There was an auto accident in Gurnee, IL, on November 2, 2016. The accident occurred on Dilley’s Rd., north of Stearns School Rd.
The Law Offices of Robert T. Edens is a Lake County personal injury law firm with offices located in Antioch. Contact us today for a free consultation.
There was an auto accident on northbound Route 41 at Washington St. in Gurnee, IL, on October 1, 2016. It was a two-vehicle crash and a woman was killed an a man was critically injured. The woman was found dead in the vehicle when authorities arrived.
The Law Offices of Robert T. Edens is a Lake County personal injury law firm with offices located in Antioch. Contact us today for a free consultation.
There was an auto accident near W. North Ave. and Burning Bush Ln. in Antioch, IL, on October 24, 2016. Megan E. Rail, 26, was killed in a single-vehicle crash. She was found by police in a 2011 Chevrolet HHR that had major damage.
The Law Offices of Robert T. Edens is a Lake County personal injury law firm with offices located in Antioch. Contact us today for a free consultation.
The Law Offices of Robert T. Edens is a Lake County personal injury law firm with offices located in Antioch. Contact us today for a free consultation.
Do have an obesity-related health condition such as hypertension or diabetes? Did you know that it can affect your workers’ compensation claim? Probably not. Today, over 35 percent of Americans are obese, and it is estimated that this figure will rise to 51 percent by 2030. The impact of obesity and related conditions is profound, if you take into account the employer paid healthcare costs for obese workers that mount up to $8 billion annually.
According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), obesity-related health conditions, especially diabetes, are the culprit behind the rising employee healthcare costs. Approximately 65 percent of the workforce today is obese or morbidly obese. Due to this, the cost and resolution of workers’ comp claims involving obese workers is significantly high.
How Obesity Affects Workers from Performing their Duties
Workers with obesity-related issues face the challenge of meeting the physical requirements of their workplace duties. Obese workers may struggle with:
Obese workers experience difficulty with these and other physical activities because their body isn’t designed to handle the exhausting burden of carrying excessive weight. The joints and spine are incapable of sustaining the force of any type of damage when coupled with excess weight. As a result, weight challenged workers are at a higher risk of workplace injury.
How Obesity Affects Workers’ Comp Claims
An obesity-related disease can affect your work in terms of productivity, focus, and efficiency, and if you sustain a workplace injury, it will impact your workers’ comp claim. The following are some factors that may be considered during the settlement of your claim:
According to a Duke University study, weight challenged workers filed twice as many workers’ comp claims as compared to workers with a healthy BMI. Moreover, the healthcare costs associated with workplace injuries of obese workers were seven times higher, and they took 13 times more days to recover.
Pre-existing health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension, which are the most prevalent obesity-related chronic conditions, significantly increase the medical care costs, and hence affect the workers’ comp claims. In addition, the presence any of these diseases makes the recovery slow and complicated which further contributes to the increasing costs.
Getting help for Workers’ Compensation Claims
The duration, frequency, and severity of workers’ comp claims related to obese workers are quite complicated in nature. It is important that you have an experienced workers’ compensation attorney by your side to represent your case. Contact the Law Offices of Robert T. Edens, P.C. at (847) 395-2200 or online today to schedule your initial consultation with our firm.
You may be surprised, even shocked, when you hear someone discussing the rising issue of elder sexual abuse in nursing homes. However, it is one of the more common types of abuse in nursing homes mainly because the elderly are easy targets for sexual predators who take advantage of their weakness and defenseless. In addition, the elderly with some sort of medical conditions due to which their motor skills or speech have been impaired are also victims of sexual abuse.
What is Elder Sexual Abuse?
Sexual abuse is defined as a form of sexual contact that is unwanted or non-consensual and involves inappropriate touching, sexual coercion, rape, sexual harassment, sodomy, and sexually-explicit photographing. It involves situations where the residents of a nursing home are forced, manipulated, tricked, or coerced into sexual contact without consent or where the victims are frail, disabled, too ill, or mentally incapacitated to give consent.
The resident of a nursing home can be sexually abused by different types of people, such as:
Facts about Nursing Home Sexual Abuse
The following are some facts pertaining to nursing home sexual abuse:
Signs of Elder Sexual Abuse
In order to determine whether your elderly loved one is being sexually abused at the nursing home, here are some physical and behavioral indictors to look for:
Taking Action against Elder Sexual Abuse
When you discover that your elderly loved one has suffered from sexual abuse, it is important that you make a report against the institution to police authorities. Even though some nursing homes have policies in place for dealing with sexual abuse claims, you should not hesitate to involve proper authorities if they don’t take immediate action.
