Justia Lawyer Rating for Robert D. Kreisman

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In November 2008, Chavonne Freeman, 53, was stopped in traffic on westbound 144th Place at LaGrange Park in Orland Park, Illinois, when her car was rear-ended by a U.S. Postal Service vehicle. Freeman was taken from the scene to the emergency room at Palos Community Hospital. She complained of neck and back pain. She followed up with her primary care physician two days later with complaints of neck, back and knee pain. 

Six weeks after the crash, Dec. 29, 2008, Freeman was seen by an orthopedic surgeon; she complained of knee pain. She was diagnosed with patellar subluxation (partial dislocation) and instability in the left knee. Surgery was recommended for January 2009 and was performed on July 29, 2009.

Three weeks later, on Aug. 19, 2009, Freeman died from a pulmonary embolism caused by a deep vein thrombosis resulting from the knee surgery. No medical negligence was alleged in the lawsuit filed by her family. 

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Leona and Perry Smith were the co-guardians of the person, but not of the estate, of a profoundly disabled son, Perry Powell. A medical malpractice case was first initiated by Leona Smith related to the death of her husband, Perry Smith, which ended because of alleged legal malpractice. The issue in this appellate court case was whether an attorney-client relationship with Perry Powell, the disabled son of the decedent, was available. 

The legal malpractice case was brought in the name of a public guardian and was later dismissed. At the trial court level, the judge concluded that the lawyers hired by Leona owed no duty to Perry Powell, the disabled son of the decedent.

In reversing, the appellate court said, “An attorney litigates a wrongful-death action for the exclusive benefit of the next-of-kin and owes that party a duty even though the next-of-kin did not execute a retainer agreement with the attorneys.”

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On April 30, 2009, Bretton Vaughn was driving southbound on Halsted Street in Harvey, Ill. Vaughn’s vehicle struck the plaintiff pedestrian, Sherry Wilson, in the crosswalk at 149th Street. The intersection at that location is a 3-way intersection. Wilson had walked westbound across two northbound lanes and two southbound lanes before reaching an island between the diverging or splitting southbound lanes. Halsted at that place splits into Halsted and Morgan, south of 149th Street.

When Wilson stepped off the island and crossed, she was in front of a stopped bus before entering the far right lane.  It was there that she was hit by the defendant’s vehicle. 

Wilson, 49, was walking to work. She suffered a severely comminuted tibial plateau fracture in her right knee requiring open reduction internal fixation surgery. She also had a small bleed to her head internally. She claimed her light was green when she started crossing the street and when she stepped off the island.

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In August 2005, Martin Stahling Sr. signed a statutory “short form” power of attorney for health care decisions under Section 4-10 of the Illinois Powers of Attorney for Health Care Law. He designated his son, Martin Stahling Jr. The subject of the controversy was the transfer by Stahling Sr. to a deed of acres of land to himself and Stahling Jr. as joint tenants. 

Stahling Sr. died in November 2007m bringing rise to the claim by his daughter, Martie Koehler, who maintained that (1) Stahler Jr. owed a fiduciary duty to his father and (2) there was a presumption that Stahling Jr. obtained the real estate by undue influence.

The question of law was certified by a Jersey County, Illinois, judge for immediate appeal to the Illinois Appellate Court. 

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Plaintiff Joyce Kilburg was injured while she was a passenger in a taxicab. She filed a lawsuit claiming negligence and spoliation of evidence against defendants, which included the driver of the Zante Cab Co. taxi, Taxi Medallion Management, Inc. (Taxi Medallion), Taxi Affiliation Services, LLC (Taxi Affiliation) and Wolley Cab Association (Wolley). 

On the defendants’ motion under Illinois Code of Procedure §2-615, the spoliation claims were dismissed. The plaintiff appealed, arguing that the trial judge erred in dismissing the spoliation claims because her complaint sets forth sufficient facts to show that defendants had a duty to preserve the evidence.

In this case, on Oct. 6, 2009, Kilburg was injured when a taxi in which she was a passenger left the roadway and crashed into a tree. Zante was the owner of the taxi. On Oct. 8, 2009, Zante towed the taxi to a lot on Elston Avenue in Chicago. Taxi Medallion leased the lot and stored taxis there.

