Justia Lawyer Rating for Robert D. Kreisman

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In auto accident lawsuits, it is somewhat common for the defendant driver to admit liability, but still dispute the extent of the plaintiff’s injuries. However, somewhat less typical is for the defendant driver to dispute the degree to which surviving family members suffer in the event that the plaintiff driver died in the car accident. Yet this is what happened in the McHenry County lawsuit of Estate of Patrick Harder, deceased v. Morgan Nooraee, 08 L 54.

The motorcycle accident at issue in Harder took place on Route 14 in Crystal Lake, Illinois. At the time of the accident, the 44 year-old Patrick Harder was driving his motorcycle along Route 14 when Morgan Nooraee turned his vehicle in front of Harder. The two vehicles collided and Harder was killed on impact.

A wrongful death lawsuit was then filed against Nooraee on behalf of Harder’s closest surviving kin, i.e., his eight year-old son. And while Nooraee unequivocally admitted liability for the motorcycle accident and Harder’s death, he argued over the extent which Harder’s death affected his surviving child. Harder did not live with his son, nor was Harder the primary financial caregiver for his child. Therefore, the defense argued that Harder’s son should not be allowed to benefit from his death.

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While a Cook County jury awarded almost $3 million to a bicyclist hit by a dump truck, the verdict was reduced by 50% for what the jury found to be the bicyclist’s responsibility in her own accident. This bicycle-auto accident verdict suggests that even though bicyclists are more vulnerable than cars or trucks, they, too, must share the responsibility for maintaining a safe roadway environment. Lucyna Kubisztal Smith and Danny Smith v. Suburban General Construction, Inc. and William S. Chase, 07 L 6481.

The bicycle-truck accident occurred in June 2007 at the intersection of 86th Avenue and 111th Street in Palos Hills. The 49 year-old Lucyna Smith had been riding her bicycle on the sidewalk along the 111th Street, but then entered the crosswalk in order to cross 86th Avenue. At the same time, the 29 year-old William Chase was driving a dump truck along 86th Avenue. Chase failed to see Smith and ended up not only running her and her bicycle over, but then continued to drag her under the dump truck for an estimated 30 to 50 feet.

Smith sustained multiple fractures, including those to her pelvis, sacrum, lumber spine, and cervical spine. The damage to her cervical spine aggravated her pre-existing cervical arthritis and required a spinal decompression and fusion surgery across five different levels. Smith’s doctors predict that she will also require a hip replacement in the near future as a result of the intersection accident. In addition, she was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder and subsequent depression. Smith brought a personal injury lawsuit against Chase for her injuries and lost time from her job as a housekeeper. In addition, her husband brought a separate loss of consortium claim for the loss of service and companionship of his wife.

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The phrase “shop til you drop” took on new meaning for Mary Corbett as she was shopping at a Menards in Crestwood, Illinois. The 53 year-old was shopping when a large box fell on her back, forcing her to the ground. Corbett filed an Illinois personal injury lawsuit against the hardware store for back and shoulder injuries she sustained as a result of her shopping accident, Mary Corbett v. Menard Inc., 07 L 65006.

The 2005 Menards accident occurred through no fault of Corbett’s. Rather the accident was caused by a Menards employee who had placed an eight-foot long box of molding upright against a moving display. The box then fell into the nearby aisle as Corbett was walking by. The Menards employee not only helped Corbett to her feet, but also followed the proper procedure and completed an incident report documenting the general facts of Corbett’s accident.

Corbett was able to walk out of the store on her own, without any assistance, but decided to visit her primary care physician when she still was experiencing pain the following day. She was referred to an orthopedic surgeon for complaints of neck pain, who diagnosed Corbett with a cervical strain. A diagnosis of cervical strain is common following auto accidents or fall injuries and is generally relieved with physical therapy or rest. However, Corbett’s pain continued and she was eventually diagnosed with a herniated cervical disc, which required a cervical fusion surgery in order to repair it. Following her surgery, Corbett then began to undergo treatment for a shoulder injury she claimed was also caused by the falling box.

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It is relatively rare for a car accident lawsuit with no eyewitnesses to go all the way to trial if neither party admits liability, mainly because it runs the risk of turning into a he said, she said type of scenario. Yet the Illinois bike accident lawsuit of Eric M. Bettag v. Douglas J. Mackie, 09 L 8162, seems to be an exception to this rule – not only did the personal injury lawsuit go to trial, but the jury entered a $269,000 verdict in favor of the injured plaintiff.