If you have observed any of the above mentioned signs of elder sexual abuse and want to file a claim against the nursing home, you should hire a reliable and experienced nursing home neglect attorney for legal help and advice. Contact the Law Offices of Robert T. Edens, P.C. at (847) 395-2200 or online today to schedule your initial consultation with our firm.
It is not uncommon for the police to catch the wrong person and put them into jail, just to release them after realizing that they are innocent. You may not be bothered much when you are detained by a human police officer, but what if a police dog caught you in its jaws? It will surely do more harm than just damaging your pride and dignity. Now you must be thinking about your options if you find yourself in such a scenario. Can you file a dog bite lawsuit against the police or should you just walk away to avoid any further trouble?
Law Protection against Police Dog Bite Injury
The answer is yes, you can hold the cops liable. According to the Federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, the police cannot use unreasonable force (such as dogs biting individuals) when they are arresting a suspect. There are several possible consequences for police officers in doing so. They may have to compensate the victims for the pain and suffering they went through, or may be asked to pay punitive damages. Moreover, the federal law can provide some benefits to the victim, such as extension in the statute of limitations for filing a claim and compensation for attorney costs and fees.
Factors influencing a Police Dog Bite Case
You may be relieved to hear that you can file a claim against police dog bites, but unfortunately, it is not as easy as suing an ordinary dog owner. The government has given the police authority to use dogs to aid them in search and arrest missions, so it can be quite difficult to prove your case. However, there are several factors that can help you in overcoming this immunity and affect the outcome of your case:
Filing a Police Dog Bite Claim
Once you have determined that your case is viable, here is how you can proceed with filing a lawsuit against the police:
If you have been bit by a police dog when you are no fault at all, you should file a case against the police. Contact the Law Offices of Robert T. Edens, P.C. at (847) 395-2200 or online today to schedule your initial consultation with our firm.d
You must have heard about the famous Toyota gas pedal issue that took place in 2009-2011, in which the company had to recall more than 4 million vehicles for fixing the problem. It resulted in many car accidents and fatalities because the gas pedal got stuck and the drivers lost control over their vehicles. The lawsuits that were filed against Toyota cost them over $1.1 billion in settlements.
Another similar car-related product liability issue occurred with Takata airbags. The problem with their products was that their airbags were deploying explosively, severely injuring, and in some cases, even killing the passengers. Over 30 million vehicles, made by 10 different manufacturers, were recalled.
Just like the Toyota and Takata cases, there many other cases where the accidents happened because of the faulty vehicle components and manufacturers were sued. However, it sometimes becomes difficult for the injured party to make out whether the personal injury happened due to their own negligence or faulty vehicle parts. In such a case, seeking legal help of an experienced personal injury attorney is the best way to get the compensation you rightfully deserve.
Types of Vehicle Defects
When filing a personal injury lawsuit, it is important to know about the type of defect that caused the accident. Moreover, the origin of the fault will also influence who should be held responsible for your pain and suffering. Broadly speaking, the vehicle defects can be categorized as:
Liability for Vehicle Defects
If the safety features or any other component of the car fails to perform as it should, or there is a design flaw that caused the accident, you can file a lawsuit against manufacturers and hold them responsible for paying damages. You can pursue a personal injury or wrong death claim, if you have lost a loved one, for all damages sustained, which would’ve not happened in the first place if the vehicle part had no defects.
However, there is also a chance that the manufacturer is not at fault. Depending on how and why the malfunction occurred, the dealership from where you bought the vehicle can be held liable. Moreover, in certain cases, mechanics involved in repairing the vehicle or manufacturers of specific parts can also be at fault.
It can be a challenging task to determine liability in the event of a vehicle accident due to a faulty vehicle part. That is why is important to hire an experienced personal injury attorney to help you evaluate your case and get fair compensation. Contact the Law Offices of Robert T. Edens, P.C. at (847) 395-2200 or online today to schedule your initial consultation with our firm.
Orange cones aligned in a particular order, several warning signs spread across the area, and workers in bright vests is the typical scene of a construction zone. All these precautionary measures are for alerting the incoming traffic about the construction work taking place up ahead in order to reduce confusion and the probability of accidents. However, even with so many preemptive strategies, many car accidents still happen in road construction zones. This may be because of the reduced number of lanes, presence of workers and machinery on the road, changes in speed and traffic flow, and traffic jams, which can create a risky situation for both drivers and workers.
