Motor Vehicle/Transportation Accidents

Transportation accidents take into account all forms of public and private transportation of people and goods. The law that applies to these various categories may depend on state law or federal law.

Automobile crashes are perhaps the most common case in this category. Generally, automobile crashes are governed by the Illinois Motor Vehicle Code and the Rules of the Road. People operating vehicles in Illinois have a duty to exercise reasonable care in the operation of their vehicles for the safety of other motorists and pedestrians on the roadways. When they fail to follow these rules and that results in a crash and injuries, then it is negligence. If you are a passenger in a cab, bus or other conveyance that transports people for a fare, the law imposes a higher degree of care for the safety of the passengers being transported.

As previously discussed, depending on the circumstances of the case, various types of insurance apply to motor vehicle crashes. Even though the State of Illinois requires every automobile be covered by insurance, far too often there is no insurance. Drivers involved in crashes who do not have insurance may lose their driving privileges until they pay the other driver's damages. The law does not excuse the driver who does not know that a motor vehicle is uninsured.

In those instances where you may be involved in a crash with an "uninsured" driver, it will be the uninsured provisions of your motor vehicle policy that provide compensation. In instances where the damages claimed are in excess of the guilty party's insurance, the "underinsured" benefits of your policy may provide additional compensation depending upon what those limits are and what you have already collected from the guilty party.

It is important to remember when an insurance company gets involved, the insurance company has experienced adjusters capable and prepared to do what it takes to limit your recovery. The insurance company will also hire attorneys to represent the negligent party. The statements you make to either the adjuster or the negligent party's attorney may be used against you, if and when the matter is attempted to be settled or if it goes to court. You should not speak or give a statement to the other party's insurance adjuster or attorney. You should limit what you say to the other side.

If a ticket is issued, that is not indicative of who is at fault for the crash, even if the person pleaded guilty and paid the fine. Usually, if the negligent party has pleaded guilty to the offense in court or has pleaded guilty on the ticket and sent in the fine, it is considered an admission of guilt to negligence. However, that does not mean the injured party automatically wins. If the defendant does not plead guilty, a finding of guilt by a traffic court will not be admissible in a civil case.

At the end of this booklet, we have provided our "Glove Box Information Form" with this quick reference guide. You should use the information card if you are involved in an accident. Restrict any discussions with any of the other parties involved to the information necessary to complete the card. Be accurate and complete in cooperating with police officers who may be investigating the incident to ensure that they have the clear and complete information about the way the incident occurred. It is important to immediately report an accident to your own insurance company, even if it is not your fault. The failure to give your insurance company timely notice of an accident may invalidate coverage that you may need for the accident such as medical payment coverage and/or underinsured or uninsured motorist coverage. In a car crash, your medical payment coverage must be exhausted before group health plan coverage kicks in. Give your medical providers your group health plan and medical pay insurance information until you are certain that your automobile medical pay is exhausted.
Back to the top

Construction Accidents/Negligence

Construction sites are notorious for the dangers associated with the work that must be done. There are all types of machinery engaged in work materials being hoisted, workers exposed to dangerous heights, or in trenches while a number of other tasks are going on around them. Construction negligence is a unique form of negligence in that there are often multiple parties who may be responsible for safety on a construction site and, therefore, responsible for compensation to an injured party. The statute of limitations is generally four years, provided the injured individual is engaged in the actual construction or repair of a building at the time of the injury. There may be other factors which shorten or lengthen this time frame.
Back to the top

Medical Malpractice

One of the most difficult cases to prove is a medical malpractice case. Not only are they complicated, involving technical issues that most of us are unfamiliar with, but often jurors have an unusually high degree of respect for doctors or hospitals providing considerable leeway in determining whether they are guilty of committing malpractice. Unfortunately, by its very nature, medical malpractice cases are cases that often involve catastrophic damages and/or death for the victims. As stated previously in this guide, there are laws that offer medical people such as doctors, nurses, chiropractors, and hospitals far greater protection in cases against them. Unlike almost any other lawsuit, a medical malpractice claim can only be filed if another medical practitioner practicing in the same field of medicine is willing to support the lawsuit. This represents a substantial expense before the case is even filed. Furthermore, it is difficult to obtain medical personnel to review cases and be critical of medical professionals and hospitals in the same locality where they practice.

