The Law Offices of Barry G. Doyle, P.C.

A 71 year old resident of a Missouri nursing home was killed last week when she left the facility and wandered onto a nearby set of railroad tracks where she was killed by a train.

One of the main causes of people admitting family members to nursing homes is that with the onset of dementia, they leave the home and put themselves at risk by wandering into unsafe areas. When the family comes to recognize that this is a problem which they cannot monitor on the 24/7 basis called for, this is what prompts the decision to admit their parent to a nursing home.

On admission, the nursing home is required to perform an assessment on the resident's condition and where the resident is determined to be at risk for "elopement" -- the technical term for wandering, then a care plan must be put into place to address the risk of elopement. The usual course of action is to place a sensor on their clothing or person which sets off an alarm when they leave the facility and/or placing them on a secure floor where they are not free to leave. Simply tying them or restraining them is not an acceptable alternative because this has its own risks.

Wandering or elopement in a nursing home is a serious safety risk to the health and well-being of a nursing home resident. There have been instance where nursing home residents have wandered into traffic, have fallen into bodies of water and drowned, been the victim of violent crimes, or have frozen to death during winter months. Nursing homes know that wandering is a real danger and must develop and implement a care plan to prevent wandering.

This wrongful death will no doubt be investigated by state authorities, and I would be willing to bet that at least one of these things will turn up: that the resident was not wearing a sensor; that the alarms were either shut off or malfunctioning; or that the alarms did sound but no one responded because they were short-handed.

Labels: nursing home abuse and neglect wrongful death lawsuits

12/30/2009
Barry Doyle
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$19 million jury verdict against New York nursing home

A jury in New York returned a $19 million verdict against a Brooklyn nursing home in a nursing home abuse and neglect suit involving a resident who experienced substantial weight loss and developed bed sores which eventually contributed to cause the nursing home residents wrongful death. During the nine months the man was admitted to the defendant nursing home, he lost 89 pounds and developed 20 separate bed sores. The sores later became infected and caused his death.

The verdict included $3.75 million in compensatory damages and the balance was for punitive damages. Part of the jury's basis for the punitive damage award was evidence that the nursing home staff falsified chart entries to hide the neglect of the man's care.

There are three main factors which contribute to the development of bed sores: weight loss, immobility, and incontinence. This main clearly experienced a substantial weight loss during the period of his residency at the nursing home, and this pre-disposed him to developing the bed sores. Maintaining good nutritional parameters is crucial to bed sore prevention and should have been addressed in the man's care plan. If nutrition was addressed in the care plan, clearly the plan was ineffective and needed to be revised.

Chart falsification and alteration was part of the reasons for the punitive damage award. Unfortunately, in Illinois there are no punitive damages in wrongful death suits. Even more unfortunately, chart alteration and falsification is a common occurrence.

As experienced Chicago nursing home lawyers, one thing that we do in every nursing home case is thoroughly review the chart for inconsistencies which indicate falsification or alteration. Unfortunately we find it far too often. In one recent case, we found that the nursing home staff continued to chart that they were caring for her when she had already been taken to the hospital. When this kind of evidence is uncovered, it creates a powerful incentive to the nursing home to settle the case.

Labels: bed sores or pressure ulcers nursing home abuse and neglect wrongful death lawsuits

11/11/2009
Barry Doyle
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Nursing home psychiatrist questioned on use of powerful antipsychotic medication

The Chicago Tribune ran an article in today's newspaper about a Chicago area psychiatrist who is noted for his frequent use of clozapine, a powerful antipsychotic medication. The medication carries 5 black box warnings about its side effects, marking it as one of the most risky medications approved for use in the United States. According to the news story, this psychiatrist prescribes clozapine at a rate higher than all of the psychiatrist combined in some other states.

While he is hailed as a smart caring physician by some who work with him, this doctor is described as managing a practice where he just spends minutes with each patient, putting them on ever-higher doses of medications. According to the news story, he gives the patients the package inserts containing the five black box warnings and allows the patient to make the decision about whether to take the medication or not. Not only is this an unwise approach given that many of these patients are mentally ill, determining whether the medication is appropriate for the patient is a responsibility that the law places on the prescribing doctors. Not surprisingly, his approach to patient care has been blamed for the wrongful death of nursing home residents and he has been named as a defendant in a number of Illinois medical malpractice suits.

