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Tag: truck accident lawyer Chicago

  • Questions to Ask a Truck Accident Lawyer at Your Free Consultation

    Questions to Ask a Truck Accident Lawyer at Your Free Consultation

    Choosing who handles your truck accident case is one of the most consequential decisions you will make. Not every personal injury lawyer has the knowledge base required for commercial vehicle cases, and a free consultation is your opportunity to find out whether a firm does. Knowing the right questions to ask a truck accident attorney, including questions that could disqualify a firm, is what separates an informed choice from a costly mistake.

    This article provides general legal information; consult a licensed Illinois attorney for advice specific to your situation.

    Why Truck Cases Require Specific Experience

    Truck accident cases involve a regulatory framework that does not apply to ordinary car accidents. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration rules govern hours of service, drug and alcohol testing, maintenance recordkeeping, driver qualification, and cargo loading. Building a strong truck accident case often depends on understanding which FMCSA regulations apply, how to obtain records carriers are required to keep, and how to read those records once you have them.

    Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct 1.4 requires attorneys to keep clients reasonably informed about their case. Rule 1.5 governs fee agreements. At your consultation, you are entitled to clear answers on both. An attorney who cannot explain their fee structure in plain language, or who deflects specific questions about their experience, is giving you useful information about how they will handle your case.

    Questions That Can Disqualify a Firm

    These are not hostile questions. They are appropriate due diligence for a case that may take years and involve complex expert testimony. Any attorney who balks at them is not the right fit for a commercial vehicle case.

    Have you handled cases involving FMCSA-regulated carriers? General personal injury experience is not the same as trucking litigation experience. Ask specifically whether the attorney has handled cases where Part 382 (drug and alcohol testing) or Part 395 (hours of service) records were at issue in discovery. If the answer is vague or qualified, press for specifics.

    Can you issue a preservation letter to the carrier today? Electronic logging device data, driver qualification files, vehicle inspection records, and dashcam footage are all subject to destruction, either through routine overwriting or intentional spoliation. A firm that cannot send a preservation demand immediately is not positioned to handle a trucking case. This question reveals whether the firm has systems in place for the time-sensitive opening phase of these cases.

    Who pays for accident reconstruction and expert witnesses? Truck accident cases often require accident reconstruction experts, medical experts, and sometimes former FMCSA safety officials. These experts cost money, sometimes significant money. Understand whether the firm advances these costs, how they are handled if the case does not settle, and whether cost advances affect the fee arrangement under the contingency agreement.

    What is your trial record specifically in commercial vehicle cases? Settlement rates and verdicts from car accident cases tell you very little about how a firm performs in trucking litigation. Ask whether the attorney has taken a commercial vehicle case to verdict, and what the outcome was. An attorney who has never tried a truck case is disadvantaged in negotiations, because defense counsel knows there is no credible trial threat behind the demand.

    Questions About the Specific Facts of Your Case

    Beyond evaluating the firm, the consultation is an opportunity to get preliminary analysis of your facts. Ask the attorney directly: based on what you have heard, who are the likely defendants? The answer should go beyond the driver, a knowledgeable attorney will identify the motor carrier, potentially a freight broker, possibly a shipper, and ask about vehicle maintenance history before answering.

    Ask what evidence is most at risk of disappearing and what steps need to happen in the first 48 hours. Ask what the statute of limitations is for your specific claim, in Illinois, the general personal injury limitations period is two years, but the clock, the defendants, and any notice requirements may vary depending on the facts. Ask whether any government entity (a city, county, or municipality) may be involved, which carries different notice requirements under Illinois law.

    Fee Agreement Questions

    Under Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct 1.5, fee agreements in contingency cases must be in writing and must explain how the percentage is calculated, whether it changes if the case goes to trial, and whether it is calculated before or after costs are deducted. Ask for the written fee agreement before the consultation ends, and read it. Ask specifically what happens to advanced costs if the case does not result in recovery.

    A firm that resists putting fee terms in writing at the consultation stage, or whose written agreement does not match what was said verbally, is a firm to be cautious about. Clarity on fees at the outset is a basic professional obligation under Rule 1.5, not a favor to the client.

    What to Bring to the Consultation

    Bring the police report if you have it, contact information for any witnesses, photos from the scene, medical records and bills you have received so far, and any communications you have had with the carrier’s insurer. If you have received any written correspondence from a trucking company rapid response team, investigators who often arrive at the scene before families have retained counsel, bring that as well. Do not sign anything from the carrier or its insurer before speaking with an attorney.

    The Chicago truck accident lawyers at Phillips Law Offices handle FMCSA-regulated carrier cases and can address every question on this list at your initial consultation.

    Talk to a Chicago Attorney, Free Consultation

    Phillips Law Offices represents truck accident victims in Chicago and throughout Illinois. If you have questions about a crash involving a commercial carrier, call (312) 346-4262 or visit our free consultation page to schedule a free consultation. There is no cost and no obligation.

  • What Happens to Your Claim When the Trucking Company Goes Bankrupt

    If the trucking company that hit you has filed for bankruptcy, or simply closed its doors, your path to compensation gets more complicated. It doesn’t disappear.

    We’ve handled cases where the carrier was gone before the lawsuit ever got filed. What happens next comes down to two legal frameworks working at the same time: bankruptcy law, and the federal insurance rules that apply specifically to commercial trucking companies.

    This article provides general legal information. For advice specific to your situation, talk to a licensed Illinois attorney.

    The Automatic Stay: What It Means for Your Civil Case

    When a company files for bankruptcy protection, something called an automatic stay kicks in under federal bankruptcy law (11 U.S.C. § 362). Think of it as a legal pause button. It freezes most civil litigation against the company that filed, personal injury lawsuits from truck accidents included.

    If your case was already in court, it stops moving. If you hadn’t filed yet, you generally can’t file against the bankrupt carrier at all, not without the bankruptcy court’s permission first.

    The pause isn’t forever. You, or your attorney, can file what’s called a motion for relief from the automatic stay, asking the bankruptcy court for permission to let the civil case move forward. Usually the goal isn’t to go after whatever assets the company has left. It’s to reach the insurance policy sitting behind it.

    Courts tend to grant that motion when the money is coming from an insurer rather than from the bankruptcy estate itself. But the timing matters. Miss a deadline in a bankruptcy case, and a claim that was otherwise solid can get barred for good.

