June 9, 2011, by Ronald V. Miller, Jr. The average verdict in a personal injury case in Minnesota is $271,577. The national average is $885,600. Does this mean Minnesota juries are not sympathetic to personal injury victims? I think it might, actually. In fact, I think the statistics might actually underestimate how stingy Minnesota juries […]
4:35 p.m. CDT, June 10, 2011 Reuters A federal jury in Illinois has awarded $95 million to a woman who said she was the victim of a sexual harassment campaign that culminated when her boss allegedly threw her down on a couch and masturbated on her chest. After nearly three days of deliberations, jurors in […]
By: Rumen Iliev When you are an owner of a small business, you have many responsibilities and even if you are operating your business carefully and you follow all of the small details, sometimes a client may consider you didn’t do your job well and you’ll end up with a lawsuit. What you need to […]
Accidents happen all the time. Sometimes nobody is to blame. Sometimes you might even be the architect of your own misfortune. But what if the actions of another person are the cause of your injury? If you have been the victim of another persons negligence or carelessness, the law entitles you to compensation for your […]
An innocent “tweet” could cost you big money. Social Media is continuing to explode in usage and is a huge part of our collective hyper-connected daily lives. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace and other forms of social media can, however, seriously harm your personal injury or medical malpractice case. Insurance companies, adjusters, investigators, and defense attorneys […]
By now, you may have heard about the recent World Health Organization (WHO) study potentially linking cancer to cell phone use; although, the organization says that no adverse health effects have been established. This hot topic has been around since shoe-size cell phones hit the market in the late 70s. Since then, roughly thirty studies […]
It is not yet clear whether the $300 million lawsuit filed by a residents in the Raspberry Falls subdivision north of Leesburg will move forward to trial. In a hearing last week Ted Yoakam, the attorney representing the residents, made an oral motion to non-suit the lawsuit, which, if granted, would stop all the proceedings […]
The family of Selah Schulze has filed suit in Grayson County, Texas, alleging Ms. Schulze sustained injuries when she was caught on fire during a routine operation. Defendants include Texoma Medical Center, surgeon Dr. Robert Wilcott, and anesthesiologist Dr. Mark Villareal. Kay L. Van Wey of Van Wey Law, PLLC, is representing the family of […]
PROVIDENCE, R.I.—A jury has sided with the state of Rhode Island in a $40 million personal injury lawsuit brought a paralyzed man. A spokeswoman for Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin says a Providence County Superior Court jury on Monday ruled the state does not have to pay damages to Brett A. Roy and his family. […]
June 6 (Bloomberg) — Former International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn will formally deny charges that he sexually assaulted and tried to rape a Manhattan hotel maid at a hearing today, his lawyer said. Strauss-Kahn, 62, will enter a plea of not guilty in New York State Supreme Court, attorney Benjamin Brafman said June […]
No one calls a personal injury attorney until they need one. That means that it’s likely that when you first think about if you or a loved one needs a lawyer that you’ll probably be distraught and perhaps in some pain. You won’t necessarily be in the best frame of mind for making such a […]
By Lisa Donovan Cook County Reporter May 29, 2011 A 61-year-old man who lost his leg in a horrific crash while working at a city of Chicago construction site was awarded nearly $7 million by a Cook County jury. Don Martinelli, an Ameritech employee, was marking underground phone cable locations near a road construction zone […]
Pella case includes consumers who have not suffered any financial damages but may in the future Ameet Sachdev Chicago Law May 10, 2011 Class-action lawsuits face stiff head winds in courts and the court of public opinion. But that doesn’t stop class-action lawyers and judges from finding creative ways to cut through the currents, as […]
CHICAGO — A Cook County husband and wife are suing the Russell Military Museum after the woman allegedly was struck by the spinning blades of a model helicopter during a live demonstration. On July 11, 2009, Agnieszka Wlodek was watching a live demonstration of “a flying, steel bodied, model military helicopter” at the museum, 43363 […]
CHICAGO (STMW) – A man who tied sheets together and used them to try and lower himself out a window of a nursing home accidentally fell and died Wednesday morning in the Logan Square neighborhood on the Northwest Side. Ramon Crisantos, 57, who lived at the Woodbridge Nursing Pavilion at 2242 N. Kedzie Blvd., woke […]
