Justia Lawyer Rating for Robert D. Kreisman

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On Jan. 21, 2009, Jasmine Crawford was driving northbound on Bruce Avenue in Flossmoor, Ill.  Her vehicle was hit on the driver’s side door by the defendant, Christine Rothchild, who was traveling eastbound on Wallace Drive. 

Crawford, a 32-year-old homemaker, suffered neck/back soft tissue injuries and a dislocated right shoulder, which required two surgeries. Ms. Crawford also underwent a Bristow Procedure (open surgery) in November 2009 to stabilize the shoulder and to prevent further recurrent dislocations. The Bristow Procedure is an operation in which the biceps muscle at the top of the shoulder joint is moved down slightly to repair the injured area. Because she continued to have shoulder pain, she later had arthroscopic surgery in October 2012 to remove scar tissue that developed following the first surgery. 

Ms. Crawford argued that Rothchild chose not to yield the right of way at the uncontrolled intersection. Crawford’s car was to the right of Rothschild’s car at the time of the collision. 

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The City of Country Club Hills, a Chicago suburb west of the Tri-State Tollway along Interstate 80, maintained a governing body of  ten aldermen — two aldermen from each of the city’s five wards. 

In the 2012 general election, a referendum was put to the vote of the citizenry asking them whether they wanted to reduce the number of aldermen to five, one from each ward. 

The current ten aldermen would continue to serve to the end of their terms and then the number of aldermen would be reduced to five if the referendum passed. There were no objections filed, and the referendum question was referred to the county clerk to be put on the ballot. 

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According to a recent Chicago U.S. District Court decision, a Maine aircraft repair company cannot be brought into a court in Illinois. The decision was based on an argument that because the company’s website can be accessed in Illinois, jurisdiction would lie in U.S. District Court.

In the written opinion issued by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Ruben Castillo, the lawsuit was dismissed.

Clover Technologies LLC, based in Ottawa, Ill., filed a lawsuit against Oxford Aviation Inc. of Oxford, Maine. 

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Motorcyclists have a higher fatality rate than drivers of cars. This is due to many factors, but one is the fact that motorists frequently fail to notice motorcycles. In many accidents, the motorcyclist is not wearing a helmet. In some instances, motorcyclists are traveling at high rates of speed, and they collide with a car or truck. Such was the case in the death of D.S.

D.S. was operating a motorcycle eastbound on Aug. 31, 2008 on Higgins Road in Schaumburg when he entered the intersection at Mall Drive with a green light. He was cut off by a car operated by the defendant, T.W. She was making a U-turn from westbound Higgins to head eastbound.

D.S. was killed in the crash. He was survived by his wife and three minor children. D.S. was a firefighter and paramedic with the Deerfield-Bannockburn Fire Department. At the time of the accident, he was driving a high-performance motorcycle on his way to a charity run.The defendant was visiting from out of state. Several witnesses testified at trial that the defendant suddenly and unexpectedly made a wide and slow U-turn without activating her turn signal, and she cut D.S. off as he entered the intersection.

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Laura Turczak and Robert Lew purchased a house in 2007. They arranged a mortgage with Wells Fargo Bank for $391,250.  They also took out a second mortgage with First American Bank for $73,335. In 2002, Lew and Turczak stopped paying the loans. 

Wells Fargo filed to foreclose its mortgage in June 2010. The same month, First American sued Lew and Turczak for repayment of the second mortgage.

On Sept. 3, 2010, Wells Fargo received a variable foreclosure order that found Lew, Turczak and First American in default.  Judgment was entered for foreclosure and sale in the total amount of $408,597.92. 

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A confidential settlement agreement was reached just two weeks before the start of a bellwether case in a coordinated litigation in California regarding hip implants. The terms of the settlement agreement were not revealed. 

The trial had been scheduled to begin in the middle of October 2013.  The next bellwether trial is set to begin in January 2014 in Los Angeles.  Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary, DePuy Orthopaedics Inc., face thousands of lawsuits at the federal and state levels regarding the ASR implants. 

In March 2013, a Los Angeles jury returned a verdict of $8.3 million in damages to a retired prison guard who claimed that he was injured by the device. This was the first such trial against the orthopedic company.

