
Recent Blog Posts
Understanding the Illinois Premises Liability Act
Any property owner, whether they own a residential home or a large-scale business, is required to keep that property reasonably safe. Any visitor to the property should not feel in danger of harm due to poor property maintenance or unorganized conditions, perhaps even a dog bite. If you have suffered an injury on someone else’s property, you may have a case under the Illinois Premises Liability Act. Premises liability law affects both property owners and those who become injured.
Invitees vs. Licensees
Prior to the 1995 amendment to the Illinois Premises Liability Act, those who would visit a property were defined separately as either invitees or licensees:
- Invitee: a person who visits the property for the benefit of the owner of that property (e.g. guests were invited over for party)
- Licensee: guests are visiting the property for their own amusement (e.g. patrons of an arcade)
Most Common Workplace Injuries Resulting in Death in Illinois
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics operates a program called the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, often referred to simply as CFOI. This program helps to compile statistics on the deaths that occur in the workplace such as:
- Where the fatal injury took place;
- What job the person was performing;
- What industry the person worked in; and
- Other details that can help determine new laws and regulations to make the workplace safer for all employees.
In Illinois, the CFOI program has noted a significant drop in the number of deaths in the workplace in 2017, the most recent year for which data has been compiled, from 2010. While this is a step in the right direction, any death in the workplace is a tragedy that can leave a family in an emotional and financial mess.
Types of Injuries Sustained
Over half of the workplace fatalities in Illinois that occurred in 2017 were due to either slips, falls, and trips or those involving transportation. Slips and falls are usually, but not always, due to a dangerous work environment whether something was not cleaned up promptly or properly, or even due to equipment being left out where it can cause someone to trip.
300,000 Commercial Truck Drivers Would Fail a Drug Test
The number of commercial truck accidents has climbed substantially over the past few years. Could drug use among commercial truck drivers have been a contributing factor? A recent survey of truck driver applicants by the Trucking Alliance suggests that the answer to that question is, “yes.”
The Trucking Alliance survey compared the results of urine testing alone versus a combination of urine plus hair testing, and they found a dramatic difference. Urinalysis alone failed to identify nine out of 10 illegal drug users. A combination of urine testing and hair testing was substantially more accurate in weeding out illegal drug users.
Based on these findings, the Trucking Alliance estimates that 300,000 commercial truck drivers on the roads today are illegal drug users whose drug usage was not revealed by the current urine-only drug-screening process.
Why Hair Testing Is Needed for Commercial Truck Drivers
Can a Brachial Plexus Birth Injury Be Due to Medical Malpractice?
When a child is born with a brachial plexus injury, it is natural to wonder if medical errors or negligence contributed to the injury. Such injuries can happen when a baby’s shoulders are large relative to the size of the mother. When the baby gets wedged in the birth canal during the delivery process, the baby’s brachial plexus nerves can stretch or tear.
Types of Brachial Plexus Nerve Injuries
The brachial plexus is a network of nerves that control shoulder, arm, and hand movement. There are essentially four types of nerve injuries:
-
A stretching of a nerve, akin to a mild muscle strain, which usually heals on its own within a few months.
-
A stretching of a nerve that not only damages the nerve fibers but results in the development of scar tissue that presses on other nerves. This can result in permanent loss of some or all function in the affected arm.
Truck Accident Injuries Caused by a Hazardous Cargo Spill
When you think of someone being injured in a semi-truck accident, you probably think of the truck colliding with a car or motorcycle. However, not all trucking accidents and injuries involve vehicle-to-vehicle collisions. Trucks can also seriously injure people as a result of improperly loaded cargo that spills onto a roadway.
Toxic Chemical Exposure from Truck Accident
In April 2019 in a northern suburb of Chicago, a farm tractor pulling two 1,000-gallon tanks of fertilizer leaked significant amounts of anhydrous ammonia into the air. The tanker leak created a suffocating cloud of ammonia gas that looked like fog. Anyone who drove through it instantly felt their lungs burning. Exposure to the toxic gas sent about 40 people to the hospital, seven of whom required treatment in the intensive care unit. Injuries included chemical burns to the lungs, which could leave permanent damage, as well as vision and speech impairments.
