James Ford, a Delaware resident, says he was among dozens of fans invited onto stage during the Aug. 15, 2010, concert, dubbed as the “Gathering of the Juggalos” at Cave in Rock, Ill. Ford claims he suffered severe and permanent leg injuries after he fell into a modified trampoline on stage.

Ford seeks damages for his injuries in the Southern District of Illinois. He is represented by Jeffrey Deutschman of Deutschman & Associates in Chicago.

Psychopathic Records, Insane Clown Posse, Juggalo Gathering, Faygo Beverages and Hogrock Inc. are named as defendants. Faygo allegedly sponsored the event that brought Ford to stage.

Insane Clown Posse Show Was Too Crazy, Fan Says

Two-time Pro Bowl punter Jim Arnold, who has joined the latest lawsuit against the NFL, says punters suffer brain damage in on-field collisions, too.

Arnold told the Detroit News a neurologist examined him about a year and a half ago and told him he suffered “several concussions” during his lifetime.

In a career that saw him play three seasons for the Chiefs, seven for the Lions and one for the Dolphins, Arnold says he prided himself on being able to make a tackle on a punt return if he had to. Although he says, “it took a while for me to clear some cobwebs,” he would keep playing.

Ex-punter Jim Arnold sues NFL, says he had “several concussions”

CHICAGO (CN) – Police and doctors may be liable for institutionalizing a grief-stricken mother who learned that her son had been shot and said, “If something happens to my son, I’ll just die,” a federal judge ruled.

Susan and Thomas Dobrzeniecki live in Sauk Village, a suburb south of Chicago.

In November 2009, the Dobrzenieckis’ son Peter was shot in the face by an armed robber in Chicago Heights. When the police told Susan about the shooting, she allegedly said: “I’m a good person. Why does this keep happening to me? If something happens to my son, I’ll just die.”

Susan says she is a Sauk public servant and that village police have seen her as a thorn in its side ever since she criticized the department to a television news reporter in 2005. Susan claimed that Officers Rebecca Salisbury and James Vela held a grudge against her, and acted upon that grudge when she went to visit her son at St. James Hospital.

Vela and hospital security locked in a room of the hospital, and Salisbury took her coat, purse and phone, according to the complaint. Then Salisbury and Vela had her involuntarily committed.

That afternoon, the police used Susan’s confiscated keys to enter her home without a warrant and search for a gun, according to the Dobrzenieckis’ complaint. Her husband, Thomas, who has multiple sclerosis and is wheelchair-bound, repeatedly asked how the police got into his home and asked them to leave.

Psych Ward May Have Been Overkill for Mom

A federal judge in Grand Rapids recently awarded $684,000 in fees to Theresa Waldo’s lawyers. The case was filed in 2006 and went through two trials.

Waldo said she was a victim of repeated harassment by men in the utility’s transmission lines department. There was evidence that Waldo was required to climb transmission towers on a cold, windy day without proper safety equipment.

Utility Appeals Loss In Sexual Harassment Case

CHICAGO — With extraordinarily high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder and skyrocketing suicides, US military veterans from the Afghanistan and Iraq occupations urgently need a means to share experiences and deal with the pain and trauma of war.

And the growing number of active duty and veteran women in the armed forces need a means to share their unique experiences not least the pain and trauma of rampant sexual harassment, rape, assault and other violence while in the military.

Women veterans are sharing their experiences in a powerful and eye opening exhibit at the National Veterans Art Museum (NVAM) called “Overlooked/Looked Over.” The exhibit includes the work of 8 women artists including members of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). It opened on March 10 in honor of the centennial celebration of International Women’s Day and will run through Memorial Day.

Overlooked and looked over: women veterans tell their story

“We don’t go to work to be touched, to be talked down to, to be told what our bodies look like. We know what our bodies look like when we put on our clothes in the morning,” Uylonda Dickerson said.

But constant remarks about their bodies, and unwanted touching, advances, mean-spirited “pranks” and other forms of sexual harassment are a regular occurrence for many of the more than 30,000 women—like Dickerson—who work in the warehouse industry in the Chicago area, according to a report (PDF) released this week by the group Warehouse Workers for Justice (WWJ). And women often face retaliation for reporting harassment.

In an extreme example that is currently the subject of a lawsuit, 19-year-old Priscilla Marshall, her mother and her teenage friend allege they were repeatedly subject to aggressive and abusive sexual assaults and language by a 45-year-old manager at the Partners Warehouse in Elwood, Ill. After the three women and Marshall’s uncle and the mother’s boyfriend complained, they were fired or suspended and accused of theft, which resulted in Marshall and her mother spending 15 and seven days in jail, respectively, according to the lawsuit filed March 9.

Sexual Harassment in the Warehouse

Chicago Sexual Harassment Lawyer

A closed- door encounter between two college acquaintances. Both have been drinking. One says she was raped; the other insists it was consensual. There are no other witnesses.

It’s a common scenario in college sexual assault cases, and a potential nightmare to resolve. But under the 40-year-old federal gender equity law Title IX – and guidance handed down last year by the Obama administration on how to apply it – colleges can’t just turn such cases over to criminal prosecutors, who often won’t touch them anyway. Instead, they must investigate, and in campus proceedings do their best to balance the accused’s due process rights with the civil right of the victim to a safe education.

Lately, though, the legal ramifications of such cases are spilling off campus, with schools caught in the middle.

Colleges that do too little about sexual assault could lose federal funds. The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights is currently investigating a dozen colleges and universities over their response to sexual violence (documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show schools that have recently agreed to take steps to resolve OCR complaints over Title IX policies include universities such as Notre Dame, Northwestern and George Washington).

For colleges, rape cases a legal minefield

By Julian Gavaghan PUBLISHED: 05:29 EST, 23 April 2012

• Ray Easterling ‘shot himself’ at home after struggling to cope with dementia
• The 62-year-old former Atlanta Falcons star was suing NFL amid claims it covered up links between football and brain injuries
• He is thought to have developed chronic traumatic encephalopathy – or  ‘punch drunk syndrome‘ after repeated blows to the head during career
• Follows suicides of NFL star Dave Duerson and NHL player Wade Belak

Former football star Ray Easterling has become the latest sportsman to kill himself after suffering from depression believed to have been linked to head injuries during his career.

The 62-year-old, who police say shot himself at his home in Richmond, Virginia, played for the Atlanta Falcons during the 1970s and later sued the NFL over its handling of concussions.

He began showing signs of brain damage 20 years ago with bouts of depression and insomnia.

SECOND Former NFL star kills himself after lifetime of depression

U of C signed the settlement without admitting fault, even though the suit claimed negligence

The family of former Sun-Times publisher and Chicago Businessman James Tyree has reportedly agreed to a $10 million settlement with the University of Chicago medical center over a wrongful death suit, according to reports.

The 53-year-old died accidentally last year after a dialysis procedure created a fatal air-embolism created when a catheter was removed. Pneumonia and metastatic stomach cancer were listed as secondary causes of death, according to the Medical Examiner.

Half of the settlement, about $5 million, will be paid to Tyree’s widow, Eve Tyree, and Tyree’s three children immediately. The remaining $5 million will be paid over the course of fiver years in installments to Eve and the children, according to the Chicago Tribune.

U of C Agrees to $10 Million Settlement in James Tyree Death

As WBBM Newsradio’s Steve Miller reports, the Facebook page of Illinois attorney Michael Duval says he’s updated his current city to Newport Beach, Calif.

One client says Duval posted the question on Facebook — should he ring in the New Year in Chicago or California?

Clients: Attorney Took Our Money, Left Us High And Dry