Illinois Lawyer Blog
Texting about veal parmigiana dinner while driving = $235,000 settlement
February 4th, 2019
Saw this story by Robert Storace online recently. Dasantila Rook was driving home from her job at a Connecticut restaurant in July of 2015. She was taking food home to have dinner with her husband. All well and good. Dasantila got into trouble when she decided to text her husband about dinner. She was describing what sounded like a delicious veal parmigiana di…
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Categories: CASES IN THE NEWS
Tags: texting and driving
Illinois Appellate Court squashes "one free rape" argument after guest attacked at Holiday Inn.
January 24th, 2019
I read the opinion in Gress v. Lakhani Hospitality quite some time ago and meant to post about it. But the opinion got buried with other papers and finally resurfaced the other day. The opinion provides much needed clarity to what a plaintiff must show – and perhaps more importantly what a plaintiff is NOT obligated to show – when it comes to hotel…
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Au pairs strike back.
January 10th, 2019
Colleen Slevin of the Denver Post had an article in the Denver Post the other day about $65.5 million dollar settlement against several companies that bring young women to the United States to work as au pairs. [An au pair is typically a young woman, from outside the United States who comes here to provide live-in child care to families]. The underlying lawsui…
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Categories: CASES IN THE NEWS
Environmental toxic exposure - may be the next trend in tort litigation - and chemical manufacturers should be concerned.
December 18th, 2018
The most recent ABA Journal had an intriguing excerpt from a book Poisoned – How a Crime Busting Prosecutor Turned His Medical Mystery into a Crusade for Environmental Victims – which might portend the next trend in tort litigation. The book was written by Alan Bell, who in the 1980’s was a hotshot prosecutor in Florida. He then left his pros…
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Categories: IN THE NEWS
Illinois Appellate Court gives green light to asbestos case alleging conspiracy amongst manufacturers to hide the risks.
December 7th, 2018
Jones v. Pneumo Abex, LLC is an interesting asbestos decision out of the Fifth Appellate District in Illinois. And it likely has asbestos manufacturers concerned. In Jones, the plaintiffs, John and Deborah Jones, sued Pneumo Abex and Owens-Illinois for injuries John suffered due to asbestos exposure when he worked in construction. John Jones never worked for e…
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Categories: CASES IN THE NEWS
Why Alexander Acosta should NEVER be Attorney General.
November 29th, 2018
The endless and exhausting breaking news generated by the White House sometimes overwhelms other important stories. The Miami Herald had a story the other day about Alexander Acosta – the current Secretary of Labor – and his involvement in the remarkably lenient treatment of Jeffrey Epstein, a Florida billionaire, and serial sexual abuser of undera…
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Categories: IN THE NEWS
Illinois Appellate Court sticks yet another fork in the phantom injury defense.
October 11th, 2018
Defense lawyers have been suggesting other causes of injuries since the Stone Age. The Fifth Appellate District, in Campbell v. Autenrieb recently handed down a decision that does a nice job of explaining exactly when such testimony is permissible. In Campbell, the plaintiff was injured when an unleashed dog lunged at Campbell and caused him to fall. Campbell…
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Categories: CASES IN THE NEWS
Tags: phantom injury
Senior Citizens acting badly - residential community for older adults liable after residents terrorize lesbian.
August 30th, 2018
The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently issued a decision in Wetzel v. Glen S. Andrew Living Community. There are important legal takeaways that are discussed below. The most jarring takeaway though, from the humanity perspective, is that even elderly people, who should know better, can still act like assholes. As the opinion lays o…
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Categories: Blog
Tort of retaliatory discharge just got a little broader in Illinois.
August 22nd, 2018
A decision out of the Federal District Court in Chicago appears to have broadened the tort of retaliatory discharge a bit. In Van Pelt v. BonaDent, plaintiff Tad Van Pelt had been recruited to work as a sales representative for BonaDent, Inc. a dental lab. Van Pelt was hired as an at will employee. In 2015, Bonadent purchased a laboratory in Chicago. Van Pelt…
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Categories: CASES IN THE NEWS
Tags: retaliatory discharge
Can woman recover when a friendly dog moves closer and causes her to fall off a porch and suffer a bad injury? Nope.
August 2nd, 2018
The Fifth Appellate District downstate issued an interesting opinion yesterday involving a friendly dog and a bad fall. In 2012, Paulette Crosson was a certified nursing assistant who provided home health care to patients. In August and September, 2012, she made multiple visits to a home owned by Pam and Bob Ruzich to provide health services to a Pam’s g…
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Categories: CASES IN THE NEWS
Tags: Animal Control Act