You might not be able to imagine life without your spouse, parent, or child. We understand that pursuing compensation won’t bring back your cherished relative or ease your grief. However, financial recovery may help keep your family from debt and financial stress. You might also feel a sense of closure when you hold the at-fault party accountable.
Staver Accident Injury Lawyers, P.C. is here to help after a fatal car accident in Chicago. You should have time to mourn, but you also could deserve compensation for your loved one’s passing.
Call our Chicago car accident lawyers at (312) 236-2900 or use our online form for your free consultation. Once we hear your story, we can advise you on what to do next. If you have a valid claim, we’ll fight for compensation and justice.
When a car crash takes the life of a loved one, the last thing you need is to deal with the insurance company or the at-fault driver. It is easy to be overwhelmed with the process of pursuing compensation. A Chicago fatal car accident lawyer takes on these stresses for you. You focus on being with your family while we take care of getting you the compensation you deserve.
More importantly, an experienced wrongful death attorney knows what to expect during this process. Insurance companies aren’t forthcoming with settlements. You might find out the at-fault driver didn’t have insurance. The other driver and their insurer might deny liability. Or, in many cases, the insurer tries to push families into accepting low settlement offers.
We’ve seen all the ways insurance companies try to take advantage of grieving families, and we won’t let that happen to you. Let Staver Accident Injury Lawyers, P.C. protect you after a deadly car crash takes away your loved one.
The personal representative of your relative’s estate may file a wrongful death claim.
That representative is often a surviving relative, like a spouse or adult child, but sometimes it’s not. A family friend or attorney may act as the representative. A wrongful death lawyer can take a clear-eyed approach to your damages and seek maximum compensation.
Every fatal car crash claim is unique, which is why it’s impossible to estimate your case value without knowing more. The representative can demand compensation for several damages, including:
We know money won’t bring anyone back. But recovering compensation is about ensuring you and your family can move forward on stable footing. You may have lost your spouse’s or your parent’s income, and now you need compensation to pay your bills.
Any wrongful death compensation the representative recovers is distributed between the surviving relatives. This compensation is usually spouses and children, but it might also include parents or siblings. The court will award each person a part of the compensation based on how much they relied on the decedent.
The Illinois Survival Act differs from the Illinois Wrongful Death Act. A survival action is filed to your loved one’s estate based on the injuries your loved one suffered between the crash date and their death.
A survival action may pursue damages for these injuries, including
In 2019, Illinois had 312,988 motor vehicle crashes. Of those accidents, 63,834 involved injuries, and 938 accidents were fatal. Many fatal crashes happened on dry roadways, and about half occurred during daylight hours. That means the environment isn’t the leading cause of accidents—drivers’ actions are.
Unfortunately, 2020 was an even deadlier year on Illinois roads. More than 1,100 people died in accidents – a 16% increase from the year before. Chicago saw a surge in traffic deaths during the pandemic: 139 people died in crashes, a 45% increase from 2019.
Fatal traffic accidents happen for all sorts of reasons. But we can pinpoint a few fundamental causes, including distraction, intoxication, and speeding. These behaviors increase a motorist’s risk of causing a collision and harming other drivers and passengers.
Speeding — The faster a person drives, the harder the impact when they crash. Higher speed impacts can cause catastrophic and fatal injuries. In 2019, 33.4% of all crashes involved speeding, and 39.2% of fatal crashes involved speeding in Illinois.
Distracted Driving — Drivers who talk on cell phones, text, eat, or put on makeup aren’t paying as much attention to the road as they should. The result is a higher risk of crashing into another vehicle, motorcyclist, bicyclist, or pedestrian. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 3142 people died in distracted driving crashes in 2019.
Impaired Driving — When drivers are under the influence of alcohol or drugs, their reaction time is slower. They may weave in and out of lanes, speed, run ride lights, or fail to yield to vehicles with the right of way. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, In 2019, 144 drivers with a BAC of over .08 died in Illinois.
Drowsy Driving — When someone drives after getting too little sleep the night before or for many weeks, they’re more likely to cause an accident. Many people don’t realize that drowsy driving is similar to drunk driving. The NHTSA reported 697 deaths were due to drowsy-driving-related accidents in 2019.
Our Chicago wrongful death attorneys want to hear about your loved one. We prepare evidence, file the insurance claim for wrongful death and survival benefits, and even take your case to court if it’s in your best interests.
Call Staver Accident Injury Lawyers, P.C. (312) 236-2900 today for your free initial consultation.
When you’re fighting for maximum compensation, we know what it takes to get it.
