North Chicago & St. Louis Injury Updates

How Negligent Hiring Practices Affects Your Truck Accident Case

Published on: April 9, 2015 | by Seidman, Margulis & Fairman, LLP

Firm News | April 9, 2015

If you have experienced an accident with a commercial tractor-trailer, you are probably lucky to have survived. Commercial big rigs are extremely heavy even when they are not carrying freight. Even a minor collision between a semi-truck and a car or SUV can result in catastrophic injuries such as brain damage or spinal cord trauma. Often the injuries caused by truck accidents force victims to endure years of expensive medical treatments and rehabilitative therapies.

The sad reality is that some truck accidents might have been prevented through proper hiring practices. Under Illinois state law, a trucking company can be held liable if they either knew or reasonably should have known that one of their truck drivers was unfit for the job so as to create a danger of harm to others.

Electronic Cigarettes and Potential Defective Products Lawsuits

Published on: April 1, 2015 | by Seidman, Margulis & Fairman, LLP

Product Liability | April 1, 2015

The relatively recent introduction of electronic cigarettes into the marketplace poses new concerns from some safety officials. E-cigarettes, which are often also referred to as personal vaporizers, are battery-powered devices that are designed to simulate real tobacco cigarettes. E-cigarettes typically work by using the power of the battery to produce a heated vapor from nicotine-infused oils.

Since E-cigarettes first came into the market in 2007, it’s estimated that more than 2.5 million Americans are currently using them. It’s also important to remember that this number is growing as the popularity of vaporizing or “vaping” begins to take hold. This fact is important to remember because many safety agencies have not yet had sufficient time to evaluate the safety of E-cigarettes.

Can I Challenge My Urine Drug Test After My Workplace Accident?

Published on: March 26, 2015 | by Seidman, Margulis & Fairman, LLP

Work Accidents | March 26, 2015

Illinois provides workers’ compensation protection for employees who are injured at work. Generally, this works on a “no-fault” insurance scheme. Without getting too technical, the current system bars injured workers from suing their employers and their insurers directly for their injuries. In exchange for that liability protection, the employee is not required to prove fault for a workplace accident in order to receive certain medical benefits and other compensation.

However, one of the requirements of obtaining workers’ compensation for a workplace accident is that the employee must have been engaging in normal workplace duties at the time the accident occurred. Companies with well-known policies against substance abuse can often argue against paying out claims to workers who were using drugs around the time of their accidents. Basically, an employer can argue that an injured worker who is shown to have drugs or alcohol in their system at the time of the accident was not performing normal workplace duties.

Infections From Scopes and Hospital Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Published on: March 18, 2015 | by Seidman, Margulis & Fairman, LLP

Medical malpractice | March 18, 2015

Frequent readers of our internet blog may remember an article we wrote previously regarding the procedures hospitals use to report infections within their facilities. In that article, we noted that post-surgical infections developed by U.S. patients are estimated to cause approximately 8,000 deaths annually.

Medical malpractice is a legal concept that at its core stands for the principle of trust. As patients, we place our trust in the competence and dedication of our health care providers to prevent avoidable injuries from causing us harm. Doctors, nurses and hospitals can breach that trust when they fail to exercise reasonable care to limit the exposure of their patients to preventable infections.

How Long Do I Have to File My Illinois Car Accident Lawsuit?

Published on: March 13, 2015 | by Seidman, Margulis & Fairman, LLP

Firm News | March 13, 2015

Illinois currently has a statute of limitations on personal injury claims of two years. Generally, that is understood that you will have two years from the date of your accident to file a lawsuit against a responsible party. Illinois also allows residents up to five years from the date of the accident to sue for damage to their property.

Although you have two years to file your personal injury claim, you should not wait until the 23rd month before taking action. In fact, there are some steps you should do immediately. Depending on how badly you were injured, you should consider taking photographs of the accident scene before the vehicles are moved. You should also consider interviewing any available witnesses who might have seen the accident occur. Additionally, you should request a copy of the police accident report just as soon as possible.

Statistics Show DUI Enforcement Varies Considerably by County

Published on: March 12, 2015 | by Seidman, Margulis & Fairman, LLP

Legal Articles | March 12, 2015

On behalf of Steven Seidman

As total traffic fatalities drop, greater DUI awareness credited with safer roads

Holding Drivers Responsible for Jackknife Truck Accidents

Published on: March 4, 2015 | by Seidman, Margulis & Fairman, LLP

Firm News | March 4, 2015

The central location of our state in the middle of the nation’s main highways ensures that Illinois roads are constantly filled with commercial tractor-trailers. Big rig drivers naturally go through rather rigorous training and testing to make sure that they can handle their vehicles under a variety of conditions.

A primary component of all Commercial Driver’s License testing is to ensure that drivers know how to prevent trailer skids and jackknife accidents. A jackknife truck accident occurs when the wheels of a trailer component of a tractor-trailer combo loses traction with the surface of the road. The loss of traction results in the trailer component swinging around towards the front of the cab. This type of accident is called a jackknife because the result of trailer swinging forward resembles the closing action when folding a pocket knife.

Link Between Daytime Talk Show Giveaway and Defective Products

Published on: February 26, 2015 | by Seidman, Margulis & Fairman, LLP

Firm News | February 26, 2015

On Feb. 5, the Consumer Product Safety Commission published a recall for a children’s highchair. The product, manufactured by a company called Mima, is suspected of having a design defect that reportedly allows the high chair to come loose from its base. According to the recall, the “Mima Moon 3 in 1 high chair” has the potential to injure children sitting in the device or crawling under it.

The primary issue with the high chair is that its design consists of a two-footed base that supports the seat on a single post. The seat can reportedly become detached from the post, allowing the child sitting within the modern-looking, semicircle seat to fall to the ground. The seat also poses an impact danger to children crawling underneath it due to the possibility that it may become detached from its post and fall onto a crawling child.

What Can I Expect in My Illinois Workplace Accident Claim?

Published on: February 17, 2015 | by Seidman, Margulis & Fairman, LLP

Work Accidents | February 17, 2015

If you have suffered a workplace accident is likely that you’re thinking about your future. The nature of any accident is that they are always unexpected. You may have never considered what might happen do you if you became unable to continue earning a living through your work.

The good news is that the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission oversees programs that are designed to assist injured workers throughout the state. Any employee who is injured during the course of his or her job can be entitled to certain benefits. For example, if your workers’ comp claim is approved, you will receive two-thirds of your lost wages as you are recovering from your injuries. That number is based on the average of your weekly wage rate prior to your injury.

Your Medical Malpractice Claim Is Also About Containing Costs

Published on: February 16, 2015 | by Seidman, Margulis & Fairman, LLP

Firm News | February 16, 2015

You hear it all the time in the news. People in the health care profession claiming that medical malpractice lawsuits are unnecessarily driving up costs. Many of them argue that doctors are engaging in “defensive medicine” in order to avoid potential litigation. There are rumors about doctors ordering scores of unnecessary tests in efforts to forestall any failure to diagnose claims down the road.

Regardless of those opinions, patients have a right not to be harmed or placed at unnecessary risk of injury by those who are entrusted with their care. In fact, two recent papers have shown that tort reform has had little to no effect on the U.S. health care system. Tort reform is essentially an effort to reduce the amount of non-economic damages victims are allowed to seek in medical malpractice cases.

Seidman, Margulis, & Fairman Blog