Edwardsville Car Accident Lawyer
Choose Flint Cooper’s team of Edwardsville car accident attorneys to listen to your unique story, and provide meaningful benefits for you and your family.
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Edwardsville Car Accident Lawyer
No one starts their day expecting to get in a car accident. However, car accidents happen far too often in Illinois. A car accident can result in tens of thousands of dollars in unanticipated costs, including medical bills, lost wages, and property damage. Those costs don’t include the physical, mental, and emotional toll of a serious accident.
An accident victim may be able to recover their losses in an Illinois car accident claim. However, victims should not have to figure out the best negotiation strategy with insurance companies or how to file a case. Instead, turn to a trusted Edwardsville car accident lawyer at Flint Cooper.
Flint Coopers Car Accident Practice
Flint Cooper is a highly-experienced, trusted, and nationally recognized law firm dedicated to fighting injustices on behalf of clients. The personal injury attorneys at Flint Cooper have a wealth of experience not just negotiating settlements but also zealously litigating cases through trial. That’s right. The personal injury attorneys at Flint Cooper are effective, fierce, and respected courtroom litigators. Flint Cooper prides itself on its dedication to pursuing justice and providing excellent representation to victims of injustice, including car accident victims. Car accident victims in Edwardsville need to look no further for passionate and ethical attorneys who will fight for them no matter what it takes.
Illinois Car Accident Statistics
Car accidents affect thousands in the Land of Lincoln. According to the Illinois Department of Transportation (DOT), the state recorded 246,752 crash reports in 2020. Crashes involving an injury made up 21.1% of these accidents, and crashes involving a fatality comprised less than 1.0%. Madison County recorded 4,798 car accidents in 2020, including 1,190 accidents with injuries and 30 fatal accidents. DOT reportable car accidents consist of those resulting in at least $500 of damage for an uninsured driver or at least $1,500 when both drivers are insured.
The DOT reported that the total estimated cost of car accidents in 2020 was $5.5 billion. According to the DOT, an incapacitating injury costs approximately $99,610, a non-incapacitating injury costs about $28,850, and a possible injury costs $23,690.
Common Types of Car Accidents
Numerous problems can cause cars to crash. Common types of vehicular collisions in Illinois include:
- Vehicles colliding with pedestrians
- Trains colliding with vehicles
- Vehicles flipping over
- Animals in the roadway
- Rear-end collisions
- T-bone collisions
- Head-on collisions
- Vehicles colliding with parked cars
- Vehicles hitting bicyclists
Collisions with fixed objects represent the most common type of collision in Illinois. According to the DOT, 31.2% of car crashes involve a fixed object.
Can an Edwardsville Car Accident Lawyer Help Prove Liability?
Practice Areas
Asbestos
Mass Torts
Personal Injury
Government Takings
A car accident claim is a type of personal injury lawsuit. Generally, someone injured in a car accident must prove negligence to recover in a personal injury claim. Proving another party’s negligence in a car accident requires showing the following elements:
Duty — The other driver owes all others on the road a duty to operate their vehicle in a reasonably prudent manner and to follow the law.
Breach of duty — They breached their duty by failing to operate the vehicle in a reasonably safe manner or by breaking the law.
Causation — The breach caused the accident, which resulted in injuries.
Damages — The victim suffered damages or injuries due to the accident.
Car accident victims rarely know how to prove the legal standard of negligence in court. The experienced car accident attorneys at Flint Cooper guide clients through the legal process. These expert attorneys will craft a strategy to demonstrate the responsible party’s negligence.
Flint Cooper’s car accident lawyers also handle insurance company negotiations. However, when insurance companies refuse to give victims an acceptable offer, Flint Cooper’s litigators do not hesitate to take the case to trial.
Common Car Accident Causes in Illinois
A driver breaches their duty of care when they fail to act as a reasonable person would under similar circumstances. For example, a reasonable person would obey traffic laws. A driver may breach their duty of care if they speed.
Other ways drivers may breach their duty of care to others on the road include:
- Speeding
- Texting while driving
- Driving under the influence
- Driving while tired
- Failing to obey traffic signals
- Failing to signal before changing lanes
- Expressing road rage
- Failing to yield
- Driving recklessly
- Weaving in and out of lanes
- Failing to maintain the vehicle
If a victim can prove that a driver breached their duty of care and caused an accident, the victim may be entitled to compensation for their damages. An Edwardsville car accident lawyer at Flint Cooper will review the circumstances of a car accident and can attempt to locate evidence that shows the opposing party’s negligence.
What Is the Average Car Accident Settlement?
Car accidents result in injuries, medical expenses, and, in extreme cases, death. Although the DOT estimates the financial impact of different types of car accident injuries, every car accident claim is unique. Thus, it is impossible to determine an average car accident settlement because, quite frankly, there is no average car accident. Each car accident settlement is based on the type and amount of damages the victim is entitled to collect. Generally, these damages may include economic, non-economic, and punitive damages.
Economic Damages
Economic damages include objective, monetary losses the victim incurred from the crash. Examples of economic damages include:
- The costs of repairing a vehicle
- Past and future medical expenses
- Loss of future earnings
- Lost wages
An attorney can calculate appropriate economic damages for each type of car accident case.
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages compensate victims for intangible losses that are difficult to quantify. Non-economic damages include:
- Emotional distress
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of quality of life
- Scarring
- Disfigurement
- Loss of companionship
Each victim’s emotional and physical losses from an accident differ. Fortunately, Flint Cooper knows how to calculate non-economic damages.
Punitive Damages
Punitive damages are also available in car accident cases where the at-fault party acted particularly badly. Generally, the party must have acted with an evil motive or a reckless indifference to the risk to human life. Punitive damages punish the at-fault party rather than compensate the victim. Punitive damages can be difficult to prove and recover. The attorneys at Flint Cooper investigate each client’s eligibility for punitive damages.
Practice Areas
Asbestos
Government Takings
Personal Injury
Products Liability
Success Stories
Flint Cooper applies its knowledge and experience to win trials, not just collect settlements, further strengthening its reputation of providing clients around the world with exceptional counsel and unparalleled advocacy.
