blog | Lane Brown, LLC

When older people move into nursing home facilities, despite the fact that they may be experiencing deteriorating physical or mental conditions, they have a reasonable right to expect they will be well cared for. Most of the time, that’s the case.

However, there are instances where nursing homes to do not measure up and can actually cause harm to the people they are entrusted to care for. This can either be through negligent acts or through intentional acts. Sometimes, this is the result of too heavy of a caseload, or poor training or an inadequate screening process when hiring employees.

Nursing homes can be held liable in many ways for abuse ranging from physical abuse to false imprisonment, or general violations in operations or licensing. If a lawyer can prove that the owners were negligent in their duty to provide a certain standard of care and that that negligence resulted in an injury, then a claim seeking damages may be filed.

In many cases, a resident will also enter into a contract with a nursing home which will clearly define what services are provided and how they are to be carried out. Another way to prove negligence is if the nursing home breached the terms of the contract.

Beyond civil matters regarding nursing home abuse, there are instances when a facility could face criminal penalties related to abuse or neglect. Exploitation of residents is less common but is a possibility. Failing to provide adequate food or not keeping residents clean enough, as well as other related actions maybe be a cause for criminal neglect charges to be filed. These types of cases will vary from state to state, but they can result in criminal convictions many times.

The Law Offices of Lane Brown proudly serve the city of Chicago and the surrounding communities.

If you’ve been injured through the use of a defective product, you may have a strong case to collect damages as a result. Although laws vary by state, a manufacturer or a seller of a product is liable if the product is deemed unreasonably dangerous and results in injury to its users.

A product can be classified as defective in three possible ways:

Design defect – This is when the product, from the start, is defective and dangerous. Cigarettes are a good example of this kind of defect.

Manufacturing defect – This occurs when a product is designed in a safe way, but an error took place as the product was manufactured, producing a defect.

Marketing defect – As the name implies, this type of product liability takes place when there are false or misleading advertising claims, or product instructions are false or misleading. A medical device or a prescription drug that fails to disclose usage warnings is an example of this kind of defect.

When you retain the services of a defective product lawyer, he or she will be able to seek compensation on your behalf in four different ways:

Lost wages – If you miss time at work due to being injured by a product, or if you have to go to doctor’s appointments after the fact, or if you are incapacitated on an ongoing basis, you can seek compensation for all of these issues.

Medical bills – This will include costs you have already incurred as well as any medical expenses in the future.

Pain and suffering – This is the part of compensation that is the most difficult to put a dollar figure on. But you are entitled to seek payment for all physical discomforts and other negative effects due to a defective product.

Emotional distress – This deals more with the psychological aspects related to a defective product and includes suffering from anxiety, sleeplessness, depression, stress and other related maladies.

The Law Offices of Lane Brown proudly serve the city of Chicago and the surrounding communities.

In most all cases, accidents involving commercial trucks are catastrophic due to the size and the weight of the vehicles that are involved.

Property damage is more significant.Serious injuries are more prevalent. And the consequences are more severe, especially if the freight on the truck is hazardous or flammable.

If you’re a victim in an accident involving a truck, and you’ve sustained injuries, to collect damages, you will need to retain an attorney who specializes in commercial truck accidents. The attorney’s main mission in recovering damages for you will be to prove that negligence was involved.

To prove negligence, the attorney must first show that the defendant (in most cases, the driver) owed the plaintiff a duty to exercise a reasonable degree of care to avoid injury. This is fairly easy to prove since all drivers on the road have a legal duty to provide reasonable care to other drivers, passengers and pedestrians.

It must then be proven that the defendant did not exercise reasonable care. In other words, they breached the duty to provide reasonable care. For example, if a truck driver ran through a red light or a stop sign, this would be considered a breach of reasonable care.

Finally, it must be shown that the defendant’s failure to exercise reasonable care was the cause of the injury. Running through a red light or a stop sign and hitting another vehicle resulting in injuries shows a direct cause of the injury.

If a truck driver is not an independent hauler, then the company they work for may also be held responsible for the accident if it can be proven they played a role in the driver’s negligence.

The Law Offices of Lane Brown proudly serve the city of Chicago and the surrounding communities.

In accidents involving medium to severe injuries, it’s probably in your best financial and legal interests to hire a car accident lawyer. Although a vast majority of cases never make it to trial, a lawyer can be an effective asset to help you recover what you are owed.

