If you have suffered physical or economic harm due to the action or inaction of another person, business, corporation, or other entity, our personal injury lawyers in Chicago, Illinois, with Parente & Norem want to help you receive the compensation you deserve.
What is a personal injury?
The term “personal injury” is typically defined as an injury to one’s mind, body, or emotions. In other words, it’s an injury to the person, as opposed to an injury to property. Personal injury law is an area of law that seeks to compensate the victims of personal injury and punish the offenders through monetary awards, known as compensatory and punitive damages. Personal injury attorneys, like those with the Chicago firm of Parente & Norem, concentrate in the area of personal injury law and winning compensation for victims. The personal injury attorneys with Parente & Norem have won millions of dollars for their clients.
Each state has different laws regarding personal injury lawsuits, and each court has different rules for filing claims, so it is important to choose personal injury attorneys with knowledge of the various rules and courts. Our personal injury lawyers with the Chicago, Illinois, firm of Parente & Norem have significant personal injury litigation experience and are very familiar with the different court rules and systems in Chicago, the surrounding areas, and elsewhere in the United States.
There are many types of personal injury lawsuits, including car accidents, medical malpractice, wrongful death, product liability, mesothelioma diagnosis, asbestos exposure cases, and slip and fall litigation. Our experienced Chicago personal injury attorneys can determine which type of lawsuit fits the facts of your case.
Who can file a personal injury lawsuit?
Once you retain a personal injury attorney, he or she will file the lawsuit on behalf of someone, usually the victim of the personal injury. If the victim is deceased or found to be mentally incompetent, the lawsuit can sometimes be brought by a family member or legal guardian. At Parente & Norem, our personal injury lawyers will review your case to determine who is the proper party or parties to bring the lawsuit.
Can I file a personal injury lawsuit at any time?
No, is the simple answer to this question. However, the answer is usually not so simple. The personal injury attorneys at the Chicago, Illinois, office of Parente & Norem will help you determine how much time you have to file your lawsuit.
Your personal injury lawyers have a limited period of time to file your lawsuit. This period of time is called a statute of limitations. When the statute of limitations begins to run, however, is often debatable. Sometimes it’s easy to determine when the statute of limitations clock begins to tick. For example, if you are in a car accident and severely injured in the accident, more likely than not your statute of limitations begins to run the day of the accident. Sometimes, when the statute of limitations clock begins to run is not so easily determined, such as in medical negligence and asbestos cases.
Because the statute of limitations varies from state to state, it is very important that if you feel you have the right to file a lawsuit you speak to qualified personal injury attorneys as soon as possible. If your personal injury attorneys file the lawsuit after the statute of limitations has expired, it is very likely that the lawsuit will be dismissed, and you will have no recourse or method for monetary compensation, legal or otherwise.
The personal injury lawyers at the Chicago law firm of Parente & Norem can help you determine if you have a personal injury lawsuit and what your statute of limitations for filing your lawsuit is.
How does personal injury law compensate victims?
In a typical personal injury lawsuit, two types of damages are awarded, compensatory and punitive. Each state has its own individual laws that dictate how these damages are handled. The personal injury lawyers at Parente & Norem in Chicago can help you understand your compensation rights.
Compensatory damages
When your personal injury attorneys prove your case, you are usually awarded compensatory damages. Compensatory damages are meant to compensate the victim. A monetary value is assigned to what the victim lost as a result of the personal injury. These losses can include actual measurable costs such as medical bills, repair bills for an automobile or other property that was harmed as a direct result of the personal injury, and lost wages or earned sick or vacation time. Other compensatory damages do not have a bill or invoice value, so their value must be estimated. The most typical of these losses is pain and suffering.
Indirect victims of the personal injury may also have a legal claim to compensatory damages. Spouses, for example, can often ask for a monetary award to compensate them for loss of affection or for loss of their loved ones household contributions to chores and errands when their loved one is the direct victim of the personal injury. Our personal injury lawyers with the Chicago, Illinois, law firm of Parente & Norem will help you determine the correct parties of your lawsuit.
Punitive damages
As our personal injury attorneys at Parente & Norem will tell you, punitive damages are not awarded in every personal injury case. Punitive damages are awarded not to compensate the victim, but to punish the perpetrator of the personal injury. The purpose of punitive damages is to hit the defendant so hard in his/her pocketbook that the defendant will change his/her behavior so that in the future, no one else is harmed by the conduct or lack of conduct. Typical causes of action where punitive damages are awarded are product liability cases and medical malpractice cases.
It is important to remember that many factors go into determining compensatory and punitive damages, therefore it is important to have representation from competent, experienced personal injury attorneys. The attorneys with the Chicago firm of Parente & Norem have several cumulative years of personal injury experience and highly developed litigation skills.
Do you have a personal injury case?
Whether or not you have a personal injury case depends upon the facts of your situation. If you feel you have been injured , our personal injury attorneys would like to help you. Contact the experienced personal injury lawyers in Chicago, Illinois, at Parente & Norem to discuss your situation and your legal rights.