Posted on September 15, 2016 in Car Accidents

The way we talk about collisions on the road is misleading. We discussed this in a post back in June. The position we offered then is that, in most cases, what we call accidents are really disasters caused by someone's negligence or reckless behavior. As such, seeking compensation for victims and holding someone accountable isn't merely justified. It's demanded.

Vehicle crashes are major causes of catastrophic injury and death in central Illinois. Contributing factors can be many. Agriculture is big business here and large machines lumbering slowly along are common. Their presence can lead drivers to get antsy at the wheel and make deadly decisions. Speeding, drunk driving, texting and other forms of distraction are problems, too.

One potential crash factor that doesn't get as much attention as it deserves would be driving drowsy. According to a report by the Governors Highway Safety Association, there are nearly 84 million sleep-deprived individuals behind the wheels of vehicles every day. Its estimated crashes involving these drivers resulted in about 5,000 fatalities last year. The cost to the nation comes in at more than $100 billion. That doesn't include property damage.

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 Posted on September 01, 2016 in Firm News

The concept of interstate commerce might not be something most people around Springfield give much thought to. Routines might be restricted to waking up, getting the children to school, getting to work and getting everyone home safely at the end of the day. It's only when extraordinary events occur that we might have to confront broader issues.

Truck accidents involving interstate haulers certainly would seem to fall into that category. Crashes with semitrailer trucks typically injure or kill individuals in the smaller vehicle. And the process required to hold all the possible liable parties to account can be complicated if there are multiple entities from many different states involved. Recovery of due compensation could take the skills of an experienced attorney.

The issue of licensing of long-haul truckers alone provides a glimpse into the possible difficulties someone might encounter. For example, there was a recent case out of Florida that is now casting a shadow over the commercial licenses of a large number of truckers.

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 Posted on August 25, 2016 in Firm News

When a car and a tractor-trailer truck collide, one generally expects the car and its driver to come out on the wrong end of the stick in terms of injuries or death. Statistics suggest that expectation is reasonable. And when you think about workers dying on the job, most in Illinois probably don't put truck drivers high on the list.

That is not how the U.S. Department of Labor sees things. While many might see firefighting, police work or even construction as the leaders in terms of risky businesses, officials say truck drivers deserve to be counted. By the DOL's numbers, truckers account for one in six of all deaths among U.S. workers every year, and the rate of trucker fatalities is generally on the rise.

Most of the deaths are due to truck accidents on the road. Not only that, but the DOL says truckers tend to suffer more injuries that force them off the road for recovery than all other occupations. In 2014, the number totaled more than 55,000 in the industry. And officials say the nature of the injuries is such that truckers wind up requiring a lot more time to heal.

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 Posted on August 19, 2016 in Firm News

Controlled environment -- if ever there is a phrase that ought to describe what we should find in an Illinois assisted living or nursing home setting that would probably be it. These are places we depend on to provide care for some of the most vulnerable members of our community. When that trust is violated and a loved one suffers neglect or abuse, seeking remedy is a right. It can sometimes be a challenge to obtain.

Unfortunately, the abuse in nursing homes isn't as uncommon as we would like it to be. Home employees can be one source of the problem. But what if the source of the abuse is not home employees? What if the perpetrators of the abuse are other residents?

We think most experts would agree that it shouldn't matter. Abuse is abuse, regardless of the source. What's more, it seems logical to expect that if homes have a duty to keep residents safe from employee abuse, the employees also have an obligation to keep their charges safe from abusive behavior by other residents.

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 Posted on August 12, 2016 in Firm News

Anyone in Illinois who is injured on the job has a right to expect to have their medical treatments and related health care needs covered by workers' compensation benefits. That's why the system exists. However, the science behind the medicine sometimes can come into question. When it does, the result can be a denial of benefits can result.

Every case is going to be different. That's why a detailed assessment of the facts and the circumstances in any given situation is crucial. The importance of having a skilled attorney working on your behalf can't be overstated.

This may be something on the mind of one man after a recent decision by the Illinois Fourth District Appellate Court's Workers' Compensation Commission Division, based in Springfield. According to a news report, the man has been seeking to obtain workers' compensation coverage for a claim dating back to October 2004.

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 Posted on August 04, 2016 in Firm News

If we really took time to think about all the ways we could be hurt or killed in everyday life we might never get out of bed. That would not be good for the Illinois economy or our own well-being. We have to work. Indeed, as social animals, there's a certain instinct for us to engage with the world somehow.