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The plaintiff, DaVinci Graphics, entered into a purchase agreement in 2009 to buy the Brownfield News magazine for $425,000.  The sellers were the defendants in this case. As part of the deal, DaVinci paid $100,000 up front with the remainder of the purchase price to be paid in installments.

After DaVinci took control of the magazine and started publication, DaVinci personnel came to believe that the magazine’s financials were not consistent with the representations made by the defendant sellers in the sales agreement. This revelation was discovered before the first installment payment was due. 

Pursuant to the contract, in the event of a dispute, DaVinci was to deposit the remaining installment payments ($325,000) into an escrow account. DaVinci then filed this lawsuit alleging fraud and breach of contract.

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There are more than 3,000 active Actos bladder lawsuits pending nationwide.In one of the first to go to trial, a jury returned a $6.5 million verdict against Takeda Pharmaceuticals American, Inc., the company that makes and markets the diabetes drug, Actos.  The plaintiff in this case developed bladder cancer after being prescribed Actos for his diabetes.

The jury found that Takeda chose not to warn patients and physicians of the risks associated with using Actos. The jury’s verdict of $6.5 million was made up of the following damages: $5 million to the plaintiff and $1.5 million to his wife for loss of consortium.

The plaintiff was prescribed Actos for his diabetes by his family physician. The plaintiff took Actos for more than 4 years before developing bladder cancer in 2011. The presiding judge ordered that this case go to trial when it was found that the plaintiff was very ill and not likely to survive even another year. The trial, which started in February, lasted nearly 2 months. 

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A breach of contract case was interrupted by the death of the individual plaintiff, Theodore Sarche. Mr. Sarche’s death led to his law firm moving to appoint a special representative under Section 2-1008(a) of the Illinois Code of Civil Procedure.

An affidavit was later supplied by Sarche’s sole surviving child, Michael Sarche, who attested that he authorized his father’s law firm to continue prosecuting the case against the defendant. 

Michael Sarche did not open a probate estate because his father had limited assets. Michael was living in Colorado. Based on Michael’s instructions, the law firm moved to substitute Carol Mohica, a paralegal at the law firm, to act as plaintiff under the special representative piece of that statute.

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Elaine Shafran was stopped at a stop sign on Portwine Road and Orange Brace Road, in Riverwoods, Ill., when northbound defendant, Atsuko Alvarez, rear-ended a minivan behind the plaintiff, pushing the van into plaintiff’s station wagon.  The plaintiff, a 56-year-old special education teacher, alleged that the impact caused aggravation of a pre-existing arthritis in her lumbar spine.  She said she incurred medical bills of $18,000.

The defendant denied that Shafran was injured in the accident at all. She said that plaintiff waited until 9 days after the crash to get medical treatment. She first went to a chiropractor 15 months after the crash. The plaintiff, Shafran, was involved in 3 later accidents; in all of them, she was not at fault. Shafran testified that she had experienced low back pain since she delivered her first child in 1982.

During trial, the plaintiff’s medical testimony came from her internist and her chiropractor. On the defense side, the defendant hired an orthopedic surgeon to testify as to the damage feature of the case. 

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A $5 million jury verdict was handed down in the first of the federal multidistrict litigation cases involving patients claiming injury from the body scan contrast agent gadolinium. The Ohio jury found GE Healthcare chose not to provide the necessary health risk warnings with patients with impaired kidney function when gadolinium is used in a body scan. The gadolinium product is a contrast dye used in MRI and other radiographic scanning.

The plaintiff in this case developed an untreatable skin disease called nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) as a result of being injected with the Omniscan for magnetic resonance angiogram. Omniscan is the prescription medication with gadolinium as a product that is used to screen patients for acute kidney injury or other conditions related to reduced renal function.

The drug makers of the Omniscan product, GE Healthcare, Bayer and Covidien have defended hundreds of lawsuits claiming injuries from the gadolinium-based contrast agent products. 

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