While the newspaper article focused on the obvious features: that there is a doctor who is prescribing scandalously large quantities of medications to mentally ill residents of nursing homes with sometimes fatal results, it misses the larger story about the real consequences of this approach to patient care. Medicating nursing home residents to make them more compliant with nursing home staff is known as employing chemical restraints. This is because giving someone such powerful medications at such high dosage that they are incapable of their normal daily activities restrains them just as much as tying them to a chair. Employing chemical restraints is a form of nursing home abuse and neglect. Federal regulations prohibit the use of chemical restraints and encourage minimizing the use of medications such as clozapine.

One reason that the use of these medication is discouraged is because of the adverse health effects they have on the overall well-being of the nursing home residents. For example, they may alter the residents desire for food or liquid refreshment, leading to malnutrition and dehydration. Decreased physical activity may contribute to the development of bed sores or pressure ulcers. It can also lead to the the loss of muscle tone, which increases the risk of a nursing home fall, and if it progresses far enough, to the development of contractures. Fall risk may also be increased due to diminished alertness and loss of coordination. There is also an increased risk of medication error due to drug interactions when residents are placed on a combination of medications, especially as potent and dangerous as clozapine. Taken together, these other side effects have doubtless taken a terrible toll on Illinois nursing home residents, especially in the Chicago area nursing homes where this physician practices.

Labels: nursing home abuse and neglect wrongful death lawsuits

9/7/2009
Barry Doyle
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Joliet Terrace nursing home fined for resident fall, death

The Joliet Terrace Nursing Home in Joliet, Illinois was fined $30,000 by the Illinois Department of Public Health after a resident suffered a subdural hematoma which resulted in his wrongful death.

The man had been recently admitted to the facility and was assessed as a fall risk. The facility developed a fall prevention care plan for him. However, despite the fall prevention plan, he experienced three falls in the nursing home in less than 2 months. The facility did not adjust his fall prevention care plan.

He then had a fourth fall and began to develop neurologic symptoms which were signs of a brain bleed, or subdural hematoma. The staff did not not promptly recognize these symptoms, and by the time he was transferred to the hospital, it was too late for him to be treated effectively, and he died as a result of the subdural hematoma.

There were two basic areas where the nursing home fell short in caring for this resident: (1) failing to adjust the fall prevention care plan and (2) failing to monitor his condition after the fall.

When someone is admitted to a nursing home, one of the first things that must be done is to develop a care plan for the resident. The care plan is based on the assessment of the resident's condition. One thing that is always assessed when someone is admitted to a nursing home is their fall risk. Falls are a common reason that senior citizens are admitted to a nursing home, and for seniors, injuries from falls are a leading cause of death and major disability.

Once a care plan is developed, it must be implemented, and if it proves ineffective for preventing further falls, it must be adjusted. The major failure of the nursing home in this case was the failure to adjust the care plan. There were other steps which could have been taken to prevent additional falls for this man, and the failure of the nursing home to change his care plan to include those additional measures was a likely cause of his fall. Too often, nursing homes simply rely on the regularly scheduled quarterly care plan meetings and canned care plans to meet the needs of residents who have issues which need prompt, thoughtful attention. Failing to adjust care plans to meet resident needs is a legitimate basis for a nursing home abuse and neglect suit.

The other area where this nursing home failed the resident was in assessing him after the fall. Most nursing homes put residents on a 72 hour fall watch after an accident such as this where the resident must be checked regularly by a nurse for changes in condition. When a resident demonstrates a change in condition, the nurse on duty must notify the doctor so that the doctor can issue new treatment orders or have the resident sent to a nursing home.

The nursing home staff in this case failed to recognize changes in condition and promptly notify the doctor, resulting in the resident's death. This is a separate legitimate basis for a nursing home abuse and neglect suit.

The flaws that IDPH identified when it issued this citation is one which we as experienced Chicago nursing home lawyers look for in every case we handle. Failures in care planning, implementing care plans, adjusting care plans, and notifying doctors of changes in condition are frequent sources of nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuits.

Labels: falls in nursing homes nursing home abuse and neglect wrongful death lawsuits

9/3/2009
Barry Doyle
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Nursing home fined for failing to alert doctor to change in resident's condition

A California nursing home was fined $100,000 by state authorities after a resident died when the nursing staff failed to alert the resident's doctor about changes in the resident's condition after she was given an increased dose of an anticoagulant, or blood-thinner, medication. One of the risks of giving that kind of medication is that the patient will have internal bleeding in the brain.

