Justia Lawyer Rating for Robert D. Kreisman

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On Friday, October 2, 2009, the Union League Club of Chicago honored its newest recipients of the Union League Club’s Distinguished Writers Award, Carol Marin and Scott Turow. The evening was hosted by Peter Sagal, the host of NPR’s Wait Wait . . . Don’t tell me! The event was attended by more than 200 guests at the Union League Club, including Chicago Civil Justice Attorney Robert Kreisman. Attorney Kreisman is also a member of the club’s Public Affairs Committee.

Carol Marin is an award winning journalist who is currently NBC 5’s Political Editor, a political columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, and a contributor to “Chicago Tonight” on WTTW Chicago. She is also a member of the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame and has received the Ethics in Journalism Award from the Chicago Headline Club.

Scott Turow, also honored is an attorney and writer who authored seven best selling novels including, Presumed Innocent (1987), The Burden of Proof (1990), Pleading Guilty (1993), The Laws of Our Fathers (1996), Personal Injuries (1999), Reversible Errors (2002) and Ordinary Heroes (2005). Mr. Turow has won a number of literary awards, including the Heartland Prize in 2003, the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award in 2004 and Time Magazine’s Best Work of Fiction in 1999.

The event not only honored the prestigious careers of Carol Marin and Scott Turow, but also was another example of the club’s devotion to the arts. Not only does the club have a significant collection of private art work, but it also supports the Union League Civic & Arts Foundation, a separate not-for-profit organization to promote the arts in Chicago. The evening banquet was enjoyed by all who attended.

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A recent Illinois settlement in a Cook County medical malpractice claim sought to compensate the family of a 53 year-old man who died during a heart transplant surgery. The issue in the Illinois wrongful death case was whether the man would have even required the surgery if his internist had correctly interpreted test results from several years preceding his death.

The decedent had undergone regular annual exams with his internist, which each year included an electrocardiogram (EKG) that was performed by the internist. EKGs are typically used to analyze a patient’s heart rhythm and identify any abnormalities. The internist interpreted all of the decedent’s EKGs from 1998 to 2002 to be normal.

However, in November 2002, the man suffered a massive heart attack, which resulted in extensive heart damage. At that point a triple bypass surgery was performed and a pacemaker was placed. However, from this point forward the man was unable to continue his previously-active lifestyle due to his congestive heart failure. Nor was he able to return to his job as a baggage handler because it was too demanding considering his present condition.

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Yesterday Toyota announced its largest recall ever when it announced its plan to recall 3.8 million vehicles due to a product defect. According to the auto manufacturer, the vehicles in question are equipped with a floor mat that causes the accelerator pedal to become stuck.

As a temporary solution, the federal government and Toyota are encouraging vehicle owners to simply remove the driver’s side floor mat. Toyota advised that until the manufacturer comes up with a solution regarding the defective product, owners should simply remove the mats rather than bringing the vehicle to the dealership.

An alert has been issued by The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration regarding the Toyota floor mats warning drivers that stuck accelerator pedals could lead to high speeds and deadly crashes. Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood, reinforced this message in a recent statement, in which he “strongly urge[d] owners of these vehicles to remove mats or other obstacles that could lead to unintended accelerations”.

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Since this May, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported that Hydroxycut product users could suffer from adverse liver disease, numerous lawsuits have been filed around the country, including several in the Chicago area.

On May 1, 2009, the FDA announced that it had been made aware of 23 reports of adverse liver effects that occurred in the course of normal Hydroxycut usage. The reports included injuries that ranged from general liver damage, the need for a liver transplant, and to death. At that time the FDA warned consumers to immediately cease using Hydroxycut products.

Signs and symptoms of liver damage from Hydroxycut usage can include fatigue, malaise/ tiredness, loss of appetite, nausea, jaundice, blurry vision, abdominal itching, abdominal pain, and/or dark colored urine. Hydroxycut has also been known to cause drug-induced hepatitis and liver failure.

In response to the FDA’s warning, Iovate, the owner and distributor of Hydroxycut products, agreed to recall its remaining product from store shelves. Hydroxycut was generally sold throughout the United States and Illinois at stores such as Wal-Mart, Walgreens, and CVS Pharmacy, among others.

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An Illinois resident suffered respiratory failure after being prescribed a narcotic pain reliever following a minor motorcycle accident. The pain reliever also happened to be a respiratory suppressor, which, when coupled with his pre-existing history of sleep apnea, led to his untimely death as a result of the Illinois physician’s medical negligence.

Sleep apnea is a chronic disease that involves pauses in breathing while sleeping. The pauses can range anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes and can occur anywhere from five to fifty times in an hour. The decedent’s sleep apnea put him at increased risk for respiratory complications.

During the decedent’s hospital stay at Edward Hospital in Naperville, the defendant doctor allegedly prescribed the patient a dose of the narcotic pain reliever that exceeded the therapeutic levels in light of his pre-existing sleep apnea. This Illinois medication error directly affected his ability to breathe and led to his wrongful death on the fifth day of his hospitalization as a result of the medical malpractice.