    Here’s where it gets uncomfortable: nobody hands you a calendar with these deadlines circled in red. You have to know they exist before they pass.

    The MCS-90 Endorsement: The Victim-Protection Mechanism

    Federal law requires every for-hire motor carrier operating across state lines to carry a minimum amount of liability insurance. The rule lives in 49 CFR Part 387, and it requires carriers to file proof of that coverage with the FMCSA, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

    The tool most carriers use to satisfy that requirement is something called the MCS-90 endorsement, attached to their liability policy.

    The MCS-90 was built to protect the public, not the trucking company. That’s the whole point of it.

    The endorsement obligates the insurer to pay a final judgment against the carrier regardless of policy defenses that would normally let the insurer walk away. Late notice of the accident. A policy exclusion. Even the carrier’s own bankruptcy. None of that gets the insurer off the hook on its own.

    We’ve seen carriers disappear entirely while the insurance obligation stayed standing. Courts in multiple federal circuits have held that the MCS-90 creates a direct obligation running from the insurer to the injured person, one that survives the carrier’s bankruptcy.

    How much coverage is required depends on what the truck was hauling. For most general freight, the floor is $750,000. Hazardous materials carry higher minimums.

    Knowing these numbers, and whether the carrier bought coverage above the minimum, is one of the first things worth sorting out. It shapes what recovery actually looks like. You can read more about how truck accident insurance coverage works under federal rules.

    Pursuing the Insurer Directly

    Because the MCS-90 creates an obligation that runs directly to the injured public, many courts let you pursue the insurer even while the carrier sits in bankruptcy or has shut down entirely.

    That matters because the bankruptcy estate is often close to empty. The insurer usually isn’t. Going after the insurer, rather than fighting over what’s left of the company, is where the real money tends to be.

    In practice, that means identifying the insurer from FMCSA records, confirming the MCS-90 endorsement was actually in effect on the day of the crash, and then either working through the bankruptcy court or, where the circuit allows it, filing against the insurer directly.

    We pull these insurance filings through the SAFER system as a matter of course. It isn’t a hidden database. Knowing what to look for, and how to structure the claim once you find it, is where experience actually matters.

    What If the Carrier Simply Closed Without Filing Bankruptcy?

    Not every carrier that vanishes actually files for bankruptcy. Some just stop operating, hand back their FMCSA operating authority, and close up shop.

    No bankruptcy filing means no automatic stay. It also often means no corporate assets worth chasing. The insurance policy and the MCS-90 endorsement remain the main avenue.

    If the policy was in force on the day of the crash, the coverage obligation doesn’t evaporate just because the company shut its doors afterward. The FMCSA’s SAFER system keeps records of authority revocations, and it can confirm when a carrier was actually operating and what insurance was on file at the time.

    The carrier isn’t always the only name worth pursuing. A freight broker who arranged the load. A shipper who hired the carrier knowing about its safety violations. A manufacturer whose defective trailer coupling or brake system contributed to the crash.

    A thorough liability review often turns up a solvent defendant even when the trucking company itself is gone.

    Honest Assessment of the Complications

    A claim against a bankrupt or dissolved carrier takes longer than an ordinary truck accident case. Bankruptcy court adds steps and timelines that don’t exist in regular civil litigation. Sit with that for a second, because it changes how you plan the next several months.

    The MCS-90 is a strong protection. It is not a guarantee of full recovery. The endorsement is capped at the policy limits, and if your damages run higher than those limits, collecting the difference from a bankrupt estate is genuinely hard.

    We’d rather tell you that up front than let you find out three months into the case.

    Talk to a Chicago Attorney: Free Consultation

    If the carrier in your crash has filed for bankruptcy or gone out of business, some of the deadlines you’re working against may be shorter than they’d be in a standard case. That’s not something to sit on.

    Phillips Law Offices handles truck accident cases involving FMCSA-regulated carriers across Chicago and throughout Illinois. Call (312) 346-4262 or visit our contact page to schedule a free consultation.

  • Truck Brake Failure Accidents: When Maintenance Records Tell the Story

    A truck brake failure accident rarely comes out of nowhere. In case after case we’ve handled, the brakes didn’t fail on their own. They were allowed to fail, through skipped inspections, ignored repair orders, or maintenance nobody wanted to pay for.

    Understanding truck brake failure accident liability means looking past the crash itself and into the maintenance history that came before it. Federal regulations set clear standards for brake performance and upkeep. When a carrier ignores those standards, the records almost always show it.

    This article offers general legal information. Talk to a licensed Illinois attorney about the specifics of your situation.

    Federal Brake Standards Are Not Suggestions

    Commercial trucks running interstate have to meet the brake performance standards in 49 CFR Part 393, Subpart C. Those rules set stopping distances based on a vehicle’s weight and speed, cap how far a brake can be out of adjustment, and define the mechanical condition every part of the brake system has to be in.

    A truck that can’t stop within the required distance is operating illegally. So is a truck whose brakes are adjusted past the allowed slack limits. Neither one is a gray area.

    Part of that subpart requires brake lines to be protected from heat, abrasion, and road hazards. Another section sets the adjustment limits that determine when a brake counts as out of adjustment.

    These aren’t fine print buried in a rulebook nobody reads. They’re the floor. A carrier operating below that floor has already broken federal law before a single truck leaves the yard, let alone before it hits another vehicle on the road.

    Pre-Trip Inspections and What Drivers Are Required to Do

    Under 49 CFR Part 396, every driver has to complete a pre-trip inspection at the start of each day the vehicle is used and write down anything wrong with the truck. If a driver flags a brake problem on the Driver Vehicle Inspection Report, known as a DVIR, the carrier has to fix it before that truck goes back into service, or put in writing that no repair was needed.

    That paper trail matters more than most people realize.

    If a driver flagged a brake issue two days before your crash and the truck rolled out anyway, that DVIR is direct evidence the carrier knew and sent the truck out regardless.

    The opposite pattern is just as telling. When DVIRs show months of clean brake reports right up until a catastrophic failure, that raises a different question: were inspections actually happening, or were drivers signing off without really looking at the brakes?

    We’ve seen both versions of this play out in real cases.

    Maintenance Records: What They Show and Why They Disappear

    49 CFR § 396.3 requires carriers to keep inspection, repair, and maintenance records on every vehicle they operate, for as long as the vehicle is in their control and for one year after it leaves their fleet.