Once the woman started taking the medication, she began to behave differently, complain of headaches, and slur her words. The doctor, unaware of the changes, increased the dosage of the medication, resulting in more severe bleeding which caused her death. The resident's death certificate indicates that the cause of death was bleeding due to inappropriate medication usage. The inappropriate medication can be the basis of a wrongful death suit.

Many people are surprised to find out how seldom doctors are actually at the nursing home, and almost every nurse I have ever taken the deposition of in a nursing home suit will agree that one of their functions is to serve as the eyes and ears of a doctor because the doctor is frequently not in the facility. Part of their job is to report changes in the resident's condition to the doctor so the doctor can issue a new order, come in and see the resident, or send the resident to the hospital.

In many of the nursing home abuse and neglect cases we have handled we have found that there were long standing declines in the resident's condition that the doctor was not notified about until there was a crisis. Part of what we do as experienced Chicago nursing home lawyers is to thoroughly review the chart to determine whether there was an earlier change in condition which required physician notification. Failing to notify the doctor of a change in condition is a form of neglect and can be the basis of nursing home lawsuit.

Labels: nursing home abuse and neglect wrongful death lawsuits

8/24/2009
Barry Doyle
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Name game leads to reversal of large jury verdict against nursing home

An appeals court in New Mexico last week reversed a $53 million nursing home wrongful death jury verdict which had been returned against Manor Care, one of the nation's largest operators of nursing homes. The basis of the nursing home abuse and neglect suit was that the nursing home staff failed to recognize and treat the gastrointestinal bleeding that a resident was suffering from, resulting in the woman bleeding to death.

The decision included approximately $3 million in compensatory damages and $50 million in punitive damages. The law in Illinois does not permit the recovery of punitive damages where the victim is deceased.

The case in New Mexico had been commenced against Manor Care, which was the parent corporation of a subsidiary corporation which operated the nursing home. The basis of the appellate decision in New Mexico was that there was conflicting evidence as to whether the parent corporation controlled the actions of the employees of the subsidiary. The case was returned to the trial court for a new trial.

Nursing home chains are notorious for developing complex business structures which are designed to minimze the exposure of the parent corporation to legal liability for abuse and neglect of nursing home residents. However, many parent corporations still retain extensive control over the day-to-day operations of nursing homes and set up the nursing home at the local level to deliver poor quality care to nursing home residents by providing inadequate resources to get the job done and by instilling a profits over people mindset with regard to the operations of the nursing home.

The moral of the story for anyone considering a nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuit is this: the sooner you get the case into the hands of an experienced Chicago nursing home lawyer, the better. Nursing home cases involve extensive investigation not only of the medical aspects of the case, but the legal ones as well. The more time that the lawyer has to investigate the case before the expiration of the statute of limitations for nursing home cases, the better the outcome is likely to be.

Labels: jury verdicts nursing home abuse and neglect wrongful death lawsuits

8/4/2009
Barry Doyle
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Lawsuit filed against nursing home for fall, decubitus ulcer

The family of a Nebraska nursing home resident has filed a nursing home wrongful death suit against the facility where she resided prior to her death. The nursing home abuse case claims that the staff was negligent in allowing her to fall and then the staff failed to notify her physician that a decubitus ulcer developed.

There is significant liability for falls in nursing homes because the nursing home must do a comprehensive assessment of the resident's fall risk, develop a care plan, implement the care plan, evaluate the effectiveness of the care plan, and revise the care plan if needed.

Consequences of falls in nursing homes can be quite severe. Many nursing home residents have decreasded bone density which leaves them vulnerable to fractures from falling. Undergoing surgical repair of fractured bones can be quite risky from a medical standpoint, so it is not even attempted for some nursing home residents. Further, during the period of recovery from the surgery, nursing home residents have a risk of developing complications such as decubtius ulcers or pneumonia, all of which result in increased disability and risk of death for the nursing home residents.

Because falls are such a significant health risk for nursing home residents, it is incument on the nursing home staff to develop a proper care plan and implement it. As an experienced Chicago nursing home lawyer, it has been my experience that many nursing home falls are the result of either an indequate assessment of the fall risk, an inadeqaute care plan, or failing to carry out the care plan.