In a medical malpractice case, a medical professional must be willing to state that the doctor, medical practitioner, or hospital violated the "standard of care." The "standard of care" is the care that is reasonably expected to be rendered to a patient in a particular locality under normal circumstances. Therefore, it is usually a very subjective standard.

Medical malpractice cases are almost never settled. Statistically, only about one in three cases are successful. For this reason, medical practitioners, as well as the hospitals choose to fight these suits. Therefore, unless the injuries are catastrophic, it is often much too expensive in terms of expert costs, attorney fees, and other court related costs for an injured person who has been hurt at the hands of poor medical care, to file an action, even if it would be successful. The costs and fees associated with pursuing the action may exceed a successful verdict.
Back to the top

Statutory Claims

There are numerous claims that are created by a state statute or federal code. As we stated earlier, some may involve workplace injuries that preempt the Workers' Compensation Act. In most cases, however, they may offer the injured party far greater rights and compensation. We will discuss only a representative few:

Animal Control Act - Dog Bite

The Animal Control Act specifically deals with actions by injured people who have been injured by the failure of a domestic animal owner to control their animal. A lawsuit under the Animal Control Act is considered a Strict Liability Statute. In other words, if the injured person can show they were peaceably conducting themselves where they were entitled to be and without provocation were attacked and injured by an animal owned or controlled by another, then he or she is entitled to a recovery. There is no need to prove any other fault on anyone else's behalf.

Dram Shop

The term "dram shop" refers to a facility or store that sells or distributes alcoholic beverages to the public. Typically, a dram shop is a liquor store or a bar or restaurant that sells liquor by an individual drink or by container. If a facility serves a person who they know to be intoxicated, they may be liable for injuries caused by that person to third parties. For example, if your vehicle is struck by an individual who is intoxicated, and it can be proven that the intoxication resulted from being over served at a particular restaurant, that restaurant may be responsible to you for damages caused by the intoxicated customer. However, like the medical lobby, the bar and restaurant lobby is very strong as well. The damages are capped at a very low amount, even for the wrongful death of an individual by an intoxicated person. In addition, the statute of limitations is restrictive on a dram shop action.

Railroad Workplace Injuries:

There are a number of federal statutes that are designed to afford greater protection and compensation to workers engaged in most railroad related activities. Which apply may depend on the job being done by the victim at the time or it may depend on the equipment causing the injury.

Farm and Agricultural Workplace Injuries:

There are various Federal statutes that were enacted to afford greater protection to most seasonal and migrant agricultural workers, depending on certain requirements. They address not only the work being done, but also the transportation of workers.

Longshoreman, Dock Workers and Shiphands Workplace Injuries:

Under the specific requirements of various Federal statutes, certain workers associated with the loading/unloading, maintenance and/or the operation of ships or vessels on navigational waterways have significant remedies available to them. Once again, a victim's rights and claims are dependant on the work being done or the equipment being used at the time of injury.
Back to the top

General Negligence

Perhaps the biggest category of cases that may be asserted against a wrongful party is in general negligence. Negligence is defined under the law as the failure to do something which a reasonably careful or prudent person would do under the circumstance or, doing something that a reasonably careful or prudent person would not do under the same or similar circumstances. This conduct takes into account a broad range of potential actions that are too multitudinous to attempt to list. Injuries that result from practical jokes, arrogant conduct, or a general disregard for the rights of another to be free from injurious conduct may be sufficient to assert a claim under a general negligence theory.

The statute of limitations varies depending on the facts of the case, particularly when a governmental entity may be involved or causes the wrongful conduct.
Back to the top

Premises Liability

There are a significant variety of cases that come under the general category of "premises liability" actions. There is a Premises Liability Act in Illinois, which makes the owner of a property responsible for certain actions or inactions that are done on that property which result in injury. As we have previously said, this is not an automatic liability because someone has been hurt on the owner's property. For example, a premises liability action might entail a defect in the parking lot of a store or factory, which causes an injury. However, not every defect is covered.

