The 4th District of the Illinois Appellate Court in the case of a former railroad employee, James Smith, reversed the jury’s verdict finding that the trial judge had been wrong in preventing the defendant from presenting evidence regarding the plaintiff’s prior work history. Smith was a former railroad employee of…
The Illinois Appellate Court for the 1st District has reversed and remanded a case decided in the Circuit Court of Cook County. In August 2011, Virginia Jahrke arrived at the health club belonging to Capital Fitness Inc. for her usual one-hour training session. After she finished her session, she went…
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago has affirmed a decision by the district court judge regarding circumstantial evidence without an expert witness. In this case, the plaintiffs, Howard Piltch and Barbara Nelson-Piltch, were driving in their 2003 Mercury Mountaineer in 2006 when they were involved in…
Amarjit Khunkhun was a 43-year-old truck driver when he was found burned to death in the cab of his truck owned by his employer, GMG Trucking of Fresno, Calif. Khunkhun was survived by his wife and three children. The state fire investigators found that the fire started inside the cab…
Sandra Gibbs hired the defendant Blu-Sky Industries to do work on a septic tank on her property at 30658 S. Ashland Ave. in Beecher, Ill. The Village of Beecher is located in Chicago-area suburbs in Will County, Ill. On Dec. 8, 2009, Gibbs, 31 years old at the time, stood…
On Sept. 8, 2011, the defendant 31-year-old Anna Tudzich, was driving a car that rear-ended John Dodaro’s car on southbound Harlem Avenue near 47th Street in Lyons Township, Ill. The 30 mph impact caused Dodaro to experience immediate neck and back pain and significant damage to his pickup truck and…
Allen Zunner got out of his car to pump gas at a convenience store gas station when he fell on black ice and diesel fuel, which had settled on the concrete pavement around the gas pump. Zunner, 53, suffered a massive torn right rotator cuff injury and underwent two surgeries.…
On June 21, 2012, Matthew Lyman, 19, was driving his bicycle northbound on by the defendant, Thomas Garcia. Garcia’s car was traveling westbound on Congress Parkway. Matthew sustained a fractured left wrist, which required open reduction internal fixation with a plate and ten screws. A 3-inch surgical scar was left…
The Illinois Appellate Court has affirmed a defense verdict in a multi-vehicle crash on an icy Indiana highway that caused severe injuries to motorists. The big issue in the case was which state’s law should be applied at a Cook County Circuit Court jury trial. On Dec. 26, 2007, Clifford…
On May 8, 2011, Mason Brandstedter was driving on Route 59 in West Chicago, Ill., around 1:30 a.m. It was then that he discovered what appeared to be a dog, which was lying on the road and had clearly been injured. Brandstedter, 21, stopped his car facing southbound in the…