» ILLINOIS LAW

What exactly is the burden of proof under the Residential Real Property Disclosure Act, 765 ILCS 77/1, [“the Act”]? The operative language, found in Section 55, specifies that a personwho knowingly violates provisions of the Act is liable for actual damages, court costs and possibly attorney fees incurred by the prevailing party. But what does R… Read More

If you do personal injury work, it is a given that at some point you will get a call from someone who got the tar beat out of him after a confrontation with a belligerent, drunken patron at some bar. What theories of recovery do you pursue? Sure, you have the Illinois Dramshop Act, 235 ILCS 5/6-21, as one avenue of recovery. But Dramshop cases have special cha… Read More

The Fifth Appellate District of Illinois recently handed down a good decision for injured workers in Continental Tire of the Americas v. The Illinois Workers Compensation Commission. The case is actually pretty straightforward. On January 31, 2012, Curtis Oltmann was working as a labor trainer for Continental Tire in southern Illinois. He tripped and fell whil… Read More

Saw an article on the Huffington Post the other day detailing some new laws our hardworking legislators in Springfield managed to get on the books. Here is a link to the Huff Post article. Wanted to point out some of the more important ones… 3D Mammographies now covered by insurance – Senate Bill 54 – adds 3D mammographies to scans covered by… Read More

For ages it has been nearly impossible to hold an employer responsible when one of it’s employees sexually assaults a third party while that employee is supposed to be working. The legal principle is that employers are not liable for the acts of their employees if those acts are outside the scope of employment. And of course, sexual assault is ALWAYS out… Read More

Lots of guys have walked into bars with nothing but the best intentions – have a few drinks; watch a game; shoot a little pool – when some buffoon with a bad case of beer muscles starts trouble. I was recently hired by a young guy who was badly injured after a bar fight that may have started in the bar and resumed outside in the parking lot. Still… Read More

The Illinois Appellate Court issued an opinion last week that dramatically impacted an employer’s ability to keep former employees from going to work for competitors, or even potentially disseminating corporate information. In Premier v. Fifield, Eric Fifield was in employment negotiations with Premier Dealer Services[“Premier], a developer and mar… Read More

Back to work after a lonnnnnnng Holiday break….. Going to trial soon against a large national carrier for failing to pay on a fire claim. The facts are pretty straightforward – my client[the insured] owned a rental property on the south side. He purchased insurance for the building. Not long thereafter, the building burned to the ground. Physical e… Read More