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Everybody hopes for a healthy baby. Nowadays, pregnant mothers are tested and retested for dangerous genetic conditions that can cause a baby to be born with severe impairments, and multiple ultrasounds of a baby in utero are not uncommon even during healthy pregnancies.

Despite these precautions, sometimes medical errors are made during a mother’s pregnancy or at the time of birth that cause a child to be born with significant impairments or even die during childbirth. In Illinois, these errors may amount to negligence, or what is called medical malpractice. Medical malpractice occurs in childbirth cases when a doctor or hospital employee fails to provide the same level of care that other obstetric healthcare providers would provide under similar circumstances, and this failure, or breach, causes an injury to a baby.

Birth injuries come in many forms. Sometimes, the injuries are physical, and a baby’s shoulders or arms possess limited function as a result of a doctor’s malpractice. Other times, the injuries are to a baby’s brain. Perhaps a doctor made an improper use of a birthing tool or failed to provide a timely Cesarean section procedure, and the error resulted in a baby having severe brain damage that may last a lifetime or may even result in death.

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There are very few people who have not visited an emergency room at some point in their lives. Even the most cautious person can slip and fall, or cut their finger with a kitchen knife, and end up being taken to the emergency room. In addition to emergency rooms, urgent care centers are becoming more and more common as an alternative to traditional hospital emergency rooms. For some patients, urgent care centers are more convenient than a trip to the doctor’s office or a crowded emergency room.

No matter the venue, when a patient is in need of immediate medical care, the doctors charged with providing that care must provide the same level of care that other physicians, practicing urgent or emergency medicine, would provide under similar circumstances, taking into account a patient’s age and medical history. If they don’t, and their failure to meet these standards results in an injury or death to a patient, they may be liable for medical malpractice. Another name for medical malpractice is medical “negligence.”

For many patients, the worst part of an emergency room visit is the long wait before being seen. Hours after arriving at the emergency room doors, they are sent home with stitches, medication, or both. Usually, they return home tired but relatively healthy.

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With advances in medical technology, many medical procedures that used to be daunting are now routine. Patients often arrive at a hospital or surgical center early in the morning and leave by mid-afternoon with few after-effects from the procedure or anesthesia. Many are able to even return to work the next day.

For doctors, medical procedures are an effective way of monitoring for certain conditions or diagnosing a new illness. Procedures are also lucrative medical treatments, and the more procedures a doctor squeezes in during a day, the more money the practice or hospital is reimbursed by insurance companies.

Companies that design and manufacture medical devices also stand to profit significantly from the widespread use of one of their devices. In some cases, the race to bring new products to the market results in great innovations, with patients benefiting from less invasive but equally effective procedures. In other cases, however, the drive for profits may cause a company to overlook faulty equipment and rush a product to market. Companies may also provide doctors with inadequate instructions on how to use or clean a device.

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Food producers have a duty to ensure that the food products they provide to the public are free of contamination and safe for human consumption. Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has adopted a new set of rules and regulations designed to improve safety controls and prevent harmful and even deadly foodborne illness outbreaks from making people sick.

When a producer or company fails to safely prepare or process food products, and a consumer becomes sick as a result, the producer may be strictly liable for the consumer’s damages. The most difficult aspect of a food contamination case is proving causation. Most of us eat a wide variety of foods and products throughout the day, or even week, and many people fail to remember exactly what they consumed, or where and when they consumed it.

When an outbreak occurs, state public health officials and the national Centers for Disease Control (CDC) typically get involved to help trace the particular strain that caused the illness back to a specific source, like a restaurant, factory, or farm. In many cases, the reports and evidence created during these investigations can be used to show causation in a lawsuit.

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In a recent case filed in the Northern District of California, Gyorke-Takatri v. Nestle USA, Inc., the court concluded that a party to a class action case who seeks removal to a federal court must offer sufficient admissible evidence to show that there is an adequate jurisdictional basis for removal. The underlying case involved a plaintiff’s allegations about the defendant’s Gerber Graduates Puffs product, which bears a label depicting a variety of fruit and vegetables. The plaintiffs sought to represent a class of in-state consumers who claim that these images were misleading by leading consumers to believe the products were healthier than they actually are. Ultimately, based on its conclusion, the Northern District of California granted the plaintiff’s motion to remand.

