Illinois Injury Lawyer Blog

A new report issued by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) researchers found that in a one year period, the costs associated with personal injuries from car crashes exceeded $99 billion. The cost of direct medical care accounts for $17 billion. The total annual cost amounts to almost $500 for every licensed driver in the United States. The yearly costs of fatal and non-fatal crash related personal injuries totaled $70 billion for people riding in motor vehicles. Every 10 seconds, someone in the United States is treated in an emergency department for car accident-related injuries. Plus, almost 40,000 people die from these personal injuries each year. The director of CDC’s Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention announced that this study highlights the magnitude from the problem of crash-related injuries from a cost perspective and the results are staggering. The CDC researchers used 2005 data to compile the report.

In Chicago, we unfortunately hear news weekly of car accidents where personal injuries or wrongful deaths result. Just this weekend, police were questioning a female driver involved in a Chicago car accident that killed a 39-year old Chicago man. Another fatal crash occurred in the south suburb of Frankfort over the weekend. A man was killed Thursday night when the Kawasaki motorcycle he was driving slid under a truck. A preliminary autopsy showed that the Illinois man died of multiple personal injuries in the accident. Illinois state police said that the injury victim failed to stop at the intersection and yield the right of way to the truck driven by another man.

Visit the Chicago Tribune online to learn more about the CDC car accident cost study.

An Illinois man is seeking a cash settlement from the suburban city of Zion and five Zion police officers for Illinois personal injuries sustained in addition to alleged violations of his civil rights. The plaintiff, a forty one year old man, claims that Illinois police officers in the city of Zion injured him near his residence when they Tasered him and allegedly manufactured evidence against him in relation a fight near his house. The Illinois injury plaintiff was acquitted of the criminal misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest and has since filed a federal lawsuit seeking monetary damages against the city. The Illinois injury plaintiff is seeking monetary damages including punitive damages, costs, and attorney fees. He alleges that the arresting officers are guilty of false arrest, conspiracy, excess force and battery.

The Chicago personal injury lawyers of Levin & Perconti are familiar with damages in injury lawsuits and want our readers to notice that the Tasered Illinois man is seeking punitive damages in the lawsuit. Punitive damages are damages intended to reform or deter the defendant and others from engaging in conduct similar to that which formed the basis of the personal injury lawsuit or other lawsuit. Although the purpose of the punitive damages is not to compensate the plaintiff, the plaintiff will in fact receive all or some portion of the punitive damage award. Punitive damages are awarded only in special cases, usually under tort law in cases like our injury attorneys do, where the defendant’s conduct was egregious.

More information about the civil rights lawsuit is available at the Lake County News-Sun.

In the latest update regarding product liability and harmful pharmaceutical interactions, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned that it is investigating the possibility that the combination Parkinson’s drug called Stalevo may increase the risk of heart attack, stroke, and death in elderly patients who are taking the drug. Stalevo is an anti-parkinsonian dopaminergic combination medication, combined of carbidopa, levodopa, and entacapone, that treats Parkinson’s disease. The drug is manufactured by Finnish drugmaker Orion Corporation and is marked by Swiss-based Novartis Pharmaceuticals. Stalevo is currently used to treat adult patients with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease in two scenarios: to substitute with equivalent strength of each of the three components or to replace immediate-release therapy when patients experience the signs and symptoms of end-of-dose “wearing off.”

FDA urged patients not to stop taking the drug, but warned patients to let their physicians know if the patients have risk factors for cardiovascular disease. The first indication of product liability risk for Stalevo came from a clinical trial called STRIDE-PD, according to LA Times. The average age of the patient was 60 years of age and the trial that exposed the risks lasted an average of 2.7 years. The study’s results found seven heart attacks and one death.

The results of the clinical trial were combined by the FDA with results from fourteen other trials totaling about 4800 patients. With the wider patient pool, the analysis showed twenty-seven adverse product reactions of heart attacks, strokes, or deaths for a statistically significant increased risk of 146%. When the data from the trial was not included, the increased risk was only 67% and it was not statistically significant. The FDA is continuing to look into the significance of the clinical trial results.

Click the link to the LA Times to read more about the FDA product liability warnings.

The State of Illinois formerly provided its state citizens with useful and valuable information and detailed histories of its state’s doctors, including vital information such as whether the Illinois physician was convicted of a crime, fired by a hospital, or forced to make Illinois medical malpractice payments within the previous five years. As one would expect, many individuals in Illinois concerned about their physicians’ abilities frequently visited the Illinois physician information website. During the two years in which the information was posted, the Illinois physician profiles generated 130,000 clicks per week.

