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If you are involved in a personal injury case, there’s a good chance one or more personal injury lawyers are also going to be involved. While those lawyers live in the world of personal injury law every day, chances are, much of what goes on in a personal injury case may be foreign to you. To educate yourself and to best protect your interests, you need to at least have a basic grasp of some of the terminology you might encounter.

Torts/Intentional Torts – A tort is a wrongful act that is not a crime and that does not arise from a contract. Torts are common in civil suits and include actions such as negligence, libel, slander, trespassing and other related actions. Intentional torts are wrongful actions that are committed on purpose. Torts are important because they are what form the grounds for a civil lawsuit and allow a party to seek damages. On the other hand, criminal cases do not allow plaintiffs to collect damages.

Burden of Proof – This refers to the plaintiff’s obligation to prove what they are asserting to be true. In a personal injury case, the plaintiff must prove by a preponderance of evidence that the defendant is liable for their actions.

Strict Liability – This legal theory says that liability for certain acts exists regardless of if there is fault or wrongdoing. This is many times applied to defective products. If a manufacturer creates a product and someone is injured while using that product, the manufacturer may be held liable. Strict liability shifts the burden of proof to a defendant who has to prove they are not liable, as opposed to other negligence cases.

No-fault Laws – In some states, if you are injured in an auto accident, then you will collect damages from your own insurance company under no-fault laws. In other words, everyone is responsible for themselves, unless certain injury or damage thresholds are met.
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The injuries can be catastrophic when a truck is not properly loaded, but how exactly does the way cargo is loaded onto a truck contribute to a truck accident?

Improper Loads Can Cause a Deadly Truck Crash

When a truck is overloaded or the goods on a truck are not evenly distributed, a truck may be more likely to:

Spill its goods. When the cargo spills onto the roadway, other drivers are at risk of hitting the items and getting hurt. Additionally, the goods can hit another driver’s vehicle and cause that driver to lose control.
Rollover. A truck may rollover when it is improperly loaded, landing on another vehicle or causing nearby vehicles to crash.
Have difficulty stopping. Trucks that are not loaded according to cargo securement regulations may have trouble stopping, which can be dangerous if traffic unexpectedly slows down or a person or item enters the roadway.

Of course, other types of accidents can also occur, and you may have the right to recover damages in any accident where the truck, trucking company, or trucker caused your injury.

Contact a Lawyer After Any Kind of Truck Wreck

Whether you were hurt in one of the ways described above or another type of truck accident, it is important for a complete investigation to be conducted to determine what caused the crash and who is legally responsible for your injuries. Are you ready to get started? Contact our office at any time using our live chat or our easy, online contact form.

The National Transportation Safety Board has determined that the runaway Blue Line train that crashed into a westbound train last Monday, injuring dozens of people, had been left with its power on and in a setting that permitted its unmanned operation, at a CTA repair terminal. The setting that the train was left in apparently allowed the train to keep moving even though emergency brakes had been applied. The NTSB also found that unoccupied trains are routinely left powered on while stored in repair facilities with the settings that allow the trains to continue moving through a mechanical train stop mechanism after a momentary stop. Although the CTA is reported to be disputing the NTSB findings, it has issued a number of precautions to all of its railyard employees to make sure that trains undergoing maintenance stay in place. The NTSB has urged the CTA to review its procedures for storing unoccupied cars, and has recommended that the CTA disconnect the power sources to its trains while stored, and placing wheel chocks or “derails”, which would block the free rolling of the train’s wheels and force the car off-rail in the event of unwanted movement.

We’ll see what the CTA’s ultimate response and explanation for last Monday’s train wreck is. In the meantime, let’s all hope that the CTA pays attention to the NTSB’s findings and recommendations so that the thousands of CTA passengers who ride these trains each day are not exposed to the risk of unmanned runaway trains. Mass transit accidents can be devastating. To learn more about how you can protect you and your family in the event of a mass transportation accident, please visit our website.

If you or a loved one has suffered serious injuries as a result of a train crash, you may be able to take action. Please contact the attorneys of Lane Brown, LLC, or call us at 312-332-1400 to speak with us about your options. We can help. To learn more about Lane Brown, please visit our website at lanebrownlaw.com.