The case revolved around a 2007 accident that occurred at the Oak Park intersection of Lake Street and Euclid Avenue. Eric Bettag was riding his bicycle northbound on Euclid Avenue when he was struck by Douglas Mackie’s SUV. Mackie was driving westbound on Lake Street at the time. Both Bettag and Mackie claimed that they had a green light and that the other party had run a red light. However, considering that the parties were driving at perpendicular paths, it would be impossible for both to have had a green light.

Again, typically if both parties claim the right of way, the dispute is settled by an unbiased eyewitness. However, there were no eyewitnesses to the early morning bike accident and therefore no one to collaborate either Bettag’s or Mackie’s statements. While there was limited testimony regarding the circumstances of the accident itself, here was much to say about the extent of Bettag’s injuries following the Cook County bicycle accident.

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When people think of work injury lawsuits, typically they think of accidents occurring as a result of working with dangerous machinery, or difficult work conditions. However, many work place accidents arise out of fairly mundane circumstances. Take for instance the case of Christina Viernun v. Universal Maintenance LLC; 07L-12068. The plaintiff, Christina Viernun, injured herself at work after falling on a wet floor and sued a carpet cleaner company to recovery damages arising out of the work place injury.

Viernun works at Aunt Martha’s Youth Service Center and Health Center, an Illinois medical facility that offers health and social services to family members of all ages. In June 2007, Viernun was walking across a wet carpet onto a tile floor when she slipped and fell on the dry tile floor. The thirty-four year old Viernun sustained a fractured kneecap as a result of the surgery and had to undergo a long and complicated recovery process.

Viernun attributed her fall to the fact that her shoes became wet after walking across the wet carpet, which then caused her to slip and fall on the dry tile floor. She filed an Illinois personal injury lawsuit against Universal Maintenance, the company she alleged had cleaned Aunt Martha’s carpets on the date of her fall. In the complaint, Viernun cited Universal Maintenance’s negligence for failing to place fans to dry the carpets, or lay down butcher paper to absorb the carpet’s water. If it had done so, Viernun contended that her fall might have been prevented because the carpet would not have been as wet.

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In a standard auto accident lawsuit there are typically two parties, i.e., the plaintiff and the defendant. However, if one of the drivers happened to be driving while on the job, then his employer could also be involved in the lawsuit. In the truck accident lawsuit of Thomas Edwards, Betty Edwards and Slay Transportation v. Millstadt Rendering, Co., et al., 08 L 813, both the plaintiff truck driver and the defendant truck driver were working at the time of the two-truck accident. As a result, Edwards involved both a plaintiff truck driver and his employer and a defendant truck driver and his employer.

At 3:30 a.m. on the date of the accident, defendant Gary Collier was driving a tractor-trailer owned by Millstadt Rendering along Interstate 55 near St. Genevieve, Missouri. Collier’s vehicle ended up running through the highway’s median and came to a stop with the tail end of the trailer extending into a lane of oncoming traffic. The plaintiff, Thomas Edwards, happened to be driving a tanker-trailer owned by Slay Transportation in the opposite direction as Collier had been driving. Edwards ended up driving his vehicle into the rear portion of Collier’s truck and suffered extensive injuries as a result of the highway truck accident.

The 62 year-old Edwards sustained a severe fracture to to his pelvic bone, which required an open reduction surgery with the insertion of plates and screws. In addition, Edwards suffered from a sciatic nerve injury, which left him with a permanent foot drop and nerve injury. He also developed deep venous thrombosis following the truck accident, which not only required the placement of an umbrella filter, but also a Coumadin therapy regimen for the rest of his life. Edwards’s lengthy recovery also led to the development of a decubitus ulcer and depression.

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As the temperatures begin to cool in Chicago, every Illinoisan is aware that winter is just a few short months away. And with midwest winters come more dangerous driving conditions, e.g., icy roads, slick snow, and dangerously low temperatures. The Illinois personal injury lawsuit of Ponto v. Levan arose out of just such dangerous road conditions – the defendant driver hit the plaintiff after sliding on an ice patch. What is interesting about the Ponto lawsuit though is that it gave rise to Levan v. City of Dixon, a third party lawsuit in which the defendant driver blamed not the winter weather for the ice patch, but the City of Dixon itself.

