Wow! New Illinois Workers Comp Case Helps the Injured, But Probably Wrong

One of the main fears of Illinois Workers Compensation attorneys (heck, any workers comp attorney, probably) is that, after settlements are drafted and approved and checks are sent out, it pops up.
What pops up? That medical bill that had been hiding in the client’s desk drawer, or lurking behind the bushes, or hanging from the [...]

Illinois Litigation Attorneys – Don’t Forget Rule 222 Disclosures

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, but I’m trying to get back into it. Here’s a potential pothole for attorneys who handle cases worth between $10,000 and $50,000, but don’t do a lot of litigation: Rule 222.
Rule 222 provides for limited and simplified discovery in these cases. The big sticker here is that the [...]

Illinois Workers Comp – is a per diem part of the Average Weekly Wage?

A new case came out today in the Illinois Appellate Court, First District, dealing with calculation of an injured worker’s Average Weekly Wage (AWW) for workers compensation cases: United Airlines, Inc. v. The Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission.
The issue was whether a flight attendant’s $230 per diem (don’t worry, she was flying to Japan… she’s not [...]

Important Ethics Opinion for Illinois Attorneys and Personal Injury Settlements

Here’s a common situation in the personal injury context: Plaintiff’s attorney negotiates settlement with the defendant’s insurance company. The parties strike a deal, but only on the condition that the plaintiff’s attorney guarantee to pay all liens and subrogation interests out of the settlement proceeds. No problem, especially since the attorney would pay the liens [...]

Rock Island County Arbitration Statistics

I attended a meeting today regarding Rock Island County Arbitration cases. The goal of the meeting was to decide what statistics the county should keep on these cases to help attorneys and arbitrators value cases.
The statistics they kept for the last year were very interesting:

19 – number of cases tried to a jury between June [...]

Important new Illinois Workers Comp case

New case – Gallagher v. Lenart: The Illinois Supreme Court made it clear that an employer’s waiver of a workers compensation lien must be clearly stated in the workers comp settlement contracts (the pink ones). The law used to be that an employer had to explicitly reserve its right to a lien under Section 5(b) [...]

Ah, malpractice in Illinois… again

Remember yesterday’s post about new insurance companies coming to Illinois?
 Now there’s this article saying that doctors are leaving Southern Illinois because of the changes to the wrongful death act (which allow the jury to consider emotional distress).
Now let’s look at this, shall we? Here are some quotes from the article:
“We had reform to try to [...]

New Malpractice Insurer in Illinois

The Trib has this article about a new Medical Malpractice Insurance company coming to Illinois – it’s notable because the company cites “tort reform” for its willingness to come to the Land of Lincoln.
Specifically, the article cites a recent change in law that limits damages for pain and suffering to $500,000 against doctors and $1,000,000 [...]

Speeding? Illinois will take your license.

Illinois is wierd sometimes. I haven’t been pulled over since I’ve lived here (knock on wood… do it!), but I’ve heard from people who have, that the police will confiscate your driver’s license when you get a ticket.
That never made sense to me.
Apparently Illinois is the only state in the nation that does this. The [...]

The Secret Illinois Law that “The Man” Doesn’t Want Jurors to Know About

The “Lost Chance” doctrine allows a medical malpractice plaintiff to prove proximate cause by showing that the defendant’s negligent conduct either increased the risk of harm or lessened the effectiveness of treatment. Holton v. Memorial Hosp., 176 Ill.2d 95, 111, 679 N.E.2d 1202, 1209 (1997). This is true even if the chance of recovery would be [...]