Labels: bed sores or pressure ulcers falls in nursing homes nursing home abuse and neglect wrongful death lawsuits

4/17/2009
Barry Doyle
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Dehydration death of Tennessee nursing home resident a criminal inquiry

A Knoxville, Tennessee woman died nine days after being admitted to a nursing home for care following serious injuries in a car accident. At the time of her admission, she was being tube fed, meaning that she was entirely dependent upon the nursing home staff for food and water. She was transferred from the nursing home to a hospital where she died. An autopsy concluded that the cause of her death was injuries from the car accident aggravated by poor care in the nursing home after they found that the medical cause of death was dehydration.

Preventing dehydration is basic nursing care, and is something that should be relatively easy to assure in patients who are being tube-fed, seeing as the patient's nutritional needs are being provided by a tube which can provide fluids as well. There are two basic reasons why this woman would have died from dehydration: the nursing staff was not providing the needed care or they did not know how to care the patient. Either option is wholly unacceptable. The woman's family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the nursing home.

It is also interesting to note that this is happening at a time when the Tennessee nursing home industry is lobbying the legislature for caps on damages in nursing home cases. Cases like this underline the need for substandard nursing homes to face the full scope of liability for the injuries and wrongful deaths poor nursing care causes. If the non economic damages were capped as requested at $250,000, it is very easy for a corporatre executive in a nursing home chain to decide that they will limit staffing and training for the nursing home staff because the consequences of poor care a limited by the damages cap. The net result of damages caps: less accountability for the nursing homes.

Labels: nursing home abuse and neglect wrongful death lawsuits

4/11/2009
Barry Doyle
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Wandering nursing home resident killed in hit and run accident

A nursing home resident was killed last month in a hit-and-run accident after she wandered from a nursing home where she was residing. The nursing home was equipped with a door alarm to alert staff that a resident was leaving the facility, but apparently no one responded to the noise made by the alarm. The nursing home resident wandered onto a nearby busy street where she was hit by a motorist who fled the scene.

One of the common reasons that families decide to admit loved ones to nursing homes is a tendency of the senior citizen to become confused, exercise poor judgment, and to wander. Wandering is a serious risk for some senior citizens due to confusion, poor judgment, and physical frailties that out them at risk for falls, pedestrian accident, and becoming crime victims while they wander.

Nursing homes a required to make regular assessments of the residents risk of wandering and to put interventions into place to eliminate wandering. The most common intervention is to put a sensor on the wrist band or elsewhere in the resident that sounds a door alarm when the resident goes out the door. The alarm alerts the staff that a resident who is a wandering risk is outside the facility and needs to be brought back. Of course, for that to work (and it is pretty simple), the staff has to respond to the alarm.

Labels: hit-and-run accidents nursing home abuse and neglect pedestrian knockdowns wrongful death lawsuits

3/23/2009
Barry Doyle
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Hip fracture from fall in nursing home leads to death

A California man has filed a wrongful death suit against a nursing home, alleging that the failure of the nursing home staff to follow orders for a lowered bed, bed rails, and use of a bed alarm resulted in his wife falling and suffering a fractured hip. The suit claims that following surgery to repair the broken hip, the nursing home resident developed aspiration pneumonia, which led to respiratory failure and eventually her death.

There are two important points from this news story:

1. The types of fall prevention measures that were supposed to be put into place are very common in nursing homes, and the failure of the nursing home staff to implement physician-ordered fall prevention measures can be the basis of a nursing home neglect lawsuit.

2. The mortality rate in senior citizens from complications arising from hip fractures after falls is very high. According to some studies, it may be as high as 36%. Pneumonia is one type of complication from hip fracture which too frequently results in the death of the fall victim. The high rate at which nursing home residents suffer hip fractures is one reason that fall prevention is a major focus of care planning in nursing homes.

Labels: falls in nursing homes hip fracture wrongful death lawsuits

Automobile Accident

3/2/2010
Barry Doyle
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One-third of fatal traffic accidents in Cook County linked to drinking and driving

The Scripps Howard News Services did an analysis of the fatal car accidents in Illinois for the years 1994-2008 and determined that for that time frame, one-third of the fatal traffic accidents in Cook County were the results of drunk driving car accidents. The numbers were actually higher in more rural counties where there is less public transportation, greater distances between places, and rural roadways.

The study underlines what we already know: that drinking and driving puts not only your own life at risk, but others in your vehicle and on the public highway.

