A car drifts into your lane and causes you to swerve into a guardrail. The driver keeps going without ever touching you.

In Illinois, that driver might as well have not even existed.

Illinois requires every policy to carry uninsured motorist coverage. It sounds like a guarantee until you see what the courts have done with the phrase “hit and run.” There’s a second surprise: a UM or UIM claim runs against your own insurance company. Now the carrier you’ve paid for fifteen years practically turns against you. If you’re working through a car accident claim involving an uninsured or underinsured driver, this switch is probably something nobody warned you about.

Here’s how UM/UIM insurance in Illinois actually works and where these claims can go wrong.

What Illinois Requires You to Carry

Every auto liability policy issued in Illinois must include uninsured motorist coverage. The Illinois Department of Insurance puts the minimum at $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident. These are the same amounts as the state’s minimum bodily injury liability limits, which run 25/50 with $20,000 for property damage.

Uninsured motorist coverage that Illinois drivers carry applies in a few situations; for example, when the at-fault driver had no insurance, or the driver’s carrier denied coverage or became insolvent, or the driver hit you and fled the scene.

But hit-and-run incidents carry one unfortunate caveat. Illinois courts have construed “hit-and-run” to require physical contact between the involved vehicles. No “hit,” no coverage. This means that if a phantom car runs you off the road, causes a chain reaction, or forces you to swerve into danger, your insurer can shrug it off and deny you coverage—no matter how clearly it caused your crash.

That single exception decides a lot of hit-and-run insurance claim Illinois disputes before anyone even discusses injuries.

If a driver leaves the scene, report it to the police immediately. A prompt report is often a policy condition anyway. A gap between the crash and the police report is the first thing an adjuster will note.

When They Have Insurance and It Still Isn’t Enough

Underinsured motorist coverage handles the more common problem, which is that the other driver was insured, but for an amount that doesn’t come close.

UIM does not stack on top of what you collect from the at-fault driver. It pays the difference between your UIM limits and the other driver’s liability limits, and the state’s own definition says exactly that. So, if you carry $100,000 in UIM and collect the at-fault driver’s $25,000, then your claim is worth up to $75,000. Not $100,000.

This means buying UIM equal to the state minimum does nothing for you. If your limits and the at-fault driver’s limits are both 25/50, the difference is zero.

Illinois also ties the two together: Buy UM above the statutory minimum, and the law requires you to carry UIM as well.

Unfortunately, the underinsured motorist claim process comes up most often after crashes with serious injuries and after multi-vehicle collisions where one modest policy gets divided among four or five claimants. A $50,000 per-accident limit vanishes fast when three people had to be taken to the hospital.

Pull your declarations page and look at the UM/UIM line. Most people don’t read theirs until they’ve already been in a wreck.

Filing Against Your Own Company

You’ve faithfully made every premium payment on time. You trusted your insurer to have your back. This is where the relationship changes.

To collect, you must prove the other driver’s negligence and the extent of your damages,  but this time to your own insurer, as if they were a stranger. Now your carrier is writing the check, and that means they have every incentive to value your claim as low as possible.

Here’s what’s working in your favor:

• Give timely written notice to your insurer. Policy deadlines are not the same as statutes of limitation. They’re part of the contract and can be much shorter than the two-year statute of limitations on the underlying injury claim.
• Never settle with the at-fault driver’s carrier without your own company’s written permission. This will end your claim. Even if the at-fault driver only has the state minimum, accepting his limits without approval can destroy your UIM claim altogether by defeating your carrier’s subrogation rights.
• Keep meticulous records just like you would if you were suing. Copies of bills, proof of wage loss, crash report, photos…
• Prepare for arbitration. Illinois UM policies routinely require disputes to be heard by an arbitrator, not a jury. Arbitration provisions in Illinois policies can be mandatory or non-binding based on the language in the policy. This is a very important distinction.

Don’t read the arbitration clause when you have to go to arbitration. Read it now.

Why Your Own Insurer Says No

Adjusters defending first-party claims play by the same rules as adjusters on the other side. They deny the extent of your injuries and bring up preexisting conditions and gaps in treatment. They argue that you are partially at fault. Remember, Illinois follows comparative negligence, which means your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault and barred if you are more than 50 percent at fault. In hit-and-run claims files, they argue there was never any physical contact.

And then there’s a delay. Delay isn’t really a denial; it’s just a tactic. The phone rings. Your bills pile up. You get frustrated. Suddenly $5,000 doesn’t seem so bad.

None of these are reasons to take the settlement offer. They’re reasons to make your file harder to shut down.

Schweickert Ganassin Krzak Rundio, LLP Has Been Doing This in the Illinois Valley for 40 Years

A UM or UIM claim is the strange case where the company you’ve been loyal to becomes the one to whom you have to prove your injuries. Nothing about the policy language explicitly warns you about this. Most people find out while they’re in the middle of trying to recover.

Schweickert Ganassin Krzak Rundio, LLP has represented injured people across North Central Illinois for more than four decades, with over 120 years of combined experience among its attorneys and hundreds of millions recovered for clients. Our lawyers work these claims from Peru, Ottawa, Morris, LaSalle, and Chicago. We know how insurers build a file against their own policyholders because we regularly take those files apart.

If an uninsured or underinsured driver hurt you, contact an attorney before you sign a release or accept a settlement. Your coverage was already paid for. Collecting on it is the fight.

Car accident injuries rarely follow a predictable path. Many people leave the scene feeling shaken but assume they avoided serious harm. Hours or days later, symptoms begin to develop, and in some cases, they become significantly worse with time.

