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With so many cars and trucks on the road these days, it is easy to forget how important passenger and freight trains still are in America. Commuters and travelers often talk about cheap flights or the price of gas, but rarely does the discussion turn to the cost of a train ticket.

But Illinois is a natural hub for the railroads. For passengers traveling from east to west, Chicago acts as a gateway to all that lies beyond Lake Michigan. For freight carriers, Chicago is a logical transfer point to other modes of transportation. Goods from Canada, Mexico, and ports on both coasts arrive in Illinois by rail but often set out for deliveries on tractor trailers.

Much of the produce in supermarkets is transported by rail. If a train carrying produce is involved in an accident, there is little harm except to any cars or pedestrians that may have been hit by the train. However, freight trains often carry goods that are toxic in nature, like oil and other hazardous chemicals, and an accident involving one of these trains can have much broader, and potentially more serious, consequences.

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Entre todos los accidentes de vehículos, accidentes de motocicleta son particularmente aterrador. No hay cinturones de seguridad o bolsas de aire para proteger el cuerpo de un motociclista de una lesión, y algunos estados como Illinois no tienen ley de casco.

Sin estas protecciones, cuando un motociclista esta involucrado en un accidente, las lesiones son casi siempre serias y hasta amenaza-vidas. No importa que tan despacio vaya la motocicleta, si un motociclista es golpeado y su cabeza pega al suelo, existe la probabilidad de un daño permanente al cerebro. Lo mismo es cierto si un motociclista es lanzado al aire sin un cinturón de seguridad para protegerlo.

Al igual que otros conductores, motociclistas pueden lesionarse en numerosas maneras. Con solo do ruedas en el camina, mal clima y calles resbalosas pueden fácilmente causar que una motocicleta pierda tracción y chocar. Además, dado su tamaño, es mas fácil que otros conductores pierdan una motocicleta en su “punto ciego” al cambiar de carril o la fusión de una carretera muy transitada. Continue reading →

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In the recent case of DirectTV, Inc. v. Imburgia, the Supreme Court issued a key decision interpreting the scope of arbitration agreements under the Federal Arbitration Act. In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs sought to enforce a class action arbitration waiver, which included a provision providing that the entire clause was not enforceable if the law in the signing party’s state dictated that class action waivers are not enforceable. When the defendants executed the contract, California law stated that class action waivers were not enforceable. The lower court ultimately ruled that the class action arbitration waiver was unconscionable and refused to enforce it.

In reaching this holding, the California courts relied on the language in the contract that said “the law of your state,” finding that this allowed the court a basis for avoiding preemption pursuant to the Federal Arbitration Act. The lower court determined that Sections 1751 and 1781 of the California Remedies Act required the provision to be deemed invalid, notwithstanding the application of the Federal Arbitration Act.

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Earlier this month, Vermont’s Toxic Substances in Children’s Products Rule took effect. According to this rule, companies that sell children’s products in Vermont must make certain disclosures about whether the products contain any of the 66 chemicals specified in the legislation if the chemical is present as a contaminant (100 ppm or more), or if the chemical was intentionally added beyond the chemical’s practical quantification limit (PQL).

Some of the chemicals included on the list are formaldehyde, methylene chloride, styrene, and a number of parabens. A manufacturer’s report must include the name of the chemical, a description of the chemical, the amount contained in each product unit, the name and address of the product’s manufacturer, the reason the chemical was included in the product, and the brand name and product model.

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There are side effects with just about any prescription medication. For many patients, the decision to take a specific medication comes only after the benefits of the medication are weighed against the possible side effects, which range from minor annoyances to serious medical risks.

The laundry list of side effects that can be found on the internet and pharmacy receipts is generally discovered through the use of clinical trials. A medication with potential benefits to a specific class of patients is tested and retested to determine its efficacy as well as its risks. Doctors are then guided by the results of these trials. This evidence-based approach to prescribing medication helps doctors better predict how well medications will work in a given patient, and what the side effects of the medication are likely to be.

