Organizations providing workers comp insurance and employee health insurance for more than 200 Illinois local governments have joined the mass of lawsuits against drug makers, distributors and others associated with the spread of so-called opioid painkillers. On Oct. 15, lawyers from the firm of Edelson P.C., of Chicago, filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court, on behalf of Intergovernmental Risk…
A Chicago attorney was removed from a northern Indiana federal personal injury case last week because he had witnessed an alleged golf course accident that was the basis of his client’s lawsuit. Chicago attorney Jeffrey Grant Brown represented Glen Dunn in a suit filed in July 2017 against Palmira Golf & Country Club, Inc. in St. John, where Dunn was…
The Indiana Court of Appeals reversed the grant of summary judgment for two insurance companies when it found they were estopped from denying the applicability of the Indiana Medical Malpractice Act to their claims. After a May 2010 trucking crash that led to a $3 million judgment against Indianapolis-based Celadon Trucking Services Inc., Celadon learned Community Hospitals of Indiana failed…
Reform measures and fee schedule changes are resulting in an overall trend of lower medical costs per claim in several states, according to several Workers Compensation Research Institute reports released Thursday. In its 19th year of studying medical costs, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based institute released 16 reports, all including a state-by-state comparison of medical costs across 18 states. The reports show…
A report on Illinois’ legal landscape says the state’s lawsuit-friendly policies cost billions of dollars and more than 80,000 jobs every year. Critics say that’s an overstatement. A study conducted by the Illinois Civil Justice League into the cost of tort, or claims of loss or harm, lawsuits and their effect on Illinois’ economy estimates the costs from higher liability…
An independent contractor claims he was injured when the scaffolding he was using collapsed. Anthony Jines filed a complaint on Sept. 19 in the St. Clair County Circuit Court against Kohrmann Bros. Masonry Inc., alleging the subcontractor failed to provide a safe place to work. According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that on Aug. 8, he was working as…
A woman claims she was injured in a Shiloh collision caused by a wrong-way driver. Tangula Brown filed a complaint on Sept. 26, in the St. Clair County Circuit Court against Charles Tart alleging that the driver negligently operated his vehicle so as to cause it to collide with plaintiff’s vehicle. According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that on…
A Greensburg apartment complex and its property manager will no longer be considered in default after the Indiana Supreme Court reinstated a trial court ruling that found excusable neglect justified setting aside a default judgment. After Matthew Joseph accidentally discharged a firearm in his unit at the Tree City Village Apartment complex and significantly injured his neighbor, Genia Wamsley, Wamsley’s…
A man who won a judgment that he was covered by his auto insurance’s uninsured motorist policy after a crash that left him a quadriplegic lost the ruling in his favor Wednesday. The Indiana Court of Appeals decision could cost him millions of dollars that a jury awarded in a separate trial. The appellate panel ruled for Gregory Smith’s insurer…
A widow accuses several manufacturing companies of failing to warn her husband about the toxic effects of asbestos. Nancy D. Camden, individually and as personal representative of the estate of Fred A. Camden Sr. filed a complaint on Sept. 7 in Madison County Circuit Court against 3M Company, CBS Corporation, Exxon Mobil Corporation and other companies. According to the complaint,…
