Southern Illinois was recently in the national spotlight as the path of a total solar eclipse passed across the state. This rare occurrence brought hundreds of thousands of people to a thin path of the state to experience a natural phenomenon that, if not experienced correctly, could cause serious and permanent eye injuries. It also created opportunities for some to profit from this influx of celestially motivated travelers. This event provided a reminder of the potential uses of exculpatory language in contract; namely to limit or eliminate liability by an express assumption of ...
As of August 28, 2017, the Daubert standard will now govern the admissibility of expert witness testimony in certain cases in Missouri.[1] This is the result of House Bill 153, one of the first bills signed by Governor Eric Greitens, which effectively changes the language in Missouri Revised Statute Section 490.065 moving the standard for admissibility of expert testimony from a broad to more stringent standard requiring the Court to assess the basis of a proposed expert’s testimony before allowing the expert to testify at trial.
The new language in the statute makes it clear that in ...
Three recent successful Cook County defense verdicts in medical and dental malpractice cases show that the age old theory of teamwork and a united defense go a long way to winning cases. In all three trials, there were potential issues that could have split the defense camps, and efforts by opposing counsel in each case to divide and conquer the defendants. Despite those efforts, all defense counsel and clients alike worked together in the discovery phase, and through the course of lengthy trials, to achieve excellent defense outcomes.
In the first case, plaintiff claimed dental ...
As most business law practitioners are aware at this point, the Illinois Limited Liability Act has been amended by HB 4361 and the amendments were effective July 1, 2017. The amendments to the Limited Liability Company Act include numerous provisions regarding member managed companies. This article will address some of the concerns regarding the amendments as they relate to member managed Limited Liability Companies ("LLC").
The Amended Limited Liability Company Act ("ALLC") institutes major changes to the "statutory apparent authority" previously granted to member managed ...
While movies and television shows never include a scene about jury instructions, in which the attorneys make impassioned (but boring) arguments about comma placement and the definitions of commonly used words, trial attorneys recognize that jury instructions can make or break a case. In a recent employment discrimination trial in Springfield, Illinois, faulty jury instructions may have cost the plaintiff a verdict in her favor, damages in the amount of $100,000, and attorney’s fees for a case that has been litigated since 2011.
The case of Schnitker v. Springfield Urban League ...
Over the past few years, insurance companies have learned that handling liability claims in Missouri with coverage issues or policy-limit settlement demands can be an incredibly complex, and in some cases, dangerous endeavor. Much of that complexity stems from Missouri Revised Statute § 537.065, a statute which has been used as a powerful sword against carriers to collect rather large judgments in many cases.
On April 26, 2017, the Missouri General Assembly voted to repeal the current § 537.065 and replace it with a modified version. That replacement, House Bill 339, was signed into ...
The Seventh Circuit recently became the first circuit to hold that “discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is a form of sex discrimination” under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”). Hively v. Ivy Tech Cmty. Coll. of Ind., 853 F.3d 339, 341 (7th Cir. 2017). “For many years, the courts of appeals of this country understood the prohibition against sex discrimination to exclude discrimination on the basis of a person’s sexual orientation.” Id. at 340. On April 4, 2017, the Seventh Circuit issued its groundbreaking decision,[1] departing from ...
The Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act, 745 ILCS 10/1-101, et seq.—commonly known as the Tort Immunity Act—provides certain statutory immunities to local public entities. These protected entities include, but are not limited to, counties, townships, municipalities, school districts, park districts, and other local governmental bodies. See 745 ILCS 10/1-206. The Act sets forth those circumstances in which an entity is entitled to immunity, but many of the Act’s provisions expressly except immunity when an entity’s conduct is ...
Between December 2014 and January 2015, Anthem Inc., suffered a massive cyberattack on its computer systems, allowing hackers to steal the health and personal information of nearly 80 million people. In re: Anthem, Inc. Data Breach Litigation, --- F. Supp.3d ----, No. 16-MC-2210 APM, 2017 WL 680378, at *1 (D.D.C. Feb. 21, 2017). Federal employees (who received their health insurance from Anthem through the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program) were among the victims of the hacking. Id.
On May 13, 2016, the Lead Plaintiffs in the multidistrict litigation served a subpoena on the ...
Fast food restaurant chain Arby’s Restaurant Group Inc. is known for its great hot roast beef sandwiches and catchy slogan: “We have the Meats!” Arby’s is now communicating a different message; it may be the latest victim of a significant cyber breach.
How are we to digest this? We have grown somewhat immune to the now frequent website notices or press releases that announce that although no one is known to have been harmed, yet another potential information security incident has taken place at yet another company that may have once again exposed customer information.
So what ...
