Insurance – Allstate To Raise Rates For Illinois Insureds
May 4, 2012
Allstate Corp. is increasing car insurance rates in Illinois by 3 percent to 5 percent beginning May 17, according to company filings with the Illinois Department of Insurance. The size of the increases will depend on how long a customer has been with the company.
via Allstate car insurance hike reverses hometown discount – Finance News – Crain’s Chicago Business.
March 20th Vote Smart: Review Judicial Evaluations Presented by Illinois State Bar Association
February 29, 2012
Rating Judicial Candidates
Since Illinois voters have the responsibility to elect judges, the Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA) feels it has an obligation to share with the public information about qualifications of judicial candidates. The lawyers who practice alongside candidates for judicial office are in a unique position to assess the professional qualities that are necessary for good judges.
View ISBA’s judicial ratings for the March 20th primary by county.
Judicial Evaluations | Illinois State Bar Association.
Dog bite Injuries – Denver TV Anchor’s Is Bitten In The Face During Interview
February 16, 2012
Approximately 800,000 dog bite attacks occur each year in the United States that require medical treatment. Children account for many of these dog bite victims. Each year, thousands of children are either killed or seriously injured by dog bites injuries. Dog bites can cause serious and disfiguring injuries that may have life changing and life long effects on a person. The effects are catastrophic all the way around: the victim will have to live with the effects of his injuries and the dog, more often than not, will have to be put down.
The story below is just an all too familiar story about an all too trusting individual who simply fails to assess the real dangers of getting too close to an animal with which she is unfamiliar.
A veteran Denver television anchor was injured Wednesday after she was bitten in the face by a dog while doing a live broadcast about a dog rescued by a firefighter. Kyle Dyer was interviewing Michael Robinson — the owner of an 85-pound Argentine mastiff that fell into a lake on Tuesday while chasing a coyote in the city’s Lakewood area — and firefighter Tyler Sugaski, who put on a wetsuit and rescued the dog, when the attack occurred. According to KUSA-TV, firefighters, paramedics and animal control officials were called to the station after the attack.
The station posted a statement on its Facebook page that Dyer was “getting medical attention due to the injury” and the station was waiting to find out the extent of her injuries before issuing further information. A station spokeswoman was not available for comment. The station showed video of Dyer petting the dog, but cut off the video before the attack and said they would not show it. A station spokeswoman did not return a call seeking comment. Julie Lonborg, spokeswoman for Denver Health hospital, said in a statement that Dyer was in fair condition and being evaluated by a trauma team. The hospital said she was awake and visiting with family. KUSA-TV said she may go home as soon as tonight.
Megan Hughes, spokeswoman for the Denver Environmental Health department, said no decision has been made on what will happen to the dog.
via Dog bites Denver TV anchor’s face during interview – CBS News.
Wrongful Death – Mother: Cop, Not Ex-Boyfriend, Deserves Prison Time
February 1, 2012
At what point negligence becomes willful and wanton disregard for a person’s safety?
This is the question that the alleged facts of the case below raises for me. The alleged facts are generally that the boyfriend was drink and calls on his girl to drive hum home. She has a suspended driver’s license and has no babysitter on call. So she puts the baby in the safety seat, as she should, and get the drunk boyfriend. On their way home, they are stopped by a police officer. Upon realizing that the girl friend’s license is suspended, he arrests her, and gives the keys to the car and the baby in the back seat to the drunk boy friend to go home. On their way home, the drunk boy friend crashes the car killing the baby.
Police officers have immunity from the negligent acts they commit while in the performance of their duties. However, police officers are still responsible for willful and wanton acts they commit that causes harm to others. That is, while a police officer may not be held responsible for running into a bystander while chasing a bad guy, he can be held liable if he runs into the bystander on purpose or the chase he has entered into is so dangerous and so unreasonable that it becomes tantamount to a willful and wanton act.
In the case below, the police officer allegedly gives the keys to a drunk person allowing him to drive the vehicle along with the baby in the backseat. Is this an act of negligence that is tantamount to a wilful and wanton disregard for the safety of others, namely the baby in the backseat? I suppose if the case does not settle, twelve jurors will be able to tell us the answer.
“This police officer might have prevented this offense, but he did not cause it,” stated Burmilla.
However, LaFond’s attorney, Mark Horowitz, countered that Officer Felicetti bears all of the responsibility.
“He controlled the situation. He’s the one that pulled her over. He could have ‘A’ told Kathie to drive the child home. He could have given her a ticket roadside. He could have said go home, don’t let me catch you out again,” he said.
via Mother: Cop, Not Ex-Boyfriend, Deserves Prison Time | NBC Chicago.
