We are lawyers who will help you find the best attorney for your case or just answer any questions you have. If you want to speak to a lawyer for free, call us any time at 312-346-5320.

We get a lot of great questions about whistleblower laws in Illinois. Here is a a summary of some questions that we have received over the years.

I have heard the term “whistleblower,” but what exactly does that mean? 

A simple definition of a whistleblower is someone who comes forward with information on improper conduct that a person or organization is trying to keep secret. Often a whistleblower works inside of the organization where the wrongdoing is happening, but that is not always the case.

What makes a person step forward and “blow the whistle?”

A whistleblower is usually stepping forward to right a wrong and/or protect people. They have witnessed or are aware of abuse, corruption, fraud, waste or dangers to public health and safety. In most cases, the whistleblower is courageous in speaking up and doing the right thing.

I’ve heard about whistleblower situations involving the government. Are there situations outside of that?

Yes, most definitely. There are many whistleblower cases involving employees in private businesses and organizations.

Can you give me an example of a situation involving a whistleblower at a company? What was the outcome? 

Sure. Recently, Biogen Inc., a biotech company, agreed to a $900 million dollar deal to resolve a whistleblower lawsuit (brought by a former employee) which accused the company of paying doctors kickbacks to prescribe their multiple sclerosis (MS) drugs. The kickbacks included fake speaker programs and consulting deals, extravagant dinners and other entertainment. There is only a small number of medications approved to treat MS, and these drugs are pricey. Paying doctors kickbacks allowed Biogen to boost sales of their drugs and compete in this small market. If you are a patient with MS, do you want your doctor prescribing the best drug for you? Or prescribing the one that will get them a fancy dinner and some extra cash in their pocket?

I heard the phrase Qui Tam. What is that?

Qui tam literally means “n the name of the king. Under the False Claims Act, qui tam allows persons and entities with evidence of fraud against federal programs or contracts to sue the wrongdoer on behalf of the United States Government. Typically the US Attorney has to be given the chance to bring the case first.

What are the risks involved with being a whistleblower? Are there laws to protect the whistleblower?

Under the Department of Labor’s whistleblower protection laws, an employer cannot retaliate against the whistleblower, meaning the employer cannot fire, lay off, or demote him/her. The employer cannot deny overtime or a promotion, or reduce the whistleblower’s pay or hours. That said, it is best to consult with an attorney who specializes in these cases to fully understand one’s rights and to get a game plan together.

What are the benefits of being a whistleblower?

Aside from stopping often illegal and at best shady behavior, most successful whistleblower lawsuits lead to large financial payouts to the person who blew the whistle. Quite often this means many millions of dollars.

What if I know of some corporate wrongdoing and want to blow the whistle?

As we mentioned, it is critical to speak with a lawyer who knows the laws backwards and forwards and has handled these cases successfully many times. Contact us any time to explain your situation confidentially and learn your options.

Over 30 companies in the Fortune 100 sponsor cash balance retirement plans for their employees. It is similar to a 401(k) in that each employee has an account, but it differs in that the employer decides not only the contribution to the account (for example, 4% of wages) but also specifies the annual return on the investment. I had not heard of cash balance retirement plans until my friend who worked for a time at PricewaterhouseCoopers told me about it, but more on that later.

The employer can decide that the annual investment return will be, for example, 6 percent, a Treasury rate, or a corporate bond rate. Companies have found that cash balance retirement plans attract prospective employees for the following reasons:

1. They provide a larger benefit to employees than traditional pension plans
2. Many employees value the account balance better than the promise of a pension at retirement
3. Generally, employees do not have to make a contribution
4. The employer, not the employee, takes on the risk of the stock market falling

Cash balance retirement plans are relatively new, and how existing pension laws are applied to these plans is not entirely clear. People have differing opinions on what pension laws say employees should get when they quit.

Most employees believe they should get their account balance in cash, and generally, that’s what they get. However, if the employer is generous and offers an investment return greater than the 30-year Treasury rate, some people claim employees should get more than their account balance. They apply a “whipsaw calculation” to determine that amount.

This whipsaw calculation is complex, but in general terms, it calculates the additional interest that the employee might have earned after their quit date and up to their normal retirement age.

One real-life class action lawsuit regarding cash balance retirement plans and the whipsaw calculation was recently settled. Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP (PwC), a professional services and Big 4 accounting firm, settled a lawsuit by agreeing to pay $267 million to former participants of the PwC plan. The settlement deal is expected to pay an average of about $11,000 to each of the retirees.

Specifically, the lawsuit claims that PwC shorted the former plan participants’ benefits by using faulty interest rates and normal retirement dates when performing the whipsaw calculations.

Cash balance retirement plans and whipsaw calculations can be very complex and confusing. The good news is that we know attorneys who know how to handle these complex cases and have a track record of success in ERISA, compensation and securities related litigation. Best of all, there is no fee to hire them and they only get paid if they make a recovery for you.