Statistical Data on Construction Zone Accidents
Construction zones create additional road hazards that often lead to a greater frequency of collisions and accidents. Each year, thousands of vehicles accidents and crashes take place due to construction zones. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, in 2013, more than 67,000 crashes occurred in construction zones across the US. It has also been observed that the number of crashes increase when larger zones are under maintenance or being repaired. Moreover, bad weather conditions increase these crash statistics tenfold.
The Causes of Construction Zone Accidents
Whenever a road is in a poor condition, it requires fixing in order to mitigate higher risks of large scale calamities. Regular maintenance and construction work keeps the roads safe for traffic, but over the years, such construction zones have proven to be as dangerous as a bad road. There are several reasons why accidents occur in construction zones, including:
What to do if you were in a Construction Zone Accident?
You may have taken all the necessary precautions to drive through the construction zone safely, and may still have met an accident. So what can you do in such a situation? You may not be completely sure whether it was your or the other driver’s fault, or the accident happened because of the unsafe conditions of the construction zone. In such a case, you should consult an experienced and reliable personal injury attorney, as you may have a case and a chance to get compensated for your pain and suffering.
For evaluating your case and the possibilities for your personal injury claim, contact the Law Offices of Robert T. Edens, P.C. at (847) 395-2200 or online today to schedule your initial consultation with our firm.
In Illinois, the law requires every employer to carry workers’ compensation, and provide its benefits when a worker is injured while performing job-related tasks. While not all employers have ill intent, there have been countless cases where employers, along with their insurers, took full advantage of the Workers’ Compensation Act to deny the workers of their rightful compensation and save money.
A worker is eligible to receive workers’ comp benefits if they are:
Here we have compiled all the common tricks that employers use to avoid paying workers’ compensation benefits to their employees.
Advising the Employee to See a Company Doctor
If the doctor or physician evaluating your injuries is associated with your company, there is a high chance that they might not accurately diagnose and document your condition. The doctor’s statement holds a lot of significance and may prevent you from getting the compensation benefits you deserve. This is why you should always get a second opinion from an independent doctor.
Apart from this, employers sometimes recommend the injured worker to see a physician with whom they have a pre-existing relationship. The worker thinks that they will get an unbiased diagnosis of their condition; however, in reality, they are falling into their employer’s trap.
Out of Context Recorded Statements
Another common tactic is that the workers’ compensation claims adjuster tries to get the injured worker’s statement, while they are still in the hospital. They ask tricky questions when the claimant is under the influence of drugs or not in a correct state of mind to lessen the claim amount. Questions and agreeing to statements such as, “You had been injured previously and suffered from more pain than you are experience from this injury, correct?”, “You were diagnosed with body pain (arm pain, lower back pain, neck pain, etc.) before the injury, right?”, and others can have a significant effect on your claim.
The Three-Day Rule
For an employee to receive workers’ compensation benefits for missed work wages due to a workplace injury, they must skip work for three consecutive days. Most employees are unaware of this rule and their employers full take advantage of it. They ask the injured employee to continue coming to work and assign them light duty work so that they don’t have to pay them for lost income for a long term.
Insurers Voluntarily Paying the Benefits
For an injured worker, receiving benefits without having to file a claim won’t seem like a problem at all. However, this is another trick that insurance adjusters use to reduce the period of workers’ comp benefits. If the injured worker doesn’t file the claim using the right form, they will eventually stop getting the benefits after the time runs out, which according to the statute of limitations is one year.
If you think that your employer has used one of these tricks to deny your right to workers’ compensation, you should hire a reliable workers’ compensation attorney to fight your case. Contact The Law Offices of Robert T. Edens, P.C. at (847) 395-2200 or online to schedule your initial legal consultation and discuss the specifics of your case.
The Law Offices of Robert T. Edens, Personal Injury and Workers' Compensation Law Office, have offices in Antioch, Waukegan, Grayslake, Woodstock and Barrington. We represent clients throughout the communities of Antioch, Waukegan, Grayslake, Barrington, Woodstock, Buffalo Grove, Deer Park, Gurnee, Lake Zurich, Round Lake, McHenry, Cary, Crystal Lake, Libertyville, Lincolnshire, Mundelein, Vernon Hills, Wheeling, North Chicago, Zion, Inverness, Palatine, Wauconda, Island Lake, Fox Lake, Barrington Hills, Spring Grove, Lake Bluff, Lakemoor, Long Grove, Lake Villa, Kildeer, Wadsworth, Indian Creek, Fox River Grove, Lindenhurst and other cities within Lake and McHenry Counties Illinois.
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