Personal Injury Lawyer | Lane Brown, LLC

After suffering a serious injury in an accident, the last thing you want is to deal with a long, drawn-out court battle over compensation for your losses. This often tempts injury victims into accepting personal injury settlement offers that may not be in their best interests.

In some cases, accepting a settlement offer from the insurance may be a good fit. So that leaves victims wondering which route is best for them. Continue reading to learn more about whether going to court or accepting an insurance settlement is better for injury victims like you.

What to Expect From the Insurance Company

In most accident cases, you’ll deal with an insurance company. This includes premises liability accidents such as a slip-and-fall, a car accident, a defective product injury, a medical malpractice claim and others.

The thing about the insurance company is that it typically doesn’t prioritize the needs of its claimants. Paying out on your claim will cost money, which means it’s in the insurer’s best interests to minimize your settlement. How does it get away with this, you might ask? Well, the insurer has two major tricks up its sleeve: making you a fast offer and asking you for a statement.

The problem with a quick offer is that it’s usually done when an insurance adjuster recognizes that your claim is worth more. It offers you money quickly to avoid fairly compensating you. You accept because you need the money and it seems reasonable. For this reason, we never recommend accepting an insurance offer without first reviewing it with your lawyer.

The other way insurers take advantage of injury victims is by asking them for a statement. If you are found partially liable for your injuries, the insurer could get away with paying out less on your claim. The adjuster could manipulate your words to make it appear as though you have admitted fault in some way. It’s a good idea to always have your lawyer handle negotiations with the insurance company to protect yourself.

Now What?

These tactics don’t necessarily mean it’s wrong to accept an insurance offer. In some cases, insurers are willing and able to settle your claim quite fairly. However, you should always make it a best practice to have a lawyer prioritizing your best interests.

If the insurance company can’t or won’t settle your claim reasonably, your lawyer may recommend that you move forward with a personal injury lawsuit to maximize your compensation.

Contact a Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer

If you have suffered serious injuries in an accident and want to be sure that you are getting the most out of your claim, reach out to an experienced Chicago personal injury lawyer at Lane Brown, LLC. You can reach our office through the quick contact form included below or by calling us at 312-332-1400 to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation.

Summer is quickly approaching. With restrictions lifting, you and your family may be anxious to get outside and take advantage of the summer heat by taking a dip in the pool, beach, lake, or waterpark.

But it is important to remember that though it’s exciting that we can now get back out there and enjoy all that the summer season has to offer, we also need to be safe and remember that fun in the water can turn deadly in an instant.

Continue reading to learn more about what summer safety tips you should follow and when you might need to be prepared to file a civil claim if someone fails to follow safety measures when participating in summer fun.

The Importance of Water Safety

One of the worst outcomes of a lack of water safety is drownings. We don’t bring this up to scare you, but to instead provide you with some water safety tips you can follow so you and your family can enjoy the water safely.

A couple of different ways you can keep your kids safe in the water include:

Talk to them about what will happen if they don’t follow the rules.
Have your kids enter the water feet first only (no diving or cannonballs).
Teach your kids about different water depths.
Teach your kids how to escape if someone is grabbing onto them.
Keep your phone away at all times—your attention should always be on your kids while they are in the water.
Set break times every thirty minutes or so.

These are just a couple of ways you can help to keep your children safe when participating in summer water activities. Do your own research, educate yourself about water safety, and above all, remain safe this summer.

When You Might Take Legal Action

Sometimes we have to leave our children in someone else’s care. Whether their daycare brought them on a field trip to Magic Waters or a family member had them over for a day at the pool while you worked, it isn’t always realistic to think that you can watch over your kids every second they are in the water.

If someone else is responsible for keeping your children safe and they fail to do so, you may be able to hold them accountable for their negligence. Water safety is essential and if they failed to protect your child, you can take legal action via a personal injury claim.

Contact a Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer

It is critical that you, your loved ones, and anyone watching your children in the water follow strict rules in order to ensure their safety. Unfortunately, when water safety guidelines are not followed, children and adults can suffer catastrophic injury and even die from drowning accidents.