In their motion for remand, the plaintiffs alleged that the defendant failed to meet its burden, which required it to show by a preponderance of the evidence that the amount in controversy in the case exceeded five million dollars. This requirement is part of the federal Class Action Fairness Act (“CAFA”), 28 U.S.C. 1332(d). In order to prove that the amount in controversy requirement under CAFA has been satisfied, the party must show that the total amount of damages sought in the lawsuit, exclusive of attorneys’ fees, costs, and interest, exceeds five million dollars.

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The recent 2015 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which were approved on October 9, 2015, take effect on December 1, raising concerns about how some of the changes will affect class action litigation.

First, changes to existing Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (“FRCP”) 26(b)(1) will impose an express limitation on discovery. Now, discovery will be limited to information that is proportional to the needs of the case, considering:

  • The importance of the issues at stake in the action,
  • The amount in controversy,
  • The parties’ relative access to relevant information,
  • The parties’ resources,
  • The importance of the discovery in resolving the issues, and
  • Whether the burden or expense of the proposed discovery outweighs its likely benefit.

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According to a news report, a jury in Seattle recently awarded a man from Illinois $21.5 million in damages as a result of injuries he suffered while taking a cruise around the world with his wife and daughter. At the trial, the 61-year-old man alleged that one of the ship’s automatic sliding glass doors closed on his face and head due to problematic motion sensors, causing him to suffer an injury to his brain. As a result, he is now plagued by seizures, vertigo, and memory loss.

After the accident, a doctor on board the ship diagnosed the man with a concussion. However, tests later revealed that the man suffered more serious head injuries. Because of his injuries, the passenger struggles to perform previously routine tasks and was forced to sell his retail business.

At the trial, the man’s attorney offered evidence of 16 other incidents involving sliding doors on the cruise line’s ships over the last three years. The cruise line denied that allegation. The lawyer for the Illinois man also alleged that the cruise line withheld documentation relating to nearly 35 incidents involving automatic sliding doors on its ships, but the judge would not allow the lawyer to discuss the majority of those cases in front of the jury.

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According to a recent report published in the Journal of Patient Safety, it is estimated that over 400,000 patients die each year in the United States because of medical errors that could have been avoided. Another report found that medical errors like these cost Americans about $19.5 billion annually because of additional medical care, medication, and other corrective, or follow-up, treatments. With so much at stake in the complex world of medical mistakes, the question then becomes: who pays?

As with most other questions involving the health care industry, the answer to this question is complicated and varies depending on the parties involved. According to a recent news article, in some cases, if an error is made while a patient is being treated in a hospital, it is hospital policy to admit the mistake and provide free follow-up care. On the surface, admitting a mistake might seem like a recipe for being sued for medical malpractice. However, the article points out that there is research suggesting that an injured patient is less likely to sue for malpractice if a hospital comes clean about any errors that may have been committed.

More frequently, the article indicates, hospitals do not waive bills arising in the wake of a medical error, although the American Medical Association (AMA) and several other prominent groups are urging hospitals to do exactly that. If or until this happens, there are several other scenarios that are possible when costs associated with a possible medical error arise.

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According to a recent news article, students traveling to Wheaton North High School were injured when the bus they were riding in was involved in an accident with another car. The accident occurred on Geneva Road near Purnell Street at approximately 7:35 in the morning.

According to police, the driver of the car first hit a compressor being pulled by a van on Geneva Road. The car then spun into the path of the bus, which struck the car on the passenger side. Fortunately, the passenger seat was empty at the time of the accident.

The bus was carrying 50 students when the accident occurred. Along with the bus driver, 12 students were taken to Central Dupage Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, ranging from head pain to wrist soreness. The driver of the car was also transported to the hospital for minor injuries. Both the car and the school bus had to be towed from the accident site.

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A Wyoming federal court recently awarded over $11 million to a Nebraska plaintiff who sustained injuries after contracting salmonella poisoning at a Wyoming-based restaurant location. Although the plaintiff has recovered from many of the initial symptoms and illnesses of the salmonella poisoning, he continues to suffer devastating and long-lasting side effects, including vomiting, balance and coordination issues, and a number of cognitive and psychological harms.

One of the most unique aspects of this case is that the plaintiff obtained the judgment through a default judgment. A default judgment occurs when one party fails to take action, such as when a defendant ignores a summons to appear before court or respond to a pleading against it.

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