Category Archives: IL

Family files wrongful death suit against Illinois company in fatal crash

July 17, 2012|By Naomi Nix | Tribune reporter A family filed a wrongful death lawsuit Tuesday against an Illinois construction company after one of its drivers was involved in a car crash in Lee County in western Illinois last year that killed three of their relatives. The lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court alleges […]

Cook County court staffer held on $750,000 bail for allegedly shredding court files

BY RUMMANA HUSSAIN Criminal Courts Reporter/rhussain@suntimes.com July 20, 2012 6:28PM A veteran Cook County Circuit Court employee was ordered held in lieu of $750,000 bail Saturday for allegedly taking court files from work and then shredding them at her kitchen table. Authorities didn’t know the quantity of the data that Jeannette Neibauer allegedly destroyed nor […]

US Department of Labor Finds 2 Companies in Violation of Federal Railroad Safety Act

Chicago IL (WorkersCompensation.com) – The U.S. Department of Labor has ordered two railroad companies to pay three workers a total of $650,729.14 in back wages and damages for retaliating against them for reporting workplace injuries and safety concerns. The orders resulted from investigations conducted by the Chicago office of the department’s Occupational Safety and Health […]

Construction Worker Slaps Teamster Union Bosses with Federal Charge for Job Discrimination

Teamster union officials obstruct worker from getting work Chicago, IL (July 19, 2012) – With the help of National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, a nonunion Chicago-area construction worker has filed a federal charge against the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and two of its local affiliate unions for discriminating against him on account of […]

Chicago Trampoline Centers Sued Over Injuries

By Andrew Chow, JD at FindLaw.com Tue Jul 17, 2012 9:10pm EDT Two suburban Chicago trampoline centers are being sued for injuries to children after employees allegedly failed to follow safety rules. In both cases, the children ended up with broken legs, Chicago’s WLS-TV reports. Separate lawsuits by the injured kids’ parents blame workers at […]

Troubled New York Hospitals Forgo Coverage for Malpractice

By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS Published: July 15, 2012 264 Comments Every hospital makes mistakes. But some New York City hospitals may not have enough money to pay for them. Several of the city’s most troubled hospitals are partially or completely uninsured for malpractice, state records show, forgoing what is considered a standard safeguard across the country. […]

City questions injuries, but cop wins top disability benefits

By TIM NOVAK AND CHRIS FUSCO Staff Reporters tnovak@suntimes.com cfusco@suntimes.com July 16, 2012 12:46AM Weeks after she leveled sexual harassment charges against some co-workers 19 years ago, Chicago Police Officer Kimberly Miller-Shemash suffered what turned out to be a career-ending injury when someone didn’t replace the lug nuts on her squad car. Challenged over the […]

Northwest Community’s top doc lacked medical license

By Andrew L. Wang The top doctor at Northwest Community Hospital wasn’t licensed to practice medicine, an embarrassing setback for a medical center that has struggled after missing out on the health care merger boom. Dr. Leighton Smith left his position this month as chief medical officer and vice president of medical affairs at the […]

Wet Seal sued by ex-managers for alleged racial bias

July 12, 2012|Jonathan Stempel | Reuters (Reuters) – Wet Seal Inc has been sued by three former employees who accused it of discriminating against black store managers because they did not fit the image the U.S. retailer, which sells clothes for young women, wanted to convey. According to a complaint filed Thursday in a federal […]

Former FOP Secretary Sues Union For Sexual Harassment

CHICAGO (CBS) – A woman who was a secretary for the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police has filed a federal sexual harassment suit against the union. The lawsuit goes into some salacious detail, using words we cannot use. It accuses FOP attorney Paul Geiger of asking then-secretary Marie Marrero, “How do you like this” as […]

Brother of victim files wrongful-death suit in Lakeview taxi accident

July 10, 2012|By Naomi Nix | Tribune reporter A relative of an 86-year-old pedestrian who was fatally struck by taxi last year in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood filed a wrongful-death lawsuit Tuesday against the driver and cab company. Brian Kier says Mohammed Ahmed was negligent last August when he failed to yield to Coral Kier while […]

Family of motorcyclist killed in crash sues city

June 25, 2012|By Naomi Nix | Tribune reporter The mother of a motorcyclist who died in an accident last June filed a lawsuit Monday alleging the city was negligent in its placement of a traffic-control device. The lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court says a sign gave motorists inadequate notice that the southbound lane […]

Hospital Safety Ratings Released By Consumer Reports

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online Billings Clinic in Montana is the safest hospital in the US, while Sacred Heart Hospital in Chicago scored lowest, according to Consumer Reports’ first-ever list of the best and worst medical facilities. According to the organization, a 2010 US Department of Health and Human Services report […]

AIG workers compensation settlement disputed by Liberty Mutual units

CHICAGO—Subsidiaries of Boston-based Liberty Mutual Group Inc. have asked a federal judge to reverse a $450 million settlement paid by American International Group Inc. for its alleged underreporting of workers compensation premiums. In a June 12 filing in the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Safeco Insurance Co. and Ohio Casualty Insurance Co. say the […]

