Personal Injury Law Blog

You may never forget the day your life changed forever. On the other hand, you may mercifully have no memory of the tractor-trailer accident that caused you catastrophic injuries and perhaps claimed the life of a loved one. While that loss may have been precious to you, your loved one was among approximately 5,000 others who died in accidents with big rigs in a single year.

Most horrifying of all may have been the news that the driver of the truck was distracted at the time of the accident. Perhaps the driver did not even apply the brakes because he or she was looking away from the road and failed to see that your vehicle and others had stopped or slowed down. This scenario plays out too often on today's fast-paced highways.

If you were hurt in a serious car accident, not only are you dealing with the physical implications of what happened to you, you could also find yourself dealing with severe emotional trauma as well. A harrowing accident can be devastating. It can leave you with damages and scars that you may not be able to see but which are just as real as any physical injury you may have.

Like other Illinois accident victims, you may not be aware that, if you suffered because of the actions of another person, you have the right to seek financial compensation for not only your injuries but your emotional duress as well. Working with an experienced attorney can help you understand what your potential claim may be worth and how you should proceed. 

Medical professionals in Aurora carry a heavy responsibility. Not only do they hold their patient's health and well-being in their hands, but they also have a duty to reasonably inform a patient about the care they are to receive so that the patient can provide informed consent to any medical procedure. Failing to obtain informed consent can lay the foundation for a medical malpractice lawsuit should something go wrong during the operation. Yet, even defining the boundaries of informed consent can be a challenging legal issue.

Although a doctor needs to inform a patient about the potential risks of a surgical procedure to be performed, some may wonder if he or she also needs to disclose additional information such as his or her experience as a surgeon. Generally speaking, there are two standards with regard to informed consent. The first is the reasonable patient standard, which looks at the matter from the patient's perspective. Illinois does not follow this approach. The second standard, and the one recognized in Illinois, is the reasonable physician standard. Here, a doctor must disclose the risks associated with an operation as well as the likely results and any alternatives that are available, but only to the extent that another doctor in the same circumstances would make.

If you have been following our blog, you are familiar with the hazards big rigs present to others riding in passenger vehicles throughout the Chicagoland area. Earlier in December, we discussed federal regulations that require the submission of daily vehicle reports. When trucks are inspected upon the completion of a shift, the proper maintenance and motorist safety are promoted. While mandating regular reviews of semi-trucks will not completely erase the chance for a truck collision with an automobile, it will limit the opportunity for defective trucks to hit the road.

Another proposal by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) aims to reduce the number of trucking accidents even further. This past June, both agencies announced their intention to require commercial truck drivers to undergo screening for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a sleep disorder that reduces alertness in the afflicted.