Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer Blog
A personal injury auto accident lawyer from Waukegan, Illinois has made a nice pre-litigation settlement, according to the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin. The case stems from an auto accident that happened in Gurnee, Illinois. The defendant allegedly ran a red light and struck an elderly plaintiff’s vehicle which then flipped over. The Lake County driver sustained multiple injuries, including spinal fractures. The Gurnee passenger sustained a torn rotator cuff and multiple fractures. The Lake County car crash case settled for a combined $1,100,000. The driver received $700,000 and the passenger received $400,000.
What makes this settlement nice is it happened without having to file a lawsuit. Typically, the average insurance company is not going to offer this kind of money unless a lawsuit is filed and a significant amount of discovery has been completed (interrogatories, depositions). This type of pre-litigation is great for clients, as they save the cost of litigation which can run thousands of dollars. Further, most plaintiff attorneys work on a one third fee before litigation, but most have the contractual right to take a 40% fee after a lawsuit is filed. Here, the lawyer most likely took a one third fee, saving the plaintiffs over $75,000.
The plaintiff lawyer in this case was Matthew Williams. Williams graduated from DePaul University Law School just 10 years ago (1998) and already has a million dollar plus settlement. Nice work.
These comments were posted by David Abels & Associates, P.C., an injury and auto accident law firm that represents clients throughout the Chicago area and the entire State of Illinois. Many of our personal injury cases come from Cook County, Lake County, DuPage County, McHenry County, Kane County, and Will County, as well as nearby towns and neighborhoods such Wicker Park, Lincoln Park, Bridgeport, Wrigleyville, Orland Park, Downers Grove, Joliet, Kankakee, Rockford, Morton Grove, Wilmette, Gurnee and Hinsdale.
Chicago auto accident lawyers from our firm handle all kinds of injuries resulting from Illinois motor vehicle collisions, including broken bones (some that require surgical repair), lacerations, back and neck injuries, spinal cord injuries and severe burns. They also handle Chicago, Illinois wrongful death car accidents for families who have lost loved ones because another person was negligent and caused a fatal motor vehicle collision.