Most people who call about a car accident open with an apology. They are sorry to bother anyone, they are not sure it is serious enough, and they have already half-decided to handle it themselves. That instinct is the one the insurance industry is counting on.
The collision takes four seconds. What follows takes months: an adjuster who is friendly and quick to call, a recorded statement requested before you have seen a specialist, a medical bill that arrives before anyone has agreed who pays it, and a settlement figure floated while you still cannot lift your arm above your shoulder. None of that is unusual. All of it happens faster than most people can think clearly, which is rather the point.
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Drivers and passengers, certainly. But also the cyclist on Milwaukee Avenue who was doored, the pedestrian in a Loop crosswalk, the motorcyclist a driver looked straight through, and the person in the back of somebody else's car who now has to make a claim against a friend's insurer. If you were hurt because a vehicle was operated carelessly, you are in the right place, whether or not you were behind a wheel.
02
An Illinois injury claim is not a story about who was upset at the scene. The argument gets built from parts: that the other driver owed you ordinary care, that they fell short of it, that the shortfall caused your injury, and that the injury cost you something measurable. Each part needs evidence, and the evidence has a habit of disappearing. Skid marks wash away. The business with the camera pointed at the intersection overwrites its footage on a loop. Witnesses move.
03
It helps to be unsentimental about this. The adjuster on the phone is neither a villain nor a friend. They are a professional doing a job with a defined objective: to resolve the file for the least money the file can be resolved for. They are usually pleasant, often genuinely decent, and structurally on the other side. Treating them as an opponent is a mistake. So is treating them as an advisor.
04
The single most common thing that quietly damages a claim is a gap in treatment. Someone feels stiff rather than injured, decides to wait it out, and returns to a doctor five weeks later when it has not improved. That gap becomes the defence's best paragraph. Following through on the care you are actually told you need is both the sensible thing for your body and, incidentally, the thing that keeps the record honest.
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He gathers the report, the photographs, the footage while it still exists, the medical records and the bills, and he handles the correspondence so you stop being the one on the phone. Where the file resolves by negotiation, it resolves on a documented record. Where it does not, he is a lawyer who spent his first years trying cases in a courtroom rather than reading about it.
The same order every time, because most of the costly mistakes in injury work come from doing step four before step two.
A phone call or a form. You describe the collision in your own words, in whatever order it comes out. It costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Report, photographs, any camera footage that still exists, your medical records and the bills attached to them.
The insurer receives a documented account of what happened and what it has cost you, rather than a phone call and a hope.
Many claims settle once the record is complete. When the number on offer does not match the record, a lawsuit is the next step rather than the last resort.
Ask a lawyer before you do, and ask before you agree to a time. That is a general point about sequence, not advice about your situation. The free case review exists precisely so you can put this question to an attorney before you answer it.
Illinois sets deadlines, they vary with the type of claim and who the defendant is, and this page is not the place you should learn yours. Call and ask. The conversation is short and it costs nothing, and calling this week beats calling next month.
Illinois has a comparative fault rule, and being partly responsible does not automatically end a claim. How it applies depends entirely on the facts, which is a conversation rather than a web page.
Personal injury work at the firm is handled on a contingency basis, meaning the fee comes out of a recovery rather than out of your pocket up front. Ask for the specific terms in writing before you sign anything, from him or from anyone else.
Most claims are resolved without a trial. Filing suit is a step in a process, not a declaration of war, and it is sometimes simply what it takes to get a file taken seriously.
A collision with a semi is not a car accident with a bigger vehicle. Different kind of case, different kind of opponent, and it starts moving against you within hours of the crash.
Rideshare cases look simple and are not. The complication is not usually who drove badly, but which insurance policy was awake at the moment it happened.
If you are reading this page, something has already happened that a website cannot help with. What follows is written plainly, because in our experience families in this position are tired of being handled.
The rest of the practice is on the practice areas index. If you would rather not take any of this on description alone, the admissions and memberships are all checkable, and how a claim actually works sets out the process before you speak to anyone.
The first conversation is free and puts you under no obligation. Bring the report, the photographs, the letter from the insurer, or nothing at all.
Contacting Julian E. Zito or Mark L. Karno & Associates, LLC does not create an attorney-client relationship, and nothing on this site is legal advice. Please do not send confidential information until a written engagement is in place. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.