JMF Law Chicago Personal Injury Attorney
Law Office of Jeffrey Friedman, P.C.

The city of Chicago and unnamed officers are being sued by the family of a man fatally shot by police on the Northwest Side last month.
Luis Colon was shot and killed near a crowded park after he threatened an officer with a handgun on June 24, authorities said. According to police Colon confronted police with a large-caliber handgun.
In the wrongful death lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court Tuesday by Maria Colon, the special administrator of Luis Colon’s estate, she claims there was no justification for the shooting, and Luis Colon posed no threat to police.
Luis Colon was walking in the 2700 block of North Kilbourn Avenue when he was stopped by officers conducting a gang suppression mission, police News Affairs Officer John Mirabelli said.
“The subject walked away from police and disregarded a verbal direction to stop,” Mirabelli said. He said Colon then turned around and “confronted one of the officers with a large-caliber handgun” and was shot by police. A loaded .357 Ruger was recovered near the body.
Colon, 18, was fifth person fatally shot by Chicago police in June.
The suit seeks more than $50,000 in damages.

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The Illinois Supreme Court handed down a controversial decision interpreting the Illinois Wrongful Death Act. The case, Williams v. Manchester, 2008 WL 879036 (Ill Sup Ct), involved a pregnant woman, the plaintiff, Michelle Williams, who was 10.5 weeks pregnant when she was seriously injured in a car crash in Chicago.

Because of her injuries, doctors advised that her own health was at risk if the uninjured unborn child was not aborted. The legal issue was whether or not Ms. Williams could bring a wrongful death suit against the wrongdoer for the death of her child. The court held that she may not because the crash did not injure the child. The reasoning went on to state that if the unborn child had survived, there would be no case to bring for lack of injuries (damages).

The case filed in the circuit court ended on summary judgment in favor the defendant. A divided panel of the Illinois Appellate Court reversed the lower court decision giving rise to the appeal accepted by the Illinois Supreme Court.

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Most often, Chicago personal injury lawyers help injured persons recover compensation from the person who caused their injury. But in the few cases in which negligent behavior causes death, this type of attorney works to help the family of the person who has been killed.

This type of case is called a “wrongful death” suit. It essentially establishes that some person or party directly caused a death that would not have happened otherwise. The lawyer helps that victim’s family assemble an argument that lays out the various consequences set in motion by the loss of that person’s life. They then pursue compensation for a specified amount based on specific financial damages and approximated non-financial damages.

Wrongful death is a civil charge, not a criminal charge, but it can be pursued in cases that also have had criminal proceedings. For example, if a burglar shoots and kills the occupant of a house, that person will likely be punished for it. However, punishment against the shooter does nothing to help the people who have lost a member of their family. But a wrongful death suit can help ensure the family’s voice is heard and their rights are protected.

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The Chicago Tribune newspaper reported on Wednesday, April 2, 2008 that Baxter International Inc. faces a growing number of lawsuits from families who blame the company’s blood-thinning drug heparin for deaths of loved ones, including one in Cook County, IL.
The latest wrongful death suit was filed by the widower of an Iowa woman who died at home during kidney dialysis on Nov. 30.

According to the news report, the woman began experiencing nausea and vomiting after treatment. Her husband found her on the floor after she called out to him during a treatment during which the dialysis machine had disconnected.

The article says that a Baxter spokeswoman said the company declined to comment on specific allegations involving the lawsuit.

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In Madison County Circuit Court, Illinois resident Mark McDonald is suing 92 corporations for his father’s wrongful death. Mark’s father, Robert, worked for nearly 50 years as an auto body repairman, mechanic, and boiler worker at various places throughout the state, including Shell Oil Company.

Last September, Robert was diagnosed with lung cancer, which he died from in March. Mark says that his father got cancer because he was exposed to, ingested, and inhaled asbestos fibers while working and that the defendants should have anticipated that the exposure to the toxic substance would end up killing his father.

Mark says that in addition to suffering from the disease and experiencing physical and mental pain, his father spent a great deal of money on medical costs and other services to treat his illness. Because Robert was unable to work, he lost a substantial amount of income. Not only did Robert’s family lose his financial support and companionship, but they spent a great deal of money to pay for funeral and burial expenses.

Mark is seeking compensatory and punitive damages. He is accusing Metropolitan Life Insurance Company of working with the defendants to misrepresent the dangers that come with exposure to asbestos.

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In Morgan County Superior Court, the daughter of a man who died at Golden Moments Senior Care Center in Jacksonville, Illinois is suing the nursing home, a nurse, two doctors, and other nursing home employees for wrongful death.