    One year sounds like plenty, until you remember that a crash investigation often starts months after the underlying problem, deferred maintenance the carrier never got around to, was already sitting in those files.

    Maintenance records can tell a story of neglect: brake adjustments that ran late, lining replacements that got skipped, repeated out-of-adjustment findings with no repair order to follow.

    They can also tell a different story. Records that look suspiciously clean sometimes mean the opposite of what they appear to show, not proof of compliance, but a sign the paperwork got cleaned up after the fact.

    This is why attorneys representing crash victims send preservation letters to carriers right after a serious collision. Once a carrier gets notice that a lawsuit is coming, letting those records disappear becomes spoliation, a legal term for destroying evidence you had a duty to keep, and it creates real problems for that carrier at trial.

    If you are pursuing Chicago truck accident claims, how fast your attorney moves on evidence preservation is often the difference between having the maintenance records and not having them at all.

    CVSA Data: Brake Violations Are the Leading Out-of-Service Reason

    The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) runs an annual Brake Safety Week, when inspectors across North America pull trucks off the road and check their brakes against federal standards. Year after year, brake-related violations account for a large share of all out-of-service orders issued during that week. That means trucks pulled off the road because their brakes were too dangerous to keep driving on.

    These aren’t outlier trucks that got unlucky. They point to an industry-wide pattern, brakes that don’t get maintained on schedule and drivers running equipment they already suspect is marginal.

    Here’s where it gets uncomfortable: when a CVSA inspector finds a brake out of adjustment during a random roadside stop, that brake was almost certainly out of adjustment well before the inspector ever showed up. It didn’t happen that morning.

    An attorney can pull a carrier’s roadside inspection history through the FMCSA’s SAFER system and use it to show a pattern of violations that existed before your crash, not just after it.

    Who Is Responsible When Brakes Fail

    Liability in a brake failure crash usually doesn’t land on just one party.

    The motor carrier carries primary responsibility for keeping the vehicle maintained under Part 396. The driver may share in that responsibility if pre-trip inspection duties were ignored. A third-party maintenance contractor can be liable if the repair work itself was done negligently. And in rarer cases, a parts manufacturer may face product liability exposure if a defect in the brake component caused or contributed to the failure.

    Illinois courts apportion fault among everyone responsible. That means even when a carrier insists the brakes were just serviced, a real investigation can turn up other defendants who share in what happened.

    Talk to a Chicago Attorney: Free Consultation

    If you were hurt in a crash and suspect brake failure played a role, the most useful thing you can do right now is talk to an attorney before the maintenance records that matter age out or disappear for good.

    Phillips Law Offices handles truck accident cases in Chicago and throughout Illinois. Call (312) 346-4262 or visit our contact page to schedule a free consultation. Reviewing your case costs you nothing and commits you to nothing.

  • Prejudgment Interest: How Delay Costs Trucking Insurers in Illinois

    Trucking insurers have a financial incentive to stall. Every month a case sits unresolved is a month the carrier keeps its money working for it, not you.

    Illinois law pushes back on that. Prejudgment interest in a truck accident case can add real money, sometimes tens of thousands of dollars, to a final recovery. And the clock on that interest starts the day the lawsuit is filed, not the day of the crash.

    This article shares general legal information. For advice specific to your situation, talk with a licensed Illinois attorney.

    How Prejudgment Interest Works Under Illinois Law

    Under 735 ILCS 5/2-1303(c), prejudgment interest builds at a rate of 6% per year on damages in personal injury and wrongful death cases. That interest starts running on the day the complaint is filed. Not the day of the wreck, and not the day a jury reaches a verdict.

    The statute caps that accrual at five years. Run the math and the ceiling comes out to 30% of the eventual judgment, in simple interest, no compounding.

    Here’s what that looks like with round numbers. Say a truck accident victim files suit in January 2024, and the case goes to trial two years later, in January 2026. If the jury awards $500,000 in damages, prejudgment interest at 6% annually adds $60,000 to that (two years times $500,000 times 0.06). The total judgment comes to $560,000.

    That $60,000 is not a bonus. It’s the price the insurer pays for taking two years to resolve a case it could have settled sooner.

    The Settlement Offer Rule That Changes the Negotiation

    The most tactically significant feature of 735 ILCS 5/2-1303(c) is how it treats settlement offers that fall short of the final verdict. If the defendant makes an offer and the plaintiff ends up with a judgment that beats it, interest keeps accruing from the original filing date. Not from the date of the offer.

    That’s a real shift in who holds the edge in negotiations. Under older frameworks, a defendant could float a token early offer, argue that it stopped future interest from building, and push the risk of accumulating interest onto the plaintiff. Illinois closed that door.

    Under the current statute, a low-ball offer does nothing to the interest clock. The insurer has to offer an amount that meets or beats the eventual judgment, or the full accrual runs from filing regardless. A carrier that offers $200,000 early and then watches a jury award $600,000 is not just short on the verdict. It owes interest on the full $600,000, calculated from the day the case was filed.

    We weigh this mechanic every time we evaluate truck accident insurance and compensation strategy at the start of litigation.

    Why This Rule Matters More in Trucking Cases

    Trucking cases feel the effect of delay tactics more than most. Commercial trucking insurers typically carry high policy limits. Federal minimums for freight carriers sit at $750,000, and many policies run to $1 million or higher. Bigger numbers give insurers more reason to resist an early settlement, and more financial room to fund a long fight. Cases involving catastrophic injury or wrongful death often carry years of medical documentation and expert witness preparation, which stretches the timeline even further.

    The prejudgment interest statute changes that math. A $1 million case held for three years accrues $180,000 in statutory interest at 6%. That’s money a carrier cannot recover, cannot invest, and cannot write off against its litigation budget.

    We’ve used the filing-date accrual rule directly in settlement demand letters, laying out for a carrier exactly what further delay costs in dollar terms.

    Constitutionality and Current Status of the Statute

    The statute has drawn constitutional challenges from defendants and insurers since it took effect, arguing that the 6% rate and the five-year cap overstep what the legislature can impose. It remains active law today, and it applies to personal injury and wrongful death cases filed in Illinois courts. An attorney can walk you through where a specific challenge currently stands if it matters to your case.

    Retroactivity was an early flashpoint too, whether interest could apply to cases filed before the statute’s effective date. For anything filed today, that question is moot.

