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April 30, 2008

Lawyer Tips: Serving the Summons and Avoiding Dismissal

Service of a Summons is an essential part of a personal injury lawsuit starting off on the right foot. Supreme Court Rule 103(b) allows a court to dismiss the case if the plaintiff does not exercise reasonable diligence to secure the service of summons. This means that an attorney who gets a “return not found” or has the service letter bounce back must follow up with legitimate attempts to get the summons served. Often, a skip chaser or a special process service can help and affect valid service. However, if you let the suit languish without attempting to serve summons for an unreasonable period there may be no remedy.

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Posted In: Tips for Lawyers

April 30, 2008

Cook County Office Building Fire Personal Injury Lawsuit Settled for $100 Million in Chicago

The 22 victims of the Cook County office building fire from 2003 have settled their personal injury lawsuit against the City of Chicago, Cook County, and the building’s management. The $100 million dollar settlement for this personal injury lawsuit will compensate the victims who were injured when the high rise building fire broke out; most were caught in the stairwells and suffered from the smoke.

See the news story here.

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Posted In: Burn Injury , Fire Safety , Illinois statutes and Chicago Municipal Codes , Smoke Detectors , Wrongful Death

April 28, 2008

Lawyer Tips: Settlements Against Your Advice

Sometimes, a client will want to settle a personal injury lawsuit for an amount that is lower than what you can get. Lawyers are experts on achieving a valuable settlement in personal injury lawsuits and worker’s compensation lawsuits but some clients may want something different. If a client wants to take a different personal injury settlement amount against your advice, be sure to have the client sign an agreement that clearly states they accepted a settlement contrary to your advice

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Posted In: Tips for Lawyers

April 27, 2008

Lawyer Tips: Worker’s Compensation and Personal Injury Cases

Lawyers and clients should be careful when defining the scope of the representation for a personal injury lawsuit involving a workplace injury or jobsite injury. Sometimes, a personal injury at work may give rise to both a personal injury lawsuit and a worker’s compensation lawsuit.

The engagement agreement, also called a supplemental letter as part of a required statutory form for a worker’s compensation lawsuit, between the lawyer and the client must specify which type of case the lawyer will represent. The lawyer may do both, but the letter should specify the exact scope of the representation and include all statutorily-required provisions. For clients, it is important that you talk with your lawyer and ask them if both a worker’s compensation lawsuit and personal injury recovery might be available for your personal injury lawsuit.

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Posted In: Tips for Lawyers

April 26, 2008

Lawyer Tips: New Products Liability Suits – Picking Up the Pieces

When a lawyer gets a new products liability lawsuit there is one important step that some lawyers overlook. Immediately upon taking a products liability lawsuit, the attorney should make sure to preserve the product. If you’re not sure how to preserve the product or pick up the pieces to safeguard them for later use in trial, call an experienced products liability attorney for advice or a referral.

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Posted In: Tips for Lawyers

April 25, 2008

Lawyer Tips: Statutes of Limitation Are Gone Before You Know It

As all lawyers and clients know, the statute of limitation is the essential window within which you must file your personal injury lawsuit to protect your rights. What many clients may not know is that municipal corporations and some government entities have shortened notice and statute of limitation periods (745 ILCS 10/1 Section 101 et seq.). This means that people who have been injured in a train accident, bus accident, truck accident, and government operated hospital injuries should check to see if a shortened statute applies to their case. It is very important that a client talk to their personal injury attorney soon after being injured to make sure that there is still time to file a personal injury lawsuit.

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Posted In: Tips for Lawyers

April 24, 2008

Lawyer Tips: Retaining Old Files

As e-discovery and new document management techniques become more popular, some attorneys may not retain client information for as long as they should. Generally, files that involve cases with disabled persons, minors, or files containing sensitive original documents should be retained indefinitely. Also, attorneys should be sure to keep information on all current and former clients, including their last known address.

This does not mean that your office will be buried in paper for all time. The Illinois legal malpractice statute (735 ILCS 5/13-214.3) has a two year statute of limitations and a six year statute of repose. This means that you can dispose of most documents after 7 years or so; though you could get rid of many types of documents earlier, 7 years is the safe bet. Additionally, attorneys must retain financial records for at least seven years per Supreme Court Rule 769. It may be smart to keep estate and probate files around a bit longer, depending on the nature and duration of the case.

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Posted In: Tips for Lawyers

April 18, 2008

Chicago Businessman Sued for Horseback Riding Injury at Charity Event

A woman has filed a personal injury lawsuit against local Chicago businessman Richard Duchossois for neck injuries she suffered riding horseback at a charity event. The woman claims that Mr. Duchossois and the owners of the horse were negligent in controlling the horse when it charged and struck the woman violently. The personal injury lawsuit alleges five counts of negligence.

See the news story here.

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Posted In: Amusement Park Accidents , Animal and Dog Bites

April 16, 2008

Chicago Transit Authority Settles CTA Train Derailment Case for $1.25 Million

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) settled a personal injury lawsuit for $1.25 million. An elderly Chicago woman filed the personal injury lawsuit against the CTA because she was seriously injured in 2006 when the CTA’s Blue Line derailed by the Clark and Lake Blue Line station. The woman suffered serious injuries when trying to escape the train which caught fire after skipping the tracks. 100 personal injury lawsuits are still pending in Cook County after CTA riders sustained injuries during the emergency.

