DuPage County Personal Injury Attorneys

Who Is Responsible for Injuries at the Gym?

Posted on March 18, 2019 in Personal Injury

Exercise is an activity that many people enjoy, not only for the health benefits but also for relief from the stress of everyday life. Nevertheless, it should be understood that, as with any physical activity, there is a risk of injury while working out at a gym. In most cases, the injury is due to overexertion – sprains, strains, pulled muscles, even broken bones. However, in some cases, the injury is more appropriately attributed to either an employee of the gym or to the gym itself, either a machine breakdown or an aspect of the physical building. If such an injury occurs, retaining the services of an attorney experienced in premises liability can be crucial to obtaining compensation for the costs associated with recovering from the injuries.

Recently, a Missouri jury found in favor of a gym and against an attorney who claimed that a weightlifting coach’s inadequate training caused her to suffer a herniated disc. If you have been injured at the gym, it is important to understand the various options available to you for recovering compensation.

Premises Liability

Premises liability is the legal theory that regulates when a property owner can be held liable for injuries suffered by guests and visitors. If a property owner knew about safety issues and failed to either correct them or warn patrons of their existence, and the person was injured as a result of this failure, the owner may be deemed negligent, and the patron may be able to recover compensation for his/her injuries and other damages.

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The Use of Expert Witnesses in Automobile Accident Claims

Posted on March 11, 2019 in Personal Injury

Being involved in an automobile accident is an overwhelming experience. Often, those involved suffer physical injuries, and it takes time and money to recover from them. Additionally, there is damage to the vehicle, which also costs money to fix. In the majority of automobile accidents, someone is at fault. Although the injured victim must bear these costs upfront, the possibility exists that he/she may be able to seek reimbursement from the person at fault. Retaining the services of an experienced personal injury attorney, and one especially versed in car accidents can be instrumental in receiving this reimbursement.

Part of this strategy is to determine whether expert witnesses should be used. Expert witnesses do provide a basis for establishing damages. Nevertheless, they are not appropriate in all situations, and the Illinois Supreme Court recently held that photographs of damage to automobiles which have been involved in an accident can be used at trial to combat a personal injury claim brought by an individual involved in the crash, without supplying expert analysis. In other words, a picture is worth a thousand words that an expert witness would provide in his/her opinion, and, as such, an expert witness is not necessary.

Negligence and Expert Witnesses

While negligence is the legal theory used to find liability in personal injury matters, Illinois follows a contributory negligence model, meaning if an injured plaintiff is partially at fault for his/her injuries, his/her recovery will be reduced by that amount. As an example, in a two-car accident, if the plaintiff is determined to be 30 percent at fault (meaning the other driver was 70 percent at fault), and the damage awarded by the jury was $100,000, the plaintiff will only be able to recover $70,000. Further, in Illinois, if it is determined that the plaintiff is greater than 50 percent at fault, then recovery of any money is prohibited.

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School Liability for Student Injury

Posted on March 4, 2019 in Personal Injury

Sending a child to school should not entail concern about whether he/she will get injured. However, when accidents do happen that result in a child being injured, it is crucial to determine if the fault lies with the child or the school. In cases where the school holds responsibility, retaining the services of an experienced premises liability or personal injury attorney can help recoup some of the costs associated with recovering from any resulting injury.

One source notes the potential for some 300 lawsuits to be filed against the NCAA relating to concussion-like symptoms suffered by football players at colleges across the country. Although the source looks at liability at the college level, it nevertheless does bring up the general question of when a school can be liable for injuries suffered by its students.

Basis for Liability

In most cases, liability to the school will be based on either the legal theories of personal injury or premises liability. In both cases, an injured plaintiff, in order to be successful, will have to show that the school did not adhere to its responsibility to keep the student free of any dangerous conditions. In either case, if it can be shown that this dereliction of duty directly caused the injury to the student, the injured student may be able to hold the school liable.

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Is a Lack of Security Grounds to File a Personal Injury Lawsuit?

Posted on February 25, 2019 in Personal Injury

Being an invited as a visitor to another’s property, whether the property owner is a business or another person, carries with it some expectations. Fundamentally, the visitor can expect the property to be reasonably free of any dangerous conditions, or, if not, to be made aware of any hazards. Additionally, the visitor can expect that he/she will be safe while on the property, even if that means that the property owner provides an appropriate level of security detail. If these expectations are not met, and an injury to the visitor occurs, retaining the services of an attorney experienced in personal injury matters, and one especially focused on premises liability and insufficient security, can be crucial to obtaining compensation for the visitor’s injuries.

Recently, the estate of a teenager who froze to death after getting trapped in a hotel freezer has sued the hotel, alleging that it failed to secure the area around the freezer, which, although not used, was still accessible to the public. Allegedly, the teen walked around, visibly disoriented, past hotel staff and into the freezer, and no one attempted to stop her. A discussion of premises liability, as well as some examples of insufficient security procedures, will follow below.

Illinois Premises Liability

Premises liability is a complex aspect of the legal theory of negligence. As alluded to above, there are expectations of protection an invited visitor has when on the property of another. Uninvited visitors, such as trespassers, are given a lesser degree of protection, and typically do not have a claim if an injury occurs. The failure to meet visitor expectations may result in liability for the property owner. Accordingly, a successful injured visitor must prove each of the following elements:

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Suing Your Employer for an Injury

Posted on February 18, 2019 in Personal Injury

Suffering an injury as the result of a preventable action by another can be extremely frustrating. Whether it is not correcting a dangerous condition or acting irresponsibly, initial thoughts after such an event question why the other person or entity acted as they did. Afterwards, when the costs of recovering from the injury begin to become due, thoughts turn to whether the responsible party can be required to pay these costs. Retaining the services of an attorney experienced in personal injury law can be crucial to ensuring that the responsible party does compensate the injured individual for all expenses associated with recovering from the injury.

A complex situation arises when the responsible party is the injured individual’s employer, in which case the employee has a decision to make – utilize the workers’ compensation policy or pursue legal action in court. A company which has recently been in the news, Amazon, was the subject of a story which illustrates numerous ways injured employees are effectively left to fend for themselves, resulting, in one instance, in a former employee becoming homeless as a result of the costs of recovery.

Workers’ Compensation

In Illinois, workers’ compensation policies are a form of insurance for employees, providing wage replacement and medical benefits to those employees injured in the course of employment. Illinois law requires the majority of employers operating within this State to maintain such policies. However, this benefit comes with a trade-off – in exchange for the financial benefit, employees are required to relinquish their right to sue their employer for negligence. The purpose for this trade-off between assured, limited coverage and lack of recourse outside the worker compensation system, also known as “the compensation bargain,” is to prevent the situation in which, as a result of a lawsuit and a large financial award to the employee, an employer could become insolvent.

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