Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

In 2007 Medtronic recalled their heart device, the Sprint Fidelis Cardiac Leads, which has caused the deaths of at least 13 people. Essentially the product, the Sprint Fidelis cardiac leads, connects the patient's heart to a defibrillator. Along with deaths, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) has received about 2,200 reports of serious injuries related to the leads.

The Sprint Fidelis lead is at the center of Riegel v. Medtronic, Inc., a medical device liability lawsuit that is receiving a lot of attention from the legal community because of the involvement of preemption issues.

Yet despite the FDA recall and the highly publicized Riegel lawsuit, around 150,000 people still have the leads from this device in their body and it is still in widespread use amongst Illinois residents. Typically doctors decide to leave a fractured heart device lead in place when implanting a new one. Doctors are faced with a difficult choice when confronted with the large number of people who rely on this product because of the high degree of injury associated with it.

Last week the FDA issued an advisory to physicians regarding patients that would benefit from having the failed leads extracted, which urged the physicians to ensure that the procedure is performed by a physician skilled in removing these type of failed leads.

Continue reading " Illinois Residents May Still Be Linked to Defective Heart Device of Medtronic's Sprint Fidelis Cardiac Leads " »

Preeclampsia is a condition that results in high blood pressure and leaky blood vessels during pregnancy. It has been estimated that 5% of pregnant women in Illinois will be affected by preeclampsia and that about 300,000 woman per year are affected in the United States. A growing body of evidence suggests that women who develop preeclampsia double their risk of having a heart attack or stroke.

In most cases the symptoms of preeclampsia disappear soon after delivery, so most women never have to think about it again. But in light of recent research findings women with a history of preeclampsia might need to think about it after all.

One study found that these women had a higher propensity for forming blood clots. Research from 2007 found more hardening of the arteries of women who experienced abnormal high blood pressure in pregnancy. Other studies have found that women with preeclampsia had more heart attacks, strokes and blood clots later in life when compared to other women who did not have preeclampsia.

Continue reading " Preeclampsia Among Pregnant Women Can Increase Risk of Heart Attack, Strokes, and Blood Clots " »

The Moot Court Team of the John Marshall Law School of Chicago headed by Mary Nagel, their faculty sponsor, argued their moot court competition at Chicago's Kreisman Law Offices before Civil Justice Attorney Robert Kreisman.

Moot Court is an activity where law students participate in simulated appellate court proceedings. However, moot court is actually more challenging than real appellate proceedings because students have to argue both sides of the critical issues in the case. The John Marshall Law School law students will be arguing both the appellant's position and the appellee's position in the national competition to be held in Cincinnati.

The issues of the fictional case involved pharmaceutical preemption by federal law, similar to those at issue in Riegel v. Medtronic, Inc and Wyeth v. Levine. The federal preemption issue revolves around whether or not warning language as to medical devices or pharmaceuticals approved by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) are open to medical device liability lawsuits or product liability lawsuits under state law if those medical devices or drugs had been approved by the FDA. The law students also argued issues of punitive damages and constitutional law. The underlying case was on appeal to the supreme court from appellate level after a jury verdict of $900,000 was entered against the defendant pharmaceutical company. The appellate court denied a reversal of the compensatory damages, but remittur was allowed on the punitive portion of the verdict.

Continue reading " Chicago's John Marshall Law School Moot Court Team Practices at Kreisman Law Offices " »

My brother is a physician and psychiatrist who frequently lectures on the benefits of certain drugs for prescription by family practice physicians, or other practicing physicians. At a recent gathering he reported that he played on the absurdity of drug companies distributing products carrying their name and logo by starting his speech by raving about his stay at the local chain hotel near Chicago's O'Hare airport because they gave him a pen and notepad.

While my brother dismisses drug company's efforts to win doctors over with pens and notepads, there is a lot of skepticism raised by watch groups about the impropriety of doctors promoting pharmaceuticals especially given the rise of pharmaceutical lawsuits. Recently, drug companies have been prevented from distributing pens, cups, and notepads with its insignia names or drug products. And while my brother and others in the medical field feel these types of freebies are harmless, there are other ways that pharmaceutical companies exert their influence that are much more serious.

