Sara Hendricks, 32, was driving her passenger vehicle through an intersection when Matthew Mullin, who was driving a farm truck hauling grain for his employer, pulled out from a stop sign into Hendricks’s path. Her car hit the side of the farm truck driven by Mullin. Hendricks suffered fractures to…
Chicago Injury Lawyer Blog
Cook County Courts Start Pilot Program Allowing Cameras in Courts
Cook County has the largest single unified court system in the United States. For the first time, on Jan. 5, 2015, the Circuit Court of Cook County began allowing media cameras in courtrooms. The pilot program has limited to the Leighton Criminal Court building at 26th and California streets in…
US Federal Highway Administration Asked to Investigate Defective Guardrail System
Six United States senators have asked the Federal Highway Administration to investigate the safety of roadside guardrails. This request was made on March 4, 2015, and it is the latest of a series of inquiries made regarding the guardrails manufactured by Trinity Industries Inc. The questions about the guardrail system…
Fatal Fire Caused by Negligent Truck Maintenance Leads to Jury Verdict of $3.52 Million
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…
Backing Truck Strikes Pedestrian, Resulting in $127,000 Cook County Jury Verdict
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…
Are Illinois Appointed Judges Better Jurists than Elected Jurists?
It is perhaps a custom that grew out of an era nearly 200 years ago that elected judges would be better suited to carry out the law and protect the integrity of the United States court systems. The reason many states adopted the laws that would allow the election of…
Illinois Appellate Court Denies Recovery in Unjust Enrichment Case
In 1986, Nina Willoughby operated a small business in which she sold retail clothes in a rented store. That year, she and Louis Fideli took out a $315,000 loan and purchased the store with other properties. The store property was kept solely in Fideli’s name. However, in 2003, Willoughby missed…
$125,000 Illinois Jury Verdict in Injuries Suffered in Car Crash
During a jury trial in LaSalle County, Ill., the jury found in favor of Ty Benckendorf, who was a backseat passenger in a car traveling southbound in Marseilles, Ill., on Oct. 20, 2010. The defendant, 75-year-old Juliann Huber, was driving a car that was heading southwest. It pulled into the…
Attorney’s Lien Must Be Served on the Defendant, Not Merely on the Defendant’s Attorneys
The Illinois Appellate Court has affirmed a Cook County trial judge’s order regarding the effect of an attorney’s lien notice sent to a defendant’s attorneys rather than the defendant directly. Randy Brown was the owner and operator of a Harold’s Chicken Shack in suburban Broadview, Ill., until Jan. 15, 2009.…
$70,000 Cook County Jury Verdict for Rear End Crash at High Speed
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…