Chicago is known for a lot ─ everything from Lake Shore Drive and deep-dish pizza to Da Bears and Wrigley Field. The Windy City is also known for being the home of many hard-working people trying to make ends meet and provide for themselves and their loved ones. When you’ve been hurt, the impact of suffering an injury can take a toll on you physically, emotionally, and financially.
This is when a reliable Chicago personal injury lawyer can help get you the benefits you deserve while you recover from your accident.
Our workers’ compensation lawyers are dedicated to helping accident victims in Chicago and all of Cook County get the compensation they need so they can recover from their injuries and move on with their lives. We want to help you, too. Reach out to us at Schweickert Ganassin Krzak Rundio, LLP if you need our help after someone else harmed you.
How Common Are Personal Injuries?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that accidental injuries in 2022 alone led to 25.5 million emergency room visits and 224,935 fatalities, making this type of incident the fourth leading cause of death in the United States.
Common Cook County Injury Cases Our Attorneys Handle
Personal injuries result from accidents or incidents caused by another party’s negligence or intentional harm. Some examples of these injury events include:
Worker Injury Incidents
In and around Chicago, there are many different types of workplaces – including construction sites, warehouses, schools, hospitals, farms, and offices.
A work accident can occur at any job and leave a worker seriously injured. While you recover, medical expenses can add up quickly, and it can be hard to figure out how to pay those bills when there is lost income due to missed time at work.
If you’ve been hurt in an accident at a workplace in Chicago, you are eligible for workers’ compensation benefits. Workers’ comp benefits are supposed to cover your accident-related medical expenses and compensate you for partial lost wages while you can’t work.
The claims process can be difficult to navigate, and employers and insurance companies will often dispute your claim. That’s when our Chicago workers’ compensation lawyers can step in.
Your employer may challenge whether or not your injury or illness was related to your job. Insurance companies might question the severity of your injury. They may say you don’t need certain types of treatment or try to suggest that you’re ready to return to work even though you’re still trying to recover from your injury.
Your Chicago personal injury attorney will fight to help you get the benefits you deserve. Injury lawyers like ours can build a strong case to prove you were injured at work and need treatment. They will represent you at all hearings and appeals, can help you reach a lump settlement that meets your needs, and if necessary, fight for you in a Cook County courtroom.
Car Accidents
A car crash can happen suddenly, whether you are traveling on a highway or driving through Chicago’s busy streets. It only takes one negligent driver to cause a wreck that leaves you injured. The insurance company wants to pay you as little as they possibly can, and none of it is fair or has your best interests in mind.
An experienced Chicago personal injury attorney, like one from our office, knows the games that insurance companies play. That’s why they investigate your car crash to get all the facts and build strong cases that the insurance company can’t ignore. When they see our injury attorneys are ready to fight for you every step of the way, they often agree to talk about a fair settlement.
Your attorney is only interested in a resolution that has what’s best for you as a top priority, including compensation for all current and future medical expenses related to your accident injury. It also includes any lost wages you suffered and sometimes can include compensation for other economic and noneconomic losses, such as pain and suffering.
Other Events That Hurt Individuals in Chicago
While workplace accidents and motor vehicle collisions certainly account for a large number of cases each Chicago personal injury lawyer handles in our law office, we take on other cases, such as the following types, where someone’s negligence or intentional harm caused an adverse outcome like an injury or wrongful death:
- Premises liability incidents: One of the most common of these is a slip and fall accident that occurs because a store, for example, fails to clean up a spill in a timely fashion. Swimming pool drownings, dog bites, negligent security situations leading to assaults, and other property-related injuries or losses of life fall under the umbrella of premises liability incidents.
- Medical malpractice situations: A doctor can prescribe the wrong kind of medication, an injury can happen to the baby or mother during childbirth, a surgeon or an anesthesiologist may make an error during a surgical procedure, and a poorly cleaned hospital may result in a patient developing a health care-acquired infection (HAI). All of these (and other scenarios) may constitute medical malpractice.
- Mesothelioma diagnoses: We can help those who have been diagnosed with mesothelioma in Chicago. Though the number of mesothelioma cases has been declining since the early 1990s (mostly due to the reduction of asbestos exposure), there are still around 3,000 new cases in the United States every year, according to the American Lung Association. Many of those patients were exposed to carcinogenic asbestos fibers in their Chicago workplace, which allows them to hold their employers or the manufacturers of products containing this harmful fiber liable.
The personal injury cases listed above are only a sampling of the various ways in which our firm’ s clients suffer injuries or develop illnesses. So long as you find yourself in a predicament where someone else’s negligence or intentional actions caused you or a close family member harm, reach out to discuss your case with a personal injury attorney in our Chicago office. It’s likely that we can help you with your case.
Why You Need a Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer To Help You If You’re Hurt
Navigating the legal process in Cook County and the state of Illinois can be complicated. Negligent parties will rush to deny responsibility to keep their potential payouts low. Insurance companies often question why you filed a claim and even point to you, saying that the accident that led to your injuries was your fault as a way to try to get out of paying. And, if they are liable and make you a settlement offer, it’s often a lowball one that they issue in hopes that you’ll accept it and just go away.
That’s not good enough.
At Schweickert Ganassin Krzak Rundio, LLP, our lawyers are focused on getting the best possible outcome for you and your family, either through a negotiated settlement or jury verdict. We take your case seriously, and we’ll make sure the insurance company or self-insured defendant does too.
Contact us for a free consultation to discuss what led to your injuries or your loved one’s unexpected, preventable death with a Chicago personal injury lawyer. They’ll advise you about the rights Illinois law affords you for making a financial recovery when you’ve suffered significant losses after suffering a debilitating injury or experiencing a health decline due to someone else’s actions.
