Legal Question in Personal Injury in Illinois
hi, i'm a male 27 years old and was in absolute perfect health until 10 days ago when myself, my girlfriend, two of my guy friends and one of their girlfriends went on a weekend trip to one of my guy friends family cottage on a lake. This is a trip we usually take every year for the past couple. everything was goin great until the last night of the trip we went on a golf cart adventure(which is also a yearly tradition). during the golf cart trip we usuall take an adventure through the woods. let me explain first our seating arrangement. the golf cart has only a bench front seat which only holds 2 people comfortably. maybe 3 people if you want to be very uncomfortable. there is also a bench seat in the behind of the cart. it's not made like traditional 2 rows. the second row is actually outside the cart in the back and faces backwards the opposite way as the front seat. so we decided since we all want to go 3 people will have to sit on the back. Those 3 people turned out to be my friend his girl and myself. My friend whose place it was and my girlfriend were up front. as we were trying to reach our destination you have to drive through a small neighborhood of cottages. The streets are very legitimate with pavement and street names and numbers. It's sad to say that before we could even reach our wooded destination, my friend was acting pretty reckless and was told 2 times on the trip that that was the case and to chill out and slow down. He didn't listen to us and while we were driving i began to get nervous because i almost fell off twice. Right before we were approaching our destination i was pointing to my friends in the back with me where it was at. Because i was doing this i was only holding on with one hand. to my demise my friend was goin about top speed which was about 20 mph and took a turn as sharp as you can do it which is about 85 degrees because the cart has really good handling. The force of the turn threw me violently off the cart making me smash my head of the cement. i was knocked out for about 5 minutes while my mouth and right ear were bleeding heavily. They called the ambulace and they took me to the emergency room. They did many tests on me and came to the conclusion the i had a fractured skull, brain contusions, i cracked a bone inside my right ear, and blood and cerebral fluid were making it's way down my spine. my ear did not stop bleeding for 8 hours. i had instant hearing loss in my right ear. probably about 70% loss in that ear. i spent the next ten days in critical care(these days were the worst days of my life, with the worst pain of my life). During the 10 days all the symptoms and pain got gradually worse, which confused doctors. because i wasnt moving around much i didn't notice till about the 3rd day the my back was paralyzingly hurting. i could not get up at all. they did more tests and found out that nerves were damaged and a disc was bulging. That night we were out all of us were drinkin a little including the driver who was visibly intoxicated. We were technically not on his land but inside his golf cart property. so i have a few questions. one, what would be a realistic result if i looked into and possibly tried to have a lawsuit against them what kind of range of money may come of it. two, i'm sure they have insurance, so what would be the direct consequences to his family if i do this. he's one of my best friends and the would be a major factor in my decision. i just got out yesterday so all the stuff thats goin on with me has not gotten any better. my hearing loss has gotten worse. so this could be very serious. and is the fact that it didn't happen actually on his land property, what kind of issue will that present. thank you so much for taking your time to read this long story, but i did not want to leave out many details. And thank you very much if you reply.
3 Answers from Attorneys
Sir
Your story is a tough one. You may well have a right to financial compensation.
You have identified many factors. Every injury case has three primary factors -
one is liability, two is source of recovery and three is damages. I believe you
may have all three factors.
As for liability, you have described that your friend was operating the cart recklessly.
His failure to drive safely was a cause of your injuries. Thus, he is liable.
As for source of recovery, although you were not on his property, insurance may cover
the incident. We have handled injury claims for many years and we typically only recover
from an insurer for the liable party. It is a good likelihood that homeowner's insurance will
cover this incident.
As for damages, you have described a serious, painful, expensive injury and treatment.You
have also expressed your concern about ongoing and future hearing loss.
This is deserving of further conversation. Please consider contacting me for a free no
obligation consultation. Our website is www.illinois-attorney.info/. I would strongly encourage
you to make no statements nor sign papers from any insurer or representative of the
driver. Nor should you openly discuss the matter with any witnesses.
Thank you
Scott Blumenshine
I am sorry to hear about your experience. I would like to talk with you directly as this is a serious case with serious injuries and if you file suit, a defendant's attorney will have access to your posting and any response. Normally, communication between an attorney and a possible client is confidential and you do not want to give up an attorney client privilege. You can call me toll free at 877 446 5294.
I'm also sorry to hr\ear that a weekend that was supposed to be fun ended up the way it did.
You need to consult with a Personal Injury attorney immediately.
Don't discuss the events that took place until you have an attorney.
Feel free to contact me for a consult or to ask any questions you may have.