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Law Office of John
S. Xydakis, P.C.
Suite 3600
55 E. Washington St .
Chicago , Illinois 60602
(312) 727-1100
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CAR ACCIDENT
Car
accidents are complex and confusing, and you need the assistance of an
attorney to make sure you obtain the funds you deserve from the insurance
companies.
Don't let the
insurance companies fool you. They have a whole team of adjustors,
investigators and attorneys whose sole function is to minimize the amount
of funds you will obtain.
The legal theory
underlying the lawsuit you may file is called "negligence." That is,
everyone owes a duty to every other driver on the road to use reasonable
care in operating their car. Violation of this duty which damages
another person results in liability for being negligent.
The damages you obtain
are a function of both who is at fault, and what your damages are.
Thus, if the other party is clearly at fault and you have suffered
permanent injuries, your payout will be greater. Still, whiplash
cases and other "soft tissue" damages may result in compensation as
well.
The most
important thing you can do is to remember that the insurance company is
not your friend. They have one goal - settle the claim for as little
as possible.
Don't make the
mistake many people do, and get an attorney involved early in the
process. As these cases are taken on a contingency basis, where the
attorney's compensation will be a percentage of the recovery you obtain,
if any, there really is no reason not to employ an attorney in car
accident cases.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
WHAT IS
NEGLIGENCE?
A person is
negligent when he/she fails to act like the standard Ordinary,
Reasonable Person. Just how an "ordinary, reasonable person" is
expected to act in a particular situation can be a gray area of the
law. For example, an ordinary, reasonable person can travel down the
highway at 60 miles per hour but if dense fog is present, the same
ordinary, reasonable person may be expected to reduce his/her speed
of travel to 40 miles per hour. The determination of whether a
person has met his/her standard is often resolved by a jury after
presentation of evidence and argument at
trial. |
WHAT SHOULD
I DO IN THE EVENT OF AN AUTO ACCIDENT?
First -- after everyone is out of
danger and any medical and police help needed has been summoned --
get the information you may need and put it down in writing. At
least the following information is suggested:
Who were the
drivers of the vehicles involved?
Did all drivers have
driver's licenses? Be sure to get the driver's license numbers and
addresses of the drivers!
Did any of the driver's appear to
be under the influence of alcohol or drugs? (Write down who and why
you think they were and who else observed that same thing. After the
effects wear off it would be your word against theirs.)
Were
any passengers in the vehicles? Get their names and
addresses!
Were any pedestrians involved in the accident? Get
their names and addresses!
Did any person involved in the
accident report any personal injury shortly after the accident? Who
are they, and where do they live?
Was medical assistance
rendered at the scene of the accident?
What personal injury
did the injured person report? Did anyone say "I'm not
hurt"?
What was the actual location of the
accident?
Were there any witnesses to the accident (other
than those directly involved in the accident)? Get the names,
addresses, and telephone numbers of all witnesses!
In what
direction were the vehicles traveling just prior to the
accident?
At what time of day did the accident
occur?
What were the weather conditions at the time of the
accident?
Was there anything "wrong" with the vehicles before
the accident, such as driving with a broken headlight at night, or
with bald tires?
Was there any damage to the vehicles as a
result of the accident? (Even if there wasn't, that does not mean
that someone may not have been injured, even with a "soft tissues
injury".) What parts of the vehicle were damaged?
Who were
the registered owners of the vehicles (names and
addresses)?
Were all vehicles involved in the accident
insured? What are the names of the insurance companies and the
policy numbers? (If they said how much insurance they had, record
that too.)
Did any of the vehicles need to be towed from the
scene of the accident?
How did the accident occur?
Did
anyone accept responsibility for the accident, such as by saying "It
was my fault, I am sorry. I was speeding / not paying attention /
not wearing my glasses / distracted / tired / late for work / in a
hurry / my coffee had just spilled ... etc."? If so, write it
down.
Did anyone else say something to indicate that s/he too
was at least partially at fault -- such as "I should have seen you
but I was on my cell phone / I've been taking these pills / my
eyesight isn't what it used to be after dark, etc"?
Did the
police come? If so, did they issue anyone a ticket? Which officers
were present?
As much basic information as possible should be
gathered immediately after the accident occurred. As time passes,
memories tend to fade and new versions of the chain of events are
created. Putting the basic information down on paper helps later
when liability for the accident begins to be
examined. |
WHAT COMPENSATION MAY BE
NEEDED AFTER AN AUTO ACCIDENT?
Millions of auto accident occur each
year, injuring people and damaging property. Where a matter is very
minor, many people file the needed reports with the police or DMV,
tell their insurance companies, and go on with their lives, paying
the losses out of pocket. But all too often the matter is not minor,
and can cost you significant amounts of money and significant
personal sacrifice or pain.
As you know, if you suffer a
personal injury you'll likely require medical attention and may need
rehabilitation, both of which cost money. You may lose income
(and/or have to use up "sick time") because of the injury, and while
treatment and recovery takes place. You may have sustained property
damage to your car and other property. As you can't drive your
vehicle while it is being repaired, you may have to rent one, and
car repairs and rentals can cost money. You may lose the ability to
perform various activities of normal daily living, for a while or
long term. You may endure pain and suffering.
The law permits
you to seek recovery after an accident to "make you whole again."
The central concept is that you should be compensated in a manner
that, as best as the law can arrange, places you back in the same
position as you were before the accident.