    For a case filed today, none of that ambiguity applies. Interest accrues at 6% annually from the filing date, stops after five years, and is not tolled by an inadequate settlement offer.

    What This Means If You Are Negotiating With a Trucking Insurer

    If you’ve already filed suit, every month that passes without a fair settlement adds to what the insurer owes. That advantage is yours, but only once a complaint is on file and the interest clock is running.

    Cases still sitting in pre-litigation demand do not accrue statutory interest. That’s one reason filing suit promptly in a serious trucking case can pay off beyond simply protecting the statute of limitations deadline.

    No attorney can promise that prejudgment interest will be awarded in any specific case. Liability still has to be established, and damages still have to be proven at trial or reflected in a settlement.

    But for someone whose case is headed toward litigation against a well-funded trucking insurer, that 6% accrual from the filing date is not theoretical. It’s a real, calculable part of what the claim is worth.

    Talk to a Chicago Attorney: Free Consultation

    Filing strategy, demand timing, and interest accrual are decisions that benefit from experienced legal counsel before the complaint is even drafted. If you were injured in a truck accident in Illinois, the sooner a lawsuit is filed, when that’s the right call, the sooner the prejudgment interest clock starts working in your favor.

    Phillips Law Offices handles serious truck accident cases throughout Chicago and Illinois. Call us at (312) 346-4262 for a free consultation, or visit our contact page to describe your situation. No fee unless we recover for you.

  • Drunk and Drugged Truck Drivers: The Stricter Rules for CDL Holders

    When a truck driver causes an accident, the question of impairment is one of the first things we look at. Federal law holds commercial drivers to a stricter standard than everyone else on the road. A truck driver DUI accident claim doesn’t run on the same rules as a standard drunk-driving case. The regulations are different. So are the testing windows. So is the evidence you’ll need in discovery. Knowing those rules is what lets you demand the right things from the other side.

    This article provides general legal information; consult a licensed Illinois attorney for advice specific to your situation.

    The 0.04 BAC Standard for CDL Holders

    Most people know the 0.08 blood alcohol concentration (BAC) standard, the line that defines drunk driving for the general public in Illinois. Commercial driver’s license (CDL) holders don’t get that line. Their threshold is half of it. Under 49 CFR 382.201, a CDL holder with a BAC of 0.04 or higher is legally impaired behind the wheel of a commercial motor vehicle.

    That’s not a presumption you can argue around. It’s a hard line, full stop.

    Here’s what that means in practice. A driver could pass a breathalyzer test that would clear them for personal driving, and still be violating federal trucking law. That gap matters in a civil case.

    When we can show a driver broke a federal safety regulation, it supports something called negligence per se, a legal doctrine that treats breaking a safety rule as evidence of negligence on its own. We don’t have to rebuild the reasonableness argument from scratch.

    The trucking company doesn’t get to hide behind the driver either. If the company’s own records show a history of violations and it kept that driver on the road anyway, that opens the door to claims against the company itself, for negligent entrustment or negligent retention, for putting someone behind the wheel it shouldn’t have.

    Post-Accident Testing Requirements and Deadlines

    Federal law under 49 CFR 382.303 requires post-accident drug and alcohol testing, and it comes with hard deadlines. A fatality triggers testing on its own. Short of that, it takes a citation issued to the driver combined with an injury requiring treatment away from the scene, or a vehicle towed from the scene. A citation by itself, with no injury or tow, does not automatically trigger testing.

    Here’s what those deadlines look like:

    • Alcohol testing: Must be completed within 8 hours of the accident. If it cannot be completed within 8 hours, the employer must document the reason and stop attempting the test.
    • Drug testing: Must be completed within 32 hours of the accident. After 32 hours, the employer must stop attempting the test and document why it was not performed.

    These deadlines cut both ways. A driver and employer who move fast and test properly are building a record of compliance. That helps them.

    But when testing gets delayed, or blocked, or just never happens, that silence in the record says something too. We know to request every piece of documentation: when testing was ordered, who conducted it, what it showed, or why it never happened at all.

    The FMCSA Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse

    Under 49 CFR Part 382, Subpart G, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration runs a national database called the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse. Think of it as a permanent record. Employers have to check it before hiring a CDL driver, and at least once a year after that.

    The Clearinghouse tracks positive test results, test refusals, and whether a driver ever completed the return-to-duty process after a violation.

    In a lawsuit, Clearinghouse records can be some of the most powerful evidence we pull. If the driver who caused your accident had a prior positive test, or never finished the return-to-duty process, and the trucking company hired or kept that driver anyway, we’re not just talking about ordinary negligence anymore.

    Here’s where it gets uncomfortable for the company. Failing to check the Clearinghouse, or checking it and ignoring what it showed, can support a claim for gross negligence or punitive damages. That’s a different category of case entirely.

    It helps to look at the full body of Illinois truck accident laws that govern these cases, since federal impairment rules don’t operate in a vacuum. They interact with state tort claims in ways that shape how a case gets built.

    Pre-Employment, Random, and Reasonable-Suspicion Testing

    Post-accident testing is just one piece of a much bigger federal testing framework, laid out in 49 CFR 382.301 through 382.307. Carriers have to test drivers in several other situations too:

    • Pre-employment (382.301): before a driver first operates a CMV for an employer
    • Random (382.305): a minimum percentage of drivers randomly selected throughout the year
    • Reasonable suspicion (382.307): when a trained supervisor observes behavior suggesting impairment
    • Return-to-duty (382.309): after a verified violation, before a driver returns to operating a CMV

    That full testing history is discoverable in a lawsuit. If a carrier’s random testing rate fell below the required minimum, or supervisors saw warning signs and looked the other way, those records can support a claim against the employer, not just the driver.

    Illinois adds its own layer on top of the federal rules. The state’s CDL disqualification provisions in the Illinois Vehicle Code cover alcohol and drug violations too, which means the driver’s accountability doesn’t stop at the federal line.

    Criminal Conviction vs. Civil Liability: An Important Distinction

    Clients ask us this a lot: do you need a DUI conviction against the truck driver to win a civil case? No.

    Criminal and civil cases run on different standards of proof. A criminal conviction requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt, the highest bar in the legal system. A civil case only requires a preponderance of the evidence, meaning more likely than not. That’s a meaningfully lower bar, and it’s a big part of why civil cases can succeed even when criminal charges don’t stick.