The American Medical Students Association (AMSA) is now objecting to the influence of drug companies in medical schools’ educational curriculum. The case of a professor at the Harvard Medical School illustrates this point. In his class the professor promoted the benefits of a cholesterol drug and seemed to belittle a student asking about its side effects. It turns out that this particular lecturer, also a physician, was not only a full time member of the Harvard Medical School faculty, but a paid consultant to ten drug companies, including five makers of cholesterol treatments.

Continue reading " Do Drug Companies Really Influence Doctor’s Decisions Regarding Dispensing Drugs to Illinois’ Residents? " »

In a recent Chicago product defect case, the pace of settlement negotiations were perhaps hastened because in November 2008 the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that defendants in negligence suits who settle prior to trial, should not be named on jury verdict forms for the purpose of apportioning liability (Ready v. United/Goedecke Services, Inc., et al., WL 5046833).

The recent Illinois product liability case involved involving a punch press operator and settled for over $5 million. Both of the worker's arms were amputated after a punch press malfunctioned and part of the machine crushed both arms.

Seven years ago a U.S. District Court judge approved a $1.1 million settlement in this same Illinois product defect case, which released one of the manufacturers of the machine that caused the injury. However, the case wasn't over as there two remaining manufacturer parties still involved in the Illinois product liability case.

Continue reading " Illinois Product Liability Case Involving Product Defect Hastened by Illinois Supreme Court Decision " »

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago affirmed a Southern District of Illinois judge's ruling by the district judge in the regarding Wyeth, Inc.'s antidepressant Effexor . Giles v. Wyeth, Inc., No. 07-3149.

In Giles, the plaintiff decedent, Jeff Giles, was a coal miner and who became depressed after the coalmine where he worked closed and he lost his job. He was diagnosed with major depressant disorder, for which his physician prescribed the antidepressant Effexor. He committed suicide 2 days after taking three Effexor pills. His wife and son brought an Illinois wrongful death lawsuit against Wyeth.

Effexor carries various warnings, one of which is a suicide precaution. In June 2003, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it was reviewing reports of a possible relationship between Paxil, an antidepressant not manufactured by Wyeth, and an increase risk of suicide and suicide attempts in children and adolescents. In 2003, Wyeth changed Effexor’s labeling to reflect that its pediatric clinical trial showed an increased risk of suicidal ideation in children using the drug.

Continue reading " Chicago U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Upholds Evidence of Suicide-Related Warnings on Antidepressant Package " »

Parents will take much more precautions after they read about the $2.5 million settlement arising from an Illinois car crash involving two minors who were drinking in a Lake County, Illinois family’s home. One of the minors involved in the car accident is now paralyzed from the chest down. Baldwin v. Klairmont et al., No. 07 L 105.

In November 2006 when the minors were drinking beer in the Illinois family's home, the wife was present and apparently allowed the underage drinking. The lawsuit alleged that the parents had a duty to supervise the activities in their own home. The family’s younger daughter had invited the two minor boys to their home where they proceeded to drink. The lawsuit asserted a negligence claim alleging that the family adults had several opportunities to stop the teens from drinking, but did not.

The teens left in a car after the husband came home and discovered that they were drinking. The vehicle that one of the minor boys was driving crashed into a utility box injuring him and his passenger. The lawsuit was brought under the 2004 Illinois Drug or Alcohol Impaired Minor Responsibility Act, which allows for civil penalties against adults who serve alcohol to minors and then injure someone else.

Continue reading " Illinois Car Crash Leads to $2.5 Million Settlement for Personal Injuries Suffered by Minors " »

On February 26, 2009, CHANGE Illinois, Coalition for Honest New Government Ethics, met for a news conference in downtown Chicago wherein it laid out its program to change Illinois politics. CHANGE Illinois’ statements of principles included a pledge to the citizens of Illinois for fair, open and honest government and for the efficient conduct of state business.

CHANGE Illinois is represented by leaders of civic, business, professional and philanthropic organizations and other leaders of Chicago and Illinois communities.

