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On TV, every case seems to go to trial. However, in the real world, most cases settle. The parties come to an agreement, and the defendant pays an agreed-upon amount to the plaintiff. There are a number of reasons parties agree to settle a case, including a faster resolution, a guaranteed amount of money, and avoiding the high cost of a trial.

But just as an experienced attorney is essential during a trial, an experienced attorney is also essential during settlement negotiations. An experienced attorney will investigate a client’s case to see how strong the claim is and advise his client about how much the claim may be worth. There are a number of factors to consider, including the strengths and weaknesses of available evidence, the outcomes of similar cases, policy limits, statutory limits, and the defendant’s resources.

In calculating damages, verdicts and settlements can also consider the value of the plaintiff’s present and future lost earnings, profits, or salaries. In Illinois, the Illinois Supreme Court has stated that expert testimony is not required to establish loss of future earning ability, so a plaintiff may be able to provide testimony about future earning ability on their own. In cases involving celebrities, damages based on a person’s future earnings can run very high.

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Johnson & Johnson, a manufacturer of controversial talc products, has stated that it intends to appeal a $55 million verdict against it awarded by a Missouri jury. The jury concluded that the product maker was liable for injuries the plaintiff sustained after using its talcum powder products, including ovarian cancer. According to the plaintiff, she used Johnson & Johnson’s talc products for several decades on her genital region. She was eventually diagnosed with ovarian cancer, requiring a hysterectomy and other related surgical procedures.

According to a statement released by Johnson & Johnson following the recent jury verdict, the manufacturer believes that the jury’s conclusion contravenes roughly 30 years of scientific studies from researchers around the world, concluding that cosmetic talc does not pose health and safety risks.

This litigation marks the second verdict against the health care company. Earlier, another jury in Missouri returned a $72 million verdict against the company in a case involving a woman who developed ovarian cancer and died after using Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Powder and Shower to Shower products for multiple decades. In 2013, a South Dakota jury returned a mixed verdict in another case involving allegations of cancer-related injuries after using the company’s talcum-based products. Although the jury concluded that Johnson & Johnson was negligent, it did not award any damages to the plaintiff because her cancer had gone into remission when the trial commenced.

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Sometimes, even when an individual has a valid claim, a failure to comply with procedural requirements can destroy one’s case. In a recent case, one man’s claim came to a halt after he failed to provide written notice within the required period.

The plaintiff fell down a set of stairs at City Hall and had to go to the emergency room for injuries he suffered as a result. He alleged that he tripped on an uneven stair tread. Almost six months later, the man spoke to an officer in the finance department at City Hall about his fall and medical expenses. A few weeks later, he provided the city with written notice that he was filing a claim, and he filed a claim against the city a few months later.

The city argued that the plaintiff filed his claim too late, since he filed his written notice after 180 days. Under state law, a written notice of claim against a governmental entity had to be filed within 180 days of the incident. The plaintiff argued that he complied with the statute, since although his notice was filed after 180 days, he had spoken to a city official beforehand, and they were aware of the incident and were not prejudiced as a result.

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Earlier this month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration made an announcement regarding the safety of using a number of mental health drugs. According to the statement, Zyprexa, Zyprexa Zydis, Zyprexa Replrevv, and Symbyax may cause patients to develop serious complications, such as facial swelling, swelling in the lymph glands, and fevers accompanied with a rash. These symptoms are referred to as Drug Reaction with Eosinophilia and Systemic Symptoms, or DRESS.

A patient experiencing DRESS may first identify a rash on his or her body that begins to spread. Swelling in the face or lymph glands occurs due to a higher-than-average reaction of infection-fighting white blood cells to the situation. This is called eosinophils.

So far, there have been 23 known reports of patients who have experienced DRESS while taking these drugs, which are olanzapine-based. The first product containing olanzapine was approved by the FDA in 1996. The drug has been prescribed to treat mental health conditions like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. While Zyprexa, Zyprexa Zydis, Zyprexa Relprevv, and Symbyax are the common names under which olanzapine is sold, there are also generic brands for the drug.

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All surgeries carry some risk, but some carry more than others. Certain procedures carry high risks for complications and even death. But even when an injury or death occurs during or after high-risk surgeries, medical malpractice may still occur. Medical malpractice laws exist in order to protect patients from negligent medical treatment, even in high-risk situations.

Medical Malpractice Claims

Medical malpractice claims permit patients to recover damages based on negligent medical care. In medical malpractice claims, a plaintiff has to prove that the defendant owed a duty of care to the plaintiff, that the defendant failed to exercise reasonable care, and that the plaintiff suffered injuries and damages as a result of the breach of the standard of care.

In order to win a medical malpractice claim, a patient has to show that a health care provider breached the standard of care. The standard of care is what other health care providers in the same specialty would use in the same or similar circumstances. Medical malpractice cases demand experienced attorneys and medical experts who can explain what the standard of care is and how it was breached. If a malpractice claim is successful, a plaintiff may be able to recover damages, not just for economic costs such as medical bills but also for noneconomic forms of harm, including lost income and mental anguish.

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A woman was undergoing a cardiac catheterization procedure when her artery was dissected, and the woman died as a result. Her family then sued the treating physician for wrongful death. The case went to trial, and the jury found in favor of the family in the amount of almost $2 million for economic damages and $9 million for noneconomic damages. However, a Missouri state law limited the amount of noneconomic damages, reducing the noneconomic damages award to $350,000. The state’s supreme court held that the state law was permissible and left the reduction in place.