When this happens, the experience can feel confusing and overwhelming. You may wonder whether you waited too long to see a doctor, whether the insurance company will believe you, or how to protect your legal rights while dealing with increasing pain.

Understanding why symptoms worsen, what steps to take, and how the law treats delayed injuries can help you protect your health and your claim.

Filing an auto insurance claim in Illinois can feel a lot like stepping into a never-ending maze, and that is something no one wants to navigate right after a car crash in Morris.

Some delays are just part of the process, but many happen because of simple, preventable issues that pop up along the way. However, once you know what slows things down and how to handle each hurdle, you can avoid unnecessary frustration, save time, and keep stress from spiraling into full-blown hair-pulling moments.

With a little preparation, you can actually take control of the process and move your claim along as smoothly as possible.

Missing or Inaccurate Information

One of the top reasons claims get delayed is due to incomplete or incorrect information. Wrong license plate numbers, missing driver contact info, or forgetting to note accident specifics can create a bottleneck. Insurance adjusters cannot move forward without accurate details. Unfortunately, every round of clarifications adds to the waiting time.

The key is preparation. Immediately after an accident, take notes, snap photos of the vehicles and the scene, and collect witness contact information. You may also want to record details about road conditions, traffic signs, and any contributing factors.

Along with that, you want to double-check your insurance policy and your vehicle’s information.

The more thorough and accurate your submission, the faster the process is. A little diligence on your part can save days or weeks down the line.

Accidents happen faster than you can blink. You might have experienced a fender bender on I-80, slipped on a wet floor in downtown Morris, or taken a tumble at work.

Most of the time, you walk away with a few bruises or a headache. But sometimes, the injuries you cannot see are the ones that matter most. Can a head injury or concussion cause memory loss after an accident?

Here’s what you need to know about how your brain works.

Why Does Memory Loss Happen?

To answer the question, you can experience memory loss after a brain injury. Your brain processes signals for your entire brain. A hit to the head can jam those signals. In turn, that can make it harder to store and recall memories.

Some people cannot remember what happened right before the accident. This is known as retrograde amnesia. On the other hand, others struggle to retain new information, a condition called anterograde amnesia.

Even a minor concussion can leave you forgetful or foggy for days or weeks. Severe head trauma can bring longer-term challenges. And if you have had repeated head injuries, the risks go up.

Car accidents happen every day, but where do they happen more often—on highways or in town?

Both urban roads and highways pose risks to drivers, but the frequency and severity of accidents can vary depending on location. To help you stay alert and reduce your chances of being involved in a crash, it’s important to understand the differences between town and highway accidents.

Insurance companies have embraced technology to enhance their policyholders’ experiences. Every major carrier allows you to conduct a lot of business online, such as making payments, expanding policies, and adding drivers. They also provide portals where policyholders can begin the claims process. However, filing a claim online where there could be a dispute can be problematic.

For instance, suppose there is a dispute over who caused the accident or the amount of damages you’re seeking. In those scenarios, filing online could get that claim “lost.” Instead, you should consider retaining the services of an experienced personal injury attorney, like the team at Schweickert Ganassin Krzak Rundio, LLP. We have delivered hundreds of millions in settlements for our clients in various personal injury claims. One of the first steps we’ll recommend is to send a demand letter.

Medical researchers have found that our brains can provide the same kind of computing power as the biggest supercomputers but with only a fraction of the energy needed to make those computations. Remarkably, that brain power is generated from an extremely fragile organ protected by just a thin layer of bone. That is why a traumatic brain injury (TBI) after a car accident can be devasting.

The online advocacy group Treat Now reports that someone suffers from some brain injury every 23 seconds. It also finds that 50,000 people die from TBIs. They also report that car accidents account for 14% of brain injuries, with a majority of the victims being children and young adults. How often do brain injuries occur after car accidents, though? Read on where we address that question.

In 2023, The Windy City saw 90,043 crashes, 85,982 of which involved motor vehicles, according to the Chicago Department of Transportation. Those same statistics reveal that at least 19,404 fatalities resulted from these auto accidents and 1,583 individuals suffered serious injuries in them. Those casualties would be alarming to almost anyone — and those don’t account for most of our suburbs, but instead the city center.

Every time you get behind the wheel of your vehicle, you know to remain wholly focused on the road and the operation of your vehicle. There are some areas that you may travel into on a daily basis where you need to be extra vigilant to avoid becoming involved in a crash, though. Below, we highlight what are the most dangerous intersections in Chicago so you can exercise a bit more caution when in or around them.

As someone who resides in Illinois, whether you live in Morris, LaSalle, Peru, Ottawa, or Chicago, you likely have experienced your fair share of winter weather driving. Even though you might have operated your vehicle in these conditions a lot over the years, it doesn’t mean that you’ve become any more comfortable in doing so.

While you may have assimilated different tips with your own over the years to deal with different driving obstacles efficiently, you’re likely eager to learn any other winter driving ones that can make you feel a bit safer on the road.

We’ve combed through reports featuring recommendations and honed-in on the top three safety tips for winter driving. We’ll share those with you here.

One of the first things you learn about driving is how traffic lights work. This is an easy concept most of us are taught as children. Green means go, yellow means slow down, and red means stop. As we get older, we also learn that there are more nuances than that.

Green means go when it is safe to do so. When the traffic light is yellow, you should slow down and stop unless you are too close to the intersection to do so safely. You should always stop at a red light, although you are allowed to make a right turn on red in some cases.