In order to show that a party may be responsible for the defect on the premises, there is a requirement that there be notice to the landowner. Whether the owner knew or should have known of the defect is often a very controversial issue. For example, a grocery store may be liable for a banana peel that a customer slips and falls on, particularly if the banana peel is black and appears to have been there for several hours, however, the store owner will generally not be responsible for a slip and fall on a spill that has just occurred immediately before the customer came to that spot. In that instance, the owner did not have adequate notice to discover and correct the defect. The statute of limitations is generally two years from the date of the injury, but under certain circumstances may be very different. If the injured party is a minor, the statute will be longer. If the party responsible for the injury is a municipal or governmental entity, or the CTA, RTA, the time frame might be much shorter and require additional matters to be filed.
Back to the top

Product Liability

We have all heard of people being injured by various products from automobiles to various children's products, to certain medical equipment and pharmaceutical products. The area of the law that deals with this is called Product Liability. The manufacturers and in some occasions the downstream sellers of these products have a duty to make goods that function the way they are intended to function and not to cause injury to the users. These products, in addition to being manufactured and designed safely, in some instances, must also carry warnings that clearly set forth dangerous conditions that are intended by products and their use but not intended to cause injury. Most often these types of claims require expert witnesses who can testify about the defective conditions of the products or the inadequate warnings based upon their experience, knowledge, training and education in that particular area of expertise. The statute of limitations is very complex in product liability cases. The choice of where the matter should be filed is often also very complicated. Also, deciding who are the appropriate parties to file an action against is a very complex matter. In some cases, it's appropriate to bring all the parties in that have been associated with the distribution of the product, and in others it's not appropriate to do that.
Back to the top

CONCLUSION

Volumes have been written regarding the various actions available to people injured at the hands of another individual or a corporation. A failure to properly pursue an action in a timely fashion might bar a recovery. Asserting your rights in various jurisdictions might curtail the amount of compensation to which you may be otherwise entitled. Hopefully this guide has provided a very fundamental overview of some of the rights which an injured party in Illinois may be entitled to receive. It should not substitute for the advice and consult of an attorney who concentrates their practice in these areas of the law. This guide should only be used as a very general guide and should not be used to determine your ultimate rights in any personal injury action. Rather, you should consult an attorney.

"Compassionate and Dedicated Representation of Victims & Their Families"

At Kupets & DeCaro Law Offices we pride ourselves on representing people, not corporations. Our practice is limited to personal injury, wrongful death and victims rights cases. We are dedicated to personal service. We choose not to handle a large, questionable volume of cases. In this manner we are able to provide individualized service from our well-coordinated team, all of whom are focused on providing quality representation to the victims of negligent or intentional conduct.

Our main office is conveniently located in the Chicago "Loop", centrally situated between the County and Federal Court buildings, convenient to public parking and public transportation. We also have an office located in the Northwest suburbs. We are not limited, however, by our office locations, we regularly handle cases throughout the State of Illinois.

In addition to our attorneys and our support staff, we have consultants, who are immediately available which include doctors, nurses, investigators, accident reconstructionists and construction safety specialists. Our office also maintains a network of experts in various fields that are utilized to maximize our understanding of certain cases.

We enjoy significant relationships with several trade unions such as the UAW and construction unions through representation of their members and families. We are dedicated to the ideals of union brotherhood.

We have state of the art equipment available, on-line research capability and library facilities. Our firm coordinates in-house production and high-quality audio/visual/graphic computer graphics and other demonstrative evidence in the preparation of clients' cases.

As a firm we strive to assist clients through the many difficult situations that arise from injuries caused by wrongful conduct. Our clients comfort level is as important to us as the ultimate result of their case. We recognize that in times of stress or grief, our clients may require services that do not necessarily fall under the heading of "legal services." We have an "open door" policy for our clients to assist, and console and advise them to the fullest extent of our capabilities and experience.

Most of our clients have remained friends of ours after their cases have been concluded. We have celebrated joyous events and grieved with them during tragedies. Our clients are special people.

Our law firm is prepared to go to trial on every case we accept. Oftentimes, this results in a more generous settlement for our clients. We always stand ready to fight for the rights of every client in court. We hope you take the time to read the material we have provided and that you find it informative.