Meconium Aspiration Can Damage Baby’s Lungs, Hearing, Brain
If your baby suffered a birth injury as a result of medical errors in treating meconium aspiration, you may want to seek malpractice compensation in order to provide proper lifetime care for your child.
What Is Meconium Aspiration Syndrome (MAS)?
In the womb, a baby does not use its lungs to breathe in oxygen. It cannot, since the baby is surrounded by amniotic fluid in the uterus. Instead, a baby receives oxygen through the umbilical cord. However, a baby in the womb will take “practice breaths” that harmlessly draw clean amniotic fluid into its lungs.
Meconium refers to a baby’s feces that may be excreted just before or during birth into the amniotic fluid. If the baby inhales, or aspirates, meconium, it can become trapped in the baby’s airways and impede breathing when the baby is born.
When Can I Sue for Damages in a Motorcycle Accident?
Motorcycle accidents generally result in more severe injuries than car accidents. If you have been seriously injured in a motorcycle accident, you may be facing a significant loss of income and expenses not covered by health insurance. Your ability to obtain compensation for those losses will depend on who was at fault for the accident. If you can point to another driver on the road whose careless, reckless, or negligent behavior led to your crash and injuries, you could file a claim for compensation against that driver and their insurance company. If a member of your immediate family was killed in a tragic crash, you could obtain compensation for your loss by filing a wrongful death claim.
Impact of Helmet Wearing on Motorcycle Accident Claims
Illinois does not have a law requiring motorcyclists to wear helmets. However, it is common knowledge that wearing a helmet reduces your risk of head injuries. Therefore, if you are not wearing a helmet at the time of an accident, this can be held against you in a lawsuit for damages.
Illinois Car Accident Statistics: Fatalities Keep Rising
In the latest statistics released April 2019, the Illinois Department of Transportation reported that the statewide number of auto accident fatalities rose 8 percent for the second year in a row, while miles driven rose less than 2 percent. The nationwide rise in fatal crashes has been linked to higher highway speed limits, and this is somewhat borne out by Illinois statistics. Controlled-access, interstate-type highways saw a 16% jump in fatalities from 2015 to 2016, while state routes saw a 32% leap.
However, the rise in fatalities was offset by a significant reduction in A-injury accidents, defined as an incapacitating injury such as severe cuts, broken bones, head injuries, and internal injuries. While the total number of fatalities rose from 998 to 1,078, an increase of 8 percent, the total number of A-injuries dropped from 10,078 to 9.060, a decline of 10 percent.
In Cook County alone, there were 255 fatal accidents and 3,170 A-injury accidents. Will County saw 42 fatal crashes and 427 A-injury crashes in 2016.
Bad Tires Can Make You the At-Fault Driver in a Car Accident
If a tire blowout or loss of traction due to bald tires causes you to lose control of your car, leading to a car accident with injuries, will you be found at fault and liable for the injuries to others? Or, does this situation qualify as one of those “acts of God” for which you cannot be held responsible? The answer depends largely on whether negligence on your part contributed to the collision. In order to be found at fault for injuries to others, you must have been negligent or careless in some way.
However, some type of negligence on your part does not necessarily mean you will be found 100 percent at fault for a collision. There is always the possibility that the other driver was partially or primarily at fault, perhaps because they disobeyed a traffic signal or committed some other traffic violation.
Here are a few examples to illustrate when a tire failure might result in your being judged at fault or not at fault for a collision.
Can Illinois Parents File a Wrongful Death Claim for a Stillborn Child?
When a baby dies after at least 20 weeks of pregnancy but prior to birth, this is termed a stillbirth. Problems with the placenta or umbilical cord are two of the most common causes of stillbirth, and both of these problems can often be diagnosed via prenatal ultrasound tests. If your doctor failed to identify and provide appropriate treatment for a condition that led to your child being stillborn, you could have grounds for a medical malpractice lawsuit for infant wrongful death.
Illinois Law on Wrongful Death of an Unborn Child
Some states strictly limit the amount of damages that can be claimed by parents for the wrongful death of a child, essentially allowing recovery only for funeral expenses. Some states do not allow parents to make a wrongful death claim at all for an unborn child. In Illinois, however, the law states that parents can claim compensation for grief, sorrow, and mental suffering in addition to actual expenses. Illinois law also holds that “the state of gestation or development of a human being” does not prevent parents from pursuing a claim for