    A DUI conviction helps. It can sometimes establish negligence per se on its own. But we don’t need one to win.

    BAC test results, Clearinghouse records, an employer’s testing failures, witness accounts of erratic driving, all of it stands on its own in a civil claim. And the reverse holds true too. A not-guilty verdict in criminal court doesn’t block a civil recovery. The standards are different, and civil juries weigh the same facts differently than criminal juries do.

    Talk to a Chicago Attorney for a Free Consultation

    Impaired truck driver cases move fast, and evidence disappears just as fast. Drug and alcohol test results, Clearinghouse records, employer compliance files, all of it can be lost or overwritten quickly.

    The 8-hour alcohol window and the 32-hour drug window aren’t just regulatory trivia. They mean the evidence picture can shift within hours of the crash, often before anyone has thought to call a lawyer.

    Phillips Law Offices investigates impaired truck driver accidents in Chicago and throughout Illinois. Call us at (312) 346-4262 for a free consultation, or visit our contact page. We work on a contingency basis. No fee unless we recover.

  • Hit by a USPS Mail Truck: How Federal Claims Work

    A USPS mail truck hit you in Chicago. If the driver worked for a private trucking company, this would be a fairly ordinary case: you’d sue the company and its insurer, and the road from there is well marked.

    USPS is not a private company. It’s a federal agency, and that one fact changes almost everything about how your case has to move forward. Your usps truck accident claim falls under the Federal Tort Claims Act, or FTCA (28 U.S.C. § 1346(b)), a law that spells out exactly how you’re allowed to sue the federal government and what happens if you skip a step.

    The rules are different. The deadlines are stricter. Missing a single one of them can end your case before it starts.

    This article is general legal information, not legal advice for your specific situation. Talk to a licensed Illinois attorney before you make decisions based on it.

    Why Suing the Federal Government Is Different

    Start with a concept most people never have a reason to learn: sovereign immunity. It means the government cannot be sued unless it agrees to be sued. Left alone, that principle would mean a USPS truck could total your car and put you in the hospital, and you’d have no court to walk into.

    Congress didn’t leave it alone. Through 28 U.S.C. § 1346(b), Congress waived that immunity for cases like yours, making the federal government liable when one of its employees causes injury, property damage, or death while acting within the scope of the job. A mail carrier driving an assigned USPS route generally fits that description.

    One thing to confirm before you go further: was the vehicle actually driven by a USPS employee? A large share of mail delivery today runs through Highway Contract Route operators and other contracted carriers. Those drivers are independent contractors, not federal employees, and the FTCA generally does not reach their negligence. If your accident involved a contracted delivery vehicle rather than a USPS-badged employee, none of the process below applies. You would instead have an ordinary negligence claim against the contractor and its insurer, filed in state court under Illinois’s regular deadlines, not the federal ones described here. The accident report or a quick records request usually settles the question.

    That waiver comes with strings attached. The FTCA layers procedural requirements on top of your case that simply don’t exist when you’re suing a private driver.

    Here’s one difference we run into constantly. In a normal commercial trucking case, we subpoena hour-of-service logs and drug-testing records from the FMCSA Clearinghouse, the federal database that tracks a truck driver’s safety compliance history, and we pull the carrier’s commercial insurance policy. None of that exists for a USPS truck.

    USPS-owned vehicles operated by USPS employees generally fall outside the FMCSA’s commercial trucking rules (49 CFR Parts 382 through 395). A contracted carrier’s truck is a different story: that company is still a regulated motor carrier, mail cargo or not. There are no hour-of-service logs to obtain, no Clearinghouse drug-test records, no commercial auto policy sitting behind the vehicle. Evidence gathering here runs on federal civil procedure rules, not the trucking playbook we’d use against a freight carrier.

    Step 1: File Standard Form 95 Before You Sue

    You cannot walk into federal court on day one. The FTCA requires you to exhaust the administrative process first: present your claim to the USPS, in writing, and either get a final denial or wait six months in silence. That requirement lives in 28 U.S.C. § 2675, and skipping it is not a technicality you fix later. It’s a door that closes.

    The form that starts this process is Standard Form 95, usually just called the SF-95, officially the “Administrative Claim for Damage, Injury or Death.” You send it to the USPS Claims office, not to a courthouse. The SF-95 asks for:

    • Your name, address, and contact information
    • The date, time, and location of the incident
    • A description of the accident and how it occurred
    • A specific dollar amount for your claim, covering both personal injury and property damage
    • Supporting documentation: medical records, police reports, repair estimates

    That dollar amount is not a placeholder. In most circumstances, you can’t later ask a court for more than what you wrote on the SF-95, unless you can point to newly discovered evidence or facts that came up after you filed.

    Sit with that for a second. Undervalue the claim here, and you may be stuck with that number long after your medical bills tell a different story. State the full value of what you’ve lost, and get an attorney’s eyes on the form before it goes out.

    Step 2: Understand the Deadline (Receipt of Denial, Not Mailing)

    Two deadlines govern this process, and 28 U.S.C. § 2401(b) sets both of them. You have two years from the date your claim accrues to file the SF-95. Once USPS denies it, you have six months from that denial to file suit in federal court. That second deadline is where we’ve seen people lose cases that should have won.

    Here’s where it gets uncomfortable. The six-month clock starts on the date the agency mails your denial by certified or registered mail, not the day it lands in your mailbox. Say the letter sits in transit over a holiday weekend before you ever see it. That delay is not extra time. The postmark date is what a court will look at, so open every piece of USPS correspondence the day it arrives.

    Track every piece of USPS correspondence with a certified mail return receipt, and write down the actual date you received it. Miss this deadline by a single day, and a judge can dismiss your case regardless of how strong it is on the merits.

    We handle both federal claims like this one and standard commercial truck accident liability cases, and the procedural gap between the two is wide enough that it’s worth talking to an attorney who has worked both sides of it.

    Step 3: File in Federal District Court (No Jury)

    If USPS denies your claim, or six months pass with no response, you can file suit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Here’s the part that surprises most people: there is no right to a jury trial under the FTCA. A federal judge decides your case alone, in what’s called a bench trial. That judge rules on both liability and how much you’re owed.

    That single fact reshapes how we build the case. You’re not persuading twelve strangers with a story built to pull at emotion. You’re persuading one judge who reads statutes for a living.