In addition to
normal compensatory damages designed to make someone whole, in
extreme cases "punitive damages" may be available if the injury was
the result of someone else's reckless or irresponsible behavior, or
if the cause of the accident or the extent of the injury was caused
by something about the car that is dangerous -- a defective -- that
the manufacturer should have corrected. |
WHAT SOURCES OF COMPENSATION
CAN BE PURSUED AFTER AN AUTO ACCIDENT?
The answer to this question depends on your own financial
resources and the circumstances surrounding the accident. Typical
sources of compensation for damages sustained in an auto accident
include:
"Out-of Pocket" - When the damages sustained are
minor and cause no real financial setback, paying for the loss
"out-of-pocket" should be considered. There is no third party
getting involved when you pay for your loss yourself, no continuing
investigation, no actual change in your insurance, and generally
less "hassle" overall. When your losses exceed what you can
comfortably handle from your current resources, other sources of
compensation must be explored.
Your Auto Insurance Company -
Whether your insurance will compensate you for your loss depends on
your contract with your insurance company. In many insurance
contracts, there is both first party (you and your auto) and third
party (passengers, other motorists and their property)
considerations. Some contracts have medical coverage for personal
injury of the insured (you) and your passengers in the vehicle. Your
insurance contract may provide for collision damage repair and
possibly for a car rental while yours is being fixed. Before making
a claim (which is different than providing a report) with an
insurance company, many people consider whether it will be less
expensive for them to pay for the loss "out-of-pocket" before
relying on the insurance since the actual loss under the insurance
contract could result in an increase in your insurance premium in
the future. The potential of an increase in your insurance premium
must be balanced against your ability to pay "out-of-pocket",
(including any deductible under the insurance contract). The smaller
the damages, the more likely you will pay out-of -pocket; the larger
the loss, the more likely you are to seek recovery from your
insurance company.
Your Health Insurance Provider or HMO -
You may have private health insurance or belong to a Health
Maintenance Organization (HMO). In the event of a personal injury
sustained in an auto accident, you could ask your own health insurer
to pay for medical treatment. Sometimes, private health insurance
plans or HMOs require you to seek recovery from your auto insurance
company (as a primary carrier of the risk) before it will
pay/provide for your medical treatment.
Other People Involved
In the Accident - In addition the three sources above, you may be
able to seek recovery from the other people who were involved in the
accident. Your ability to recover from a third party, such as
another driver, may be limited by the laws of the state in which the
accident occurred. States can either have a "no-fault" law, which
leaves those involved in an accident to provide for their own
compensation, or a "fault" law, where the law generally makes the
party who is "at fault" or "caused" the accident to occur to pay for
all the damages incurred. If you are "at-fault" for an accident that
occurred in a "fault" state, contact your insurance company (if you
are sued, you will tender the defense and possible settlement of the
lawsuit to your insurance company). |
WHAT ARE "COMPARATIVE
NEGLIGENCE", "PROXIMATE CAUSE", AND "INTERVENING
CAUSES"?
Comparative Negligence comes into play when both parties have
failed to reach the ordinary reasonable person standard. For
example, one person was driving too fast in a patch of dense fog on
the highway and the person whom he hit with his car failed to have
his vehicle lights on. In a situation where each party has some
degree of negligence in causing an accident, the responsibility to
the other person is reduced by one's own degree of negligence. In
the example provided, the party traveling too fast for the
conditions may be determined to bear 60% of the negligence and the
party driving without his vehicle lights on determined to bear 40%
of the negligence. If the second person driving without vehicle
lights would have recovered $10,000, his recovery is reduced to
$6,000 because of his 40% contributory negligence.
Proximate
Cause is the initial act which sets off a natural and continuous
sequence of events that produces injury. In the absence of the
initial act which produces injury, no injury would have resulted.
Any time you act, you start a series of natural and continuous
events to occur (for example, if you swing your arm with a ball in
your hand, then release it, the ball rolls down a hill).
Responsibility for injury lies with the last negligent act that
produces the injury (after the ball rolls down the hill, a stranger
picks it up, throws it through a window, causing the glass to
shatter and strike a woman who was sitting next to the window, thus
cutting her arm and requiring her to obtain medical treatment). In
this example, although you caused the ball's initial movement, your
act is not the proximate cause of the injury to the woman sitting
next to the window. The stranger's act is the proximate cause of her
injury, and he should be held responsible.
Intervening Cause
comes between one act (or failure to act) which alters the natural
and continuous series of events that follows. When an intervening
cause is present, since the natural chain of events have been
changed due to the subsequent act of another, and the initial actor
may be relieved of the responsibility for an injury that is
produced. In the example provided for proximate cause, the act of
the stranger picking up the ball and throwing it through the window
is an intervening cause which relieves you from the responsibility
for injury which may have occurred as a result of your act. The
responsibility for the injury to the woman is shifted and the
stranger's act becomes the proximate cause for her injury.
To
bear responsibility for injury to others, your negligent action (or
failure to act in certain situations) must be the proximate cause of
the injury without any intervening causes interrupting the natural
sequence of events.
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IF I AM SUED, WILL MY INSURANCE
COMPANY DEFEND ME IN COURT?
When you buy liability insurance, part of the
insurance company's obligation is to provide a defense for you if you are
sued. The insurance company will do this by hiring and paying for an
attorney to represent you in court. Even though the insurance company
selects the lawyer and must approve the payment of all legal fees and
other expenses of the lawsuit, the lawyer represents you.
If you were involved in a car
accident, don't delay. There is a statute of limitations in which
you need to file your case. If you want a free evaluation of your
case, please fill out the form by clicking
here:
I need a Chicago lawyer for car accident case.
Law Office of John S. Xydakis, P.C.
Suite
3600
55 E.
Washington St.
Chicago, IL
60602
(312)
727-1100
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