Unfortunately, access to the Illinois physician profiles came to a halt earlier this year when the state of Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation removed them from its website and locked them. As Chicago Tribune describes it, this is the latest chapter in a long political battle that has pitted Illinois patient advocates against the lobbyists who represent Illinois hospitals, physicians, and pharmaceutical companies.

Now, the only information available to the public is whether the Illinois regulatory agency has previously disciplined the physician. One state legislator explained that we had a useful and powerful tool to protect patients and now it is gone; Representative Mary Flowers added that we should mandate that the state of Illinois provide this critical consumer health information. Patients’ rights advocates and Illinois medical malpractice attorneys explained that similar websites have proved popular in other states where they receive more than 800,000 hits a year. But, any effort in Illinois needs to face tough competition from the Illinois State Medical Society, which lobbies on behalf of doctors and has helped defeat similar medical malpractice protection bills.

To read more about the Illinois medical malpractice website and its removal, visit the Chicago Tribune.

Now that BP is finally on the verge of capping its well, the source of the largest oil spill in United States history, the oil company’s focus must now shift toward the cleanup of the Gulf and the expensive civil liability fines that it faces stemming from the disaster. Based on a federal panel of experts’ estimate earlier this week, BP could face up to $17.6 billion in civil penalties from the 4.1 million barrels of oils leaked from it well into the Gulf.

Environmental lawyers familiar with such toxic tort cases opine that BP is likely to negotiate a lower penalty. Nonetheless, the fines could still hurt the company’s ability to pay for the cleanup costs. Under the Clean Water Act, oil owners are liable for fines of $1,100 per barrel spilled even if it did nothing wrong. The penalty jumps to $4,300 per barrel if BP was grossly negligent, which would include making conscious decisions that increased the likelihood of an incident while engaged in a risky business, such as deepwater drilling. BP Chairman expressed doubt about the fines being that high, stating that BP and the government have a mutual interest in a lower number because, according to BP Chairman, the government does not want to push BP into insolvency.

The civil fines, discussed above, which fall under United States environmental laws are distinct from costs that BP currently faces to clean up the spill. Additionally, they are separate from costs that BP faces for compensating the personal injury victims of the disaster.

Click on the Business Week link to read more about the liability fines facing BP.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the House Judiciary Committee approved a bill that would repeal the Limitation of Liability Act of 1851, making it easier for families of those killed in the Deepwater Horizon explosion through wrongful death lawsuits or personal injury lawsuits to sue for punitive damages. The Committee rejected an amendment that stipulated that the bill would not apply retroactively.

Several other interesting news arose last week regarding the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. For example, the New York Comptroller has hired attorneys in his effort to become the lead plaintiff in a federal class-action lawsuit by investors against BP over the Gulf spill. “The Energy Source” blog at Forbes took a stab at guesstimating BP’s total liability for the oil spill and estimated a total of $60.9 billion by breaking up the costs into three buckets – the $20 billion escrow fund, clean up and compensation, and fines and penalties.

The 150-plus personal injury lawsuits and other legal challenges face significant complications in the Gulf Area due to recusals and judges’ financial interests. The Los Angeles Times reported last week that federal judges in Gulf states have been extensively invested in the oil and gas industries for decade and those interests threaten to create a logjam for these Gulf spill personal injury lawsuits. Seven of the twelve federal judges of the Eastern District of Louisiana have already cited potential conflicts of interest in bowing out of cases bought by fisherman, charter operators, tourist services, and those wrongful death lawsuits brought by those killed in the Deepwater Horizon explosion rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

You can read more about the Gulf Coast oil spill updates on the American Association for Justice website.

With the hospitalization of Bret Michaels in the news, the Illinois brain injury attorneys at Levin & Perconti appreciated CNN.com piece about brain hemorrhages. Although we have blogged about several different brain injuries and their devastating effects, we thought our readers would also be interested in an in-depth explanation of brain hemorrhages.

Doctors say that the feeling of blood hitting the brain’s sensitive covering can cause the injured person to experience the worst headache of his or her life, which is what singer Bret Michaels may have experienced prior to his admission at the hospital. Subarachnoid hemorrhages occurs when blood enters the space between the brain and its transparent web-like tissue covering, the same location where spinal fluid is located. About 65,000 brain hemorrhages occur yearly in America, according to the chairman of neurosurgery at the Hospital of University of Pennsylvania.