The evidence produced in clinical trials and reviewed by doctors also helps establish what is known in legal and medical circles as a “standard of care.” Doctors comprehensively review published material on a given medical condition or conditions and try to reach a consensus about how best to treat patients, taking into account all of their medical conditions, as well as other factors like their age, medical history, and additional medications.

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Recently, we discussed the string of food illness outbreaks that have affected a number of U.S. restaurants, including Chipotle. This week, the first lawsuit has been filed against Chipotle alleging severe injuries as a result of consuming contaminated food from the restaurant associated with one of the recent outbreaks.

The plaintiff filed the lawsuit on behalf of her son, who had to be hospitalized after exhibiting severe symptoms. The child’s treating physicians determined that he was fighting a Norovirus infection and that the infection came from a Chipotle burrito in Brighton, Massachusetts. The child ate the burrito on December 4 and started to exhibit symptoms a few days later on December 6, including extreme vomiting, nausea, and diarrhea.

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Recientemente, hablamos de la serie de brotes de enfermedades alimentarias que han afectado a un gran número de restaurantes en Estados Unidos, incluyendo a Chipotle. Esta semana, la primera demanda ha sido presentada contra Chipotle alegando lesiones graves como resultado del consumo de alimentos contaminados del restaurante.

El demandante presentó la demanda en nombre de su hijo, que tuvo que ser hospitalizado después de exhibir síntomas severos. Los médicos del niño determinaron que estaba luchando una infección de Norovirus y que la infección proviene de un burrito de Chipotle en Brighton, Massachusetts. El niño comió el burrito el 4 de diciembre y comenzó a presentar síntomas a los pocos días, el 6 de diciembre, incluyendo vómitos extremos, náuseas y diarrea. Continue reading →

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Among all vehicle accidents, motorcycle accidents are particularly scary. There are no seat belts or air bags to protect a motorcycle rider’s body from injury, and some states, like Illinois, have no helmet law at all.

Without these protections, when a motorcycle driver is involved in an accident, the injuries are often serious and even life-threatening. No matter how slowly a motorcycle is moving, if a rider is hit and his head hits the ground, there is the possibility of permanent damage to the rider’s brain. The same is true if a motorcycle rider is thrown into the air without a seat belt to keep him grounded.

Like all other drivers, motorcycle riders can be injured in any number of ways. With only two wheels to grip the road, bad weather and slippery streets can easily cause a motorcycle to lose traction and crash. In addition, given their size, it is easier for other drivers to lose a motorcycle in their “blind spot” while changing lanes or merging onto a busy highway.

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With so many cars on the road, accidents are bound to happen. Bad weather, drunk drivers, and drivers texting behind the wheel of a car are only a few of the reasons why accidents happen so frequently.

With so much beyond a driver’s control, many consumers now look to buy the safest car they can find. They consult car magazines and the internet for crash-test safety reviews, and they ask their local mechanic for recommendations based on performance, reliability, and, perhaps more than ever, safety.

Over the years, cars have become safer in many ways. After all, it was not very long ago that cars were not equipped with airbags, and some of those cars are still on the road today. To test for safety, car companies and trade groups conduct crash tests, and the results are often published.

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There have been thousands of lawsuits brought in recent years against the manufacturers of transvaginal mesh (TVM) products, which have been identified as causing severe, painful, and often permanent injuries. Multiple medical device manufacturers have developed and marketed these devices, which are designed to treat pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence. What the patients soon realized, however, is that the device caused severe internal damage, intense pain, and other related injuries.

To recover damages against a medical device manufacturer, the plaintiff must show that the defendant’s device bears an unreasonably dangerous design or that the device possesses a defect that occurred during the manufacturing process that renders the device unreasonably dangerous. The overwhelming majority of plaintiffs bringing claims against TVM manufacturers claim that the devices are unreasonably dangerous.

Once the U.S. Food and Drug Administration started receiving complaints about the health effects of these devices, it launched an investigation into multiple brands of TVM products, issuing warning letters to some and ordering others to perform post-market studies on the TVM products’ safety.

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