Hot Coffee - Personal Injury Documentary on HBO

A new documentary, Hot Coffee, premieres on HBO on June 27th at 8:00 p.m. Chicago time.  This movie reviews the now infamous case involving a woman who spilled hot coffee in her lap nearly 20 years ago and sued McDonalds for her injuries.  Everyone is familiar with the McDonalds coffee case.  It has been routinely cited as an example of how citizens have taken advantage of America’s legal system, but is that a fair rendition of the facts?  Hot Coffee reveals what really happened to Stella Liebeck, the Albuquerque woman who spilled coffee on herself and sued McDonald’s, while exploring how and why the case garnered so much media attention, who funded the effort and to what end. After seeing this film, you will decide who really profited from spilling hot coffee.

This movie investigates why special interest groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce - funded behind the scenes by insurance companies, big tobacco, oil, pharmaceutical companies and the like - want to undermine our civil justice system and restrict the legal rights of all Americans to exercise their constitutional guaranteed right to trial by jury and to receive fair and reasonable compensation for when they have been wronged.  These attacks are an effort at so-called civil justice reform - or tort reform.  These special interest groups, especially in Illinois, work to convince citizens that our justice system is being manipulated for profit, when in fact it is being manipulated against the interests of normal people who sustain catastrophic injuries. 

Watch Hot Coffee on HBO and decide for yourself who is truly working to protect the safety of our communities and citizens.  I trust you will quickly learn that it is not the big insurance and corporate interest groups, who try to scare people into thinking that juries of your peers are unable to enforce safety rules in your community with fair verdicts against those wrongdoers protected by special interest groups. 

Illinois Workers Compensation Act Amended

Workers' Compensation Act
House Bill 1698
(Raoul, D-Chicago; Bradley, D-Marion) rewrites the Workers’ Compensation Act. Many of the following changes will take effect on Sept. 1, 2011. (1) Requires the employee prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the accidental injuries were sustained arising out of an in the course of the employment. (2) Allows two construction unions to do a pilot program in which workers’ compensation is collectively bargained. (3) A § 8(d(1) wage differential award is effective only until the employee reaches 67 years of age or five years from the date of the award becomes final, whichever is later. (4) Limits hand injuries to 190 weeks. A recovery for carpal-tunnel may not exceed 15% loss of use of a hand unless cause is shown otherwise by clear and convincing evidence in which the award may not exceed 30% loss of use of the hand. (5) Authorizes a Preferred Provider Network of physicians and qualifies the petitioner’s right to have two separate choices of medical providers. If an injured worker refuses to be treated by the employer-directed PPO network, that refusal counts as his or her first choice of physician. (6) Requires a physician to use the AMA’s Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment in determining the level of impairment. Creates criteria for the physician in that evaluation. Requires the Commission to base its determination of the PPD on the following criteria: (a) the reported level of impairment by the physician; (b) the employee’s occupation; (c) the employee’s age at the time of injury; (d) the employee’s future earning capacity; and (e) evidence of disability corroborated by the treating medical records. No single criterion may be the sole determinant of disability. (7) Reduces out-of-state medical services to that state’s fee schedule, or if that state doesn’t have a fee schedule, the lesser of the actual charge or the amount of the Illinois fee schedule where the employee resides. (8) Creates four geo-zip regions for the Illinois fee schedule effective Jan. 1, 2012. (9) Reduces charges for implants to 25% above the net manufacture’s invoice price and shipping costs minus any rebates. (10) Reduces the fee schedule by 30% for any medical services rendered after Sept. 1, 2011. (11) Utilization-review evaluations will now include nationally recognized treatment guidelines and evidence-based medicine. (12) An employee may not be compensated if the employee’s intoxication is the proximate cause of his or her injuries or if the employee was so intoxicated that it consisted of a departure from the employment. (13) Terminates all arbitrators effective July 1, 2011, but they continue to serve until reappointed or their successors are appointed. All future arbitrators must be licensed Illinois attorneys. Each hearing site will include at least three different arbitrators, and the cases will be assigned on a random basis. Every two years the case will be assigned to a different arbitrator. (14) Prohibits attorneys from giving gifts to someone for referring a case to them unless it is food and drink less $75 per day. (15) Adds extensive reporting requirements for insurance carriers.

Construction Negligence Trial Nets $1,477,000 Verdict

Daniel E. O'Brien of Burke & O'Brien recently tried a case with Antonio Romanucci of Romanucci & Blandin on behalf of a carpenter who fell from an inadequate ladder on a job site and was impaled in the head with a 100-pound steel beam.  After 10 days of trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff and his wife in the amount of $2,110,000 with a finding of 30% comparative negligence against the plaintiff.  This resulted in a net verdict for plaintiffs of $1,477,000.
The defendant general contractor knew that one of its subcontractors was using improper ladders for the work on the commercial construction site, but failed to have the ladders removed until after plaintiff's injury.  The ladders were not industrial strength ladders and were also too short for the work.
The plaintiff suffered a traumatic brain injury that resulted in permanent conditions of tinnitus, hyperacusis and migraines that severely reduced his sound tolerance to such an extent that it significantly limited his ability to function in all aspects of his life.  He was permanently restricted from returning to work as a carpenter.

Chicago Law Firm Settles $750,000 Medical Malpractice Lawsuit

Sean C. Burke of Burke & O'Brien settled a medical malpractice claim on behalf of 46-year old woman who was injured in 2003 when her pain management doctor struck a nerve in her left leg during surgery.  The surgery was supposed to correct the woman's long-standing low back and right leg pain. 

The doctor made two critical mistakes.  First, the doctor gave the patient general anesthesia knocking out the patient.  During the surgery, the patient could not warn the doctor when the doctor came into contact with the nerve.  Second, the doctor inserted the surgery needle into the patient's left side even though the patient's pain was on the right.  The doctor's wrong-sided approach put the patient's left leg at risk for unnecessary injury. 

The nerve injury has left the woman with altered sensation and permanent pain in her left leg.  She needs a cane to walk.  She was forced her to quit her job in 2003 and cannot return to work. 



 

Chicago Law Firms - Burke & O'Brien Law

Chicago Personal Injury Attorneys

Burke & O’Brien is a Chicago Based Law Firm that has successfully represented clients injured due to automobile and truck accidents, medical malpractice, wrongful death, premises liability, construction liability, work injuries, and defective products/products liability. We use our litigation and trial experience to obtain fair and substantial awards for our clients who are seriously injured due to the negligence of others, including automobile drivers, doctors and hospitals, municipalities, corporations, and property owners. We have successfully recovered millions in settlements and verdicts for our clients.

Our goal is to help make our community safer by defending the rights of those injured due to negligence of others.

Burke & O'Brien Law is located in downtown Chicago representing clients in the following cities: Chicago, Arlington Heights, Aurora, Batavia, Berwyn, Bolingbrook, Cicero, Des Plaines, Elgin, Evanston, Geneva, Glen Ellyn, Joliet, Lombard, Mount Prospect, Naperville, Oak Lawn, Oak Park, Orland Park, Palantine, Schaumburg, Skokie, Saint Charles, St. Charles, Waukegon, Wheaton and all of the following counties, Cook, Dupage, Kane, Lake and Will.