Articles Posted in News

Published on:

By

Darlene McCue of Bristol, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, was killed on Sunday when her bicycle was hit by a Yorkville man who was driving a pickup truck. Her daughter, age 25, was also injured in the accident and remains in fair condition at Rush-Copley Hospital. The pickup truck was driving east on Kennedy Road when it struck the two cyclists who were travelling in the same direction.

Police cited the truck driver for improper lane usage. Early investigations do not show any sign of alcohol or drug involvement. Bicycle accidents and injuries are often tragic. Following basic safety guidelines will help to prevent a bicycle tragedy.

Here are some tips to help you remain safe when riding your bicycle:

Continue reading →
Published on:

By

What does reforming medical malpractice have to do with the current health care reform debate that is a hot topic in Washington and here in Illinois? Not much, at least according to one ranking United States Senator.

“I honestly really don’t see this as a health care issue,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). The Senator, a former Rhode Island attorney general, argues that medical malpractice is more of an “intruder” into the debate to protect insurance companies, hospitals and doctors from being accountable for their mistakes.

There is very little objective evidence that malpractice reforms, like capping damages awards, have any impact on health care costs. California, which has had caps on medical malpractice awards for more then thirty years, has not seen health care costs reduced over that time period. The argument that doctors are practicing defensive medicine by ordering expensive tests to protect themselves from litigation is equally unpersuasive. Susan Steinman, the American Association for Justice’s director of policy, argued that hospitals and doctors seek additional tests to make more money, not because of the fear of lawsuits. Defensive medicine is not nearly the issue that doctors make it out to be and is more of a red herring to distract from real problems with the health care system, she said.

Published on:

By

A Chicago man was critically injured and another chicago man was killed when they were sucked under a Metra Train on Chicago’s Southside yesterday. The accident occured yesterday in an area between the Metra tracks near the 7500 block of south exchange avenue in the city’s South Shore neighborhood.

The electric train was travelling at 8 miles per hour, according to a spokesman for Metra, when the men were sucked under the train and dragged along the tracks.

Published on:

By

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Juan Johnson, a Chicago resident, was awarded $21 million dollars by a jury in a wrongful conviction lawsuit. Johnson was framed for a 1989 murder and spent eleven and a half years in prison before he was finally cleared of the crime in 2004. The award is the largest ever in Chicago for a wrongful conviction case.

The defendants in the case, The City Of Chicago and former police officer Reynaldo Guevara were alleged to have intimidated witnesses into testifying that Johnson killed a rival gang member outside a nightclub on North and Western Avenues on the northside of Chicago. The former officer allegedly told witnesses that if they didn’t blame Johnson for the murder then they themselves might be implicated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wYaOsCVRCI

Continue reading →
Published on:

By

How do we cap medical malpractice without capping medical malpractice awards for those patients who are injured by the negligence of doctors. Everyone agrees that the health care system in the United States is in need of a drastic overhaul. The key is accomplishing an overhaul without further abridging the rights of the needy.

Andy Hoffman in Friday’s Daily Kos Online wrote an excellent editorial suggesting a novel, yet thusfar, unexplored solution to reducing the cost of medical malpractice claims on society. Weed out the worst offenders, those doctors who repeatedly victimize their patients and have no business practicing medicine.

Focusing on medical malpractice caps will do nothing to reduce health care costs. California, as Hoffman notes, has had caps on medical malpractice awards for the past 34 years. The caps in california are drastic, $250,000 limits on malpractice awards, and have had literally no effect on the cost of malpractice insurance or the price of health care in that state. Why not focus on the cause of medical malpractice cases and the conduct of those bad doctors who are driving up prices for everyone else, rather then the victims? Sounds reasonable to us.

Published on:

By

Trying lawsuits in Chicago at the Cook County Courthouse located at The Richard J. Daley Center is a risky proposition. Even though anti-consumer groups like the Chamber of Commerce and other insurance company proxies have identified Illinois as a judicial “hellhole” the fact of the matter is that injured people face an uphill battle whenever they go to the courthouse.

According to statistics published by the Clerk of the Circuit Court and the presiding Judge of the Law Division, Judge William Maddux, the Law Division had 14,713 new jury filings, and 17,548 pending jury cases — numbers that are fairly consistent with the last several years. And in the three-year period used for this review of Law Division jury verdicts, the number of verdicts each year ranged from 402 to 475. Among those cases juries ruled for defendants in 71 percent of the medical malpractice suits in that same three-year period. And comparing 2007 to 2008, the plaintiff win percentage in medical malpractice verdicts fell from 39 to 18 percent.