Labels: car accidents drunk driving accidents wrongful death lawsuits

2/27/2010
Barry Doyle
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Teen gets 5 years in jail fatal drunk driving accident

Injuries and deaths from car accidents caused by intoxicated drivers may result in a civil suit under the Drug and Alcohol Impaired Minor Responsibility Act.

Labels: car accidents drunk driving accidents wrongful death lawsuits

2/20/2010
Barry Doyle
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Pedestrian killed by hit-and-run driver

Victims of hit-and-run accidents are covered by the uninsured motorist coverage on their own car even when they are pedestrians.

Labels: car accidents hit-and-run accidents pedestrian knockdowns uninsured motorist claims wrongful death lawsuits

1/1/2010
Barry Doyle
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Hamilton girl, family members injured by runaway trailer

A 6-year old girl was killed and 3 of her family members were injured an Illinois car accident when their car was struck by a runaway trailer on Illinois Route 96 near Hamilton. The trailer was being hauled by an Iowa man when it broke away and crossed over the center line, striking the car that the girl was riding in. The Iowa man left the scene of accident. He was arrested and now faces several traffic charges.

From a legal perspective, this Illinois wrongful death car accident raises several legal issues:

This may be a case where there is more than meets the eye in that the actual cause of the accident may a defect in the design in the manufacture, design, and/or maintenance of the trailer or the hitch. In either event, as an experienced Illinois personal injury lawyer, I would strongly recommend that this family take steps to immediately preserve the remains of the trailer and the hitch so that the issue whether there is a basis for a defective product suit can be properly investigated.
Because he was pulling a trailer at the time of the accident, it is worth investigating whether the Iowa man was doing anything employment related at the time of the occurrence. That would make his employer liable for any negligence on his part. This is part of a proper investigation of serious car accidents.
This is an auto accident with multiple victims. Unless there is a significant commercial insurance policy involved, the odds that the man from Iowa had insurance coverage is pretty slim. Where there is insufficient coverage to compensate the victims of multi-victim car accidents, the victims may be able to make an Illinois underinsured motorist claim on their own policies.

Labels: car accidents injuries to children product defect suits underinsured motorist claims wrongful death lawsuits

12/7/2009
Barry Doyle
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Boy riding scooter killed by hit-and-run driver

A 4-year old boy from Sacramento was killed by a hit and run driver last week as he rode his scooter near an elementary school. The car hit the boy and dragged him several feet before he was thrown clear. He was taken to a local hospital before he was pronounced.

The law in Illinois considers hit-and-run drivers uninsured motorists. In an uninsured motorist claim, your insurance company steps into the shoes of the uninsured driver and pays you (or your family) the damages that you are owed due to injuries from a car accident or from a wrongful death car accident.

Because your insurer is stepping into the place of the at-fault driver, you do not need to be in your vehicle at the time of the accident for your coverage to apply. It can apply when you are the victim of a hit-and-run accident when you are a pedestrian or when you are riding your bike.

Uninsured motorist coverage also applies to relatives who reside with you. This means that it covers your children if they are the victims of a hit and run accident while they are pedestrians. Uninsured motorist and underinsured motorist coverage are types of auto insurance which protect you and your family, and as an experienced Chicago personal injury lawyer, I always recommend to my clients that they purchase as much as they can comfortably afford, as it provides protection to them in the event of a serious accident such as this.

Labels: car accidents hit-and-run accidents uninsured motorist claims wrongful death lawsuits

12/1/2009
Barry Doyle
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$1 million settlement in drunk driving accident

The family of a New Hampshire police officer will receive a settlement in excess of $1 million following a drunk driving accident in which the police officer was hit by a car while riding a motorcycle. The drunk driver is serving a lengthy prison sentence after being convicted of drunk driving charges and negligent homicide.

The settlement is being funded by an $800,000 dram shop settlement from the restaurant where the drunk driver became intoxicated and the balance from the drunk driver himself.

One key difference between this case and what would happen under the same circumstances in Illinois is that the recovery against the restaurant would be subject to the damage caps under the Illinois Dram Shop Act which currently limits recovery against the dram shop to $58,652.33 for non-fatal injuries and to $71,686.18 for wrongful death accidents.

In my opinion, the dram shop caps are far too low, and certainly not in keeping with the damage that drunk drivers do week in and week out. These should either be abolished or raised significantly.

