if you’re injured as a result of an automobile accident with an emergency services vehicle that is responding to a call, are you be able to receive compensation for your injuries? Well, the answer is–it depends. In Illinois, in many cases, responding emergency vehicles maybe held to be immune from liability, but ultimately, the facts […]

When someone slips and falls in a public place in Illinois such as a mall, in order to prevail in a personal injury lawsuit, the person who fell must establish that the owner of the property was somehow responsible for the fall. Sometimes this can be a difficult proposition, as the plaintiff in Ishoo v. […]

One issue that frequently crops up during personal injury trials is the admissibility of photographs of the scene where the accident occurred. Sometimes, the photos sought to be admitted were taken immediately after the accident occurred, while other times the photos were taken sometime after the accident but are offered to show the layout of […]

Is the City of Chicago liable for every accident that occurs when a pedestrian trips and falls on a public sidewalk? Of course not. But under certain circumstances, the City can be held liable. The Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, considered just such a scenario in Waters v. City of Chicago, (No. 1–10–0759). In […]

Sometimes, car accidents occur when a police officer is responding to a call and in many cases, depending on the facts of the case, laws exist which provide immunity–for police officers and their employers–from liability in personal injury lawsuits. In determining whether immunity applies, the courts must first decide if officer was “was engaged in […]

An important Illinois workers’ compensation decision was handed down by the Appellate Court of Illinois, Third District, at the end of 2011. At issue in Will County Forest Preserve District v. Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission, No. 3–11–0077WC, was whether a claimant’s shoulder injury qualified as a scheduled loss to the arm or a person-as-a-whole award. […]

In Caburnay v. Norwegian American Hospital, No. 1-10-1740, the plaintiff was an anesthesiologist who tripped and fell in the lobby of the hospital where he worked. On the date of the accident, he was waiting for an elevator when he tripped over a floor mat that he alleged was folded. As he fell, he hit […]

The Chicago Tribune recently reported on a lawsuit arising from a bizarre set of circumstances, but which raised an interesting legal issue. The facts in the case, Zokhrabov v. Jeung-Hee Park. (2011 WL 6823803), are decidedly gory and tragic. On September 13, 2008, 18-year-old Hiroyuki Johowas struck by an Amtrak train traveling approximately 70 miles […]

Sometimes during litigation, lawyers go too far. They become overzealous and let their personal experiences influence their tactical decisions. Unfortunately, doing so can oftentimes lead to disastrous results for your client. That’s exactly what happened in Petraski v. Thedos, No. 1 10-3218, a recent decision issued by the Appellate Court of Illinois, First District. The […]

In March of 1999, in Bourbonnais, Illinois, an Amtrak passenger train collided with a semi-tractor trailer driven by John Stokes, causing a serious accident that resulted in many deaths. A number of lawsuits followed and, recently, in Dowe v. Birmingham Steel Corporation, Nos. 1-09-1997, 1-09-2006, the Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, considered liability for […]