Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

Yesterday the Union League Club of Chicago honored Judge Abner Mikva with its Distinguished Public Service Award. Judge Mikva is currently the senior director of the University of Chicago Law School's Mandel Legal Aid Clinic. Chicago personal injury attorney Robert Kreisman was in attendance as he had served as a member of the Union League Club committee which was responsible for nominating Judge Mikva for this prestigious award.

The Union League Club's Distinguished Service Award was created in 1955 and is given to individuals who have made a substantial contribution to either civic or public service. The award is not given annually as it takes a truly outstanding individual to warrant this honor. Past Distinguished Public Service Awards have been given to retired Illinois Supreme Court Justice Mary Ann McMorrow, George N. Leighton, a former U.S. District Court judge for the Northern District of Illinois; and the late Judge Abraham Lincoln Marovitz, who served on the federal bench in Chicago.

Judge Mikva received his law degree from the University of Chicago Law School and was admitted to the Illinois Bar in 1959. Following his Illinois bar admission, Judge Mikva began his legal career by clerking for the U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sherman Minton.

In the course of his career Judge Mikva has served on all branches of the federal government, working to promote civil rights and reduce segregation and prejudice in education, employment, and housing. He served on the legislative branch from the 1960's through the 1970's as a member of the House of Representatives for Chicago’s 10th District. He then served on the executive branch when he became legal counsel to former President Bill Clinton. In addition, he served 15 years on the judicial branch as a federal appellate court judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which included a stint as chief judge.

Continue reading " Union League Club of Chicago’s Distinguished Public Service Award Given to Abner J. Mikva " »

The U.S. Department of Justice completed a deal with pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca where the drug company agreed to pay $520 million to settle a federal investigation into questionable marketing practices for its anti-psychotic drug, Seroquel.

The government had accused AstraZeneca of violating anti-kickback laws through its practice of paying doctors to refer Seroquel to patients while it also brought in additional money from government health care programs like Medicare and Medicaid. The pharmaceutical company was also accused of promoting favorable research on Seroquel's effects which misled doctors and patients alike, while at the same time failing to disclose studies that showed Seroquel increased the risk of diabetes.

Currently there are over 25,000 pharmaceutical litigation claims against AstraZeneca alleging that Seroquel caused increased incidences of diabetes and weight gain. AstraZeneca's aggressive marketing and promoting of Seroquel helped increase the prescription of the anti-psychotic drug among children and the elderly, oftentimes for indications or uses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Continue reading " AstraZeneca Settles Federal Investigation on Illegal Drug Marketing " »

The American Association of Justice (AAJ) is a national trial bar for plaintiff attorneys that fights to protect the rights of people who have been injured as the result of negligence or misconduct. Its members handle a wide range of cases, including personal injury, medical malpractice, and product liability. As part of its mission, the AAJ hosts national conferences where plaintiff lawyers can meet to discuss new trends in their legal practice areas and learn new skills to apply to their practice.

This past weekend, the AAJ Mega College held such a program in Scottsdale, AZ, and selected Chicago lawyer Robert Kreisman to be a faculty member and speaker at its event. Bob Kreisman's presentation focused on how to strategically plan trial strategies used in opening statement. His presentation referenced the popular trial lawyer tools Rules of the Road: A Plaintiff Lawyer's Guide to Proving Liability, Overcoming Jury Bias, Reptile: The 2009 Manual of the Plaintiff's Revolution, and David Ball on Damages: A Plaintiff's Attorney's Guide to Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Cases. The presentation was well-received and highlighted some useful strategies for crafting a convincing case at trial.

And while the AAJ Mega College had informative seminars that resembled other AAJ conventions, it was in fact the first of its kind. Trial lawyers from across the U.S. were in attendance and ready to sharpen their trial skills, many in preparation for upcoming trials.

Continue reading " American Association of Justice’s Mega College: Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer Robert Kreisman Presents " »

In Illinois personal injury lawsuits, the job of the court is to oversee the case and make sure it moves efficiently through the court system. In most cases, this involves setting deadlines for discovery, establishing a firm trial date, and ruling on motions. However, in some cases the court will order one or both of the parties to perform a specific action.