Bruce A. Hopley died at the nursing home in 2006. Hopley, then 51, suffered from diabetes and had paid numerous emergency visits to hospitals in the past after experiencing erratic blood sugar levels and seizures. Upon Hopley’s admission into the home in August 2006, family members warned staffers about his health. 19 days later, on September 17, Hopley was found dead just one hour after staff members at the home recorded that his blood sugar level was high.

Golden Moment’s current nursing home administrator says that the hospital was not at fault with the quality of care it gave Hopley. The 18-count Illinois nursing home neglect lawsuit names the home, Doctors Marshall Hale and James Bohan, former nursing home administrator Glen Miller, nurse Cathy Mariage, Gary Weintraub, Melvin Siegel, a dietary manager, The Emes Limited Partnership, Skyview Nursing Associates Limited Partnership, Mavin Inc. of Morgan County, and Chicago Title Land Trust Co. as the defendants.

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A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed against a River Falls Bar for an incident occurring in February 2007. Joseph Roscoe was escorted out of The Library bar by bouncers for being “obviously intoxicated.” He was eventually found unconscious in the alley behind the bar and died 10 days later.

The lawsuit is being filed by Roscoe’s mother and brother. They claim that the bouncers were negligent in the way they handled the situation by causing Roscoe to trip, stumble, and fall several times. He hit his head on the ground, causing serious injuries that ultimately led to his death.

Employees at the bar deny all negligent behavior. They claim that Roscoe was simply kicked out of the bar for being extremely drunk and causing a ruckus. No criminal charges were filed against the bar.

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In Madison County, Illinois, a wrongful death settlement has been reached between Wood River nursing home VIP Manor and the daughter of a woman that died at the home in 2004.

Alinda Rust had filed her wrongful death lawsuit against VIP Manor in Madison County Circuit Court in May 2006. Rust’s lawsuit alleges that her mother. Viola Baehler, died from malnutrition, dehydration, and sepsis four months after being admitted to the home. The suit also says that Baehler suffered physical pain, mental trauma, impairment, and disfigurement, and that she sustained medical expenses for these injuries prior to her death. The nursing home has denied all allegations.

The Illinois wrongful death settlement was reached between the two parties in mediation, which is now a mandatory step in Madison County for all medical malpractice cases, including those involving allegations of nursing home abuse or neglect. The Illinois Supreme Court approved the mandatory mediation rule last year.

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Personal injury funding is accessible to individuals who have rightful claims of injury but who are not financially capable of taking up litigation. This situation often arises with claims relating to toxic substances, medical malpractice, and drug reactions. These claims require long-lasting scrutiny and expert witnesses, both resulting in high expenses to the plaintiff. Though some lawyers will take these cases on a contingency basis, the expenses may surpass the capability of the lawyer or the personal injury firm to sustain.

If you require personal injury funding, you may be entitled to a cash advance. This money does not have to be repaid like a traditional loan, you only pay if you win your claim. The money that you received via your settlement would be then utilized to repay the funding. Because of these uncertainly and length of time involved the legal funding companies are very cautious while examining who they fund.

Most often, you would find that the defendant is a big corporation with huge financial resources to use against a plaintiff of moderate means. The way a case is pursued depends on the available resources. There is a big difference between presenting a case with the basics covered and presenting an all-out case with high-powered experts, graphics, and video. If you wish to pursue the latter option, you will likely have to obtain legal funding from outside groups.

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In 2006 a women went into surgery to repair a leaky heart valve. Doctor Patrick McCarthy of Chicago was the patients doctor who preformed the surgery and also implanted a heart device that he failed to mention he was the inventor of the new device. The patient is suing Dr. McCarhy for medical malpractice. Vlahoulis, the patient, experiences inflammation after the surgery and had to undergo a second surgery to have the device removed. She says that if she had known the device was experimental, she never would have agreed to have it placed inside her. McCarthy denies that the device was experimental because an older model was available commercially over a month before he performed the surgery on the 41-year-old patient. Northwest Memorial Hospital claims it obtained the necessary consent from Vlahoulis for the implant procedure.

Vlahoulis, who filed her Illinois personal injury lawsuit in Cook County earlier this year, is seeking over $50,000 in damages from McCarthy. McCarthy says that he doesn’t believe that the ring is the cause of Vlahoulis’s latest health issues

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Rates for physicians’ liability insurance decreased for the large majority of physicians from their 2007 levels, according to Medical LiabilityMonitor’s annual nationwide Rate Survey released this week.

This year’s study found 49.9 percent of rates did not change between 2007 and 2008; in fact, 20.8 percent of rates experienced a 0.1- to 9.9-percent rate decrease. This continues the stabilizing trend found in the 2007 Rate Survey, where 53.1 percent of rates had not increased and 21 percent had experience a 0.1- to 9.9-percent decrease from the year prior. In 2006, rates also experienced a similar stabilizing effect, perhaps their first in recent history.

