Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Illinois

Re: Comed ran into garage door

An attorney will charge you and you will nto beable to recover attorneys fees in a law suit. Go small claims.

Re: Comed ran into garage door

These are your choices:

1- accept what they give you and go your way.

2- file a suit and go through litigation. The suit will cost you around $250 for filing and summons and service. You then need to prove your case in that why the damages are $1,200 and not $500--you are the plaintiff and you have the burden of proof. The defendant will have to do or prove NOTHING. So how are you going to do that? Your case will be sent to arbitration which you will lose if you do not follow the exact court rules regarding it. There are things y ou must do by certain dates. So you will spend time and effort learning about all that. And then you will take one day off from work to appear at the arbitration. If you win, chances are the defendant will pay $200 to reject the arbitration. Then the case will be sent to trial-either a jury trial or bench trial. Either way, you still have to prove your case. An estimate alone is not acceptable proof. You will have to get the guy who did estimate to come to court to testify on your behalf. I all likelihood, as an expert, he will ask you to compensate him for his time and effort. Another $200 maybe? Maybe more? Maybe less.

So you are already out $450.00 and not any closer to getting them to pay you.

So your case is sent to trial. You will have to know the rules of evidence (the judge will not give you any pointers or make an exception and you are not going to be in Judge Wopner's Court. So how are you going to prove your case? A trial will take at least another day of your time away from work.

So, $450.00 plus two days of lost wages to prove your case. If you win, you will only get back the filing court costs of you case. But that is a huge IF. Comed will have a super lawyer come to their rescue and he will eat you alive in court.

Those are your choices and my predictions.

The final decision is yours.

I hope this helps,

Taradji Law Offices