Lockport Personal Injury Attorney Asks:
Did You Get Injured?
Call The Lockport Personal Injury Attorney ANY TIME!
312-500-4500
"My Injury Guy" Scott DeSalvo
Trial-Trained Injury Attorney for Lockport & Will County
If you got hurt in Lockport, there's a good chance it didn't happen on some interstate in a ten-car pileup. It happened at a red light on State Street. Or turning onto 159th. Or backed up behind a freight train at the 9th Street crossing when somebody behind you was looking at their phone.
That's the reality here. In 2022, the Illinois Department of Transportation counted 405 crashes inside Lockport. A third of them were rear-end collisions. Another 90 happened while someone was turning. Ninety-five people were hurt, and five people were killed.
Here's what most people don't know: those everyday crashes are exactly the ones insurance companies lowball the hardest. They know you probably don't think of yourself as having a "big case." So they move fast, sound friendly, and offer you a number that covers the ER bill and not much else.
I'm not going to let that happen to you.
I'm Scott DeSalvo. I've been fighting insurance companies for injured people for almost 30 years, and I live right next door in Homer Glen. I know these roads because I drive them.
You pay nothing out of pocket. ZERO. No fee unless we win. And you can call me any time, day or night, at 312-500-4500.
When I was nine, my dad got hurt at work. He was a truck driver and a Teamster, and his injuries were permanent. His lawyer barely talked to him, let his case drag on for seventeen years, and then sued him for more fees at the end.
Seventeen years!
I watched what that did to my family. It's the reason I became an injury lawyer, and it's the reason I run my practice the opposite way. You get straight answers. You get your calls returned. And you get me, not a case manager who doesn't know your name.
Bottom Line: I treat your case the way I wish someone had treated my dad's.
Free. Not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created by this chat. Prefer to talk? Call (312) 500-4500, answered 24/7.
Lockport is an old canal town that the region's traffic has to squeeze through. That shapes the kinds of crashes that happen here, who gets blamed, and how your case gets decided.
Most of the traffic in town funnels onto a handful of roads: Route 171 (State Street) through downtown, Route 7 east toward Homer Glen and I-355, and Route 53 on the west side. The Route 53 and Route 7 intersection, where Lockport meets Crest Hill and Romeoville, just went through more than a year of IDOT reconstruction for new turn lanes and signals.
Commuters, delivery trucks, and school traffic all share the same few lanes at the same hours. That's why rear-end and turning crashes dominate the numbers here. They look minor on paper. The neck, back, and shoulder injuries they cause often aren't.
Lockport has 11 railroad crossings, nine on the CN line and two on BNSF, plus Metra's Heritage Corridor running through downtown. The city has publicly fought with the railroad over signal problems at the 9th Street crossing near the Des Plaines River bridge.
When a crossing backs traffic up onto State Street, chain-reaction rear-end crashes follow. And when a crash involves a railroad, a malfunctioning signal, or a blocked crossing, you're not just dealing with another driver's insurance anymore. You're dealing with a corporation that sends its own investigators to the scene fast.
A Lockport injury lawsuit is filed in the Circuit Court of Will County, part of Illinois' 12th Judicial Circuit, at the Will County Courthouse at 100 W. Jefferson Street in Joliet. Your jury would come from all over Will County. Insurance companies know which lawyers actually show up ready in that building, and they price your case accordingly.
Here's an Illinois rule that catches Lockport families off guard. Most injury claims have a two-year deadline. But if a city truck, a township road crew, the county highway department, or a park district vehicle was involved, the Illinois Tort Immunity Act generally cuts that to ONE year (745 ILCS 10/8-101). Miss it and the claim is usually gone for good.
Bottom Line: Who caused your crash decides your deadline. Don't guess. Call.
Rear-ended on State Street, T-boned turning onto 159th, or hit on I-355? I build the case the insurance company was hoping you'd never put together, including the "low-impact" crashes they love to dismiss. More on my Lockport car accident lawyer page.
