Illinois Personal Injury FAQs

Following a personal injury, you likely have many questions about how you can address your financial costs and whether you can hold a person or company responsible for the harm you and your family have suffered. The attorneys of Kanoski Bresney can help you understand your rights in these situations, and we can help you take the correct steps to receive financial compensation that fully addresses your injuries. With over 40 years of experience in personal injury and wrongful death cases, we can answer your questions and provide the legal help you need.

How Can I Prove Negligence in a Personal Injury Case?

A person or company may be held liable for your injuries if it can be shown that they acted negligently. To prove negligence, you will need to provide evidence of all of the following:

• Duty of care: The defendant must have had a responsibility to act in a way that protected your safety. For example, a manufacturer must provide warnings about the risks of using a product, or a property owner must take steps to address hazards that could endanger visitors.
• Failure to uphold the duty of care: The defendant must have breached their duty of care. In product liability cases, a breach may involve a manufacturer's failure to provide warnings about the potential dangers of a product. In premises liability cases, a property owner may have breached their duty of care if they did not warn visitors about hazards on their property.
• Causation: Your injuries must have occurred because the defendant did not meet the duty of care owed to you. In some cases, you may be able to show that a person's actions were directly responsible for your injuries, such as in a head-on collision caused by a person who was driving on the wrong side of the street. In other cases, such as a situation where a doctor's failure to diagnose cancer resulted in the lack of proper treatment, causation may not be as obvious, but a line may be drawn showing that you would not have been injured if the defendant had not acted negligently.
• Damages: The defendant's negligence must have caused you to experience actual damages, including financial expenses or personal harm related to an injury.

Our attorneys can help you gather evidence that demonstrates all of these elements, and during your personal injury claim or lawsuit, we will help you take the proper steps to ensure that you can be fully repaid for your damages.

How Much Can I Receive for an Injury?

You should be repaid for all the ways your injuries have affected you both financially and personally. Your economic damages may include your medical expenses, income you lost while recovering from your injuries, impairment to your ability to earn an income in the future, and the costs of repairing or replacing damaged property. You may also be able to receive non-economic damages that address the pain and suffering you have experienced, the emotional trauma your injury has caused for you and your family, or your loss of enjoyment of life due to a disability. The full value of your personal injury claim will depend on the seriousness of your injuries, whether you have suffered temporary or permanent disabilities, and the effects your injury has had on you and your family.

What Is the Statute of Limitations for a Personal Injury Claim?

In most Illinois personal injury cases, there is a two-year statute of limitations, although some cases involving government liability have a statute of limitations of one year. Typically, claims must be filed within two years after an injury occurred or became known to the victim. If you were injured in a situation such as a car accident or construction accident, you will have two years after the date of the accident to file a claim. However, in cases involving medical malpractice or other injuries that you did not discover right away, a claim can be filed within two years after the date you knew or should have known about an injury.

How Long Will My Personal Injury Case Take to Resolve?

The amount of time needed to receive compensation will depend on the approach taken during your personal injury case. Cases involving out-of-court settlements can often be resolved much more quickly than those that require courtroom litigation. In many cases, a settlement with an insurance company or a defendant in a lawsuit can be reached in around six months. While the amounts that can be recovered through litigation may be higher, a trial will often last for a year or more. Our attorneys will work to help you reach a settlement as quickly and efficiently as possible, and if a trial will be necessary, we will do everything we can to avoid delays and help you receive the compensation that will allow you to address your current and ongoing needs.

Contact Our Macon County Personal Injury Lawyers

At Kanoski Bresney, we will answer any questions you have about your personal injury case, and we will work to make sure you meet all your legal requirements when pursuing a claim or lawsuit. We will do everything we can to make sure you are fully compensated for the injuries you have suffered. Contact our office and set up your complimentary consultation by calling 888-U-COUNT-2 or 888-826-8682. We assist with personal injury cases in Bloomington, Springfield, Pekin, Macon County, Tazewell County, Adams County, Peoria, Champaign County, Decatur, Quincy, McDonough County, McLean County, Macomb, Sangamon County, Schuyler County, Peoria County, Champaign, and Rushville.