When an individual experiences a brain hemorrhage, many things can happen. Some people experience the onset of the worst headache of their life and can still be awake and alert; these are referred to thunderclap headaches. These patients often have good recoveries and do not have recurrences. The most common cause of a hemorrhage is a physical injury, such as a car accident or a fall taken by an elderly individual. However, for spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhages, a brain aneurysm is the likely culprit. An aneurysm is a bulging of a blood vessel in the brain. About half of the people with a ruptured aneurysm unfortunately die from the rupture itself. While hospitalized, people suffering from hemorrhages have an angiogram, a test that helps to visualize the blood vessels. But, sometimes aneurysms are not visualized because clotting can fill the aneurysm.

In addition to the “worst headache of your life,” other symptoms of brain hemorrhages include sudden loss of consciousness or diminished consciousness, nausea and vomiting, seizure, stiff neck, vision problems and mood changes, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Click the link to read more about brain hemorrhages.

The Chicago injury attorneys recently blogged about the disgraceful and self-serving study produced by the Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform. Last week, president of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association characterized the Chamber’s report as a shallow attempt to weaken the civil justice system to help its Wall Street and big business financers. This week, leaders of more of Illinois’ legal groups are criticizing a different Chamber study - the Chamber’s annual study on legal fairness. Illinois attorneys are calling it inaccurate, unfair, and stating that it should be looked at more like a public relations campaign than an actual reliable report.

President of the Illinois State Bar Association, John G. O’Brien, suggested that one has to consider the source, which is a cynical, money-driven organization that has no interest in the legal system. Mr. O’Brien added that he found the Chamber’s characterization of Illinois “insulting.” The recently released 2010 State Liability Systems Ranking Study is based on phone and online interviews conducted between October 2009 and January 2010. The study asks corporate lawyers and executives at companies that make at least $100 million each year – obviously they selected a very choice group to question! And their survey ranked Illinois 45th out of 50 states for “legal fairness.” Additionally, Cook County, where our attorneys frequently practice, was named the most unfair court jurisdiction in the nation.

Further, Illinois ranked 43rd out of 50 on juries’ fairness. The Chicago personal injury attorneys at Levin & Perconti question how one can judge the fairness of a jury. Inherently, is not a jury of ones peers the fairest method of decision envisioned by the founders of our country?

President of the Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform added that Illinois has rolled out an unwelcome mat to business and added that the state’s legal climate discourages economic growth. Illinois Trial Lawyers Association stated that the survey is bankrolled by companies like AIG, which gave nearly $25 million to the Chamber in the last decade to sit on its board. Of course, the Chicago product liability attorneys at Levin & Perconti question the fairness of such statements. The Institute for Legal Reform is bankrolled by companies who were bailed out by taxpayers, yet the Institute opposes taxpayer and citizens’ rights to seek justice in a civil setting.

Click here to read articles featured in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, including the Illinois legal groups’ response to the study.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which acts as a front group for corporations and advocated for policies that drove our country’s economy to collapse, is now calling for more of the same policies. The Chamber of Commerce released its annual lawsuit climate rankings today by its Institute for Legal Reform – calling for less oversight and less accountability for the Wall Street, drug, and insurance companies that fund the corporate front group. The survey screams unreliability as it relies on the opinions of corporate defense attorneys that profit when their companies are shielded after hurting American consumers. The Chamber is financed by companies like AIG, which gave nearly $25 million to the Chamber in the last decade to sit on its board. The same AIG that the U.S. government bailed out with taxpayer dollars after the insurance group failed to set aside reserves for large financial risks that it took in selling derivative contracts. The Chamber has also been very vocal in pursuing so-called "tort reform," an attempt to limit the rights of those personally injured by negligence.

Peter J. Flowers, president of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, replied that the Chamber’s report “is just another shallow attempt to weaken the civil justice system to help its Wall Street and Big business financers its Wall Street and Big business financers.” Hopefully, the American people remember what they have seen what happens when the Chamber’s largest clients – like AIG, insurance and drug companies – are not held accountable. Year after year, academics, consumer groups, and other experts have ridiculed the Chamber’s report for its errors and lack of methodology. The report has been called inaccurate, unfair, and bad for business.

Click here to read a detailed analysis of the annual rankings.

The Chicago personal injury attorneys at Levin & Perconti realize that much of the news that our readers encounter about trial lawyers is negative. The need for “tort reform” has been used as a plea to gain votes in elections and get Americans fired up over false information. So when we came across an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal about why we need trial lawyers, we wanted to share it with our readers. The reality is, as this piece eloquently addresses, that product liability litigation has become a very important means of keeping American consumers safe. The most recent example is the Toyota recalls, which Levin & Perconti has heavily blogged about, and the recent revelations of Toyota’s corporate issues.