Labels: car accidents dram shop act motorcycle accidents wrongful death lawsuits

11/15/2009
Barry Doyle
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Evanston woman dies two weeks after car accident

A 71-year old woman from Evanston was pronounced dead last Wednesday after being hit a car while a pedestrian on October 27. She was crossing the street on the 1900 block of Sheridan Road. The car was traveling within the posted speed limit, but rainy weather and darkness are believed to be factors in causing the car accident. The driver of the car not ticketed.

There are a few points that come to mind after hearing about this story:

1. The fact that the driver was not ticketed does not mean that there was no liability for the accident. Drivers of cars still have a legal obligation to yield the right of way to pedestrians. A jury would never hear that she was not ticketed, so that is hardly determinative of the outcome of a later civil case. In fact, the law in Illinois is that a jury only gets to hear about a traffic ticket after a car accident when the driver who receives the ticket pleads guilty to the charges in traffic court.

2. The fact that the driver was within the speed limit does not mean that she was not at fault for the accident. Not only was she required to yield the right of way to a pedestrian, but the Illinois Motor Vehicle Code also requires drivers to reduce their speed when conditions require it. Dark, rainy nights require a slower speed, and simply obeying the posted limit does not meet the requirements of the motor vehicle code.

3. Because the accident victim lived for two weeks, there are both survival and wrongful death claims as part of the wrongful death car accident suit arising from this accident. A survival claim is one for the conscious pain and suffering the victim experienced prior to death, while a wrongful death claim compensates the surviving next of kin for their losses.

There are a number of good reasons why the family of the accident victim in this case should hire an experienced Chicago personal injury lawyer to assist them with this matter. First, given that no ticket was issued to the driver, there is a reasonable chance that the driver's insurer will dispute liability in this case. Second, because there are both wrongful death and survival claims in this case, medical proof to support the survival claim must be offered in connection with this wrongful death suit. Finally, you want to be sure to identify all of the possible sources of insurance coverage and compensation.

Labels: car accidents pedestrian knockdowns wrongful death lawsuits

10/27/2009
Barry Doyle
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Child delivered after death of mother also dies from injuries from car accident

Last week, there was a story in the news about a pregnant mother who was hit by a car while she was crossing the street. Paramedics and doctors were able to keep the mother alive long enough to deliver her child by emergency c-section before the mother died. Sadly, the child only lived for a few days before she also passed away as a consequence of the auto accident.

All of the media accounts I have seen regarding this story indicate that the driver of the car had no valid license and did not have any liability insurance. He faces a raft of criminal charges from this Chicago car accident and will likely end up doing some significant jail time in light of his history as a traffic scofflaw.

This family has suffered losses beyond comprehension with the loss of a wife, a mother, a sibling, a child. They will also have significant financial needs as well as the mother was a valuable contributor to the household as the mother of five. Given that the man who killed her and the baby had no insurance and will have no income because he is going to jail, this is the kind of uninsured motorist accident which causes me to recommend to everyone that they obtain uninsured motorist coverage with their auto liability policy.

As an experienced Chicago personal injury lawyer, I have spoken to and met far too many families who have left themselves with nothing by not buying this coverage.

Labels: car accidents pedestrian knockdowns uninsured motorist claims wrongful death lawsuits

6/16/2009
Barry Doyle
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St. Charles dunk driving accident claims life of West Chicago teen

A tragic drunk driving accident in St. Charles has claimed the life of a West Chicago teen. The 18 year old victim was a passenger in a Ford Explorer which was being driven by another 18 year old. The driver lost control of the vehicle and it went off the road, slamming into two trees. Two back seat passengers were also injured. Investigation by the St. Charles police and Kane County Sheriff's Department indicates that the 18 year old driver was drunk at the time of the accident.

There is really nothing that can compensate this family for the loss of their child. Whenever I hear about accidents like this, I remember back to the days when I was that age and thought I was made of stainless steel and thank my lucky stars that I made it out of my late teens and early twenties in one piece.

The one thing that this family can get from hiring an experienced Chicago personal injury lawyer is some answers and perhaps some accountability. Because there has been a wrongful death and there are serious criminal charges pending, there will probably be few answers given voluntarily by those involved. To get those answers, a suit will probably have to be filed to get subpoena powers to access the police investigation and to force those involved to answer questions about what happened that night.

With regard to the issue of acocuntability, a great deal of the blame for this accident of course rests on the shoulders of the drunk driver. Moving past him, there are important questions to be answered about how these teens got the alcohol. Answering those questions may result in liability and acknowledgement of fault on the licensed liquor establishments that provided the alcohol to these teens or to the parents who served them or allowed them to drink in their homes.

