Personal injury

Rick represents clients in Rockford, Loves Park and across Winnebago County from his office at 7111 N. Alpine Rd, Loves Park.

What Rick handles

• Claims after an accident or injury caused by someone else's negligence
• Claims for your medical bills and for pain and suffering
• Dealing with the insurance companies for you: statements, signatures and offers
• Working out which filing deadline applies to your claim

Keep a record

Keep every medical bill and report, photos of the scene and your injuries, the names and phone numbers of witnesses, and every letter or email from an insurer. Write down what happened while you remember it.

Know what the law requires of you at the scene of a crash. After a car crash in Illinois

Before you sign

Read anything an insurer asks you to sign as if it ends your claim, because it may. Talk with Rick first.

The clock runs while you talk

Illinois gives you a fixed time to file a lawsuit for an injury, and it starts when the claim arises, not when talks with an insurer end. The injury statute has no pause for settlement talks (735 ILCS 5/13-202). If a claim has to go to court, cases from Rockford, Loves Park and the rest of Winnebago County are filed with the Circuit Clerk at the Winnebago County Courthouse, 400 W. State St, Rockford, where civil filings go to Room 108 (Circuit Clerk). Cases from Belvidere and the rest of Boone County go to the Boone County Courthouse, 601 N. Main St, Belvidere.

Questions and answers

• How long do I have to file a personal injury lawsuit in Illinois?
• What if the person hurt is a child?
• What if the claim is against a city, county or other local government?
• What if I was partly at fault?
• How long do I have for damage to my car?
• What if someone died?

The first conversation

Bring your records and the names of every insurance company that has contacted you. Rick goes through what happened, tells you which deadlines he sees, and tells you plainly what he does not know yet.