If your child drowned or was seriously injured due to the negligent actions of another, you don’t want to have to spend your time searching for a lawyer who can take on your case. Contact a Chicago personal injury lawyer at Lane Brown, LLC to help you figure out what your next steps should be.

You can give our office a call at 312-332-1400 or submit the quick contact form included below to schedule your free, no-obligation consultation.

When a car accident happens in Chicago, you may be unsure what to do. Depending on the severity of the collision, it can be unclear whether you’re required to call the police. If you know someone else is at fault for your car accident, however, calling the police can be beneficial, regardless of whether you’re required to.

Having a police report can serve as strong evidence if you file a lawsuit against the at-fault party to fight for a settlement for your damages. If you’re having questions about your car accident and whether you have grounds for a lawsuit, you can speak to a Chicago car accident lawyer from Lane Brown, LLC. Our team will investigate your accident and help move your claim in the right direction.

When You’re Required to Call the Police after a Chicago Car Accident

You’re required to call the police after a car accident in Chicago if the accident results in bodily injury, death, or $1,500 in property damage. Although this may seem like an easy law to follow, you may not initially know the value of the damage that has been done to your car.

To play it safe, you should call the police if you see any property damage after a car accident. Even if your car accident seems unsubstantial on the scene, you should file a report for your Chicago car accident after the fact. By giving the police information about your wreck, you’ll provide yourself with evidence if you end up in court.

How to File a Police Report for Your Chicago Car Accident

You must file your police report within ten days of your Chicago accident. If you don’t file a report and your accident resulted in bodily injury, death, or property damage over $1,500, you can be fined.

You can file your report by completing a motorist crash report with the Illinois Department of Transportation. This report will ask for specific information from your car accident, such as when and where the accident happened, who was involved, how it occurred, and detailed vehicle information about all drivers.

Proving Negligence against the Liable Party in Your Wreck

If you realize that you’ve experienced significant damage from your accident, such as medical expenses, property damage, or lost wages from missing work, you can sue the liable party by proving negligence. Your police report will come in handy as evidence in your case, but you may also need photographs and witness statements from the scene of the accident to support your claim.

Contact a Chicago Car Accident Attorney

By taking the rights steps at the beginning of your accident, you can maximize your settlement later on. Speaking to an experienced attorney as soon as your accident occurs will be helpful if you want to avoid making mistakes while pursuing compensation. To speak with a Chicago car accident lawyer from Lane Brown, LLC, call 312-332-1400 or fill out the contact form below to schedule a free consultation.

If you are involved in a personal injury case, there’s a good chance one or more personal injury lawyers are also going to be involved. While those lawyers live in the world of personal injury law every day, chances are, much of what goes on in a personal injury case may be foreign to you. To educate yourself and to best protect your interests, you need to at least have a basic grasp of some of the terminology you might encounter.

Torts/Intentional Torts – A tort is a wrongful act that is not a crime and that does not arise from a contract. Torts are common in civil suits and include actions such as negligence, libel, slander, trespassing and other related actions. Intentional torts are wrongful actions that are committed on purpose. Torts are important because they are what form the grounds for a civil lawsuit and allow a party to seek damages. On the other hand, criminal cases do not allow plaintiffs to collect damages.

Burden of Proof – This refers to the plaintiff’s obligation to prove what they are asserting to be true. In a personal injury case, the plaintiff must prove by a preponderance of evidence that the defendant is liable for their actions.

Strict Liability – This legal theory says that liability for certain acts exists regardless of if there is fault or wrongdoing. This is many times applied to defective products. If a manufacturer creates a product and someone is injured while using that product, the manufacturer may be held liable. Strict liability shifts the burden of proof to a defendant who has to prove they are not liable, as opposed to other negligence cases.

No-fault Laws – In some states, if you are injured in an auto accident, then you will collect damages from your own insurance company under no-fault laws. In other words, everyone is responsible for themselves, unless certain injury or damage thresholds are met.
The Law Offices of Lane Brown, LLC proudly serve the city of Chicago and the surrounding communities.