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Determining which medical malpractice cases with or without merit is problematic. This is why medical malpractice is such a complicated field, and cannot be dismissed with tort reform. If something goes wrong with surgery or a diagnostic test such as a colonoscopy, this does not necessarily mean the doctor or technician did anything wrong.

A certain percentage of surgeries and even diagnostic procedures have something go wrong. The other facet of such cases is for the doctors, nurses and other personnel to quickly realize that something has gone wrong and to take action to protect the health and the life of the patient. In one case in Chicago, Illinois, at Rush University Medical Centre, a doctor was accused of failing to diagnose a displaced oblique fracture of the distal right clavicle ? a shoulder injury. The patient claimed that the doctor failed to discover the fracture, which was shown on the x-ray and failed to review the radiologist’s report of the x-ray. The patient also claimed and that this negligence caused the patient pain and suffering. The patient was also forced later to have additional surgery to remove hardware used to reduce the fracture. However, after consulting with other doctors and radiologists, the case was dismissed against the radiologist. However, a malpractice suit still remains against the doctor involved.

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Last week, a Chicago man settled a medical malpractice case for $10 million against two groups representing doctors that he sued. In 2003, the man, a 33-year-old vice president at one of the country’s largest information technology staffing firms, was doing great. One year earlier, he had been diagnosed with a routine heart valve condition, a murmur and bicuspid heart valve, leaving him at risk of infective endocarditis, a buildup of bacteria around the heart valve.

The heart condition led to the infection in his heart, but doctors with a local hospital repeatedly misdiagnosed it, sending the man home with allergy medication once and instructions on visiting a back specialist another time. The undiagnosed infection led to a piece of the infection breaking free and traveling to the man’s brain, according to the lawsuit. That caused a stroke that left the man with severe physical and mental disabilities, including severe damage to his language center. The man, a father of two children, still suffers from seizures, has no use of one of his hands and has difficulty walking, talking and reading.

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The Chicago medical malpractice lawyers at Lipkin & Higgins have dedicated their careers to helping people who found themselves caught in difficult and life-destroying situations.

If you believe that mistakes have been made by health care or nursing home professionals in testing, diagnosis, treatment, or care, then one of the attorneys in our Chicago, Illinois, office can help you and your family determine whether negligence has occurred - and if a claim should be filed.

The Federal Employers’ Liability Act was specifically designed to protect wronged workers involved in a railroad injury. Because this law is complex, it is critical to hire a lawyer with FELA claim experience litigating in both Illinois and federal courts. Our attorneys represent engineers, brakemen, switch men and other railroad employees — to make sure they are appropriately compensated.

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Injuries suffered as a result of medical malpractice can be severe and life altering. Our firm understands that your immediate goals after going through such trauma are to get your medical bills paid and covered, make sure you do not suffer financially through any lost wages, and make sure your insurance company will pay for future treatment relating to your injury.

Our experienced attorneys will discuss your situation and go over the options available to you, as well as work with insurance companies and other parties involved in your case to make sure all your needs are handled quickly and appropriately.

Wrongful death as a legal term is a death that has been caused by the fault of another person. For example, deaths caused by drunk driving, the manufacture of a defective or dangerous product, the construction of an unsound structure or building, or failing to diagnose a fatal disease may be considered under the law as “wrongful deaths”.

Wrongful death lawsuits or claims are generally filed by family members or beneficiaries of the decedent. In some instances, these claims are filed in order to obtain monetary damages to cover the earnings the deceased person would have provided.

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A woman who may have to go a heart transplant after a new heart device was implanted inside her during surgery is suing prominent Chicago Dr. Patrick McCarthy for medical malpractice. McCarthy implanted the device, a Myxo ETlogix ring, in the body of Toni Vlahoulis during a surgery to repair a leaky heart valve in 2006. McCarthy did not, however, tell her that he was the inventor of the new device.

Vlahoulis, who experienced inflammation after the surgery, had to undergo a second surgery to have the device removed. She says that if she had known the device was experimental, she never would have agreed to have it placed inside her.

McCarthy denies that the device was experimental because an older model was available commercially over a month before he performed the surgery on the 41-year-old patient. Northwest Memorial Hospital claims it obtained the necessary consent from Vlahoulis for the implant procedure.

Vlahoulis, who filed her Illinois personal injury lawsuit in Cook County earlier this year, is seeking over $50,000 in damages from McCarthy, device manufacturer Edwards Lifesciences, and Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

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