In a recent Illinois personal injury lawsuit, the court ordered the plaintiff's family to accept the defendant CTA's offer to settle for $11 million. The defendant had previously offered the plaintiff's family $10 million, which they had refused.

This Illinois personal injury case involved a 28 year-old factory worker who was a passenger in a car when it was struck by a Chicago bus. At the time of the accident the plaintiff had a one year-old son with his second child being born just one day after the Chicago bus accident. The severity of the injuries the Illinois resident sustained during the bus accident have left him with the mental capacity of a child.

The plaintiff required three months of hospitalization due to a traumatic brain injury which has left him permanently disabled. Not only is he no longer to work and provide for his young family, but he requires constant care and supervision at home.

Continue reading " Chicago Bus Accident Settlement Ordered By Cook County Court Despite Plaintiff's Willingness To Accept Settlement " »

Complications during childbirth may lead to severe injuries if they are untreated or treated incorrectly. In a Chicago birth injury case, the family of a six year-old quadriplegic boy filed a lawsuit against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act, or FTCA, claiming that medical malpractice during childbirth was the reason the child contracted a bacterial infection that led to his brain damage.

Under FTCA, the United States is liable for injuries resulting from a federal employee’s negligence. The doctors who failed to correctly treat the infection were employees of the federally funded clinic, Erie Family Health Center and working at Northwestern Memorial Hospital when the child was born in May 2003.

The Illinois birth injury lawsuit falls under the FTCA even though Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where the child was treated, is a private company and not federally funded. This reason for this is because the doctors who allegedly committed the medical malpractice, and therefore were the ones the lawsuit was against, were federal employees at the time. So as long as a physician is employed by the federal government in any capacity, then your Illinois medical malpractice claim would be subject to FTCA rules, even if you are being treated at a non-federally funded hospital.

Continue reading " Chicago Birth Defects Result of Medical Malpractice: Claim Filed Under Federal Tort Claims Act " »

On Thursday, April 22, 2010, the Public Affairs Committee of The Union League Club of Chicago will be hosting a screening of The Response, a 30-minute film documenting the U.S. military tribunals in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Response takes the audience inside the military tribunals to provide an insider's view of the courtroom drama surrounding the Guantanamo Bay hearings.

The screening will be followed by a panel discussion. The film's viewpoint will be represented by Sig Libowitz, the film's writer and producer, and Peter Riegert, an actor in The Response and other films including Star, Animal House, Local Hero, and The Sopranos. Gary Isaac, a Chicago attorney with Mayer Brown who has personally been involved in Guantanamo litigation, will speak to some of the legal aspects of the military tribunals. Major General (Retired) Charles E. Tucker (USAF), the Executive Director of the International Human Rights Law Institute, will also provide his unique insight into the Guantanamo Bay tribunals.

Registration for the event starts at 4:00 p.m., with the screening beginning promptly at 4:30 p.m., followed by the panel discussion at 5:00 p.m. Tickets can be reserved by phone at (312) 435-5946. Payment may be made at the door by cash or check ($15) payable to the Union League Club of Chicago (65 West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois). All cancellations are due by noon on Wednesday, April 21, 2010. Please be advised that the dress code for The Response screening is business casual.

Continue reading " Union League Club of Chicago Hosts "The Response Screening": A Look at The Guantanamo Bay Military Tribunals " »

When treating cancer the goal is always to obtain as early a diagnosis as possible so as to give the cancer patient the best possible odds. However, sometimes an early diagnosis is not possible. Sometimes there are no warning signs that something is wrong until the cancerous tumors have reached a later stage in development. But sometimes the warning signs are missed and the cancer is misdiagnosed as something else, in which case there would be an Illinois medical malpractice claim for failure to diagnose cancer.