No, most of us want and need to be active. Still, life has its risks and injuries in the workplace are bound to occur. When they do, workers' compensation insurance is the means by which individuals are supposed to get the treatment they need and to get back on their feet, without any delay due to disagreements about who might be to blame.

When most of us ponder the possibility of getting hurt at work, we might imagine a few common scenarios. In construction, it might be a fall from a scaffolding. In factory work, it might be injuries from repetitive activity. Of course, there are always back injuries.

Injuries due to violence in the work place probably doesn't even register, but there are good reasons why the issue deserves focus. For one thing, injuries resulting from workplace violence should be covered by workers' compensation, but some insurance companies have just stopped offering policies.

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 Posted on July 28, 2016 in Firm News

It's hot out. That's to be expected. It's summer across the country, including here in central Illinois. Folks often call these the "dog days." While it's commonly thought that the phrase came into being to describe days so hot that even dogs couldn't bring themselves to stir, its roots are actually more astronomical.

To the ancient Greeks, the hottest days of the summer were marked by the appearance in the heavens of Sirius, the Dog Star. When it appeared before the sun's rising, it meant the arrival of the hottest season and raised fears of fevers and catastrophe.

We don't associate summer with Sirius today. We just know it's hot. But concern about the heat is something farm operators should be taking seriously to avoid possible injury to farm workers.

Long-term weather forecasting isn't particularly accurate, but that doesn't stop meteorologists from making the effort. According to the National Weather Service, the outlook from August to October indicates that temperatures in the region will be higher than normal. The outlook for precipitation is less clear, but it's thought that crops will probably be all right.

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 Posted on July 21, 2016 in Car Accidents

The question above might not one many in central Illinois ponder. Anyone familiar with the automotive world knows that owning a Tesla is not something the average motorist can aspire to. The all-electric, high-tech cars are nothing if not expensive.

Experts generally agree that what makes a Tesla costly is its power plant. Another element may be that the technology features of the cars are not tried and true. You may ask what does any of this have to do with a legal blog focused on car accidents. The answer has to do with addressing who is liable when someone is injured in a crash involving a Tesla.

This issue has surfaced in recent months in the wake of a deadly crash of a Tesla Model S in Florida. The collision between a Tesla and a semitrailer truck left an Ohio man dead. Because the car was apparently in "Autopilot" mode, some legal observers and autonomous vehicle engineers say Tesla could be held accountable.

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 Posted on July 19, 2016 in Car Accidents

You see them every day, people looking down at their phones instead of at the road. They sit idle while the light changes or are puttering along much slower than the posted speed limit. Or worse yet, they drift from one side of their lane to the other, oblivious.

Most, if not all of us, like to drive safely. Yet our roads are plagued with drivers texting at the wheel.

In fact, a recent AT&T study of 1,000 telephone respondents found that 98% of us believe texting while driving is dangerous, but only 74% of us are able to avoid doing it. Even fewer of us admit fault when we do.

Why is there such a discrepancy between what we believe is right and what we do?

The problem has to do with dopamine. Dopamine is the neurotransmitter in our brains called the "reward chemical" because it is associated with pleasure. It has other functions as well, such as regulating movement and attention control. But with texting, and texting and driving, it is what is released when we get a text. It excites us. 

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 Posted on July 14, 2016 in Firm News

If you cut your finger, you can pretty well guess what it is going to take to fully recovery. It might require nothing more than an adhesive bandage, maybe several of them. More serious lacerations might need stitches and more concern about possible infection. In any event, there's little chance that the circumstances will warrant even considering seeking recovery through a personal injury claim. It just wouldn't be worth the effort.

The same probably won't be true for any resident in Illinois injured in a vehicle collision in which a semitrailer truck is involved. Such crashes often result in serious injury or death. If damages can clearly be attributed to negligence or carelessness on the part of the trucker or another driver, seeking compensation might be appropriate.

Putting a suitable and realistic number on how much to claim, however, takes more than estimating the cost of Band-Aids. Besides taking into account all the medical costs that were incurred in the immediate aftermath of a crash, thought has to be given to whether any future medical expenses might be possible. If the victim loses wages from missing work or can't return to work at all, that income needs to be measured. A cost for pain and suffering may also be assessed.

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