The purpose of CHANGE Illinois is to overhaul Illinois’ campaign finance systems, one of the most permissive and least regulated in the United States. The coalition urges that the General Assembly of Illinois adopts reasonable limits on individual and political action committee contributions to candidates and parties. CHANGE Illinois recommended implementing limits on fund transfers among political committees and instituting an aggregate limit on the amount of campaign money an individual donor can give to a political committee during an election cycle. CHANGE Illinois recommends that Illinois either prohibit the use of corporate and union treasury funds for political contributions or impose strict limits on direct contributions from corporate and union treasuries. Campaign finance limits are currently in place at the federal level and in most other states.

Continue reading " CHANGE Illinois Calls News Conference " »

In its recent ruling the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that premarket approval from the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) does not preempt pharmaceutical companies from being held liable when their drug fails to meet state standards. In Wyeth v. Levine the court held that drug manufacturers can be sued in state courts even when they follow the rules and standards set out by the FDA.

Wyeth v. Levine involves a female, Vermont musician who lost part of her right arm after Wyeth's drug Phenergan was injected into one of her arteries. The drug's FDA-approved warning label warned against administering the drug this way, but did not prohibit it.

Wyeth argued that they were not required to change their labels to comply with Vermont regulations and that meeting the federal standards was enough. Levine argued that she was able to bring a liability claim under Vermont law even though Wyeth complied with federal standards.

The key issue of the case was whether or not Levine's claim was preempted since Wyeth met the federal standards. The Supreme Court ruled that the case was not preempted and that Levine is able to bring a claim under Vermont law.

Continue reading " Wyeth v. Levine: Supreme Court Overturns Pharmaceutical Litigation Preemption Claim " »

A February 2008 decision by the Supreme Court stands as a barrier to patients who desire to sue for medical device liability. The Supreme Court ruling in Riegel v. Medtronic, Inc. holds that patients or their surviving heirs would be barred from suing makers of complex medical devices like the Medtronic's heart device product, if the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved its sale.

Since that ruling, judges nationwide have applied the Supreme Court decision to a wide range of cases where manufacturers was being sued. The most recent dismissal was just last week by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

But now members of Congress want to change the law. Lawmakers and patient advocate groups say that that February 2008 Supreme Court decision left patients legally powerless against the FDA's oversight of products.

Continue reading " Medical Device Malpractice Changes: Congress Makes Efforts to Restore a Patients Right to Sue In Reaction to Riegel v. Medtronics, Inc. " »

Car and truck manufacturers have largely ignored the product defects causing insufficient occupant protection and rollover crashes until recently, relying instead on inadequate minimum government standards. However, this is changing in light of increased pressure from a consumer-friendly government coupled with years of having to compensate victims of rollover deaths and personal injuries. These manufacturers are now taking steps to protect the public.

In 2005, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) proposed an upgrade to the 1973 version of the federal roof crush standard for automobile manufacturers. At that time, the standard was so weak that most occupants in a rollover would be severely injured or killed. That standard merely requires a vehicle roof resist a static force of 1.5 times the empty weight of the vehicle or 5,000 lbs., whichever is less. This kind of standard does not reflect the dynamic forces that a vehicle typically experiences in an actual rollover. In virtually every rollover, the roof makes contact with the ground on one side or then the other.

Continue reading " Car, SUV And Truck Rollover Accidents No Longer Being Ignored By Manufacturers " »

On Sunday, March 1, 2009, citizens of Evanston, a north Chicago suburb, gathered at the Levy Center to discuss and focus on issues of energy, education and healthcare. Civil justice attorney Robert Kreisman facilitated as a group leader on healthcare.

The impetus behind the meeting was to promote ideas from the citizenry of this north Cook County area on local, state and national movements to improve the status of healthcare eligibility and coverage. The attendees were divided into small discussion groups that focused on different topics.

Also discussed was the pressing need to abandon reliance on foreign oil and to develop green energy projects. More than 150 enthusiastic and motivated participants were on hand for this first of several events centered on these subjects.

The Democratic Party of Evanston sponsored the event.

Continue reading " Chicago Civil Justice Attorney Robert Kreisman Facilitates At Mobilization For Change " »