Hurt in a crash?
You get me — not a call center.

Nothing upfront. Motor vehicle accident cases are handled on contingency — there's no fee unless we recover money for you.

Yes. Alongside motor vehicle claims, the practice handles slip, trip and fall and other premises liability cases throughout Illinois and Indiana — falls on wet or slick store floors, unnatural ice and snow, broken stairs and missing handrails, unlit stairwells, and neglected parking lots and sidewalks. Fall cases hinge on whether the property owner knew or should have known about the hazard, and the surveillance video that proves it is usually overwritten within one to four weeks, so they need to be reviewed quickly. The slip and fall page covers how these claims are proven in each state.

Yes. Jeff has been licensed in both Illinois and Indiana since 2000. Cross-border claims are routine here, so there's no need to hand your case off to a second firm because the crash happened on the other side of the state line.

No. Jeff is licensed everywhere in Illinois and everywhere in Indiana, and will review a motor vehicle accident case from any part of either state — Chicagoland, Rockford, the Quad Cities, the Metro East, downstate Illinois, or anywhere in Indiana. Travel and out-of-county court appearances are part of the job, so distance by itself is never a reason to turn a case away. Most of the work happens by phone, text, and email regardless, and Jeff comes to you when meeting in person makes sense.

For most motor vehicle accident injury claims, both Indiana and Illinois apply a two-year statute of limitations, measured from the date of the crash. If a lawsuit isn't on file by that date, the claim is generally lost no matter how clear the other driver's fault was. Several circumstances change that deadline — a few extend it, and the ones that matter most cut it short:

• The injured person is a minor. Both states pause the clock for children. A minor generally has until two years after their eighteenth birthday to bring their own injury claim, though a parent's separate claim for the child's medical expenses can run on the ordinary schedule.
• Legal incapacity. If the injured person is under a legal disability — unable to manage their own affairs because of a brain injury or other incapacity — the period may be tolled until that disability is removed.
• A government or public agency is on the other side. This is the exception that catches people. If the at-fault driver was working for a city, county, township, school district, transit authority, or the state, a written notice of claim is typically due long before two years is up: in Indiana, roughly 180 days for a local political subdivision and 270 days for a state entity; in Illinois, suits against local public entities generally must be filed within one year, and certain agencies require written notice within six months. Miss the notice window and the two-year statute won't rescue the claim.
• Wrongful death. The clock runs from the date of death rather than the date of the crash, and the case must be brought by the personal representative of the estate — which means an estate has to be opened first.
• Vehicle and property damage. Damage-only claims follow their own track and don't necessarily match the injury deadline; Illinois allows considerably longer for property damage than for personal injury.
• Claims against your own policy. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, medical payments, and similar benefits are contract claims. Their deadlines — including any duty to give prompt notice or demand arbitration — come from the policy language and are often shorter than the statute.
• Which state's law applies. An interstate crash near the state line, an out-of-state driver, or a policy written elsewhere can put two different sets of deadlines in play. The deadline doesn't automatically follow your home address.

Two points worth being blunt about. Reporting a crash to an insurance company is not the same as filing suit, and months of negotiating with an adjuster does nothing to stop the clock — only a filing in court does. A pending police investigation or traffic case doesn't extend it either. In practice the statute is rarely the real constraint anyway: dashcam and business surveillance video gets overwritten in days, vehicles are repaired or salvaged, and witnesses get harder to find within weeks.

These deadlines turn on specific facts, so treat the above as orientation rather than an answer about your case. If you think you may be close to a deadline — or you're not sure which one applies — call and we'll pin down the date before it costs you the claim.

Early offers are usually calculated before the full extent of an injury is known. It's worth a free review before you sign anything or cash a check.

Most cases resolve through negotiation, but every case is prepared as if it will be tried — that's what gives a demand real weight.