    That means detailed medical expert testimony. Precise wage-loss and future-cost calculations. A statutory argument that holds up on paper, not just in front of a sympathetic room. An attorney experienced in FTCA litigation builds toward that judge from the first filing, not the week before trial.

    Common Injuries and Damages in USPS Truck Collisions

    USPS trucks are smaller than the semis we usually deal with in commercial freight cases, but at intersection speed they still do real damage to pedestrians, cyclists, and passenger vehicle occupants. We see the same injuries come through again and again:

    • Traumatic brain injury from impact or airbag deployment
    • Spinal cord damage and herniated discs
    • Broken bones, particularly in the extremities
    • Soft tissue injuries that may not appear immediately
    • Emotional distress and lost income

    The FTCA lets you recover medical expenses, lost wages, property damage, and pain and suffering. Two limits worth knowing up front: punitive damages aren’t available against the federal government, and damages for loss of consortium may be restricted.

    None of that changes what you should do right now, which is document everything. Every medical visit, every prescription, every day you miss at work, starting the day of the crash.

    Talk to a Chicago Attorney for a Free Consultation

    A USPS truck accident claim asks more of you procedurally than an ordinary car accident case ever would. The SF-95 filing, the receipt-of-denial deadline, the bench trial, the limits on what you can recover: all of it has to be handled correctly from the first form you sign. One misstep at the administrative claim stage can waive your right to sue at all.

    Phillips Law Offices handles federal tort claims arising from government vehicle accidents in Chicago and throughout Illinois. Call us at (312) 346-4262 for a free consultation, or visit our contact page to tell us what happened. There is no fee unless we recover for you.

  • Hospital Liens and Your Truck Accident Settlement in Illinois

    When you settle a truck accident case in Illinois, you do not walk away with the full number in the settlement letter. Hospitals, doctors, Medicare, and Medicaid can all stake a claim on that money before it reaches you.

    We have seen clients open a check they were counting on to solve real problems, only to find a third of it already gone to liens nobody told them to watch for. That gap between the settlement number and the number you actually keep is where this gets serious.

    Three separate lien systems can apply to a single truck accident case in Illinois: a state law covering hospitals and providers, a federal Medicare reimbursement rule, and a separate Illinois Medicaid lien. Each one works differently. Missing one can cost you later.

    This article offers general legal information. For advice specific to your situation, talk to a licensed Illinois attorney.

    Illinois Health Care Services Lien Act: 770 ILCS 23

    Illinois hospitals and medical providers collect from your settlement under one specific law: the Health Care Services Lien Act, 770 ILCS 23. Any hospital, physician, dentist, or other licensed health care provider that treated you after the crash can assert a lien against your settlement, judgment, or award.

    That lien attaches automatically. You do not sign anything to create it.

    Here is the part most people misunderstand. The Act caps all health care liens combined at 40 percent of your gross settlement or judgment.

    Not 40 percent per provider. Forty percent total, shared among every hospital, physician, and specialist who treated you.

    If three different providers billed you, they are not each entitled to 40 percent. They are splitting one 40 percent pool.

    Hypothetical example (for illustration only): Say your truck accident case settles for $100,000. Under the Act, every health care provider combined can claim at most $40,000, even if their bills add up to $90,000. This is a hypothetical only. Your case will depend on its own facts, its own settlement amount, and which liens actually apply to it.

    A lien only holds up if the provider did the paperwork right. The provider has to serve written notice on you, on your attorney, and on every defendant and insurer in the case.

    Skip that step, and the lien can fail entirely. We track every lien notice that comes in on a case and check that each one was served the way the law requires. Providers miss this more often than you would expect.

    The Act also builds in a reduction for shared fault. If you bear some percentage of blame for the crash, and your recovery is reduced because of it, the lien amount gets reduced along with it.

    Medicare Secondary Payer Act: 42 U.S.C. § 1395y(b)(2)

    If you are on Medicare, a different set of rules kicks in entirely. This one runs on federal law, not Illinois law, and it does not care about the 40 percent cap above.

    Under the Medicare Secondary Payer Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1395y(b)(2), Medicare is what the statute calls a “secondary payer.” When someone else, like the truck accident defendant’s insurer, is legally responsible for your medical bills, Medicare is not supposed to be the one footing them.

    In practice, Medicare often pays anyway, as what is called a conditional payment, so your treatment does not get held up while liability gets sorted out. That payment is conditional because Medicare expects it back once you settle.

    The agency that tracks these payments is the Benefits Coordination and Recovery Center, known as the BCRC. Before any settlement closes, your attorney has to contact the BCRC directly, get a conditional payment amount, and wait for a final demand.

    Here is where it gets uncomfortable. Failing to reimburse Medicare does not just create a debt. It can expose you and your attorney to double-damage liability under federal law.

    And this obligation stands apart from the 40 percent state cap described above. Medicare’s claim is a federal one. The Health Care Services Lien Act limit does not touch it.

    Resolving a Medicare lien usually means negotiating the conditional payment amount down, especially when the available insurance coverage cannot stretch to cover everything. That negotiation takes real time. It has to be built into your settlement timeline from the start, not tacked on at the end.

    Because this involves truck accident insurance and compensation at the federal level, it takes close, ongoing coordination between your attorney and the BCRC to resolve cleanly.

    Illinois Medicaid Lien: 305 ILCS 5/11-22

    There is a third lien to watch for. If the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, which runs Medicaid, paid for any part of your treatment, it has its own statutory right to reimbursement under 305 ILCS 5/11-22.

    This lien attaches to any tort settlement or recovery you receive. It is not the same obligation as the private provider liens under 770 ILCS 23, and it does not share that 40 percent pool. It is a separate statutory claim, and the Department has to receive specific notice before your settlement can close.

    Medicaid lien amounts can sometimes be negotiated down, particularly when the settlement is not enough to cover everything you lost. We reach out to the Department early, get a current lien figure, and find out whether a compromise is realistically on the table. Waiting until the end of a case to ask is how people get stuck with a number nobody can move.

    How Lien Negotiation Affects Your Net Recovery

    Put these three systems together, state provider liens capped at 40 percent, federal Medicare reimbursement, and the separate Medicaid obligation, and you can see why the settlement figure by itself tells you almost nothing about what actually lands in your account.

    The settlement is only half the negotiation. The liens are the other half, and they get negotiated too.