Too many creeps see opportunity on buses, trains

BY DR. LAURA BERMAN drberman@bermancenter.com July 3, 2012 9:33AM Crowded buses and dirty train cars are just the beginning. Sexual harassment can be an issue, as is sexual assault in the form of unwanted touching, indecent exposure and public masturbation. This is especially true in Shanghai, China, where sexual harassment on public transportation has reached […]

Yellow Transportation Inc. discrimination case shows why racism is so frustrating

BY MARY MITCHELL marym@suntimes.com July 2, 2012 5:48PM The $11 million settlement in a discrimination case brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission shows why racism is so frustrating. The suit was against Yellow Transportation Inc., a trucking company in Chicago Ridge that is now known as YRC Freight. Harry Glasper, who received professional […]

Celine Dion sued by employee for overtime violations

Tim Kenneally Reuters 1:42 p.m. CDT, June 29, 2012 LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Celine Dion is being sued by a former employee who claims that he was illegally denied overtime compensation by the singer, and says that there are other people in Dion’s employ who’ve been similarly stiffed. In a complaint filed in U.S. District […]

Widening sex scandal rocks Texas Air Force base

Male instructors allegedly had sex with female trainees; airman faces court-martial for rape SAN ANTONIO — From a chapel pulpit on Lackland Air Force Base, where every American airman reports for basic training, Col. Glenn Palmer delivered his first order to nearly 600 recruits seated in the pews: If you’re sexually harassed or assaulted, tell […]

AAJ: Protect Consumers From Secretive Forced Arbitration

Posted by: Katie Gommel AAJ filed two sets of comments on a forthcoming study encouraging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to fully examine the devastating impact forced arbitration has on the rights of American consumers. AAJ President Gary M. Paul stated in the comments: “Corporations’ broad utilization of pre-dispute mandatory arbitration clauses greatly reduces […]

United Road Towing Failed to Provide Reasonable Accommodations to Class of Employees With Disabilities

By the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, United Road Towing, Inc., a Mokena, Ill.-based towing company, will pay $380,000 to 13 claimants and provide other relief resolving a disability discrimination lawsuit, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced. A federal district court judge in Chicago entered a consent decree ending the litigation on Wednesday, […]

Repetitive walking

Illinois workers’ compensation needs more reform June 23, 2012 To anyone who thought Illinois had solved its workers’ compensation problem when lawmakers approved a half-baked reform measure last year, we have two words for you: “repetitive walking.” Yes, the same state notorious among employers for its out-of-control workers’ comp system recently identified a novel workplace […]

Illinois partners with feds to enforce protections against housing discrimination

by Gary Barlow Chicago, IL — While Congress has dragged its feet on passing laws prohibiting discrimination in employment based on sexual orientation and gender identity, the Obama administration has implemented new federal rules that prohibit discrimination in housing, at least when federal funds are involved. That, in turn, has made it easier to enforce […]

City Hall janitor sues for sexual harassment

CHICAGO (WLS) – A woman filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against a City of Chicago employee who allegedly took semi-nude photographs of her as she changed in his City Hall office. The woman claims she was working for Triad Consulting Services, a janitorial company assigned to clean City Hall, when the man offered her his […]

Wait. A Business Can Be Sued for NOT Hiring Criminals?

Many small businesses did not know it was illegal to impose a ban on hiring anybody with a criminal record. “I was not aware of that one,” said Brian Hamilton, who owns four car dealerships in Nebraska. By ROBB MANDELBAUM Published: June 20, 2012 In April, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission signaled that it would […]

Boy on bike struck by school bus, injured in Humboldt Park

By Liam Ford Tribune reporter 8:34 p.m. CDT, May 22, 2012 A 14-year-old boy on a bicycle was struck by a bus on a residential street in the Humboldt Park neighborhood and injured, relatives of the boy and officials said. Fire Department paramedics took the child to Children’s Memorial Hospital in serious-to-critical condition about 4 […]

Editorial: Fighting racism doesn’t justify busting heads

If a bunch of anti-racists bust into a restaurant and beat up a bunch of racists, they are not noble, heroic or in any way admirable, motivation not withstanding. They are law-breaking brawlers. But that seems quite the opposite of the message being sent by several attorneys who have signed on to represent, for free, […]

Pregnant woman cries, announces suit over Taser incident with cops

BY NATASHA KORECKI Federal Courts Reporter nkorecki@suntimes.com June 14, 2012 4:00PM A Chicago woman who was eight months pregnant when she said a Chicago Police officer shocked her with a Taser over a parking ticket dispute, broke down in tears on Thursday as she explained what it felt like going through the ordeal. Tiffany Rent […]

U.S. drug recalls common, not well publicized: study

June 04, 2012, Andrew M. Seaman, Reuters NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recalls potentially harmful drugs about once every month, but they could be doing a better job of letting doctors and patients know about them, says a new study. Over an eight-year span, researchers found that the […]