Hurt on the job at a warehouse, plant, or construction site? I handle your workers' comp claim and look for a second case against anyone else who caused it, which is where the bigger recovery often is. More on my Lockport workers' compensation lawyer page.
Fell in a store, a parking lot, or an apartment complex? Illinois has tricky rules about ice and snow, and the property owner's insurer knows them. So do I. More on my Lockport slip and fall lawyer page.
A missed diagnosis, a surgical error, a medication mix-up. These cases need a doctor's report before filing in Illinois, and I know how to get one. More on my Lockport medical malpractice lawyer page.
Bedsores, falls, dehydration, unexplained injuries. When a facility breaks your family's trust, I go after the records they hope you'll never see. More on my Lockport nursing home abuse lawyer page.
When negligence takes someone you love, the Illinois Wrongful Death Act lets your family hold them accountable. I handle these cases personally, with the care they deserve. More on my Lockport wrongful death lawyer page.
I also handle truck crashes on I-355 and Route 53 (truck accident lawyer), and motorcycle, bicycle, and pedestrian cases, where the injured person gets blamed far more than they should (motorcycle accident lawyer, pedestrian accident lawyer).
Most people assume their only option is the other driver. Often there are more people on the hook, and finding them is how a case gets bigger.
Picture this. You're stopped on State Street, waiting while a freight train clears the crossing. Traffic is backed up a block. The driver behind you is checking a text and never sees the brake lights. Your car barely looks damaged. Your neck hasn't felt right since.
That's a real case. The insurance company will tell you it isn't.
Look, the adjuster calling you is good at their job. That job is paying you as little as possible. Here's how they usually go about it on cases like the ones I see from Lockport and the rest of Will County:
Here's what most lawyers won't tell you: plenty of firms treat these "ordinary" rear-end and turning cases as volume. They settle them quick and cheap because that's their business model. I don't run a mill. Every case gets built like it might go to trial, because that's what gets insurance companies to pay what it's actually worth.
Bottom Line: The adjuster is not on your side. Don't talk to them before you talk to me.
Most cases settle. That's the goal. You want a fair settlement, fast, with zero hassle. Not a trial.
So why does trial training matter? Leverage.
Insurance companies track which lawyers actually try cases and which ones fold. They settle faster and for more when they know your lawyer is genuinely prepared to stand in front of a Will County jury. I'm a graduate of Gerry Spence's Trial Lawyers College and the exclusive Keenan Trial Institute. I've invested more than $100,000 in advanced trial training, the kind that not one in 100,000 lawyers has done. I've tried more than 30 jury trials and handled more than 100 arbitrations.
That training doesn't make me want to go to trial. It makes the other side not want to.
You pay nothing out of pocket, and I advance every cost of the case. My fee comes only out of what I recover for you, and the exact percentages are in the FAQ below. If we don't win, you owe me nothing. That's the deal.
The first few days matter more than people think. If you can, do these things:
A settlement isn't just about the ER bill. Under Illinois law, you can be compensated for the whole way an injury changes your life:
Illinois doesn't cap pain and suffering. The Illinois Supreme Court threw out the state's malpractice damage caps in Lebron v. Gottlieb Memorial Hospital (2010). And if you were partly at fault, you can still recover as long as your share was 50% or less (more on that in the FAQ).
Bottom Line: The adjuster's first number almost never accounts for all of this.
Find Out What YOUR Case Might Be Worth...for free.
It starts with a free conversation. You tell me what happened, I answer your questions, and I tell you honestly whether you have a case. Zero pressure.
If you hire me, I get to work right away: the police report, video before it's overwritten, witness statements, and every insurance policy that might apply. You focus on getting better. If you don't have health insurance, I can connect you with doctors who will treat you now and get paid from the settlement later.
Once your treatment is done, I put together a full demand and negotiate. Most cases settle at this stage. If the insurance company won't be fair, I file in the Circuit Court of Will County and keep pushing. When the case resolves, my fee and costs come out of the recovery and the rest goes to you.
Hurt in Lockport? Call me now, day or night: 312-500-4500.
