Car accident lawyer for Illinois and Indiana.

Most injury suits in both states must be on file within two years of the crash — 735 ILCS 5/13-202 in Illinois, Ind. Code § 34-11-2-4 in Indiana. Several things shorten that materially, and they come up more often than people expect:

• Government vehicles. A crash with a city, county, township, school district or park district vehicle in Illinois generally has to be filed within one year (745 ILCS 10/8-101). In Indiana, written tort claim notice is generally due in about 180 days for a local unit of government and 270 days for a State entity (Ind. Code § 34-13-3-8, § 34-13-3-10).
• Transit. The Chicago Transit Authority requires written notice within six months and suit within one year (70 ILCS 3605/41).
• Dram shop. An Illinois claim against an establishment that over-served the at-fault driver runs for one year, with capped damages (235 ILCS 5/6-21).
• Your own policy. Uninsured and underinsured motorist claims and medical payments benefits are contract claims. Their notice and demand deadlines come from the policy language and are often shorter than the statute.
• Wrongful death. The period generally runs from the date of death rather than the crash, and the case must be brought by the estate’s personal representative.
• Minors and legal incapacity. Both states pause the clock for children and may toll it for a person under a legal disability, though a parent’s separate claim for medical expenses can run on the ordinary schedule.

If any date might be close, the time to ask is now rather than after it passes.

Not before you have talked to someone on your side. The adjuster calling you works for the person who hit you, and the recorded statement is taken early for a reason — before you have a diagnosis, before imaging, and before you know what is going to be permanent. Reasonable, honest answers like "I’m okay" or "my back is just a little sore" become the quoted record for the life of the claim, and a guess about speed or distance becomes a fault argument. You do have a duty to cooperate with your own insurer, which is different. Report the crash to your own carrier promptly; let the other side’s statement wait.

Then the claim usually moves to your own policy as an uninsured motorist claim, and the two states differ in a way that matters. Illinois requires uninsured motorist coverage on every auto policy and does not permit it to be waived (215 ILCS 5/143a), so there is almost always coverage to examine. Indiana requires that uninsured and underinsured coverage be offered, but it can be rejected in writing (Ind. Code § 27-7-5-2) — so an early question in an Indiana case is whether a valid written rejection actually exists. Either way, these are contract claims against your own insurer: the policy sets the notice requirements, may require that a police report was made promptly in a hit-and-run, and may require arbitration. Those deadlines are frequently shorter than the two-year statute.

Not until the medical picture is actually known. An offer that arrives in the first weeks is priced on what the insurer knows then, which is close to nothing: no MRI, no specialist opinion, no idea whether the shoulder tear needs repair or the disc needs injections. A release signed at that number closes the claim permanently, including for the surgery that happens four months later. Early offers are also frequently calculated against the property damage photographs rather than the injury, which is why a modest-looking bumper can produce a modest-looking offer for a genuine disc injury. The number worth evaluating is one that comes after treatment has either finished or stabilized enough that a physician can say what is permanent.

Anyone quoting a figure before reading the medical records is selling something. What actually drives value is the injury and the proof of it: what was fractured or torn, whether surgery was required or recommended, how much work was missed, what the permanent restrictions are, what a jury would likely assign as your share of fault, and — often the binding constraint — how much insurance coverage exists across every applicable policy. That last point is why coverage investigation matters so much. A catastrophic injury caused by a driver carrying the $25,000 state minimum with no umbrella and no employer coverage is limited by what can be collected, not by what the case is worth, which is exactly why every other policy has to be found.

No, unless your share passes half. Both states use modified comparative fault: your recovery is reduced by your percentage of the blame and barred entirely above 50% — 735 ILCS 5/2-1116 in Illinois, Ind. Code § 34-51-2-6 in Indiana. Because that 50% line is the difference between a full case and nothing, the defense spends most of its energy there, and an adjuster’s opening position on percentages is a negotiating stance rather than a finding. Disputed-fault crashes — a left turn across traffic, a lane change on an interstate, a multi-vehicle chain reaction — are worth developing with photographs, scene measurements, vehicle data and independent witnesses. One important exception: a claim against an Indiana governmental defendant is judged under contributory negligence instead (Ind. Code § 34-51-2-2), where even a small share of fault can bar recovery entirely.

Usually yes, at least initially, and it is generally the right move. The at-fault insurer does not pay bills as they come in; it pays once, at the end, in a single settlement. In the meantime your health insurance, your medical payments coverage if you carry it, and in some cases a provider’s agreement to wait are what keep treatment moving. What matters at the end is that the reimbursement claims those payers assert — hospital liens, health plan subrogation, Medicare or Medicaid recovery — are audited rather than paid as presented. They are routinely overstated. Illinois caps what health care providers can collectively take out of a recovery at 40% (770 ILCS 23/10), and Indiana hospital liens run under Ind. Code § 32-33-4. Negotiating those down changes your net recovery as much as the settlement number does.

Most do not, but the ones that settle well are the ones prepared as though they will. An insurer’s evaluation changes when the file contains the treating physician’s causation opinion, the scene work, the coverage picture and a suit on file, rather than a demand letter. Filing a case is also not the same as trying it — a substantial share of claims resolve after suit is filed and discovery has answered the questions the adjuster was guessing at. What is worth knowing is that filing is the only thing that stops the limitations clock, so the decision cannot be left until the deadline is close.

Nothing upfront. Car accident cases are handled on a contingency fee — there is no fee unless there is a recovery — and the case review itself is free. If the honest assessment is that you do not need an attorney, or that the claim cannot be proven, you will hear that instead of being signed up.

No. There is an office on each side of the state line and meetings can be arranged at either, but an office visit is not required to start or run a case. Most communication happens by phone, text and email, and Jeff is licensed in every county in both states, so a crash in Danville, Gary, Peoria or Kokomo is handled on the same terms as one in the Loop.