There are many questions which need to be answered.

Labels: car accidents dram shop act drunk driving accidents wrongful death lawsuits

5/11/2009
Barry Doyle
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Drunk driver kills one injures seven in Chicago

On Sunday, a northbound drunk driver ran a red light at the intersection of 43rd Street and Western in Chicago and hit a westbound Lexus. The impact killed the driver of the Lexus and caused the Lexus to smash into another car that was stopped at the red light for traffic traveling southbound on Western. Including the drunk driver, one was killed and seven injured as a result of this Illinois drunk driving accident.

Cases like this underline the need for obtaining underinsured motorist coverage for yourself when buying car insurance. The underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage would apply any time that the total damages caused in an Illinois car accident exceeds the amount of liability insurance coverage available.

My experience has always seemed to be that the worst drivers only carry the minimum amount of liability insurance, when they bother to have any insurance at all. The state minimum auto insurance is $20,000 per person and $40,000 per accident. If that is the case in this accident, that means that the six survivors of the accident and the family of the person killed in the wreck have a total of $40,000 in liability coverage to compensate them for their losses, including medical expenses, lost wages, funeral expenses, pain and suffering, and loss of economic support of society. That kind of money does not go far in this kind of car crash.

Let's assume for the sake of argument that the family of the person killed in the accident gets $20,000 from the minimum policy held by the drunk driver as compensation for their Illinois wrongful death claim. That leaves $20,000 to be split between the other six survivors of the accident, or $3,333 each. That will not cover the emergency room bills for any of them.

Where underinsured motorist coverage would help the victims of this accident is by providing them compensation for their injuries for the amount due in excess of the amount paid by the at-fault driver. For example, if the driver of the southbound car had $100,000 in underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage and sustained $20,000 in damages, her insurance would pay her the $16,667 difference between her damages and the amount of liability insurance available to her. The article on our web site about use of Illinois UIM coverage in multi victim car accidents explains this further.

Cases like this show how important underinsured motorist coverage is for protecting you and your family. It is cheap coverage, and as experienced Chicago personal injury lawyers, we recommend that you purchase full coverage on your vehicle for as much coverage as possible when buying or renewing your automobile insurance coverage, because if the at-fault driver in this accident had no insurance at all, there would still be an avenue of recovery through an Illinois uninsured motorist claim.

Labels: car accidents drunk driving accidents underinsured motorist claims wrongful death lawsuits

5/8/2009
Barry Doyle
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Mason County drunk driving accident leaves two dead

Two men were killed and another seriously injured in a drunk driving accident in Mason County on Wednesday night. The drunk driver was driving a truck owned by a farm supply company and was not injured in the car wreck.

One of the issues that will arise from this accident is who bears legal responsibility and who will have to pay the wrongful death compensation that the families of these men are entitled to.

There is a doctrine in the law called respondeat superior, which holds an employer liable for the negligence of its employees in the course and scope of their employment. Most of the time, when an employee is given a company vehicle and gets into an Illinois motor vehicle accident, his employer will be held liable. In cases where the employee is driving drunk, the insurance company for the employer will deny liability, saying that the drunk driving employee was not hired to drive while intoxicated, violated company policies, etc., and was therefore outside the scope of his employment. That is a defense that the farm supply company is sure to rely upon.

However, if the employee was permitted to drive the vehicle, a lesser evidentiary standard than acting in the scope of employment, then the insurance which covers the vehicle should also cover the drunk driving employee. However, these families can be sure that the insurance company will try to dodge responsibility by claiming that the coverage on the vehicle was voided when he drove the company vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, something which he was doubtless forbidden from doing.

Wrongful death cases are serious cases under the simplest of circumstances because the losses sustained by the families are so great. However, in a case like this, where there may be grounds for a financially viable defendant or insurer to avoid laibility, these families would do well to hire an experienced Illinois wrongful death lawyer to protect their interests.

Labels: car accidents drunk driving accidents wrongful death lawsuits

5/5/2009
Barry Doyle
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Driver who was painting her nails kills motorcyclist

A motorcylist was killed Saturday evening in Lake Zurich when she was hit by a car. The motorcyclist was stopped at an intersection wating for a light was she was hit from behind at a high rate of speed. The force of the collision threw her several hundred feet from the point of impact. The reason that the driver of the car did not slow for the stopped motorcycle ahead of her is that she was painting her nails while driving.

