In a significant ruling, the Appellate Court of Illinois upheld a lower court’s decision, denying a negligence claim against the City of Chicago. The case, filed by Laundia Foster Jr., was heard in the Circuit Court of Cook County on March 20, 2020, and involved allegations that the city failed to maintain a safe roadway, leading to severe injuries for…
Injuries caused by lifting heavy loads were once again named the costliest in workers compensation, according to data released Tuesday by Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. The insurer’s Workplace Safety Index estimates the top 10 causes of the most serious workplace injuries — those causing an employee to miss more than five days of work — and ranks them by their…
Aging worker claims often are more susceptible to litigation, as issues of causation and claim expansion come into question. Older worker claims may be slightly more challenging to handle once in litigation because of issues such as Medicare Set-Asides and a potentially higher percentage of disability paid, according to John Geaney, co-chair of the workers compensation practice at Mt. Laurel,…
A unanimous Illinois Supreme Court ruled a school bus driver hurt in a fatal multivehicle pileup on Interstate 74 in McLean County can’t stack liability coverage in order to run a payout up to $7 million. Justice Elizabeth Rochford wrote the opinion filed May 23, affirming an appellate court’s ruling that reversed the initial opinion of a circuit court judge….
Workers compensation prices rose more quickly in states that update their fee schedules based on measures of price changes in the general economy rather than price changes in the medical sector, according to a study released Thursday by the Workers Compensation Research Institute. The report noted Alabama, Delaware, Illinois and Oregon as states that adjust workers comp medical fee schedules…
ALDI, Inc. Faces Class Action Complaint Over Alleged Toxic Metals in Baby Food On May 28, 2024, a class action complaint was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois by plaintiffs Adele Hoffman, Jennifer Oshier, and Rhea Sabile against ALDI, Inc., doing business as Little Journey. The plaintiffs allege that ALDI’s baby food products…
Disclosure of third-party litigation funding, which is routinely blamed for skyrocketing litigation defense costs and increased verdicts, could make the judicial system more efficient, advocates of disclosure regulations say. Knowing that a lawsuit is funded could potentially streamline settlement negotiations because both the company’s insurer and the litigation financier will have better assessed the value of the claim, they say….
Employers, insurers and claimants should start planning for changes to how Medicare’s liabilities are accounted for in workers compensation settlements, experts say. The changes, which will remove the reporting threshold in settlements that include Medicare set-asides and define penalty amounts, could increase the likelihood of significant fines for noncompliance and prolong settlement negotiations, they say. The Centers for Medicare &…
In a recent court filing, plaintiffs Ariana Williams and Brandon Steels have lodged a medical malpractice complaint against Dr. Joseph Thomas, an obstetrician, alleging that his actions during the delivery of their son, Jarron Steels, resulted in permanent injuries. The complaint was filed on May 24, 2024, in the Circuit Court of Cook County. The plaintiffs claim that Dr. Thomas’s…
The Illinois Supreme Court says a woman who was severely injured in an explosion caused by gasoline vapors that had traveled through a sewer pipe to the laundry room of her condo building from a gas station more than a mile away can’t use an Illinois environmental protection law to sue the owners of the gas station for allegedly allowing…
