When you rent a car, you assume the vehicle has been properly maintained, don’t you? And wouldn’t you expect that a car rental company would only rent vehicles that had been fixed following safety recalls? Well, if that’s the case, perhaps you need to lower your expectations. Because currently, car rental companies have no obligation […]

In February 2010, Illinois Supreme Court Justice Thomas Kilbride voted, along with 3 other justices, to overturn an Illinois law that placed monetary caps on damages awarded in Illinois medical malpractice cases. Medical malpractice caps had been struck down in two prior Illinois Supreme Court decisions, as well. Justice Kilbride is up for reelection this […]

In Gilmore v. Powers, No. 1-09-1478, the First District Appellate Court of Illinois, Sixth Division, addressed the issue of whether a private landowner owner or the City of Evanston was liable for maintenance of a walkway that straddled the city-owned parkway in front of the defendants’ house. In this case, the plaintiff was the co-owner […]

Over the last month we discussed two different Illinois personal injury cases addressing the liability of parties who provided alcohol to someone who then left the premises and caused a deadly automobile accident. This is an issue that is becoming more frequently litigated, in part because of the tragic consequences–which are especially apparent when the […]

At issue in a recent Illinois products liability lawsuit was whether the manufacturer of Motrin was liable for an adverse reaction to its product. In Robinson v. McNeil Consumer HealthCare, 2010 WL 3156548, the plaintiffs brought a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The facts in this case […]

A former employee of a popcorn plant was recently awarded the largest verdict of this type by a Chicago jury. The plaintiff, Gerardo Solis, had been a worker in a Chicago popcorn plant owned by Flavorchem Corp for 8 years from 1998-2006. In 2006 he was diagnosed with Popcorn Lung (also known as Bronchiolitis obliterans). […]

In a recent post we discussed an Illinois court’s decision that addressed a homeowner’s potential liability for an automobile accident that occurred after an underage teenager drank alcohol at his friend’s home and was involved in a fatal car accident later that evening. The Illinois Supreme Court recently addressed a similar issue in Simmons v. […]

Bell v. Hutsell is a recent decision out of the Appellate Court of Illinois, Second District, that involved allegations that homeowners were responsible for the death of an 18-year old who died in an automobile accident after drinking alcohol at the home of the defendants. In Bell, it was alleged that the defendants’ son, who […]

The Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, recently addressed the issue of the proper scope of a subpeona duces tecum issued by the Workers’ Compensation Commission. In Holtkamp Trucking Company v. Fletcher, M.D., one of the issues before the court was was whether the Illinois Workers’ Compensation had the authority to issue a subpoena duces […]