Painting your nails while driving is an especially egregious form of distracted driving, but it is far from the only one that people engage in behind the wheel. Other forms of distracted driving include eating, talking on the phone, text messaging, entering directions into a GPS, and switching CD's or the radio station.

Distracted driving causes thousands of car accidents every year. Reliable statistics really do not exist because there is not a standard way of reporting them yet. Nonetheless stories like this one are in the news frequently enough that it is clear that this is a significant problem.

Distracted driving cases are different from standard car accident lawsuits in that we can present a clear choice that someone made instead of a simple error. The Illinois wrongful death suit that will follow this fatal motorcycle accident raises this issue. Juries tend to view a choice to paint your nails (or eat or talk on the cell phone, etc.) very differently than misjudging your stopping distance and rear-ending someone. Even though the question of liability is supposed to be separate from damages, it frequently impacts their assessment of damages. As experienced Chicago personal injury lawyers we know this (and insurance companies know this also), and this impacts how we approach issues of settlement in distracted driving car accident cases.

Labels: car accidents motorcycle accidents wrongful death lawsuits

Slip and Fall Accident

7/28/2009
Barry Doyle
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Man falls to death down elevator shaft

A Cabrini Green resident died yesterday when he fell down an elevator shaft. According to witnesses he was walking near the doors of the elevator when he fell against the doors. The doors gave way and he plunged to his death.

This accident will certainly result in an Illinois wrongful death suit, and there are certain to be some legal issues which will be disputed:

In Illinois elevator accident suits, the owner of the building is normally regarded as a common carrier, owing the highest duty of care for the safety of users of the elevator. Since the man was not actually on the elevator, will this be treated as a slip-and-fall negligence case? If so, the man's family will have to show that the CHA either knew or reasonably should have known about the condition of the doors.
In many elevator accident cases, the building owner has handed responsibility for maintaining the elevator off to the a contractor. How will the jury allocate fault between the parties?

These are important legal issues which will have a dramatic impact on the ultimate amount of compensation recovered by this man's family. In any serious case such as this where there are complicated legal issues, we strongly recommend consultation with an experienced Chicago personal injury lawyer.

Labels: elevator accidents slip and fall accidents wrongful death lawsuits

Work Related Personal Injury

3/11/2010
Barry Doyle
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Truck driver killed in accident

A speeding car hit a tractor trailer last week in Connecticut, causing the truck to jackknife and rollover. The driver of the truck was killed in the accident. According to news reports, the cab of the tractor trailer came apart during the rollover accident.

As an experienced Chicago personal injury lawyer, there are a few things that come to mind when reading a story like this:

The family of the deceased truck driver is entitled to worker's compensation benefits;
A skilled lawyer will know to look into the issue of whether the truck driver is covered by uninsured and/or underinsured motorist coverage through the policies on the truck he was driving at the time of the accident. These can provide a significant additional amount of compensation for the family of the deceased truck driver; and
It is worth investigating whether a products defect suit against the tractor manufacturer is viable. The power units in a tractor trailer are not subject to the same kinds of regulations that cars are, but the basic design principle of crashworthiness still applies -- that truck drivers should be able to survive foreseeable crashes such as the one involved here.

Labels: car accidents unsafe vehicles worker's compensation wrongful death lawsuits

11/29/2009
Barry Doyle
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Naperville accident claims life of Nicor employee

A Naperville motor vehicle accident last week claimed the life of a Nicor employee. The Nicor employee was operating a backhoe on the shoulder of the road near the intersection of Leverenz Road and Book Road. A box truck sideswiped the backhoe, causing it to topple over and trap the operator beneath it. He was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The family of the deceased Nicor employee is certainly entitled to worker's compensation death benefits, but can also pursue a third party motor vehicle liability suit and Illinois wrongful death suit against the driver of the box truck, and presumably his employer. In serious accidents like this, it is crucial to identify all of the potential sources of compensation for the family of the decedent, so it would also be worth looking into seeing whether a product liability suit against the manufacturer of the would be feasible. Areas worth considering is whether the outriggers on the backhoe were in use at the time and whether there was sufficient roll protection for the operator. As experienced Chicago wrongful death lawyers, this would be part of the work-up that we would do on a case such as this.

Labels: car accidents dangerous industrial products third party liability lawsuits trucking accidents worker's compensation wrongful death lawsuits