While it is true that the vast majority of lawsuits are settled by the parties prior to a jury verdict, those plaintiffs that take a matter to the jury for final resolution face a greater chance of leaving the courthouse without being compensated. At Goldberg & Goldberg, LLC our record of success in the Cook County law Division is without compare. We have settled and tried to verdict more then 135 cases that have settled for more then $1 million dollars, including the largest personal injury verdict ever in the State of Illinois, $127,700,000. Winning a case against a doctor or a hospital is an uphill battle. We work up and try our own cases in the firm unlike other lawyers who advertise their experience and results and then refer cases to actual trial lawyers like Goldberg & Goldberg, LLC.

Published on:

By

The Chicago Transit Authority’s Blue Line was disrupted early Thursday morning when a car travelling on the Eisenhower Expressway jumped the retaining wall and landed on the railroad tracks, where it was struck by an oncoming train.

The driver of the car was able to exit the vehicle before it was hit by the oncoming CTA train. Seven of the thirty passengers riding in the train were injured. Two passengers in another vehicle involved in the collision were also injured and treated at local hospitals.

Blue line service was shut down for more then three hours during the morning’s rush hour service, the CTA is reporting.

Published on:

By

On June 5, 2009, the First District Court of Appeals issued an opinion in Chicago affirming a trial court ruling by Judge Daniel M. Locallo clarifying certain issues related to the Illinois Supreme Court’s 1993 ruling in Gilbert v. Sycamore Memorial Hospital,156 Ill.2d 511, 622 N.E.2d 788 (1993).  The opinion is captioned Spiegelman v. Victory Memorial Hospital, 1-07-3195 (1st Dist. June 5, 2009).

In 1993 the Illinois Supreme Court recognized that a hospital can be held vicariously liable for the conduct of a non employee doctor provided that the hospital 1) acted in a manner that would lead a reasonable person to conclude that the individual who was alleged to be negligent was an employee or agent of the hospital; 2) created an appearance of authority and 3) the plaintiff acted in reliance upon the conduct of the hospital or its agent.  Gilbert v. Sycamore Memorial Hospital,156 Ill.2d 511, 622 N.E.2d 788 (1993).  

Now, the First District Appellate Court, which covers Chicago and Cook County, has decided another apparent agency case, Spiegelman v. Victory Memorial Hospital, 1-07-3195 (1st Dist. June 5, 2009), further clarifying the higher court’s earlier apparent agency rulings.  The court ruled that the mere existence of a release signed by the plaintiff identifying its physicians as independent contractors does not, in and of itself, create an insurmountable hurdle to the holding out element.  The court reasoned that based on the totality of facts and the ambiguity of the consent form, a jury could reasonably conclude that the consent was ambiguous and therefore did not adequately inform the plaintiff of her doctor’s independent status.

Continue reading →
Published on:

By

On March 26, 2009 we reported on the efforts of one family to have the Feres doctrine legislatively overturned.  If you recall the Feres doctrine prohibits an active member of the United States military from suing the an Army hospital for medical malpractice.  This prohibition on medical malpractice suits brought by members of the armed services has long been an unfair bar to the legitimate claims of our nation’s heroes.

We are glad to announce that a House Judiciary subcommittee recently approved legislation to correct the injustice that is the Feres doctrine.  This new bill would allow servicemen and their families to hold the military accountable for medical malpractice.  The Carmelo Rodriguez Military Medical Accountability Act of 2009 is sponsored by Rep. Maurice hinchey (D-NY) and is named after serviceman Carmelo Rodriguez who died in 2007 after his cancer was misdiagnosed by military doctors.  Below is a CBS news report about the late Sgt. Rodriguez.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5l7BObKkb5Q

Continue reading →
Published on:

By

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that a 14 year old suburban Chicago girl is in critical condition after the atv she was operating collided with another driven by her eleven year old brother.  While the children were wearing helmets, the girl was injured when the two vehicles collided in suburban Wadsworth.

The child has been hospitalized with a head injury.  Her brother escaped major injury with cuts and bruises.  All terrain vehicles have been the subject matter of extensive litigation surrounding their safety.

Contact Information
33 N Dearborn St,
#1930
Chicago, IL 60602
Phone: 312-368-0255 Fax: 312-368-0368 Toll Free: 877-368-0233

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Please do not include any confidential or sensitive information in a contact form, text message, or voicemail. The contact form sends information by non-encrypted email, which is not secure. Submitting a contact form, sending a text message, making a phone call, or leaving a voicemail does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Copyright © 2025, Goldberg & Goldberg, LLC
JUSTIA Law Firm Blog Design