In February 2008, Denise Ponto was driving along Route 2 in Dixon, Illinois when Dale Levan’s vehicle crossed the lane of traffic and crashed into Ponto’s vehicle. As a result, Ms. Ponto sustained a comminuted knee fracture and needed to be airlifted to Rockford’s St. Anthony Hospital for treatment. A comminuted fracture occurs when a bone is broken in several places, which then requires an open reduction internal fixation surgery with the insertion of screws and plates to help fix the broken bones in place. Ms. Ponto’s treatment was further complicated by her development of deep vein thrombosis, i.e. blood clots, and cellulitis, a skin infection caused by bacteria. As a result of the lengthy treatment, Ponto missed five months from her job as a bartender.

Ponto filed a personal injury lawsuit against Levan in which she claimed damages for the injuries she sustained after his truck skidded into her lane of traffic. And while Levan admitted he was drunk at the time and was at fault for the car accident, he felt the City of Dixon was also at fault. Levan contended that the ice which his car skidded on was the result of a broken City water main. The defendant then filed a third party claim against the City of Dixon for its part in causing the auto accident and Ms. Ponto’s injuries.

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A Cook County jury awarded $110,000 in a Chicago car accident lawsuit where the elderly plaintiff required surgery after the accident aggravated her preexisting back problems in Janice Thomson v. Kenneth W. Mueller, 08 L 11010. Despite medical records that clearly showed that Ms. Thomson had a prior history of arthritis and back pain, the plaintiff was able to secure payment for her subsequent medical treatments. The reason for this being that in Illinois, as well as many other states, juries cannot deny or limit a party’s right to damages simply based on the existence of a preexisting medical condition.

The 64 year-old plaintiff Janice Thomson had been suffering from chronic back pain for almost ten years when she was involved in a Chicago car accident. At the time of the 2006 auto accident, Thomson was the passenger in a vehicle that was rear-ended by the defendant, Kenneth Mueller. Thomson’s vehicle had been stopped prior to the impact. Following the rear-end accident, Thomson’s back pain worsened and she eventually required surgery to relieve her symptoms.

Thomson filed a lawsuit against Mueller, which alleged that her increased back pain and subsequent surgery were caused by the 2006 rear-end collision. As is the case in most rear-end accidents, the defendant driver accepted responsibility for the auto accident itself. However, Mueller did contest the nature of Ms. Thomson’s injuries and contended that her surgery was not caused by the “minor” accident.

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Common sense tells us that it is much easier to avoid hitting a stopped car than a moving vehicle. For this reason, when reviewing car accident lawsuits, juries tend to find in favor of the non-moving party more often than for the moving driver. Such was the case in the Chicago personal injury lawsuit of Tracey Walker and Stacey Walker, a minor v. Raul Andrade, et al., 09 L 14073.

Tracy Walker had been driving her vehicle in Chicago’s West Garfield Park neighborhood when she was forced to stop her vehicle because a flatbed truck owned by J&L Towing was blocking the roadway. The defendant truck driver, Raul Andrade, had stopped the truck in order to unload the vehicle from the flatbed. However, rather than unloading it himself, Andrade allowed the vehicle’s owner, Jason Ward to drive the Chevy Caprice down off the flatbed’s ramp. As Ward was driving the Caprice off the truck he ran into the front of Walker’s vehicle.

Tracy Walker sustained soft tissue injuries to her back and to her right shoulder and arm. In addition, her twelve year-old passenger, Stacey Walker, sustained soft tissue injuries to her right arm. Both Tracy and Stacey Walker filed a personal injury lawsuit against J&L Towing, Andrade, and Ward for their negligence in unloading the flatbed truck. The defense repeatedly denied its liability and contended at the Cook County trial that the plaintiff had been contributorily negligent.

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As a personal injury attorney, you begin to see patterns in the types of injuries sustained as a result of certain accidents. For example, slip and fall injuries generally result in back, wrist, or ankle injuries. Likewise, rear-end collisions typically cause lower back and spinal injuries, as seen in the Chicago personal injury lawsuit of Joel Castillo v. Chicago Transit Authority, et al., 1343.

The plaintiff, Joel Castillo, was stopped at a red light in a Chicago intersection when he was rear-ended by a city bus. Like many victims of rear-end collisions, Castillo sustained injuries to his lower back. However, because Castillo was hit not just by another car, but by a bus, his injuries were perhaps a little more severe than most. Not only did he suffer from an herniated disc at his L5-S1 vertebrae, but also sustained a left rotator cuff tear.

Again, Castillo’s subsequent medical treatment mirrors that of most rear-end collision victims. He underwent physical therapy to try and improve the level of pain he experienced as a result of his rotator cuff tear and herniated disc. In addition, Castillo’s underwent epidural injections at the recommendation of his medical providers in an effort to relieve his continued pain.

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