Because it’s generally recognized that trials are time consuming and expensive, most car accident cases are resolved through a settlement process. There are several pre-defined steps that your attorney will guide you through.

The Demand Letter – If you have been injured by another driver, then you and your attorney will prepare a demand letter outlining the facts and circumstances of your accident, the medical treatment you have been undergoing, and a financial accounting of your bills and lost wages. This demand letter is presented to the other side’s insurance company and sets the stage for negotiations. The demand letter will also ask for an amount much higher than what you will accept, giving you room to maneuver during negotiations.

Negotiations – After the insurance company receives the demand letter, they will probably make the injured party an offer to settle the claim. Expect it to be low. It’s all part of the negotiation process. Generally, it’s best to refuse this initial offer.

Your attorney should draft a response letter, restating your claims and defending the key parts of the demand letter. The response should also include a counter-offer lower than your first offer. This back and forth may go on for some time as negotiations continue.

Mediation – If negotiations stall, then a third party may be brought in to try and resolve differences and reach a settlement. Mediators are generally experienced injury attorneys, and they can bring a fresh perspective to a claim, helping to break up a log jam if one exists.

Accept the offer – At some point, you can expect to reach a mutually agreed upon dollar amount, and that should be conveyed to you in writing. You will be expected to sign a release before receiving any funds from the insurance company that bars you from seeking additional money at any point in the future.

The Law Offices of Lane Brown proudly serve the city of Chicago and the surrounding communities.

There is no type of brain injury that is not serious. As the primary organ that governs every action in your life, when a brain injury occurs, it will disrupt every aspect of everyday work.

Brain injuries can be temporary or they can be permanent, up to and including death. They can occur in two primary ways – traumatic brain injuries and acquired brain injuries. Traumatic brain injuries include “impact” injuries such as from a car accident or when an object pierces the skull and enters the brain. Concussions of all kinds fall into this category. Acquired brain injuries are caused when the brain does not get enough oxygen. They include anoxia and hypoxic brain injury.

Because brain injuries are unique in how they happen and to what degree they impact a person, filing a legal claim to affix blame can be highly complicated. Certain standards of liability will apply in a car accident or a slip and fall case and they will be different from a baby that was oxygen deprived in the womb.

Where permanent damage is part of the equation, settlement awards can be substantial because the victim will require life-long or long-term care that is well beyond the means of most families. If you are an adult who suffers a brain injury, you can also seek to recover damages for current and future lost wages to the extent of your earning power which may now be limited.

For any brain injury suit, a lawyer must be able to prove there was negligence,and it directly resulted in the injury. To prove negligence, an attorney must prove that someone owed the victim a legal duty of reasonable care and that they failed in that duty, resulting in harm being done.

The Law Offices of Lane Brown proudly serve the city of Chicago and the surrounding communities.

Despite their best efforts, sometimes doctors make mistakes. And even though we expect a certain standard of care from health care professionals, there are times when they fall short. While they can’t cure everything, a physician is expected to maintain a certain standard of care. When that standard falls short and results in harm to a patient, that patient can seek damages for medical malpractice.

A medical malpractice lawyer has several possible avenues to recover damages for a plaintiff. Most of these center around proving negligence on the part of the medical professional who was treating the patient. To establish negligence, it must be proven that:

There was an existing doctor/patient relationship and therefore the doctor owed a duty to that patient
There is an appropriate standard of care and the doctor deviated from that standard of care, breaching a duty to the patient.
There is a direct connection between that deviation and the injuries suffered by the patient.
There was actual injury to the patient.

The key to proving negligence is proving what standard of care exists, and then proving that standard was compromised by the defendant.

While a doctor may be at the center of a malpractice suit, it is not uncommon for makers of prescription medications or medical devices to be sued for malpractice as well. This can only happen if the pharmaceutical maker or the device manufacturer failed to warn users of potential side effects of a drug or use of a medical device. A physician is considered a “learned intermediary” in these instances because they are supposed to have been given enough information to determine if a drug or device was appropriate for the patient’s use.

Another possible way to prove malpractice is if a doctor does not provide informed consent to a patient. In this instance, a doctor has the duty to tell a patient all the benefits, risks and alternatives involved in a procedure or in the use of a drug or device. Written consent by the patient is always needed prior to administering treatment.

The Law Offices of Lane Brown proudly serve the city of Chicago and the surrounding communities.