A recent settlement of an Illinois woman illustrates this point. The Cook County resident filed an Illinois medical malpractice lawsuit against her orthopedic surgeon for a failure to diagnose cancer in her elbow. The delay in diagnosis required an amputation of her right arm in order to try and halt the cancer from spreading. However, this strategy did not work and the cancer metastasized to other areas of her body within the following year.

In order for there to be an Illinois medical malpractice case regarding a delayed diagnosis of cancer there needs to be evidence in the cancer patient's medical records that medical professionals missed clear signs of the patient's cancer. For this particular woman that sign came in the form of an MRI of her right elbow.

Continue reading " Late Diagnosis of Cancer in Illinois Woman's Elbow Led to Arm Amputation " »

In Illinois if you are injured on the job, or develop future injuries as a result of your employment, then you are able to bring an Illinois workers' compensation claim, which would be handled by the Illinois Workers Compensation Commission (IWCC). However, if your injuries were the result of your career as a pro-football player, then you would not be able to bring a workers' compensation claim under the IWCC. As a pro-football player your only option to recover medical payments under a workers' compensation system is under the Industrial Commission of California.

These cases are brought in the Industrial Commission in California because that’s the only jurisdiction that allows long-retired professional athletes to pursue workers’ compensation for injuries they suffered and continue to suffer from their playing days. Illinois has no similar provision for recovery in the Illinois Industrial Commission.

Many of these retired National Football League (NFL) players are represented by Ron Mix and Mel Owens, two former NFL players turned lawyers. Mix and Owens represent over 1,000 retired NFL players in the workers’ compensation system in California. Like many Illinois workers' compensation cases, decisions have to be made by the injured party as to whether to accept a lump sum settlement that would end any future payment of medical care or to leave open medical in case that the worker requires future medical treatment.

Continue reading " Illnios Workers’ Compensation Claims Not Allowed By Ex-Football Players: Forced to Take Their Claims to California " »

A recent Cook County personal injury lawsuit examined the degree of care a railroad owes to its passengers. The Illinois personal injury case was brought by a commuter who alleged a dangerous condition at an Illinois Metra train station caused his injuries. Pence v. Northeast Illinois Regional Commuter RR Corp., No. 1-08-3668 (Feb 3, 2010).

At the time of his injury, the Illinois plaintiff was making his way from a nearby parking lot towards the Metra train station. The plaintiff tripped over a railroad tie, fracturing his wrist and left shoulder. The plaintiff's lawsuit alleged that the railroad had breached the high degree of care that it owed to its passengers.

However, the plaintiff's personal injury claims were problematic because by definition he was not a passenger when he was injured. At the time of his injury, the plaintiff was walking diagonally across an intersection in an area that was not officially designated as a parking lot. This seemingly small detail opened the way for Metra to move for summary judgment under an argument that the railroad was insulated from liability under the Local and Government Employees Tort Immunity Act.

Continue reading " Cook County Personal Injury Claim for Fall at Metra Train Station Denied By Court: Illinois Tort Immunity Act Does Not Apply to Non-Train Passengers " »

A recent Chicago birth injury settlement provides an extreme example of Illinois surgical complications. The Cook County medical malpractice case was filed on behalf of a boy who was left with severe brain damage following his cardiac surgery at Loyola University Medical Center.

The minor plaintiff was eight months-old at the time the Chicago medical malpractice occurred. According to the details of the case, the little boy presented to Loyola University Medical Center for cardiac surgery. This surgery was necessary due to his congenital heart condition, but should not have resulted in severe brain damage.

However, both during and after the procedure there was a marked reduction in the oxygen flow to the plaintiff's brain, which in turn led to the unexpected brain injury. The minor plaintiff's brain injury was classified as a hypoxic brain injury versus an anoxic brain injury. The difference between the two types of brain injuries is that a hypoxic injury results when the brain does not receive enough oxygen to properly perform its functions, whereas an anoxic injury occurs when the brain does not receive any oxygen. However, both hypoxic and anoxic brain injuries can result in severe brain damage, which is exactly what occurred in this case.

Continue reading " Chicago Brain Injury Occurs During Cardiac Surgery " »