In part because of insufficient government oversight, lethal defects have recently gone uncorrected for years in the Toyota recall. Affecting various models, we have now learned that car owner complaints of product liability issues were either minimized or ignored by Toyota and the regulatory government agencies that were responsible for policing the company. One review of federal records found as many as 2,600 consumer product complaints of sudden acceleration over a 10 year period. And, only now has any product recall been issued. According to CBS, released internal documents now indicate that Toyota was tracing its problem to its software as far back as 2005.

Simply put, the government is overburdened following the Bush administration’s weakening of regulatory agencies’ power through cutting funding and personnel in addition to a massive work load. A case in point is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and its caseload extended to more than 11,000 existing drugs, 100 new drugs yearly and a products ranging from foods to vaccines that account for almost 25% of all consumer spending. Trial attorneys, such as the product liability attorneys at Levin & Perconti, act as a check and help to give a voice to consumers who have been ignored by companies and the government. Product liability lawsuits have played a crucial role in ensuring public safety and encouraging manufacturers to put safety, instead of profits, first.

Click here to read the entire piece on the need for trial attorneys.

Last week, the Chicago Tribune published a letter to the editor written by Peter Flowers, President of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association (ITLA). ITLA is a statewide organization whose members, including the Chicago injury attorneys at Levin & Perconti who represent injured workers and consumers. In his letter to the editor, Mr. Flowers addresses insurance reform following the Illinois Supreme Court’s recent ruling against arbitrary caps on victims’ compensation.

Mr. Flowers set the background by informing readers that this was the third time the issue of caps was before the court and the third time that the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in favor of the citizens’ right to seek just compensation. Following the decision, those who side with the insurance industry have had an unfavorable reaction to the Illinois Supreme Court ruling and in opposing its decision have spread fiction and chosen to ignore the facts of caps. Opposers state that the absence of caps caused an exodus of doctors from Illinois; however, the truth is that since 1963, the number of doctors in Illinois has increased.

Another piece of fiction that is often spread to readers statewide and physicians statewide is that insurance premiums for doctors rose because of the lack of caps on damages for medical mistakes. The truth is that the rise in insurance premiums has more to do with insurance company greed – the state’s largest medical malpractice insurer recorded profits of $124.2 million from 2006 through 2008. The little decrease that happened when the caps were in place occurred because of insurance reform and state mandates.

Most people often forget is that compensation for victims is not a “prize.” Illinois medical malpractice victims suffer from the medical mistakes for the rest of their lives; they deserve to seek justice. Mr. Flowers addresses that the solution to rising insurance premiums for physicians will happen by reforming the insurance industry. Reforms work and should be re-enacted so that doctors are not faced with unconscionable increases in their premiums while insurance companies make enormous profits. When insurance companies are held accountable, health care in Illinois will improve.

The Chicago Sun-Times has reported that a young Chicago-area couple has filed a car accident lawsuit after a violent crash killed their 13-month old son. The recent Chicago-area crash also killed two of the couple’s friends. The Chicago couple is now seeking justice and has filed a car accident lawsuit against the driver who is alleged to have slammed into their Honda Civic, resulting in the wrongful death of all three backseat passengers. The alleged driver is reported to have been fleeing another car crash he was involved in also in Chicago. The car accident lawsuit alleges that the defendant engaged in reckless conduct, which is defined as a conscious disregard for the safety of other people. The personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits seek at least $50,000 in damages.

The Cook County State’s Attorney’s office, led by Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, has reported that it is also reviewing the car crash, but no criminal charges have been filed against the driver yet. Witness accounts state that the driver was traveling between 80 to 90 miles per hour, hitting the Honda so hard that it knocked the car accident toddler victim out of the car seat he was fastened into and into a rear window. The friends were also ejected from the vehicle. The parents of the wrongful death victim are trying to cope for the time being. Levin & Perconti is keeping the parents and those coping with this horrific loss in our thoughts.

Click here to read more about the car accident lawsuit.