The law in question stated that in medical malpractice claims arising from a failure to render health care services, plaintiffs cannot recover more than $350,000 for noneconomic damages. The plaintiffs argued that the law violated the state constitution because it violated the right to trial by jury. However, the court rejected this argument, finding that the statute simply placed a limit on the amount of noneconomic damages that could be awarded. Thus, the court found the law constitutional, and the award limit remained in place.

Noneconomic Damages Limits in Illinois

Illinois does not have a limit on noneconomic damages. In 2006, the Illinois legislature placed caps on noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases. However, the Illinois Supreme Court subsequently found that those caps were unconstitutional. Accordingly, any medical malpractice claim filed after the decision is not subject to a limit on damages, and the award amount is unlimited. The Illinois Supreme Court reasoned that judges and juries should be able to decide how much a plaintiff is owed based on the individual case. Illinois plaintiffs can receive any amount of damages that a judge or jury believes should be awarded, without being limited by an artificial damages cap.

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A new study released last month concluded that the class of medications referred to as proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) can lead to cognitive decline disorders like dementia. The study involved patients who took PPIs like Prilosec, Nexium, and Prevacid between 2004 and 2011. The full range of pharmaceuticals covered in the study includes raberprazole, esomeprazole, pantoprazole, omeprazole, and lansoprazole.

Roughly 73,600 patients were involved in the study. The patients were over the age of 75 years and did not show signs or a history of dementia at the time the study commenced. At the conclusion of the study, the researchers determined that patients who regularly took PPI medications “had a significantly increased risk of incident dementia compared with patients not receiving PPI medication.”

Until recently, lawsuits filed against AstraZeneca, the maker of Prilosec, Nexium, and Prevacid, have involved allegations that the patients who took the prescription drugs suffered from kidney diseases and heart attacks. This new research provides another potential basis for obtaining recovery from AstraZeneca. If you or a loved one took one of the prescription drugs covered in the study and developed dementia, you may be entitled to compensation.

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Civil trials are often thought of as determinations about whether a defendant is liable. However, the issue of liability is only one of the issues decided in a trial. Trials also determine the amount of compensation awarded to the injured party. In a recent case against city and county governments, the defendants admitted liability but proceeded to trial only on the issue of damages.

A woman sued the city and county after being injured in a car accident. The woman was riding on a county bus when the bus was hit by a city fire department van. She was thrown from the bus and landed on the street. She then sued the city and county. The city and county admitted that they were liable, but they continued to trial on the issue of damages. The defendants argued that a spinal fusion surgery the woman had after the accident was an unnecessary procedure. The case was decided in favor of the woman for $575,203, including her costs for the spinal fusion surgery, and an appeals court affirmed the decision.

Governmental Immunity

Tort immunity afforded to the federal, state, and local governments generally makes them immune to lawsuits. It comes from the idea that a government that makes the laws cannot break the laws. It was also thought that lawsuits against the government could be so numerous that the government would never be able to pay them all. However, governmental immunity has been modified in recent years to permit tort actions against certain entities for specific reasons.

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Everyone knows that you should wear a seat belt. But can a victim be held liable for failing to wear a seat belt? In a recent case, a state supreme court allowed a defendant to argue that a plaintiff was partially at fault for her own injuries for failing to use a seat belt.

In that case, the woman was in a car accident when she was sitting in the backseat of someone’s car. The driver of the car ran into a parked excavator, and the woman sued the driver and his employer. The defendants argued that the woman was at fault, since she was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident. At the time the case was argued, Arkansas law generally did not allow evidence of a failure to wear a seat belt to be used in civil cases. However, the court found that this law actually regulated a court procedure, which could only be regulated by the courts. Therefore, the law was unconstitutional and could not be enforced, and the seat belt defense could be raised.

Seat Belt Defenses in Illinois

In Illinois, a defendant normally cannot raise the issue of a party’s failure to wear a seat belt as a defense. In 1985, the Illinois Supreme Court held that evidence of damages caused by a party’s failure to use a seat belt was not admissible with respect to either the question of liability or the question of damages. At that time, there was no law requiring people to wear seat belts, so the plaintiff did not have a duty to wear one.

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Los medicamentos han permitido a muchos que sufren de enfermedades y condiciones crónicas a sentirse mejor y seguir sus vida cotidianas. En la mayoría de los casos, estos medicamentos tienen poco o ningún efecto secundario. En otros casos, sin embargo, los efectos secundarios resultan ser muy peligroso e incluso mortal. Recientemente, varios informes han indicado que Prilosec, Nexium, Prevacid y otros fármacos de la misma clase, pueden plantear graves riesgos de lesiones a los pacientes que los toman. Estos medicamentos se clasifican como inhibidores de la bomba de protones (IBP) y se utilizan con frecuencia para tratar la acidez estomacal crónica, trastornos de reflujo ácido, enfermedad de úlcera péptica (PUD), o enfermedad de reflujo gastroesofágico (ERGE). Aproximadamente el 20 por ciento de los estadounidenses sufren de ERGE según los informes.

Un número de demandas han sido presentadas en contra de AstraZeneca, el fabricante de estos medicamentos. Los pacientes que tomaron los medicamentos durante un período mínimo de tiempo han experimentado una serie de condiciones dolorosas y debilitantes como la daños al riñón, nefritis intersticial, insuficiencia renal, demencia, ataques al corazón y más. En muchos casos, estas condiciones causaron lesiones permanentes que alteraron para siempre la calidad de vida. Continue reading →

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