In a document filled with stunning allegations, Tommy R. Bennett has filed a complaint with the City of Chicago Commission on Human Relations against the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr., and the minister’s Chicago-based organization, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, claiming, among other things, harassment and termination on the basis of Bennett’s sexual orientation. Rev. Jackson has […]
Posted: Tuesday, April 12, Local personal injury lawyers scoffed last December when McLean County was named as a “jurisdiction to watch” in the American Tort Reform Association’s annual report on the country’s “judicial hellholes.” Three other counties in Illinois – Cook, Madison and St. Clair – have national reputations as lawsuit magnets and have continually […]
By Bill Bird wbird@stmedianetwork.com Apr 5, 2011 OTTAWA — A near-$24 million wrongful death and personal injury award has been upheld, almost seven years to the day after a 10-vehicle traffic crash on Interstate 55 that killed two men from Naperville and Seneca and permanently injured a man from Aurora. A 3rd District Illinois Appellate […]
Hospital patient safety under a spotlight Medicare releases first report on hospital-acquired conditions By Judith Graham, Tribune reporter 7:56 p.m. CDT, April 10, 2011 Over strong objections from the hospital industry, the government has published data about things that can go wrong in hospitals — falls, objects left behind during surgeries, bloodstream or urinary infections […]
Associated Press The parents of a baby who died after getting an incorrect dosage of nutrients in an IV are suing the suburban Chicago hospital where the infant was born. Lawyers for Fritzie and Cameron Burkett say the Chicago couple’s six-week-old son, Genesis, died after mistakenly receiving about 60 times the prescribed dose of sodium […]
By Nate Anderson Multiple federal judges in Chicago have absolutely ripped the tactics of the state’s only attorney filing mass P2P file-sharing lawsuits in recent weeks. Now, two new rulings directly contradict a ruling from Judge Beryl Howell, an RIAA lobbyist-turned-federal-judge in Washington, DC, who said that mass subpoenas against alleged file-swappers were proper. Last […]
More deaths identified at North Side nursing facility for disabled kids Equip for Equality investigation details pattern of neglect at Alden Village North, now slated for shutdown by state By Sam Roe, Tribune reporter A federally backed watchdog group says it has identified at least five more deaths involving poor care at a troubled Chicago […]
More hospitals using quick remediation strategies following medical errors By Maureen McKinney When preventable medical errors occur, most hospitals rely—many times begrudgingly—on the usual deny-and-defend approach. They shut down nearly all communication, turn the matter over to attorneys and often relegate patients and their families to legal battles that can drag on for years. It’s […]
Ameet Sachdev Chicago Law The federal court of appeals in Chicago reprimanded a lawyer for unprofessional behavior during a lawsuit and fined him $5,000. In an opinion released Tuesday, the court cited Michael Greco, 47, who has a private practice in Chicago, for repeatedly missing filing deadlines and ignoring phone calls from court officials. Judge […]
The courts are a way to make bad behavior — injurious, even murderous, acts — cost enough to make a corporation stop. Without lawsuits we wouldn’t know that tobacco companies knew that cigarettes caused cancer even while they advertised them as healthy; that Firestone tires, combined with Ford SUVs, made them roll over; that the […]
Advocacy group says untracked collisions are most common Jon Hilkevitch Traffic laws were recently strengthened in Illinois to create safety buffers for bicyclists who share streets with drivers, but state transportation officials are rejecting pleas from cycling advocates to keep records on what they consider the most common type of vehicle-bike accident. It involves, surprisingly, […]
Family sues restaurant over seventh-grader’s fatal food allergy Chinese food at school’s end-of-year party had peanuts or peanut oil, lab says March 18, 2011|By Joel Hood, TRIBUNE REPORTER The family of a Chicago Public Schools seventh-grader who died last year after an allergic reaction to peanuts at a school party has filed a wrongful-death suit […]
CHICAGO — The Cook County medical examiner’s office said Friday the death of James Tyree, chairman of the company that owns the Lake County News-Sun, was an accident. Tyree, 53, died Wednesday after suffering for months from stomach cancer. But the medical examiner’s office said an autopsy Friday revealed that he died from an air […]
March 16, 2011|By David Jackson and Gary Marx, Tribune reporters Chris Walker, Chicago Tribune Federal authorities are moving this week to terminate Medicaid funding to the troubled Wincrest Nursing Center on the city’s North Side after state and federal inspections documented residents engaged in bloody fights and drug abuse that spilled from the facility out […]
Kensley Hawkins, 60, has saved $11,000 by working in a Joliet prison since the 1980s, making about $75 a month. The state says he owes them for the cost of his stay. Ameet Sachdev Chicago Law Kensley Hawkins is a deadbeat, according to the state of Illinois. He owes $455,203.14 to cover the costs of […]