    Most health care providers will accept a reduced lien amount if that is what it takes to let the case settle within the insurance limits available. They would rather take less than take nothing from a case that never resolves.

    Medicare works differently but moves in the same direction. It applies a formula that accounts for procurement costs, meaning your attorney fees and litigation expenses, and that formula can bring the reimbursement number down.

    Get this wrong, or miss a lien entirely, and the consequences tend to show up at the worst possible time. A surprise deduction at closing. Personal liability that follows you after the case is over. Malpractice exposure for the attorney who missed it.

    Sit with that for a second. This is not something you want to discover after the money is already gone. It is one of the few parts of a truck accident case where legal representation is not simply helpful. It is what protects the number you actually get to keep.

    Talk to a Chicago Attorney: Free Consultation

    Lien resolution in a truck accident case is detailed work, and the consequences of getting it wrong land on your recovery, not ours. We handle hospital lien negotiations, Medicare coordination, and Medicaid compliance as part of representing truck accident victims across the Chicago area.

    We work on contingency. No fees unless you recover.

    Call (312) 346-4262 or visit our contact page to speak with a Chicago truck accident attorney at no charge.

  • Hit by Falling Cargo or Truck Debris on the Highway

    When cargo falls off a truck and hits your vehicle, figuring out who’s responsible isn’t simple. The driver, the trucking company, and sometimes the business that loaded the truck can all share the blame. If you were hit by falling debris or cargo on an Illinois highway, federal safety rules and state law give you a real framework for figuring out who dropped the ball.

    This article is general legal information, not a substitute for advice from a licensed Illinois attorney about your specific situation.

    Federal Cargo Securement Standards: 49 CFR Part 393, Subpart I

    The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration spells out exactly how cargo has to be secured. The rules live in 49 CFR Part 393, Subpart I, sections 393.100 through 393.136, and the baseline requirement is simple: cargo has to be immobilized so it can’t shift, fall, or blow off the vehicle.

    From there the rules get specific. Section 393.106 dictates how many tie-downs a load needs and where they go, based on weight and length. Section 393.102 requires that every tie-down assembly actually be in good working order, not just present. And there are separate securement methods spelled out for specific cargo types: logs (§ 393.116), metal coils (§ 393.120), intermodal containers (§ 393.124), flatbed loads, and dozens more.

    Here’s why that level of detail matters. When a regulation lays out this much specificity, a violation isn’t just carelessness. It’s a documented failure to follow a rule written for exactly this situation.

    Drivers have inspection duties too, under § 393.100(b). Before the trip starts, and again within the first 50 miles, the driver has to check the cargo and the securement devices. Then it’s every three hours or 150 miles after that, whichever comes first. If a tie-down fails or the load shifts, the driver is supposed to stop and fix it before going any further.

    We’ve seen cases where a carrier pressured a driver to skip these checks or keep driving with a load that was clearly shifting. That’s not just the driver’s problem anymore. Once a company leans on someone to cut corners on safety, it’s taken on liability of its own.

    Illinois Law: 625 ILCS 5/15-109

    Illinois has its own rule on top of the federal one. Under 625 ILCS 5/15-109, a vehicle cannot be driven on a public highway unless its load is fastened securely enough that nothing falls, blows loose, or otherwise escapes onto the road. That responsibility falls on both the driver and whoever operates the vehicle.

    This statute matters in more than theory. If we can show a defendant violated it, that violation is relevant evidence of negligence in a civil case. It helps establish that the defendant breached a duty owed to you and everyone else on the road.

    Three Potential Defendants in a Falling Cargo Case

    Falling cargo cases usually involve three distinct parties, and figuring out what each one did wrong is how you build a complete claim.

    One note on scope. This is about securement failures and falling debris, not overload violations or axle weight issues. Those involve a different set of rules entirely.

    The Driver. The driver is on the hook for pre-trip and en-route cargo inspections under 49 CFR § 393.100(b). Skip those inspections, notice shifting cargo and keep driving anyway, or re-secure a load poorly after a stop, and that’s personal negligence. In Illinois, a driver operating with an unsecured load is also violating 625 ILCS 5/15-109, a separate statutory duty.

    The Carrier. The trucking company has its own obligations, separate from the driver’s. It has to train drivers on cargo securement, keep securement equipment in working order, and run real inspection protocols, not just a policy that exists on paper.

    We’ve seen carriers that never audited how drivers actually secured loads, ignored reports of damaged tie-down equipment, or built routes so tight that drivers had no real time for required stops. Every one of those is a decision that made a cargo failure more likely.

    Carriers can also be held liable for what their drivers do, under a legal doctrine called respondeat superior, which holds an employer responsible for an employee’s negligence committed on the job.

    The Shipper. Sometimes the driver never loaded the truck at all. A separate business, the shipper, loaded and sealed it before the driver ever saw it.

    That raises a real question: who’s responsible if the loading itself was defective? Courts have addressed this through what’s called the shipper-loading doctrine. The idea is that a carrier’s liability can be limited when the shipper loads and seals a trailer without giving the carrier any real chance to inspect it.

    That protection has limits, though. It doesn’t cover a carrier that knowingly accepted a trailer it knew was loaded wrong. And Illinois courts still ask whether the driver should have caught the problem during a normal inspection, shipper-loaded or not.

    How Truck Accident Liability Works in These Cases

    If you were hurt by falling cargo, you’re not limited to picking one defendant. You can pursue truck accident liability claims against the driver, the carrier, and the shipper at the same time, if the facts support it.

    Illinois follows what’s called modified comparative fault, under 735 ILCS 5/2-1116. In plain terms: you can still recover as long as your share of the blame is under 51 percent, and whatever you recover gets reduced by your percentage of fault.

    Sit with that for a second, because it matters here specifically. If you were just driving behind a truck when its cargo came loose, your share of fault is usually zero. This isn’t a case where the defense has much room to point back at you.

    Evidence collection can’t wait. Cargo securement records, pre-trip inspection logs, bills of lading, and loading instructions are the documents that prove what actually happened.

    Here’s where it gets uncomfortable. Carriers and shippers aren’t required to hold onto these records forever, and once they’re gone, they’re gone. A preservation letter sent soon after the crash puts them on notice not to destroy anything relevant, before that becomes a problem.

    Injuries Caused by Falling Debris

    Falling cargo and road debris don’t cause one kind of injury. They cause several, and none of them are minor.

