Illinois product liability attorneys should be aware that Avandia, a diabetes drug, is now linked to a higher risk of heart attack and heart failure according to a report released by the Senate Finance Committee on Feb. 20, 2010. The report authored by the committee chaired by Senators Baucus and…
Illinois medical malpractice lawyers who represent victims and their clients were pleased with the ruling last week by Cook County Circuit Court Judge Joan Diane Larsen that caps on non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases violates the Illinois Constitution. Under the law (Public Act 94-667), plaintiffs could be awarded no…
Illinois Wrongful Death Act now allows jurors to award damages for “grief, sorrow, and mental suffering.” The law in Illinois since 1867 has been that in wrongful death actions, there is “no recovery for bereavement” and “nothing can be given as solatium.” Chicago & A.R. Co. v. Shannon, 43 Ill.…
Illinois hospitals were granted immunity from disclosing confidential patient records by the Illinois Supreme Court. Bagent.v. Blessing Care, d/b/a Illini Hospital, 224 Ill. 2d 154, 862 N.E. 2d 985 (Jan. 19, 2007). An Illinois woman’s common law right of privacy claim against a hospital that her confidential medical records were…
An Illinois internet prescription malpractice case that I tried last year now has resulted in the indictment of the very doctors sued. The doctors were charged in the civil suit with: (1) prescribing Xanax and Ultram to a patient they had never seen or examined; (2) prescribing excessive dosages and;…
An Illinois internet prescription malpractice case that I prosecuted beginning in 2004 opened my eyes to the widespread abuse of prescription drugs the internet facilitates. An unholy alliance has developed between physicians and the internet pharmacies that push drugs via spam e-mails and pay for click advertising. This is the…
An Illinois wrongful death verdict arising out of a construction accident where a scaffold collapsed was reversed by the appellate court in Chicago. The Court did rule that the defendants had waived any right to challenge the award of $14,230,000. The issue as framed by the Appellate Court: Is a…
One Chicago medical malpractice case that did not involve either doctors or nurses was resolved too late to benefit the victim. In 1999 a Chicago area woman went to her gynecologist for her annual pap smear. Because she had been previously diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease she was at…
An Illinois internet prescription malpractice suit named two physicians, one from New Jersey and one from Pennsylvania for prescribing Xanax and Ultram to an Illinois resident based solely on an online questionnaire. In May 2004 a 31 year old Illinois man received 60 2mg tablets of Xanax and 90 50mg…
An Illinois medical malpractice case I recently handled where an anesthetic was injected into the victim’s spinal cord ended successfully for a Chicago area woman. A 44 year old Chicago area woman became a victim of medical malpractice when she went into a surgical center for repair of a torn…