The CTA settlementcame on the same morning as another Blue Line train caused problems for commuters after stalling nearby to the same place the train derailed before.

Read more here.

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Posted In: Public Transit , Train Accidents

April 16, 2008

Class Action Beings for Guidant Heart Defibrillators

A Canadian court has certified a class for a class action lawsuit against Guidant for failing to warn consumers about the dangers of its popular implantable defibrillators. According to news sources, though Guidant recalled the defective heart defibrillators, some defective implantable defibrillators were still in the company’s inventory. Boston Scientific Corp, which bought Guidant in 2006, previously settled a similar defibrillator class action lawsuit for $240 million.

Read the news story here.

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Posted In: Medical Malpractice , Products liability

April 16, 2008

Illinois Employers Must Still Pay All of Medical Bills, Regardless of Write-Offs

The Illinois Appellate court announced that an Illinois employer still had to pay the remaining balance of an employee’s medical bill after the employee won a worker’s compensation lawsuit. The employee was injured on the job when the bus she drove crashed into a bridge in the Chicago suburbs. The Appellate Court held that it was not at liberty to review the decision of the Illinois Worker’s Compensation Commission ordering payment in full for medical bills.

For more, see the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, April 15, 2008 Volume: 154 Issue: 074.

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Posted In: Workers' Compensation

April 14, 2008

Residents file products liability lawsuits over nutrition supplements

A products liability lawsuit was recently filed against the makers of the nutrition supplement “Total Body.” According to the products liability complaint, an ingredient in the supplement causes symptoms such as, hair loss, severe muscle cramps, nausea, vomiting, and can even lead to Lou Gehrig’s disease.

For the full article.

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Posted In: Products liability

April 13, 2008

Couple files products liability lawsuit against toy company after son ingests beads

A products liability lawsuit has been filed against Target and a toy distributor after a 1 year-old became ill after swallowing a recalled toy that produces the “date rape” drug when ingested. A month after the recall, the 1 year-old ingested the product and required emergency treatment for vomiting and experiencing states of unconsciousness.

For the full article.

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Posted In: Dangerous toys , Injuries to Minors and Children

April 12, 2008

WR Grace & Co. reaches tentative $3B settlement in relation to asbestos claims

WR Grace & Co., Inc. has reached a proposed settlement of all current and future asbestos-related personal injury lawsuits against the company in a move the chemical company hopes will allow it to emerge from bankruptcy.

For the full article.

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Posted In: Asbestos and Mesothelioma , Toxic Torts

April 10, 2008

Chicago Office Building Fire Trial Set to Start on April 22

The tragic Cook County office building fire is set to begin in Chicago on April 22 after some delay. The office building fire resulted in the death of six people and injuries to more than two dozen others in 2003 when they were locked in a smoke-filled stairwell. The plaintiffs and victims’ family members hope that a fair settlement can be reached before trial. The trial will involve three wrongful death claims and four personal injury claims. Attorneys for the victims plan to show how rescuers disregarded victims trapped in the stairwells.

For more, please click here.

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Posted In: Building safety , Fire Safety , Land Owner liability , Wrongful Death

April 10, 2008

Illinois Legislature Considers the Construction Safety Act of 2008 (HB 2094)

Chicago Representative Fritchey has sponsored a bill that is now being read on the Illinois House floor that would improve protections for construction workers in Illinois. The bill is a response to the increasing dangers of working in construction that often include catastrophic injuries, disability, and worker’s compensation suits. The bill would increase requirements for safety features on scaffolding, require posted worksite safety information and warnings, as well as other detailed requirements to improve working conditions for Illinois construction workers.

For the full text of the bill, please visit the General Assembly.

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Posted In: Construction Injury , Jones Act and Maritime law , Workers' Compensation

April 10, 2008

Fen-Phen Class Action Settlement Now Valued at $7.5 Billion

The historic Fen-Phen settlement is now valued at $7.5 billion according to the plaintiffs’ attorneys managing the settlement payout. Fen-Phen was a popular diet drug and is the most notable of any prescription drug liability and injury suit. Fen-Phen is actually a combination of two drugs, fenfluramine (Pondimin) and Phentermine. Phentermine is still available today and is sold under several different brand names.

The Fen-Phen class action is unique because it offered a three-tiered system of initial opt-outs, intermediate opt-outs, and preserved a back-end option for injured plaintiffs to sue if they develop heart valve disease by as late as 2015, among other new ideas. This new system was designed to avoid the pitfalls seen in previous asbestos and GM Truck class action suits.

For the full article, click here.

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Posted In: Asbestos and Mesothelioma , Products liability , Toxic Torts , pharmaceuticals

April 9, 2008

FAA failures put passengers in danger

In a products liability scare, a whistle-blower recently told Congress that a cozy relationship between Southwest Airlines officials and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) put passengers in danger of a catastrophe. One supervisor at FAA repeatedly rebuffed his reports of inspection requirement violations. Allowing aircrafts to fly passengers in a known unsafe condition puts the lives of the flying public in jeopardy.

For the full article.

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Posted In: Aviation , Machinery , Motor Vehicle Accidents , Products liability

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The purpose of this blog is to deliver news and information that is relevant to our areas of practice. The news and information reported on this blog represent the legal actions of attorneys throughout the United States. Our firm does not claim to represent plaintiffs in all of the lawsuits, settlements, and jury verdicts reported, only those noted as Levin & Perconti cases.

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