The Chicago-area newspaper The Daily Herald recently reported on a local negligence lawsuit that was filed in the Cook County Circuit Court that Levin & Perconti thought was interesting. The story reports that an Illinois Elgin family has filed a lawsuit against NICOR, a local gas company. The Illinois homeowners state that their Elgin home exploded and burned to the ground earlier this month after a natural gas leak. The lawsuit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, alleges that Nicor Gas employees committed negligence when they failed to ensure the Illinois occupants’ safety while they inspected and tested the house for a natural gas leak. The ranch home exploded and caused a fire that destroyed the home. The lawsuit seeks more than $50,000 in damages from the Illinois utility company.

The Chicago personal injury attorneys at Levin & Perconti file negligence lawsuits often on behalf of our clients who have been injured or who have loved ones who have been hurt. Negligence is a party’s failure to use reasonable care. In other words, it is the doing of something which a reasonably prudent person would not do. This lawsuit filed by the plaintiffs at the Cook County courthouse contends that the Nicor gas company committed negligence in not ensuring that the occupants were safe, something the plaintiffs contend that a reasonably prudent person would have done.

To read more about the gas company lawsuit, click here.

One woman began replacing her regular fast food meals with meals from the Fresco menu from Taco Bell and lost over 50 pounds; she is now their spokesperson. Taco Bell is not the only fast food business to start reaching out to those seeking to save calories. Other places include Dunkin’ Donuts, Quiznos, Starbucks, McDonald’s, and Subway. Health experts fear now that by seeking out a lot of fast food, dieters may be having more sodium than they otherwise would. One added, when we remove things out of food, we often add back salt and the salt is so far in excess of what would be considered a healthy quantity that it definitely counteracts any health benefits.

Click here to read more about health experts concern over the fast food diet craze.

The attorneys at Levin & Perconti just read about several product concerns and wanted to make our readers aware. Read below to learn about the recalls and other warnings.

First, look out for the safety of your pets! The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently issued a warning that dog treats may be contaminated with salmonella. Merrick Pet Care’s pet food may be contaminated with salmonella; click here to read more about the possible salmonella contamination in the dog treats.

Continue reading "Time to check your products for recalls and dangers" »

A woman has filed a personal injury lawsuit against a college for a pencil injury suffered when she was in school. While the injury lawsuit has sparked outrage in the community, the plaintiff has defended her right to seek justice through compensation. Others have pointed out that legal safeguards are in place to ensure that no frivolous actions are successful. The personal injury plaintiff alleges that she suffers numbness and cramps in her right forefinger which have hurt her ability to work as a hairdresser and type on the computer. The personal injury lawsuit is claiming $25K for pain and suffering, $70K for lost earning capacity, and $500 for out of pocket expenses.

To read more about the pencil injury lawsuit.

For a product liability story that never seems to end, a recent report stated that an additional Chinese drywall builder alleged to have used the tainted drywall in building homes has been confirmed. Bradenton-based Medallion Homes, which has constructed homes for over twenty years, has been confirmed as one of the builders now known to have used drywall manufactured in China. The builder has been named as a product liability defendant in a massive defective drywall lawsuit filed against the Chinese company. The product liability lawsuit now contains more than 2,000 affected homeowners from four states.

Continue reading "Additional Chinese drywall builder confirmed " »

The New York Times recently reported about a new report that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did a poor job of screening medical experts for financial conflicts when it hired them to advise the agency on vaccine safety. The report stated that most of the experts who served on advisory panels in 2007 to evaluate vaccines for flu and cervical cancer had potential conflicts of interest that were never resolved. The issue was so problematic that some advisers were legally prohibited from considering the vaccine issues, but did so anyway! As many unsafe medicines have been pulled from the market in recent years, worries have intensified that experts may be recommending medical products in part because manufacturers are paying them.

Continue reading "Conflicts abound for advisers on vaccines" »

A chairlift broke Thursday night at a popular ski resort in Wisconsin that Chicago-area skiers like to frequent. The frightening malfunction resulted in personal injuries to at least fourteen people. There were at least three serious injuries and seven non-serious injuries. Thankfully, none of the personal injuries were considered life-threatening.

Watch the video report of the ski malfunction below.

Continue reading "Multiple people injured in ski lift mishap" »

A recent study suggests that the overuse of computed tomography (CT) scans can lead to the development of new cancers. Product liability studies suggest that radiation exposure from CT scanners may cause cancer. The article suggests that CT scans are believed to contribute to 29,000 new cancers yearly, which contributes to 14,500 fatalities. The Los Angeles Times reported that widespread overuse of CT scans and variations in radiation doses caused by different machines operated by technicians following any array of procedures are subjecting patients to high radiation doses that will ultimately lead to tens of thousands of new cancer cases and deaths.

Continue reading "Excessive CT scans can develop new issues" »