Rockford Personal Injury Attorneys Who Aggressively Fight For You

If you or a loved one have suffered an injury, or fatal accident in Rockford, Illinois that was caused by someone else, we are The Rockford Personal Injury Lawyers: Marriett & Murati and we will aggressively fight for you. Additionally there is absolutely no fee unless we win a recovery on your behalf, and our consultation is always 100% free.

If you have been hurt in a car, truck, semi-trailer, or motorcycle accident your injury may have left you with significant medical bills, missed time at work, and significant pain and suffering. If your injuries were caused by another person — including accidents not involving vehicles, such as medical malpractice or dram shop (liquor establishment) liabilities, or slip and fall cases — you may be entitled to recover financially from suffering an injury in such a situation.

Many people search for a “personal injury lawyer near me” and hire one of the first attorneys that come up without doing more research. While having your injury lawyer nearby is important, it’s also important to know that you’re hiring the right lawyer for your case, and for you. With 75% of our business coming from internet related searches we’re well acquainted with local law firms. One major thing to be aware of is simple case volume. There are essentially two types of personal injury law firms: one type will sign up nearly every single case, and try to do something with it after their client has recovered from their injuries, to the detriment of all of their other cases. If you’re working with a lawyer that has hundreds of cases, you’re one of hundreds of people that will have questions, concerns, and want updates with what’s happening with your case. Personal injury cases with significant injuries often require attorney involvement in a number of areas of the client’s life, and there will be parts of the case that are overlooked, or skipped over simply because the lawyer with too many cases won’t be able to address everything.

The second category of personal injury firms is the client focused firm, this is how our office operates. This is a personal injury law practice that works at maximizing our clients recovery from the first meeting. We go over issues such as your medical treatment, your transportation situation (do we need to assist in a property damage claim, or in getting you transportation for your medical appointments), we go over any issues you may have with your employer and address those issues with your employer if necessary, do you have some personal obligation that you’ll be unable to meet because of your injury, because if we’re able to help, we will. As an example if we have a client who has been injured and has fallen behind on a debt, we can contact the legal entity responsible for the debt and try to negotiate a forbearance so it’s one less thing to worry about while the client is focusing on their physical recovery.

The detriment to our office by devoting so much time to each case, is that we’re not able to take on every one that comes through the door, and you’ll never see us advertise because having personal responsibility for each and every client is the trademark reason why there are tons of Rockford Personal Injury Lawyers, but no competitors, because no one else does things like us. Having been trained in Trial Lawyer’s College methods, it’s not uncommon for our lawyers to visit clients at their homes, jobs, or medical appointments. It’s simply IMPOSSIBLE to get a sense of how an injury has impacted someone from a distance, but if your lawyer is immersed in how their client is living and they can see how the client lives with their injury, and how their family lives with their loved one’s injury we are much better equipped when discussing the case with an insurance adjuster, or a jury to tell the client’s story as best as possible. If we are before a jury and asking those twelve members of our community to award, $50,000.00, $100,000.00, $1,000,000.00, or $10,000,000.00 it all starts with our client, and their story. If a personal injury lawyer is not spending time with their client to learn their story, that lawyer will never be able to tell a good story, and will simply not be as effective as what they should be.

We can’t make any type of a promise on how your case will turn out, but we can promise you that we will always be prepared, you will always know what’s going on with your case, and you’ll always have an honest answer to any questions you ever have.

Attorney Paul Marriett and Adrian Murati were born and raised in the Rockford, Illinois area. They have never represented an insurance company against an injured person. Since starting practice they’ve each been able to help numerous people who were faced with severe to minor injuries from their accidents however a few things remained the same in all cases:

Personal injury law involves civil lawsuits filed because of wrongful conduct or behavior. A claim in a personal injury lawsuit is filed by the party who was injured — either physically or emotionally — due to the behavior of another party. Some of the most common types of injury claims that we handle are:

If you have an issue not listed here, do not hesitate to reach out to us to find out if it is something we can help you with.

While laws recognize that accidents can happen, there is an assumption of personal responsibility by the party responsible for the physical or emotional damage. Would a reasonable person have acted differently in a similar situation? That is at the heart of most personal injury cases, and it’s why having an experienced attorney on your side is critical.

That’s because a party’s negligence is determined by four key elements and the common law principle of the “reasonably prudent” person. The four elements are best understood when posed as questions:

Monetary damages can be awarded if someone is found to be legally responsible for injuring someone else. Those monetary damages are called compensatory damages (or actual damages). The purpose of compensatory damages is to attempt to put the injured person in the position he or she would have been in had the injury not occurred. These damages may include medical expenses (past and future), pain and suffering (past and future), lost wages (past and future), loss of a normal life, and loss of society. It’s important to keep records of your medical bills and time off from work as these can help you calculate your actual damages.

In some cases, punitive damages may also be awarded to punish the defendant if his or her conduct was not just negligent but reckless or intentional. Punitive damages aren’t recovered for any specific loss. Instead, they are levied against the defendant as punishment to discourage negligence in the future. The court will determine whether to award the plaintiff with punitive damages and how much the award will be. According to Illinois law, punitive damages may only be awarded if actual damages are also awarded.

If you have been the victim of a personal injury in Rockford, Machesney Park, Loves Park, Belvidere or anywhere in Northern Illinois, there are several things you can do to help yourself:

You should call a lawyer as soon as it is convenient to do so and avoid discussing the matter with strangers and insurance representatives. As an example of why you may want to be mindful of even discussing the matter with your OWN insurance company is that some policies offer what is called Under Insured Motorist Coverage or UIM coverage. If someone crashes into your car and they have the Illinois mandatory minimum coverage of $25,000.00 and they cause you to need $100,000.00 in medical bills, and a lengthy period of missed work, if you have UIM coverage you would be making a claim against your own insurance to pay for that difference. The problem, is that your insurance company is not just going to write you a check for all of your lost wages, your pain and suffering, or for all of your medical bills without trying to hack away at the financial compensation you’re owed. Keep in mind that if you DO have UIM coverage and you’re injured in a crash, you should discuss your rights with a lawyer BEFORE discussing your case with your insurance company.

An injury can be severe and life-altering, and your life can change in a split second. All of a sudden you can be faced with debilitating pain, extensive medical bills, lost wages and the threat of permanent disability. For victims and their families, an injury or a wrongful death means that life will never be the same again.

You may have a long and difficult recovery period. At a time when you should be focused on your recovery, many issues may suddenly demand your attention, including:

Seek the help of an experienced attorney who can fight for you rights and help minimize the impact an injury can have on your life.

Illinois sets a time limit of two years on filing a personal injury lawsuit in the state’s civil court system. In most cases, this two-year time limit, known as a “statute of limitations,” begins to run on the date of the accident. Sometimes, however, a statute of limitations might run from the date you discovered you were injured, rather than the date of the event that injured you. This later date is known as a “discovery date.”

For injury claims against a city or county, you have one year to file a lawsuit. The time limit to sue the state generally is two years, but you must file a formal claim within one year in order to sue.

A qualified personal injury attorney can help to guide you through such a difficult time and alleviate some of the stress by simply being able to get you from the beginning of your injury case to the end while you only have to focus on your physical recovery.