Evidence fades fast, and the insurance company has already started working on your claim. Call me for a free consultation, 24/7/365. No money out of pocket. No fee unless we win.
I represent injured people in Lockport and nearby Homer Glen, Crest Hill, Romeoville, New Lenox, and Lemont, and throughout Will County.
Nearest office: The Law Office of Scott D. DeSalvo, LLC, 116 N Chicago St, Suite 301 - Kendall, Joliet, IL 60432, about 15 minutes from Lockport. Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–3 p.m., and by appointment.
Call me now: 312-500-4500
Nothing up front. I work on contingency, which means you pay no money out of pocket and I only get paid if I recover money for you. My fee is 33⅓% for most injury cases, 40% if we file a lawsuit, 33⅓% for medical malpractice, and 20% for workers' compensation, which is set by Illinois law. I also advance every case cost, from medical records to expert witnesses. If we don't win, you don't owe me a fee, and you don't pay those costs back. The consultation is free too, and you can call any time, day or night, at 312-500-4500.
Most Lockport injury cases are filed in the Circuit Court of Will County, which is part of Illinois' 12th Judicial Circuit. The courthouse is at 100 W. Jefferson Street in downtown Joliet, about a 15-minute drive from Lockport. There are exceptions. If the at-fault party is based in another county, or the case involves a federal claim, it may be filed somewhere else. But for a typical Lockport crash or fall, Will County is where your case would be heard and where your jury would come from. Keep in mind that most cases settle without a lawsuit ever being filed.
You might. Insurance companies love to argue that a small dent means a small injury, but low-speed rear-end crashes cause real neck, back, and shoulder injuries all the time, and symptoms often get worse over the following days. What matters is your injury, your medical treatment, and how it affects your life, not your bumper. The key is getting checked out right away and following through with treatment so there's a clear record. Don't let an adjuster talk you out of a claim. Call me and I'll tell you honestly whether it's worth pursuing.
In Illinois, you generally have two years from the date of the injury to file a personal injury lawsuit (735 ILCS 5/13-202). But that deadline drops to one year for most claims against local governments and their employees, like a city truck, a township vehicle, or a park district (745 ILCS 10/8-101). Workers' compensation claims have their own timelines, and you should report a work injury to your employer within 45 days. Some situations, like injuries to children, follow different rules. Because the deadline depends on who caused your injury, the safest move is to call a lawyer as soon as you can.
Usually you can't sue your own employer, because workers' compensation is the remedy for that. But if someone else caused or contributed to your injury, you may have a separate personal injury case against them. That includes a delivery driver who hit you on the road, a subcontractor on a construction site, a manufacturer of defective equipment, or a property owner who left a hazard. These third-party cases matter because they can recover things workers' comp never pays, like pain and suffering. I handle both the comp claim and the third-party case together.
You can still recover. Illinois follows modified comparative fault (735 ILCS 5/2-1116). If you were 50% or less at fault, you can recover damages, reduced by your percentage of fault. If you were found 20% at fault on a $100,000 case, for example, you'd recover $80,000. If you were more than 50% at fault, you recover nothing. Insurance companies know this rule and will try hard to push more of the blame onto you, so don't admit fault at the scene or in a recorded statement. Let me look at the facts first.
No. My nearest office is in downtown Joliet at 116 N. Chicago St., about 15 minutes from Lockport, and my main office is in Oak Brook. But I meet clients wherever it's easiest for them: at your home in Lockport, in the hospital, at a coffee shop, or by phone or video call. Most of the work on your case happens without you needing to come anywhere. When I need you for something like a deposition, I'll set it up well ahead of time and walk you through exactly what to expect. You're hurt. My job is to make this easier on you, not harder.
Scott DeSalvo founded DeSalvo Law to help injured people throughout Chicago and surrounding suburbs. Licensed to practice law in Illinois since 1998, IARDC #6244452, Scott has represented over 3,000 clients in personal injury, workers compensation, and accident cases.
No Fee Unless You Win | Free Consultation | 24/7 Availability Call or Text: (312) 500-4500
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