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Despite having a preexisting back condition, a plaintiff driver received $2 million from the defendant driver for a back injury sustained in an Illinois trucking accident. Prior to settlement, the Chicago personal injury case was pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

In the 2004 truck accident, a box truck driven by the Illinois plaintiff was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer driven by the defendant. The defendant tractor-trailer driver admitted responsibility for the rear-end crash. Following the Illinois truck accident the plaintiff driver experienced significant back pain and eventually required a spinal fusion. However, despite the surgery he has been unable to return to work as an HVAC specialist since the accident due to the high level of pain and subsequent physical limitations.

It is actually fairly common for auto accidents to aggravate prior conditions to the point where they interfere with the victim’s life, especially in rear-end accidents. In this case the plaintiff had a prior back condition that was aggravated by the collision and causing it to become symptomatic. So even though the plaintiff had no prior back pain, his underlying problems were already present at the time of the collision.

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An Illinois mother was awarded $5 million by a Cook County jury for an unnecessary hysterectomy she received following the delivery of her first child. Because of the defendant obstetrician’s medical negligence the 31 year-old woman will not be able to have children in the future.

The mother arrived at Northwestern Memorial Hospital to have labor induced for her first child and underwent a Cesarean section. While the labor and delivery itself was relatively uncomplicated and did not result in any birth injury to the child, the mother did develop post-operative bleeding following the procedure.

Citing the post-operative bleeding, the defendant physician elected to perform a hysterectomy. The obstetrician claimed that there was not enough time to try an alternative method to stop the mother’s bleeding and that therefore the hysterectomy was necessary in order to save the plaintiff’s life and that it did not constitute Illinois medical malpractice.

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Any Chicago driver understands the danger of potholes — whether you’ve swerved to avoid a crater that suddenly appears on the road in front of you, experienced an extremely bumpy ride from a range of smaller potholes, or observed the constant summertime road work to repair the winter’s damage. And while potholes are as much of a part of Chicago’s landscape as the Buckingham Fountain, there is a difference between potholes that are a nuisance and those that are a danger.

Consider the case of a 43 year-old man who was severely injured in a Chicago motorcycle crash after his vehicle hit a large pothole. He filed a personal injury lawsuit against the City of Chicago, which recently settled for $3.25 million.

The plaintiff’s complaint alleged that the roadway condition near the 900 block of S. Western Avenue was dangerous due to the large pothole that existed in the area prior to his September 2000 motorcycle accident. At the time of the motorcycle crash the decedent was riding along the roadway when his motorcycle went into an open pothole. He was thrown from his bike and sustained traumatic injuries, including loss of vision in his right eye and paralysis of his right arm.

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Today the Union League Club of Chicago hosted a panel discussion titled Ethics & Reform in Illinois: An Update that included Patrick Collins, Andy Shaw, and John Tillman. The panel was moderated and organized by the Union League Club’s Public Affairs Committee.

Patrick Collins was appointed by Illinois Governor Pat Quinn to chair the Illinois Reform Commission, an ethics commission task force that focuses on ways to clean up Illinois’s government. The main recommendations of the task force, as represented by Collins, deal with caps on campaign financing, redistribution of funds, and effective enforcement of any reforms.

Andy Shaw serves as executive director of the Better Government Association (BGA), which is a nonpartisan government watchdog. He spoke about the “unholy intersection” of jobs being awarded for campaign contributions and the need for change.

John Tillman is currently Chairman and CEO of the Illinois Policy Institute. Unlike the other panelists, Tillman opposed caps on campaign contributions because he feels they favor the incumbent who is able to collect and build their resources during their term. Instead, Tillman focuses on promoting public financing, redistribution, and accountability.

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Chicago Civil Justice Attorney Robert Kreisman was honored to serve as a faculty member for the recent American Association of Justice (AAJ) case workshop program held September 10 through September 13, 2009 in Kansas City, MO. Robert Kreisman has participated in similar workshops as a faculty member over ten times.

The AAJ program involved analyses of the participating lawyers’ real cases that were coming up for trial. The workshop included a variety of legal cases, including personal injury, medical malpractice, and product liability. The concept behind the program was to dissect the legal cases in order to explore additional points of view. Sometimes when you have been working up a specific case yourself for so long it is difficult to take a step back and analyze it from every angle. The AAJ workshop gave lawyers the opportunity to see other viewpoints expressed.

AAJ has been hosting similar workshops for over a decade, and they have always been a great success. This particular workshop featured an assembly of trial lawyers from across the country – both attorneys who were featuring a case and lawyers who were analyzing other attorneys’ cases. Also present were trial consultants, whose function is to assist lawyers in preparing for trial.

And in order to get a point of view from outside the legal community, the workshop assembled focus groups to weigh in on the facts of the case. These focus groups were composed of members of the local community and serve the function of a mock jury. Attorneys use focus groups to test their trial strategies and as a way to predict how a local jury might respond.

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