Illinois Car Accident Lawyers
Skilled legal help when you’re injured in an Illinois car crash
Here is the part almost nobody tells you after an Illinois crash. The single biggest factor in what you end up with is often not how badly you were hurt. It is how much insurance happened to be sitting behind the car that hit you.
Illinois lets a driver carry as little as 25,000 dollars in bodily injury coverage. A broken leg and three days in the hospital can burn through that before anyone discusses your lost wages.
Glisson Law is an Illinois personal injury attorney team that handles motor vehicle claims statewide, with offices in Alton and Springfield and more than sixty years representing injured people in Illinois and Missouri. Finding every available policy is a large part of what we do.
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How much is a car accident claim worth in Illinois?
It depends on two things that have nothing to do with each other: the harm you can prove, and the coverage that exists to pay for it. A serious case with thin coverage and a modest case with deep coverage can settle for similar numbers, which strikes most people as unfair. It is also how the system works.
Illinois allows recovery for past and future medical expenses, lost income, reduced earning capacity, pain and suffering, disability, disfigurement, and loss of a normal life.
What we actually spend our time on is the second question. A single crash can involve four or five separate sources of money, and an adjuster has no duty to point you toward the ones that are not theirs.
| Possible Source of Recovery | Where It Comes From |
|---|---|
| At fault driver's liability policy | The other driver's insurer |
| Underinsured motorist coverage | Your own auto policy |
| Uninsured motorist coverage | Your own policy, when the at fault driver has none |
| Employer liability | When the at fault driver was working at the time |
| Product or road defect claim | Vehicle manufacturer or the entity responsible for the roadway |
Most people stop at the first row. That is the whole reason unrepresented claims settle low.
What are Illinois minimum insurance requirements?
Illinois requires 25,000 dollars per person and 50,000 dollars per accident for bodily injury, plus 20,000 dollars for property damage, under 625 ILCS 5/7-203. Every auto policy sold in Illinois must also include uninsured motorist coverage at those same limits.
Those minimums have not moved in more than a decade, and medical costs have. A single ambulance ride, an emergency room workup, and one orthopedic consult can consume most of a 25,000 dollar policy before anyone discusses lost wages or a surgery you still need.
Illinois has also enacted Public Act 104-0753, which lets the Illinois Department of Insurance challenge auto insurance rates that are excessive or unfairly discriminatory, for rate filings made on or after July 1, 2027. It does not raise these minimum limits, change the deadline to file, or alter the fault rules, so the numbers above are still what you are working with.
Underinsured motorist coverage is the piece people miss. It is not automatic at minimum limits. Under Illinois law it kicks in only when you have purchased uninsured motorist limits above the state minimum, which means two drivers with identical premiums can have wildly different protection. The Illinois Department of Insurance explains how the coverages differ in its auto insurance shopping guide.
If you are reading this after a crash, pull your declarations page before you talk to anyone. We can read it for you in about five minutes on the phone.
Not sure what your own policy covers? Call +1 (618) 386-5198 and we will go through it with you.
Can I still recover if the crash was partly my fault?
Yes, as long as a jury assigns you 50 percent of the fault or less. Illinois follows modified comparative fault under 735 ILCS 5/2-1116. Cross above 50 percent and you recover nothing.
Below that line, your award drops by your percentage. Found 20 percent responsible on a 300,000 dollar verdict, you take home 240,000.
This rule is the quietest weapon an insurer has. They rarely deny a claim outright. They build a fault argument instead, because shifting blame onto you costs them nothing to try and can cut their exposure in half or erase it.
The arguments are predictable. You were speeding slightly. You could have braked sooner. You were not wearing a seatbelt. You waited three weeks to see a doctor, so the injury must have come from somewhere else.
Each one is answerable with evidence. None of them answer themselves.
What makes an Illinois crash claim complicated?
Three things turn a routine claim into a real fight: a commercial vehicle, a disputed cause, or a defendant located outside Illinois. Any one of them changes how the case has to be built.
Commercial and trucking claims
A tractor-trailer wreck involves federal motor carrier rules, driver logs, and electronic data that the carrier controls. Trucking insurers dispatch investigators within hours. Waiting for them to produce records rarely ends well.
Crashes caused by equipment failure
Sometimes the driver did nothing wrong. A tire separates, a seatbelt releases, a steering component fails. These become crashes caused by defective vehicle components, and they run on a different legal theory with a different set of defendants. The wrecked vehicle becomes evidence, which means it cannot be released to the salvage yard.
Riders and vulnerable road users
Insurers approach motorcycle claims with an assumption baked in, and jurors sometimes arrive with the same one. We handle motorcycle crash claims by attacking that assumption early rather than hoping it does not surface.