Mediation – 678 Partners Ask CFR on How Mediation Can Yield Lower Costs, Produce Win-Win Results And Leave Less Emotional Strain in Comparison Vimeo
January 13, 2012
678 Partners ask CFR on how mediation can yield lower costs, produce win-win results and leave less emotional strain in comparis from Amir Homayoun Rafizadeh on Vimeo.
Had an eye opener discussion with Erin Johnston CEO and Founder of CFR an IL based mediation business. Idea Chef and I have been talking to different groups in the prior weeks about the Gulf Oil Spill and its consequences to the BP brand. Today we also decided to invite Nima Taradji as well to get the perspective of a trial attorney. Very educational and interesting findings when comparing mediation, arbitration and also litigation. Big cost and time differences between the techniques, better outcomes when both parties agree to some aspect rather than having one looser and one winner. Something very few people know: Emotional toll on the case looser, something mediation avoids because both parties decide, and not one or the other. Grab a cup of coffee over a Saturday or Sunday and listen to this interview.
Product Liability – FDA Requires Increase Warning For Yaz Blood Clot Risks
January 12, 2012
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel voted 21-5 to require drospirenone-containing birth control pills – including Yaz, Yasmin, Ocella, Beyaz, Safyral, and Vestura – to warn about increased risk of blood clots.
via Yaz Side Effects: FDA Requires Increase Warning For Yaz Blood Clot Risks | InjuryBoard Kansas City.
msnbc video: Panel: Benefits of ‘Yaz’ outweigh risks.
The 10 Most Ridiculous Lawsuits of 2011
January 7, 2012
I am posting this against my better judgment… but then again, this made me smile.
The top ten Most Ridiculous Lawsuits of 2011 are:
- Convict sues couple he kidnapped for not helping him evade police
- Man illegally brings gun into bar, gets injured in a fight, then sues bar for not searching him for a weapon
- Young adults sue mother for sending cards without gifts and playing favorites
- Woman disagrees with store over 80-cent refund, sues for $5 million
- Mom files suit against exclusive preschool over child’s college prospects
- Man suing for age discrimination says judge in his case is too old
- Obese man sues burger joint over tight squeeze in booths
- Woman sues over movie trailer; says not enough driving in “Drive”
- Passenger’s lawsuit says cruise ship went too fast and swayed from side to side
- Mother sues Chuck E. Cheese – says games encourage gambling in children
via The 10 Most Ridiculous Lawsuits of 2011 – Yahoo! News.
Wrongful Death – Personal Injury – Frivolous lawsuits Are Not The Issue – Carelessness Is.
January 3, 2012
We have heard so many tales of woes about how medical malpractice lawsuits are ruining the medical health of this country by making healthcare expensive for all and by causing the exodus of doctors from the so-called “judicial hellholes” (of which Illinois is supposedly one) toward States where there are limits on justice that a victim of a doctor’s carelessness can hope to obtain.
The problem with that proposition is that it is simply not true. What causes medical malpractice lawsuits are not patients and/or juries and their verdicts or lack of caps on those verdicts, but medical malpractice. The best way to prevent a lawsuit based on medical malpractice is to not commit carelessness.
Note that here, we are not talking about things that may go wrong in the natural progression of a treatment: there are times when a treatment goes wrong through no fault of the medical provider and/or the attending physician. Things may go wrong because Medicine is an art. What we are talking about here are actual damages caused to individuals that are the direct result of carelessness–that is different from simply not getting the intended result. For example, damages that could cause for failure of a doctor to simply read objective tests that are performed and that are ready to be reviewed but the doctor simply decides not to avail himself f the useful information those tests provides him. That is when medical malpractice lawsuits may be expected.
NYT: Doctors at Harlem Hospital Didn’t See Most Reports
Nearly 4,000 tests for heart disease performed over the last three years at Harlem Hospital Center – more than half of all such tests performed – were never read by doctors charged with making a diagnosis, hospital officials acknowledged Tuesday.
The echocardiogram tests, a type of ultrasound used to evaluate heart muscle and valve functions, were ordered by doctors at the hospital. The tests were stored on a computer and basically forgotten, officials said. The lapse occurred because the cardiology service at the hospital had developed a system by which technicians were given the responsibility to scan all tests and flag any that looked abnormal, so that they would be given priority when doctors read them.It appears, officials said, that the tests that were not flagged were put aside and forgotten.
The city’s Health and Hospitals Corporation, which runs the public hospital system, including Harlem Hospital, and Columbia University, whose medical school supplies the cardiologists who work at Harlem Hospital Center, acknowledged the problem in a joint statement on Tuesday, after being asked about it by The New York Times.
“While the process the doctors followed may have alerted cardiologists to those echocardiograms that were most likely to be abnormal, the failure to read the echocardiograms in a timely manner is inexcusable and may have placed patients at risk,” Alan D. Aviles, hospitals corporation president, said in the statement. It was unclear who developed the screening system, hospital officials said.