    A windshield impact can cause serious head and eye injuries. Swerving hard to avoid debris in your lane causes rollovers and multi-vehicle pileups. Debris lodged under a vehicle can take away your control of the car entirely, at highway speed.

    We’ve seen victims face months of recovery: surgery, physical therapy, time away from work they can’t get back. Illinois law lets you recover for all of it, including medical costs, lost income, and pain and suffering.

    Talk to a Chicago Attorney for a Free Consultation

    Falling cargo cases move fast, and so does the evidence that proves them. Preserving inspection records and identifying every responsible party is work that has to happen early, before the trail goes cold.

    We investigate commercial truck crashes throughout the Chicago area, and we take these cases on contingency. You don’t pay us unless we win.

    Call (312) 346-4262 or visit our contact page to schedule a free consultation today.

  • Owner-Operators and the Independent Contractor Defense in Truck Cases

    Ask who’s liable after a truck crash, and the trucking company usually has a ready answer. That driver is an independent contractor, not our employee.

    We hear this in Illinois cases constantly, and it’s rarely as simple as the carrier makes it sound.

    Federal leasing regulations put liability on the carrier no matter what the paperwork calls the driver.

    This article provides general legal information; consult a licensed Illinois attorney for advice specific to your situation.

    What Is an Owner-Operator?

    An owner-operator owns the truck. That’s really the whole distinction: instead of driving a company rig, they’re driving their own.

    Most owner-operators lease that truck to a licensed motor carrier and haul freight under the carrier’s operating authority, the government-issued permission that lets a company put trucks on the road. It’s a common setup. Carriers get more capacity without buying more trucks, and drivers keep some independence while still getting steady freight.

    We’ve seen this arrangement play out in plenty of cases. It’s a legitimate way to run a trucking business. The trouble starts the moment something goes wrong on the road.

    Here’s where it gets uncomfortable. When a crash happens, some carriers reach for that independent contractor label like a shield. Not our driver, not our problem.

    Federal law doesn’t let that shield hold up, not for a driver operating under the carrier’s authority.

    The Statutory Employee Definition Under 49 CFR 390.5

    The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations answer this question directly. Under 49 CFR § 390.5, “employee” includes any driver operating a commercial motor vehicle under a motor carrier’s authority. It doesn’t matter what the carrier calls that driver: independent contractor, owner-operator, anything else.

    The regulation defines a driver as “any person who operates a commercial motor vehicle” in the service of a motor carrier, including an independent contractor. That phrase, including an independent contractor, is doing a lot of work here.

    This is the statutory employee doctrine: the idea that federal safety law defines “employee” on its own terms, regardless of how a company structures its tax paperwork. A carrier can’t hand a driver a 1099 and call the liability question closed.

    Federal law treats the carrier as the employer for FMCSA safety purposes, and that classification carries real weight once a case reaches civil court.

    The Lease Control Requirement Under 49 CFR 376.12(c)(1)

    The independent contractor defense runs into a second problem: 49 CFR § 376.12(c)(1), the lease control requirement. When a motor carrier leases a truck from an owner-operator, federal regulation requires the carrier to take on “exclusive possession and control” of that vehicle for the whole lease term.

    Here’s the regulation itself: “The lease shall provide that the authorized carrier lessee shall have exclusive possession, control, and use of the equipment for the duration of the lease. The lease shall further provide that the authorized carrier lessee shall assume complete responsibility for the operation of the equipment for the duration of the lease.”

    Courts have generally read this language the same way: a carrier can’t require exclusive control on paper, then disclaim responsibility once something goes wrong. How firmly that holds up varies by jurisdiction, some treat the lease language as close to conclusive, others let a carrier try to rebut it with evidence of actual practice, so the specific facts of how the lease was written and enforced still matter.

    That’s what triggers respondeat superior liability, the legal principle that makes an employer answer for an employee’s negligence committed on the job.

    How Illinois Respondeat Superior Law Applies

    Illinois follows the same respondeat superior doctrine most states do. An employer is vicariously liable for the negligent acts of an employee or agent, as long as those acts happened within the scope of the job.

    When federal regulation requires the carrier to hold exclusive control of the vehicle, that control relationship is strong evidence the carrier and driver should be treated as principal and agent for liability purposes. The independent contractor label on a 1099 doesn’t automatically override the control relationship federal law creates, an attorney can tell you how that plays out on your specific facts.

    That means you can name both the owner-operator and the motor carrier as defendants in a truck accident liability claim. The carrier’s own insurance policy comes into play, and it’s often far larger than what the individual driver carries on their own.

    Practical Evidence in Owner-Operator Cases

    None of this happens automatically. Holding a carrier liable takes evidence, and that’s where the real work starts.

    We look for the lease agreement between the driver and the carrier. We confirm the crash happened while the driver was operating under the carrier’s DOT authority number. We pull the carrier’s bills of lading and dispatch records. We check whether the carrier’s name and USDOT number were on the truck’s cab door at the time of the crash, which federal regulation requires under 49 CFR § 390.21.

    Every piece of that documentation points to the same question: how much control did the carrier actually exercise? The more control shows up on paper, the harder the independent contractor defense gets to argue.

    Carriers sometimes argue the driver had gone off-route, or was running a personal errand when the crash happened. Call it the detour argument.

    It can complicate a case. It doesn’t erase the carrier’s liability, not if the driver was still operating under the lease and still using the carrier’s authority number at the time.

    What Damages Can You Recover?

    Illinois personal injury law lets you pursue medical expenses, lost wages, future lost earning capacity, and pain and suffering. In cases where a carrier’s conduct shows willful disregard for safety, punitive damages can be on the table too.

    Reaching the carrier as a defendant, not just the driver, usually means reaching a much bigger pool of insurance coverage. Federal minimums require commercial trucking policies to carry liability limits of $750,000 or more, and plenty of carriers carry far more than that.

    Talk to a Chicago Attorney, Free Consultation

    Owner-operator cases move fast on the paperwork side. Lease records, dispatch logs, and insurance filings can get reorganized, or disappear, once a carrier’s legal team gets involved. The sooner you act, the stronger your position.

    We handle truck accident cases throughout the Chicago area, and we take these cases on contingency. You pay nothing unless we recover for you.

    Call us at (312) 346-4262 or visit our contact page to schedule a free consultation.