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Illinois has adopted House Bill 1247, which puts an end to the uncertainty as to whether drivers around the state can use hand-held wireless telephones while driving. Under the bill, which was signed into law by Gov. Pat Quinn, a person may not operate a vehicle on a roadway while using an electronic communication device. The law was passed to put to an end to the confusion from town, municipality to city as to what the law is relating to hand-held devices throughout Illinois.

Violation of this section is an offense against traffic regulations, which would result in a maximum fine of $75 for the first offense, $100 for the second offense, $125 for the third offense and $150 for the fourth offense.

The law does spell out some exceptions for law enforcement officers or persons operating emergency vehicles. The new law applies directly to those using wireless telephones. The act does cover portable or mobile computers and hand-held personal digital assistant devices.

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On Nov. 21, 2013, the Union League of Chicago hosted political analysts and co-authors Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, who wrote the newly released book, Double Down 2012.  The program, featuring Halperin and Heilemann, centered on the authors’ discussion about their book, which covers the Republican primary battle through election night Nov. 6, 2012 when President Barack Obama was re-elected to his second term.

The book is revealing about many of the political actors leading up to and concluding with that election. It focuses on primary candidates on the Republican side and features the aftermath of the first presidential debate when Obama appeared so listless. The book also reports on the sense of how things were going from advisers and consultants closest to the candidates. Halperin and Heilemann look at the behind-the-scenes puzzlement that produced the Clint Eastwood “chair speech” during the Republican National Convention’s final evening and how a Neil Diamond song may have inspired that weird event.

Halperin and Heilemann also co-authored their bestseller and New York Times No. 1 best-selling book recounting the 2008 presidential campaign and election, Game Change:  Obama and the Clinton, Palin and McCain, and the Race of a Lifetime. In 2012, Game Change was made into an HBO film, which also was well-received and won accolades from reviewers.

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Those who would prefer that court records remain secret have a higher burden in trying to keep filed pleadings, court orders, minute entries, hearing transcripts, trial exhibits and discovery documents filed with the court as attachments to motions. For those who wish to have court records secret, the proponent must demonstrate that sealing is warranted under both the federal common law and the First Amendment, which serves as independent grounds for challenging secrecy orders. Lawyers who motion to seal court records and files must demonstrate to the court and the opposition a very strong reason why public access should be denied. 

Under the federal common law, courts begin with a presumption in favor of public access. Under the federal law, the presumption of public access can be overcome if the proponent of this secrecy effort demonstrates “compelling reasons” for secrecy that are supported by “specific factual findings.” Kamakana v. City and County of Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 1178 (9th Cir. 2006) and Union Oil Co. v. Levall, 2020 Fed. 3d 562, 567-68 (7th Cir. 2000).

One of the standards and a compelling reason to seal or make secret court files may be found when disclosing the court records would result in “improper use of the material for scandalous or libelous purposes or infringement upon trade secrets,” but not much beyond that.  Hagestad v. Tragesser, 49 F. 3d 1430, 1434 (9th Cir. 1995). 

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Judge Ronald Whyte reached a decision in the Northern District of California wherein he upheld Major League Baseball’s (MLB) exemption holding that the power to relocate a baseball team franchise is within the business of baseball and that the business of baseball remains exempt from federal antitrust laws. The lawsuit brought by the city of San Jose claimed that the Oakland Athletics should be allowed to relocate from its current home in Oakland, housed at the Oakland Coliseum, to a new stadium in San Jose, Calif.  The new stadium has not been built.

Under the MLB constitution, each baseball team is assigned a particular geographic area. In this case, the Athletics operate in the territory consisting of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. In 2011, the A’s signed a 2-year option contract to purchase land in San Jose for the purpose of building a new stadium there. The stadium would be the new home of the Oakland A’s. In addition, there was an option for a third year on the contract for an additional $25,000. San Jose is outside of the Athletics’ operating territory. Allowing the A’s to relocate would require the majority approval by MLB’s team  owners. 

San Jose argued that MLB violated federal antitrust law by intentionally delaying the owners’ vote for four years, or until after the A’s option to purchase the land in San Jose had expired. This would effectively prevent the Oakland Athletics from moving to San Jose. In addition, another complication is the fact that San Jose is within the geographical territory of the San Francisco Giants.

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