to the car accident, it likely is possible to hold the other driver accountable for damages.

Often, more than one driver’s negligence contributes to an accident. Illinois follows a modified comparative negligence rule. This means that both sides will present arguments and evidence to show the other party’s negligence. The jury will evaluate all of it and assign percentages of fault in addition to determining damages. Your damages will be reduced by your percentage of fault, if any. For example, if the damages are $100,000, and the jury decides that you were 20% at fault for speeding down I-172, while the other driver was 80% at fault for texting while driving, you can recover $80,000 from the other driver. However, in Illinois, if you are found more than 50% responsible, you cannot recover damages at all.

If a car accident lawyer in Quincy helps you establish liability, you can recover compensatory damages, which are designed to put you roughly back into the place in which you would have been had the accident not happened. They may include both economic and noneconomic losses. Economic losses are usually tangible, documented damages, such as wage loss, medical bills, the cost of medical equipment, rehabilitation, therapy, property damage, and out-of-pocket expenses. Generally, economic losses remain stable regardless of who is representing you in a personal injury lawsuit.

However, noneconomic damages can vary dramatically depending on whom you choose as your Quincy car accident attorney to relate your story to an insurance adjuster or the jury. Noneconomic damages are intangible damages, such as pain and suffering, loss of consortium, mental anguish, scarring, and disfigurement. Noneconomic damages are largely subjective; they can vary dramatically based on the individual characteristics of the injured person. For example, a reclusive 65-year-old male may not experience facial scarring and disfigurement with the same degree of anguish and humiliation as a young woman in the midst of a promising career in acting. A sedentary middle-aged man may not experience the same degree of difficulty in adapting to back problems as a mother of two small children who is no longer able to pick them up would. An experienced lawyer can probe your interests and goals as a person to figure out which intangible losses you may have suffered and explain them to the jury in a persuasive way.

Consult a Car Accident Attorney in Quincy or the Surrounding Areas

A driver’s careless actions can change the life of a victim in an instant, and sometimes for a long time or even forever. If you were injured in a car accident in Quincy, you should consult a knowledgeable personal injury attorney. You can call Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca at 312-724-5846 for a free consultation.