The Bankruptcy Court of the Northern District of Illinois released an important message this week regarding a new telephone scam. The new scam, called “Caller ID Spoofing”, involves a scammer using an attorney’s phone number to call her or his clients asking for additional payments for creditors and directing the client to call a toll-free […]
Greg Cochran – Leading Lawyers
We are pleased to announce that Greg Cochran has been included in the list of Leading Lawyers for 2016 for Mass Tort Defendant Law and Toxic Torts Defense Law. Greg has previously received this honor from 2012 to 2015.
McKenna Super Lawyers
We are pleased to announce that Greg Cochran, Margaret Foster and Sara Cook have been named by Illinois Super Lawyers magazine as three of the top attorneys in Illinois for 2016. Each year, the research team at Super Lawyers, a service of Thomson Reuters, undertakes a rigorous multi-phase selection process that includes a statewide survey […]
What Crimes Bar Inheritance?
The Appellate Court for the First District has found that conviction of perjury and obstruction of justice in a murder case are not necessarily bars to inheriting form the murder victim. Darota Chaban married William Chaban in Las Vegas on June 9, 2007. When they returned to Chicago on June 13, 2007 and informed Darota’s […]
Suicide Breaks The Chain of Causation, Barring Wrongful Death Claims
Can suicide be the basis for a wrongful death case? Rarely says the Illinois Supreme Court. It almost always will be a superseding, intervening act ending causation. Plaintiff filed a wrongful death action following her husband’s suicide. In this particular case, the plaintiffs were less than clear about the “injury” that precipitated the decedent’s death. […]
Health Care Liens Paid Prior to Deduction of Attorney Fees and Costs from Plaintiff’s Award
Who gets paid first, the health care provider or the attorneys? The Illinois Supreme Court has held that the health care providers or professionals come first. Recently, in McVey v. M.L.K. Enterprises, LLC, 2015 IL 118143, 32 N.E.3d 1112 the Illinois Supreme Court considered whether, under section 10 of the Health Care Services Lien Act […]
District Court Dismisses Claim for Unauthorized Disclosure of Personal Identifying Information Under Video Privacy Protection Act
The Video Privacy Protection Act (“VPPA”) was originally drafted to protect an individual from the release of his personal information by his local video store, but developments in technology have forced courts to apply the VPPA in different scenarios. Recent VPPA decisions have frequently addressed what constitutes “personally identifiable information” (“PII”). In a recent New […]
Service Provider Ordered to Disclose Subscriber’s Identity
You may not have the anonymity you think you have on the internet. In Illinois, the Courts are willing to require disclosure of the identity of internet subscribers. Recently, the Illinois Supreme Court affirmed the appellate court’s judgment that a subscriber’s internet service provider had to disclose the subscriber’s identity in a defamation suit […]
Social Media Sites Do Not Have to Produce Documents During Pretrial Criminal Discovery
What appears to be a victory for protecting social media information from being hauled into court cases from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, is not as broad as it looks. The Courts have held open the possibility of requiring Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to produce social media postings for cross examination at a criminal trial, but […]
Illinois Supreme Court Reverses Folta Decision – Workers’ Compensation Claim is Exclusive Remedy for Employee’s Asbestos Injury
On November 4, 2015, the Illinois Supreme Court filed its opinion in Folta v. Ferro Engineering, 2015 IL 118070. In a 4-2 decision, the Court held that an employee’s common law tort action against his employer is barred by the exclusive remedy provisions of the Workers’ Compensation Act and Workers’ Occupational Diseases Act (“the Act” […]