Arlington Heights
Personal Injury Lawyer

Do I have a case?

Based on our years of experience, we can walk you through whether or not you have a case with a free consultation. Whether or not you have a case worth pursuing is sometimes a simple question, but often times not! Generally, a personal injury case must have three key elements:

• Strong, provable liability;
• Significant injuries; and
• The wrongdoer must have sufficient insurance coverage.

In short, if you, a friend, or family member has suffered a serious injury, it is important to talk to an experienced personal injury lawyer to help you determine whether you should pursue your case.

Do I need to hire a personal injury lawyer

With decades of experience, our personal injury attorneys are ready to fight the insurance companies. The team at the Law Offices of R.F. Wittmeyer, Ltd. are uniquely qualified to handle civil cases. We represent only people who have been injured. We do not represent any insurance companies or corporations of any kind.

If you have suffered only very minor injuries that require little or no medical treatment, then handling your case on your own may be fine. However, if you need continuing medical treatment or have suffered a more serious injury, your lack of a seasoned personal injury attorney may hurt your recovery. It is in your best interest to hire an experienced  attorney to handle your case from the beginning. In fact, an independent study found that injury victims who were represented by an attorney recovered, on average, 3 times more from insurance than without a lawyer.

By handling your serious injury case on your own, the adverse claims representative will be running your case, not an experienced attorney on your behalf. Once you start handling your case on your own for any length of time, in most cases you will devalue, or possibly even cause serious damage to your case. Why? Because you don’t do this for a living, and the adverse adjuster does. Claims adjusters are trained professionals, and no matter how nice they might seem, their job is to get you to settle your claim quickly and cheaply.

In order to recover adequate compensation for our clients, you may need a personal injury lawyer to deal with the insurance companies.

How much will it cost me?

We work, in all of our cases, on a contingency fee basis; basically, a commission. In most cases, we work on a 1/3 contingency fee basis.

What that means is we take 1/3 off the top of anything we recover for our client. The only expense that does not include are the out-of-pocket expenses, or case expenses. This is not our payroll or office overhead expenses, but only money we need to spend on your case. For example, to file a lawsuit, the court charges fees of about $450 – this is a case expense.

For case expenses, you do not pay this up-front. We advance those costs and get those back from the client out of their 2/3 share of any recovery. Generally, the amount we will need to spend on case expenses depends mostly on the complexity of the case. For example, a complex construction site accident case will require us to hire experts, whereas an auto accident case most likely will not require a liability expert.

How much is my case worth?

Virtually, every important aspect of your case affects the financial recovery in your case. One of the questions most commonly asked by someone who has been seriously injured in an accident is: How much is my injury case worth?

At the early stage of a case, no lawyer can responsibly give a value for a personal injury claim from a car accident, construction accident, or other type of injury case. However, we can tell clients what factors are important in determining the value of any case.

Some factors are:

• The type of case involved
• The seriousness of the injuries
• The amount of medical expenses and lost earnings
• The long-term effects of the injuries
• The strength of the liability claims against each of the defendants

When discussing your case, we will explain the types of damages that an injury victim is potentially entitled to recover. These can include damages for past and future reasonably necessary medical expenses, past and future lost wages, past and future pain and suffering, disability, and disfigurement.

When all significant issues (such as liability, injuries, and insurance coverage) can be assessed, we will at that time make an evaluation of a client’s case. We utilize our more than 100 years of combined experience in handling personal injury cases as well as research of jury verdicts and settlements in similar cases to assist us in our evaluation process.

Of course, knowing what a case is worth is only the first step. The real expertise is in fighting to achieve a recovery for our clients that represents fair and adequate compensation for the injuries they have suffered. The Law Offices of R. F. Wittmeyer Ltd. has recovered millions of dollars in verdicts and settlements for victims and families who suffered serious or fatal injuries. If you or a loved one have a civil claim, call the experienced personal injury attorneys at the Law Offices of R. F. Wittmeyer, Ltd. at (847) 357-0403 today