PERSONAL INJURY

If you are reading this page, it is likely that you have been injured by somebody’s negligence. If you have begun the process of trying to recover, you probably also know that the insurance companies are not going to make the process any easier. Hiring an experienced personal injury attorney can be one of the most important things you will do. It can help you to get the treatment you need and ensure that you recover a fair amount for your injuries.

When you think of a personal injury lawyer, chances are you think of late night television ads or highway billboards. This is unfortunate. The best personal injury lawyers spend their time and energy in court, representing clients who were seriously injured. You will not see any billboards for Stotis & Baird Chartered. Instead, you will get lawyers with an average of over 20 years of experience, and a proven track record of successful verdicts and settlements.

As importantly, though, we take the time to listen to your concerns and help you through the process. Our goal is to give each of our clients the individual attention that they deserve. After all, this isn’t our case – it’s yours.

The personal injury and wrongful death trial lawyers at Stotis & Baird have tried over one hundred cases to verdict. They have recovered tens of millions of dollars for clients that have been injured or lost a loved one.

Most personal injury and wrongful death claims are based on negligence, a type of “tort.” A tort is a legal term for a situation where someone or something unfairly causes another injury or other harm. The trial lawyers at Stotis & Baird focus on making sure that when one of their clients is unfairly harmed by another person or corporation, we get them fair and reasonable compensation.

There are many types of personal injury and wrongful death claims. For example, a medical malpractice is a claim that a doctor or another medical professional has caused harm. A products liability case involves a claim that an unsafe product has caused harm. A premises liability claim involves harm caused by a dangerous condition present on a property. There are much more types of claim, but all claims like this involve a claim that another person, company or thing has unfairly caused harm.

These types of claims are generally presented to a jury in the community where the wrongdoer resides or where the injury occurred. As trial lawyers, it is our job to present our client’s claim to the group of jurors selected to decide the claim. Our lawyers have done these hundreds of times, with all types of claims.

To learn more about some of our results, click here.

To learn more about some of the types of claims we handle, click on any of the links below:

Auto Accidents

The lawyers at Stotis & Baird have represented hundreds of people that have been injured and families that have lost a loved one in a car accident or some other type of vehicular negligence.

Automobile accidents generally involve a claim that another person acted negligently or failed to act with adequate care, causing the accident and harm. For example, claims often involve the failure to brake, the failure to keep an adequate lookout, driving to fast for conditions, or the failure to stop at an intersection.

Accidents involving buses, trains and airplanes are often different. When we get on a bus, train or airplane, we are forced to put our trust in the person driving the vehicle. Because of this, the drivers or pilots of these vehicles and the companies they work for owe the people they are transporting a higher degree of care. They need to take every precaution to make sure they transport people safely.

Contact one of the personal injury or wrongful death trial attorneys at Stotis & Baird if you would like to talk about your potential claim.

Medical Malpractice

A medical malpractice claim sometimes called a medical negligence claim, involves a claim of harm caused by a doctor or other medical professional or institution. In short, the claim is that the doctor, other professional or institution failed to act as a reasonably well-qualified doctor, other professional or institution would normally act.

In order to prove a medical malpractice claim at trial, a plaintiff must call one or more expert witnesses that can testify to the standard of care that the defendant should have met and to testify that the defendant caused harm when he failed to meet the certain standard of care in treating the plaintiff.

There are a number of different types of medical malpractice cases. Some involve injuries caused at birth. Others involve a failure to diagnose a certain ailment or condition. Still, others are injuries or death caused by a doctor’s negligent performance of a surgical procedure.

All medical malpractice cases in Illinois require expert review before they can be filed with the court. The attorneys at Stotis & Baird have decades of experience in prosecuting medical malpractice claims and in working with medical experts to prove them. Contact us if you believe that a medical professional’s conduct has caused harm.e experience in helping those harmed by the police. Contact one of the trial lawyers at Stotis & Baird if you would like to talk about a potential claim.

Nursing Home Neglect

Nursing homes are supposed to take care of our loved ones when they are no longer able to do so for themselves. They take care of some of our community’s most vulnerable people.

The attorneys at Stotis & Baird have experience in a variety of nursing home matters.

Common nursing home cases involve injuries caused by neglect, such as falls, wandering or elopement, bed and pressure sores, medication errors and failure to protect from safety hazards.

The Illinois Nursing Home Care Act was created to help make sure that nursing homes provide the care that they are supposed to provide. When they don’t, the law provides that persons harmed by a nursing home are entitled to compensation and in certain claims, attorneys’ fees. Contact one of the lawyers at Stotis & Baird to discuss a potential nursing home neglect case.

Police Liability

The police have a duty to protect and serve our communities. When the police cause harm, by accidental or purposeful conduct, the law provides a remedy for the harm caused.

Illinois law provides that if a police officer causes harm by “willful and wanton” conduct, then the harm is compensable. Willful and wanton conduct encompasses intentional harms and harms that are caused by recklessness or conduct indifferent to the harm it may cause.

Federal law also provides a remedy when our rights under the United States Constitution have been violated, such as the right to be free from illegal search and seizure.

The lawyers at Stotis & Baird have experience in helping those harmed by the police. Contact one of the trial lawyers at Stotis & Baird if you would like to talk about a potential claim.

Product Liability

When companies design products and put them into the community, they have a duty to make sure that they are reasonably safe when operated in a foreseeable manner. The lawyers at Stotis & Baird have experience in helping those harmed by unsafe and defective products.

Normally, a products liability claim will involve an allegation that a product was designed and introduced into commerce when it was reasonably foreseeable that the product would cause harm.

For example, in a case Stotis & Baird lawyers recently handled, our client suffered electrical burns while working at an industrial baler. The electricity to the machine should have been cut off, but it wasn’t. The company that designed and sold the machine did not incorporate a commonly used safety mechanism to cut off electrical supply. The lawyers at Stotis & Baird successfully brought a claim against the parties involved in designing, manufacturing and distributing the unsafe machine.

Products liability claims will often require expert testimony from engineers and other people familiar with the standards and protocols with which certain products are built. Contact one of the product liability attorneys at Stotis & Baird to talk about a potential claim.

Premises Liability

Premises liability cases stem from harm caused by dangerous conditions that exist on the property. The injury and wrongful death trial lawyers at Stotis & Baird have years of experience in representing injured persons and the families of people that have died as the result of dangerous properties. Sometimes these cases are called “slip and fall” or “trip and fall” cases.

Our laws require that people that open their property to the public keep the property in reasonably safe condition so as not to cause harm to people on the property. Usually, premises liability cases require that the party controlling the property have notice of a dangerous condition on the property and knowledge that the condition will cause harm to persons on the property. In other cases, when an employee or another person on the property creates the dangerous condition, there is no requirement to show notice. Sometimes, the condition of the property is something inherent in its design, such as a dangerous stairway. In any of these cases, it is usually required to show that the plaintiff was hurt because they were hurt by a dangerous condition that they did not see or anticipate before they encountered it.

Michael S. Baird

Eric J. Parker