Justia Lawyer Rating for Robert D. Kreisman

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In the aftermath of the recent Philadelphia Amtrak derailment, which cost the lives of eight individuals and severely injured more than 200, it came to light that the U.S. Congress had passed an act in 1997 to limit or cap Amtrak’s total payouts to train crash victims to $200 million. In an Associated Press report by writer Eileen Sullivan, it was reported that the cap may be too low for the injured and killed in the Philadelphia Amtrak crash.

The $200 million payout cap was for a single passenger rail incident was part of a late effort in 1997 to pass legislation that would help Amtrak financially, which was on the brink of bankruptcy at that time.

The 1997 legislation did not adjust the payout cap for inflation. If that were considered today, the payout cap might reach somewhere in the area of $300 million in 2015 dollars.

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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in Chicago has found an Illinois resident did not establish the minimum state contacts for a case to be heard in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago.

William Kipp purchased a ski ticket at Devil’s Head Ski Resort in Merrimac, Wis., on Jan. 6, 2012. As Kipp was attempting to board the ski lift, the speed of the lift caused him to be thrown from the chair. He suffered a left clavicle, collar bone fracture.

Kipp sued Ski Enterprise, the lift operator, claiming that the lift’s operating speed was the too fast and that the operator was negligent, causing his injuries.

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On March 11, 2011, Veronica Thomas was a passenger in a taxi cab heading eastbound on Jackson Boulevard in Chicago’s Loop when the defendant cab ran a red light on southbound State Street and struck the plaintiff’s cab, which she was riding in.

As a result of the crash, Thomas, 39 at the time, sustained a neck injury, which was claimed to require a future 3-level cervical fusion, a shoulder injury, right arm numbness, thumb injury and memory problems. She spent $24,177 in medical expenses related to her injuries.

The defendant driver, Tony C. Piattoni, also a cab driver, said he was stopped at the red light at Jackson Boulevard when he saw the light a block ahead at Van Buren Street turn green and mistook it for his traffic signal. The defendant cab driver admitted negligence but contested the extent of the injuries claimed by Thomas. The defense also denied that Thomas will require a future fusion surgery.

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Tracy Morgan, the actor/comedian, has settled his lawsuit against Walmart. In June 2014, Morgan and three others were involved in a truck crash on the New Jersey Turnpike when their limousine was struck by a Walmart truck. Morgan’s close friend and mentor, James “Jimmy Mack” McNair was killed. Morgan suffered serious injuries, which included head trauma, a broken leg and broken ribs. He is still recovering from his injuries. McNair grew up with Morgan in New York City; his two children survive him.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Newark, N.J. Details of the settlement were not disclosed as the case was settled on the basis of the confidential agreement.

The truck driver for Walmart, Kevin Ropert of Jonesboro, Ga., faces criminal charges. He has pleaded not guilty.

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The United States Constitution and the Illinois Constitution have to credit many key provisions and the foundation of American laws and freedoms to the June 15, 1215 signing of the Magna Carta at Runnymede, England, by then King John of England.

The origin of the 13th century Magna Carta began as the rebellion by numerous barons who found that King John’s tyrannical rule needed to be curtailed. The Magna Carta was drafted with some 63 individual clauses. When the final draft was finally completed, it was signed at Runnymede because it was located in a place that was far enough away from King John’s castle at Windsor and still far enough away from some who rebelled against the king to make it the ideal location for the sealing of the Great Charter.

Just six weeks after the Magna Carta was sealed, the Pope in Rome ordered that the Magna Carta be revoked calling it antithetical to the right of the kings of Europe and elsewhere. With the Pope’s order revocation, a civil war broke out in England. King John, however, died five months later and his eldest son Henry became the king. When King Henry took over the realm, he reinstated the Magna Carta to restore peace in the land, ending the English civil war.

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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 into a locker room and changed and started to walk out. As she was walking, she slipped and fell on something wet on the floor.

On Dec. 7, 2011, Jahrke filed a lawsuit against Capital in the Circuit Court of Cook County alleging that the company chose not to properly maintain the locker room or provide warning of a slippery floor and that its negligence caused her to slip and fall, injuring herself.

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Takata Corp. is headquartered in Japan and manufactures millions of airbags installed in American vehicles. The company has agreed to recall 33.8 million airbags. That number doubles the already massive recall.

A consent agreement was entered into between Takata and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). There is a federal class action injury lawsuit pending in the Miami Federal District Court related to the defective airbags.

The agreement with NHTSA and Takata was reduced to an agreed order in the federal district court class action case. There are 10 automobile manufacturers that installed Takata airbags. According to a recent Chicago Law Daily Bulletin report, 17 million of those vehicles with Takata airbags are in the United States.

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Daniel DiNardi was a State Department of Transportation supervisor who was pulling his orange Department of Transportation pickup truck onto the right shoulder of a highway to remove debris. Before getting out of his truck, he activated the emergency lights and yellow strobe lights on his truck. After he placed the debris into the pickup truck bed and was walking to get back into his truck, Gina Davis, driving a tractor-trailer for PTX Services LLC, drifted off the road and struck DiNardi. He suffered multiple blunt-force trauma injuries and died shortly thereafter. DiNardi was survived by his parents and two minor children.

Davis pleaded guilty of misconduct with a motor vehicle and was sentenced to five years in prison, which was suspended after two years.

DiNardi’s family sued Davis and PTX Services claiming that Davis was negligent in choosing not to pay proper attention to her driving, keep a proper lookout and remain in her lane of traffic. The family also made a claim that Davis was fatigued from driving and had falsified her truck’s log book. The family presented evidence, including Davis’s own admission, that she had falsified her logs for the two days leading up to the collision. Davis also admitted at deposition and at trial that she drove onto the shoulder.

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The Illinois Appellate Court for the 1st District has affirmed a trial court’s decision regarding a settlement. Gary Hines and Lisa O’Rourke were in Chicago visiting Hines’s father, Norman, near the end of 2012. As the visit was ending, Norman drove the two to the airport. When they arrived, Norman Hines and O’Rourke began to take their luggage out of the trunk. E. James Davis was in a parking space behind them trying to pull out. His foot became trapped between the gas pedal and brake and the car accelerated striking both Norman Hines and O’Rourke and pinning them against the car. Both Norman Hines and O’Rourke suffered severe injuries and filed a lawsuit against Davis.

Hines and O’Rourke hired a lawyer to represent both of them but filed separate lawsuits. When Hines died on May 20, 2013, David Hines and Diane Galante filed as special administrators of Norman Hines’s estate and continued the lawsuit on the estate’s behalf.

Davis offered $1.3 million, the limit of his policy of insurance, in exchange for dismissal of all of the claims for both plaintiffs. The plaintiffs were given 21 days to respond, and after the 21 days the lawyer told the judge that they had failed to reach an agreement.

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It has long been law in Illinois that, “a judgment against two or more defendants, whether in contract or tort, was indivisible, and could neither be vacated by a trial court or reversed by a reviewing court as to one defendant alone, even though it was not erroneous as to the others, “ Chmielewski v. Marich, 2 Ill.2d 568 (1954).

In this wrongful death case, Carolina Casualty Insurance Co. (CCIC) argued it was justified in dropping the estate of Joseph Sperl and Thomas Sanders as defendants in a Will County interpleader case.

CCIC covered $1 million in liability coverage to Dragon Fly Express and DeAn Henry, who were claimed to have caused the car crash that killed Sperl and Sanders, seriously injured William Taluc and injured several others. There was also a significant amount of property damage as a result of this collision.

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