Aurora is the second-largest city in Illinois, and its stretch of the Reagan Memorial Tollway (I-88) is lined with warehouses and distribution centers that send tractor-trailers, box trucks and delivery vans onto the same roads Aurora families drive every day. When one of those trucks causes a crash, the person in the car absorbs the impact, often with injuries that change a career, a marriage and a family's finances. Collins Law Group, P.C. takes on those cases for people seriously injured by trucks and commercial vehicles across Aurora and Kane, DuPage, Will and Kendall Counties, and for families who lost someone in one of those crashes.
Our office sits just east of Aurora in Naperville, and our trial lawyers have recovered over $1.5 billion for clients. We build each truck case from the first week on the evidence a jury will see, because that preparation is what a trucking company's insurer weighs when it decides what a case is worth. Our Illinois truck accident practice page covers how we handle these cases statewide.
Six of the firm's truck and commercial vehicle results are below, and our case results page lists more.
Aurora was founded in Kane County, which still holds its downtown along the Fox River, and the city has grown east into DuPage County and south into Kendall and Will Counties. The Reagan Memorial Tollway crosses the city's north side, with interchanges serving Aurora at Orchard Road, Route 31, Farnsworth Avenue, Eola Road and Route 59. Developers have filled that corridor with industrial and distribution space, including logistics buildings at the Orchard Road interchange, the Tollway Corporate Center by the Route 31 interchange in North Aurora, and White Oak Business Park along Diehl Road near the Eola Road interchange. Trucks leaving those buildings merge onto a tollway full of commuters headed toward Naperville and Chicago, then exit onto local roads to make their deliveries.
A crash in Aurora can belong in any of four county courts, and the county line can run through the middle of a neighborhood. Where the crash happened usually decides where the case starts.
Venue under 735 ILCS 5/2-101 can also lie in the county where any defendant joined in good faith resides, and a carrier based in another state may try to remove the case to the federal court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, which covers all four counties. Because the county decides who sits on the jury, we choose the forum on purpose, and we prepare to try the case in whichever courthouse it lands.
Trucks that haul freight across state lines operate under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. Those rules cap a driver's hours behind the wheel and require most drivers to record them on an electronic logging device (49 CFR Part 395), require carriers to qualify their drivers and keep a file on each one (Part 391), require carriers to systematically inspect, repair and maintain their equipment (Part 396), and set drug and alcohol testing requirements (Part 382). A carrier that ignores those rules gives the jury a clear standard to hold it to, and our posts on driver fatigue and trucking company negligence show how those violations become evidence.
The same regulations set insurance floors. Under 49 CFR 387.9, a for-hire carrier moving nonhazardous property in interstate commerce with a vehicle of 10,001 pounds or more must hold at least $750,000 in liability coverage, and we look for every additional policy that covers the tractor, the trailer or another company in the chain.
A truck crash case often involves more than one company. Besides the driver and the motor carrier that employed or contracted with the driver, the defendants can include the company that owned or leased the trailer, the shipper or warehouse that loaded it, the shop responsible for its maintenance, and the freight broker that arranged the load. On May 14, 2026, the United States Supreme Court held 9-0 that federal law does not preempt state-law negligent-hiring claims against freight brokers. Our article on Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II explains what that decision means for an injured family, and our page on broker and shipper liability covers the rest.
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Much of the proof sits on the truck and in the carrier's files. Engine and event data, electronic logs, camera footage and dispatch messages can be overwritten in the ordinary course of business, so we put the carrier and its insurer on written notice to keep it right away and follow up with formal discovery. Our post on truck black box data explains what those systems record and why the first weeks matter.
See a doctor even if you feel all right, and keep every follow-up appointment. The crash report will come from the Aurora Police Department on city streets, from a county sheriff in unincorporated areas, or from the Illinois State Police, which patrol the Reagan Memorial Tollway. Photograph the scene, the vehicles and the lettering on the truck's door, which usually identifies the carrier and its USDOT number, and write down the names of any witnesses. Talk with a lawyer before you give the trucking company's insurer a recorded statement or sign anything it sends. For a fuller checklist, read what to do after a commercial truck accident.
In Illinois, an injury lawsuit generally has to be filed within two years after the crash (735 ILCS 5/13-202), and a wrongful death case within two years after the death (740 ILCS 180/2). Claims involving a city or county vehicle can have a shorter deadline. If the trucking company argues that you were partly to blame, Illinois still allows you to recover as long as your share of the fault is not more than 50 percent, with your damages reduced by that share (735 ILCS 5/2-1116).
At Collins Law Group, P.C., the lawyers who prepare an Aurora truck case are the same lawyers who will try it if the trucking company will not pay what the case is worth, and the firm's trial lawyers have taken cases to verdict across Illinois. You pay no fee unless we win, because we take these cases on contingency, and if you are laid up at home or in the hospital, we will come to you.
It depends on where the crash happened. Aurora spans Kane, DuPage, Will and Kendall Counties, and each county has its own courthouse, in Geneva, Wheaton, Joliet and Yorkville. A case can also be filed where a defendant resides, and an out-of-state carrier may move it to federal court in the Northern District of Illinois.
An injury lawsuit generally must be filed within two years after the crash (735 ILCS 5/13-202). When someone has died, the family generally has two years from the date of death (740 ILCS 180/2). A government vehicle can shorten those deadlines.
You can, as long as a jury finds you were not more than 50 percent responsible. Your damages are reduced by your percentage of fault (735 ILCS 5/2-1116).
Depending on the facts, the motor carrier, the owner of the trailer, the shipper or warehouse that loaded the cargo, the maintenance shop and the freight broker. On May 14, 2026, the United States Supreme Court held 9-0 that federal law does not preempt state-law negligent-hiring claims against freight brokers.
Truck cases follow different rules. Interstate trucks are governed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, must carry higher minimum insurance, and generate electronic data that has to be preserved quickly, and those differences shape how the case is investigated and valued.
Call (630) 527-1595 at any hour or request a free consultation online if a truck crash in Aurora or anywhere in the Fox Valley hurt you or someone in your family. The review costs nothing, and you owe no fee unless we win.
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