Don’t Neglect Yourself After Your Child Has Been Sexually Abused

The headline of this article may sound somewhat controversial. Why should you worry about yourself when your child has been seriously violated and hurt by a sexual predator? This is not about you, your feelings, or your recovery. Right now, you are focused on helping your child to get through this ordeal.

You Are Your Child’s Best Chance at Recovery

That is the reason why you need to take care of yourself. If you bury your emotions and fail to find an outlet for what has happened, it may be difficult to be strong for your child in the months and years ahead. Although everyone has a different way of dealing with strong emotions like grief, anger, and guilt, you may wish to consider the following:

Talking to your friends or a professional counselor. You may benefit from talking with someone whom you do not have to be “on” for or worry about upsetting.
Maintaining your typical routine. This may include work and exercise, for example.

You may also benefit, and thereby help your child, by being proactive about your child’s possible recovery.

Allow a Lawyer to Pursue a Legal Recovery

You may want to see justice done. An experienced lawyer can help protect your child by fighting for his recovery from sexual abuse injuries in a Chicago school, a Northbrook church, a Des Plaines locker room, or anywhere else in the greater Chicago area.

For more information, please contact us today. You may also wish to follow us on Facebook to stay current on important information for families of child sex abuse victims.

Category: Child Sex Abuse

We would like to report that 2014 will be the year when there are no driving fatalities in Illinois, but we won’t be able to do it. Despite the Illinois Department of Transportation’s “Driving Zero Fatalities to a Reality” campaign, there were 200 deaths from Illinois motor vehicle accidents between January 1, 2014 and April 22, 2014.

Why Is the Focus on Zero?

The Illinois Department of Transportation explains its campaign by emphasizing that every life counts. Even one death caused by a preventable accident is too many. It not only cuts short the life of someone who did not have to die, but it leaves family and friends grieving.

Thus, the state is encouraging drivers from the crowded Chicago Skyway to the rural parts of Illinois to work together to prevent car accidents. Everyone is encouraged to drive defensively, to drive without distractions, to drive sober, and to wear seat belts. While the goal of zero deaths is admirable, it depends on the cooperation of every single driver, which makes it difficult to achieve.

If Zero Is Unachievable, Why Try?

Not every driver is going to do what it takes to prevent a fatal car accident on I-90 or on the back roads. Yet when more drivers try, fewer fatalities may occur and fewer families may be left grieving.

As of April 22, 2014, there were 93 fewer deaths on Illinois roads than there were during the same period of 2013. That is a good thing, and if reaching for zero helps us save lives, it is a goal worth reaching for.

What do you think of the “Driving Zero Fatalities to a Reality” campaign? Please leave a comment in the space below and share your thoughts with us.

Five Things Your Friends Don’t Understand After Your Child’s Been Sexually Abused in Illinois

You are not keeping secrets. You may long for the understanding and support of your friends after your child has been sexually abused in Berwyn, Cicero, or anywhere else in the Chicago area. Your friends may want to support you and your family, but they might not know how because they might not understand what you are going through.

What Your Friends Don’t Know

Right now your every waking thought may be about your child who suffered sexual abuse. Your friends who have, thankfully, never faced similar situations may know that you are sad, but they may not know that you feel:

Guilty.
Scared.
Embarrassed.
Responsible.
Lonely.

They might not know that the sexual abuse of your child is all that you think about and that it is difficult for you to think about anything else.

It’s Okay to Let Them In

You don’t want to burden your friends and you hope that they never experience this kind of pain first hand. However, it is important to remember that your friends love you and genuinely want to help you through this difficult time.

Accordingly, it is important to communicate with them in any way that you can. You can tell them each what you need, you can tell one person and authorize her to share your needs with specific other people, and you can share this blog post with your friends so that they have a better understanding of what you are going through.

Do you have any tips for communicating with your friends after your child’s been sexually abused? Please leave a comment and share your tips with others who may be facing similar situations. Your comment may help make this difficult time a little easier for someone else.