Legal Question in Personal Injury in Illinois

Re: fell off a ladder:

Generally you have two years to make a claim for personal injury--Whether you can make such a claim with your home owner insurance, is something that you must see in your insurance policy. BUT--home owner insurance covers your negligence if your negligence causes injuries to someone. Who was the cause of your fall? If you were careless and caused your fall, I am not sure you can make a negligence claim with your insurance. Unless you have medical payment coverage where you can get your bills paid--but no pain and suffering.

I suggest you read your policy from front to end--all your questions should be answered in it.

I hope this helps,

Taradji Law Offices

Re: fell off a ladder:

BACKGROUND:

I have two questions about an injury that happened around July of 2005. I live in Illinois and fell off a ladder while trimming a tree that was damaged during a bad storm. I fell about 11 feet and had internal injuries but I was hoping nature would heal it. I wound up with a bad hernia as a result from the fall and had to get an operation because the doctors said it won't heal on it's own. I never made a personal injury claim on my home's Allstate insurance policy since 1978 when we originally bought the home.

My questions are:

Is it too late to make a claim?

ANSWER:

No, you generally have two years to file a claim for personal injury.

QUESTION:

If the claim is still within the statute of limitations am I allowed to claim pain and suffering even though it's my insurance policy?

ANSWER:

Not usually. Most homeowner's policies are for liability - that is, YOUR liability to THIRD parties.

If your negligence was the cause of the accident you are not likely to have insurance coverage.

You DO most likely have some coverage for medical payments, usually that policy is available to anyone injured on the property and can only be applied to the actual medical bills; however without reading the policy, I couldn't tell you for sure.

Let me know if you need more help,

Matt Belcher