Multi-county and cross-border cases
Illinois crashes regularly involve a driver from Missouri, a trucking company registered elsewhere, and a plaintiff who lives in a third county. Where the case gets filed can shift its value significantly. Our firm is admitted in both Illinois and Missouri, and we handle injury claims across the Metro East and Southern Illinois as well as in the St. Louis metro.
How long do I have to sue after a car accident in Illinois?
Two years from the crash for injury claims, under 735 ILCS 5/13-202. Wrongful death claims also run two years, counted from the date of death.
The exceptions are where cases get lost:
- A child injured in a crash generally has until two years after turning 18 to file
- Claims against a city, county, township, or state agency can carry a one year deadline plus an early written notice requirement
- Dram shop claims against a bar or restaurant that overserved a driver run on a much shorter clock and carry a dollar cap that the state adjusts each January
- Your own insurer may impose a contractual notice deadline for uninsured and underinsured motorist claims that expires long before two years
Two years also sounds like far more time than it is. Medical treatment for a serious injury can take a year. Evidence does not wait that long.
How does Glisson Law build an Illinois car accident claim?
We start with coverage and evidence, in that order, because both have expiration dates. Coverage determines what a case can realistically be worth. Evidence determines whether we can prove it.
The first step is finding every policy. That means the at fault driver's liability coverage, your own underinsured and uninsured motorist coverage, any employer policy if the driver was working, and occasionally an umbrella policy nobody mentioned. Adjusters disclose their own limits when required and volunteer nothing else.
At the same time we move on proof. Preservation letters go out to trucking companies and businesses with cameras. Vehicles get inspected before they are sold for salvage. Witnesses get contacted while they still remember the sequence rather than the summary they gave police.
Then the case waits on medicine. A demand sent before your treatment is complete asks an insurer to pay for an injury nobody has finished measuring, and that is how claims settle for a third of their value.
When the medical record is complete, we present the claim. If the number that comes back is defensible, we recommend it. If it is not, we file suit in the appropriate county and prepare for trial, and we tell you honestly which of those two is more likely before you ever sign a fee agreement.
When should you call a lawyer after an Illinois crash?
Before you give a recorded statement, and before you accept any offer. Those are the two moments where unrepresented claims most often lose value permanently.
There are also clear signals that a case needs a lawyer now rather than later:
The other driver's insurer is disputing who caused it. Someone was hospitalized or will need surgery. A commercial truck or a work vehicle was involved. The at fault driver was uninsured. You have been asked to sign a medical authorization. Or the offer on the table would not cover the bills you already have.
Illinois roads produced 303,913 crashes in 2024, including 1,085 fatal crashes, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation's 2024 Crash Facts report. The adjuster assigned to your file has handled hundreds this year. It is your first one.
Call +1 (618) 462-1077 before you sign anything. The consultation is free.
Illinois car accident questions our attorneys get asked
What does it cost to hire an Illinois car accident lawyer?
Nothing up front. We work on contingency, so our fee is a percentage of what we recover and there is no fee at all if we recover nothing. Case expenses like records, reconstruction, and expert witnesses are advanced by the firm and repaid from the recovery. You will see the percentages in writing before anything is signed.
The other driver was uninsured. Do I have a case?
Often yes, through the uninsured motorist coverage that every Illinois auto policy is required to carry under 215 ILCS 5/143a. The claim goes to your own insurer, but it is still a contested claim. Your carrier steps into the at fault driver's position and can argue fault and injury just as aggressively. Notify them right away, because policy deadlines are shorter than the statute.
Should I accept the first settlement offer?
Almost never, and especially not while you are still treating. A first offer is calculated on the bills in hand, which is why it arrives early. Once you sign a release, the claim is closed even if you need surgery three months later. Have someone read the offer against your full medical picture before you respond.
Do I need a lawyer in my county, or can your firm handle it?
Illinois firms can appear anywhere in the state, so you do not need a lawyer down the street. What matters is whether the firm knows the venue your case will be filed in. We appear across central and southern Illinois and in the Metro East, and we will tell you plainly if a case belongs somewhere we are not the right fit.
How long will my case take?
Straightforward claims with completed treatment often resolve in six to twelve months. Cases involving surgery, disputed fault, or a commercial defendant commonly run longer, and a case that goes to trial can take two years or more. Anyone promising you a date in the first phone call is guessing.
Get a straight read on your claim
You do not need to decide anything today. What helps is finding out early what coverage exists, what the deadline actually is in your situation, and whether the offer in front of you is close to reasonable.
Bring the crash report, your insurance declarations page, and whatever medical paperwork you have. We will tell you what we see, including if the honest answer is that you do not need us.
Call +1 (618) 462-1077, or visit us at 111 East Fourth Street, Suite 400, Alton, IL 62002, or 2205 Wabash Avenue, Suite 210, Springfield, IL 62704. Free consultation, available any hour, and no fee unless there is a recovery for you.