A If this just happened, call 911 and seek medical attention. After that’s done, let your insurance company know, even if you weren’t at fault. If you were hurt, follow your doctor’s advice, and then give us a call.

A If you were riding in a car with a drunk driver who crashed and hurt you, you may still be able to recover from that driver (and/or possibly any bars/restaurants where he/she had been drinking). Insurance companies may want to short change you and claim that you were at fault for getting into the car with an intoxicated person. We have been successful for other passengers in that situation. Give us a call.

A Chances are, there are criminal or traffic proceedings involving the drunk driver. Since you were involved in some aspect, you may need to testify in court. Do not ignore this paperwork.

A Sellers of alcohol are responsible for drunk drivers if they sold or served that person alcohol and were at least one cause of that person’s intoxication, and if the intoxication was the cause of the crash. State laws are all a little different – some will also hold businesses like grocery stores or convenience stores responsible. It’s important to note that these cases have some of the shorter statutes of limitations of any type of case – so if you think you might have a case or want to know more, call a lawyer immediately.

A Each case depends on its own facts. Anyone who hears a little bit about your case and tells you what it’s worth doesn’t know what they’re talking about. The value of each case depends on many things – liability (whose fault was it), the severity of the injury, the amount of monetary damages (medical bills, lost wages, etc), the permanency of the injury, and many other things. With personal injury and medical malpractice cases, it can be difficult to predict what a jury would do. When we accept a case, we will let you know once the case is ready for potential settlement what we think a reasonable verdict range is, and then we will help you decide whether to settle the case or take it to trial.

A Each case is different. Some cases come into our office and are resolved in a few weeks – some take several years. Again, this depends on the nature of the case and severity of the injuries. In many cases we want to wait until you heal up before we try to get the case resolved. In other cases, that simply isn’t possible. We pursue all of our cases diligently – we want to get them done for you quickly and efficiently – but we don’t sacrifice quality to get them done fast.

A In most cases, we don’t charge money up front. We typically work on a contingent fee – meaning that we get a percentage of whatever we get you. When we do that, we don’t charge you if we lose the case. We also don’t make you pay for case costs along the way. If we win or settle, those costs come out of your settlement. If we lose, you don’t owe us anything for costs. In some cases, we charge an hourly rate – usually because the case hopefully won’t take a lot of time and it would be unfair for us to charge a percentage of a relatively easily recovery. Either way, we discuss all fee issues with you up front before you sign up with us.

A We will talk to you about your case on the phone to see if we can help you. We won’t give you legal advice or tell you what to do when you first call us because we frankly won’t know enough about the case to give you the type of advice you deserve. If you come in to meet with us, you don’t owe us anything for the initial visit.

A In any serious case, it’s usually a good idea to have an attorney. Of course, we turn down cases nearly every day where we can’t help the person. Why do we do that? Because if we took those cases, the client wouldn’t be happy and we wouldn’t be happy (and frankly probably wouldn’t make any money). Call us, and we will do our best to tell you if you need an attorney. As for why you should pick us? We believe our bios and our success record speak for themselves.

A No. While there are some great lawyers in Chicago, there are great lawyers right here in the Quad Cities. Look at our resumes and speak with us before you call someone from out of the area. We think you’ll find that we have the experience, skills, and personal touch you are looking for.