If you believe that you may have been shorted by your employer’s  pension plan and would like to speak with a lawyer, please contact us at 800-517-1614.  All calls are free and confidential.

We are experienced personal injury lawyers in Illinois. We can help you find the best attorney for your case. We also offer free guidance including on issues related to what a personal injury lawsuit is worth. If you’d like our help, please call us at 312-346-5320.

Around July of this year, I started making notes of really significant personal injury lawsuit settlements and trial results. By significant, I mean ones that are in the seven figures. A lot of people think that these types of cases happen a lot. The reality is that they don’t, and when they do, nobody has “won the lottery” but instead they are dead or their lives are terribly altered. In almost no case would you switch places with them in order to have the money they got.

I thought it would be helpful for people to see what types of cases lead to multi-million dollar results. Note that one thing these cases have in common aside from catastrophic injuries is that there is a lot of insurance money to pay the award. In other words, you could end up paralyzed after a car accident, but if there’s only $100,000.00 in insurance money, you likely won’t get more than that. It’s an unfair, but true part of our legal system.

In no particular order, here are some the biggest personal injury cases from 2022:

-A man who broke his neck when a sheet of plywood fell on him at a construction site in Deer Park accepted a $6.7 million settlement before trial in the Cook County Circuit Court.

-A former Metals USA machine operator who had part of his leg amputated in a workplace accident received $6.57 million in a settlement.

-A Cook County jury awarded $45.3 million to a man left with permanent brain damage after a failed intubation when he arrived at the emergency room after he fell off a balcony.
– A Cook County jury awarded $7.27 million to an elderly couple who alleged a car accident caused one of them a traumatic brain injury. One of the two can no longer walk without assistance.
-A Cook County jury awarded $6 million to the family of a 19-year-old man who died after going into cardiac arrest while playing basketball, an activity that his doctor didn’t restrict even though the teen allegedly had prior health issues.
-A $4.42 million settlement for a man injured while working as an elevator mechanic apprentice in 2016 at age 36. A cement board struck his right wrist and forearm, and he sustained major injuries to his shoulders and neck.
-A Cook County jury awarded $42.4 million to the family of a quadriplegic man who died at Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville after falling into a coma from respiratory arrest and hypoxia while awaiting surgery.

-A Cook County jury awarded $363 million Monday to a woman who alleged that emissions from medical device sterilization company Sterigenics caused her to develop cancer, in the first lawsuit of more than 700 set to go to trial against the company. This is an outlier type of case given the large result and possibly has a lot to do with the defendant’s behavior as much as the injury. They were accused of knowingly emitting cancer causing gas in to the community. The total included $38 million in compensatory and $325 million in punitive damages.

-A man who injured his back when he fell down a stair scaffolding tower on a construction job site accepted a $6 million settlement mid-trial in Cook County Circuit Court. A temporary stair scaffolding tower was being used to allow the workers to access the site.  As a result of the incident, he underwent spinal fusion surgery and is unable to return to work as a union carpenter.

-The family of a 61-year-old woman who died of septic shock at Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox accepted an $8 million settlement.

-The families of two women killed in a car accident settled their case for $6.9 million against the estate of the driver who was operating a company vehicle.

-$10 million to a man who was hit by a car. He remains in a nursing home facility, cannot walk independently and requires specialized care.

-The family of a 17-year-old boy who was shot to death by a Chicago police officer in 2019 accepted a $5 million settlement.

This isn’t every big case result from 2022, but a lot of them. They all are tragic cases that we wouldn’t wish upon anyone. If you have any questions or want to speak with an attorney for free, please contact us any time.

 

We are lawyers who will talk to you for free if you’ve received a civil demand letter from a store and offer advice on how to handle it. If you would like to talk to an attorney, you can call us anytime at 800-517-1614.

A common scenario that happens to a lot of people is that a store accuses them of stealing something when they didn’t. There are a lot of reasons that happens. Sometimes it’s racism. Sometimes they just suspect teens are doing things they aren’t. Other times it’s a mistake.

Not everyone in this situation gets charged with retail theft. A lot of stores will just say they are going to ban you from the store or give you a harsh verbal warning. Whether you are innocent or not, what often happens next is odd and possibly illegal.

A couple weeks or months go by (or in one case we were contacted about, years) and you get a civil demand letter from a representative of the store, usually a law firm. What is a civil demand letter?

It’s when a store sends you a letter that asks them to pay them a certain amount – $400.00 seems to be a common figure – to compensate them for any losses they might have occurred from your alleged retail theft. They send these letters even when nothing was taken or damaged and they have no losses at all. They send these letters at times even when they made a mistake in accusing you. Sometimes they say it’s for paying a loss prevention person for having to deal with the situation. Other times they will call it a “re-stocking fee” as if it costs a few hundred dollars to put a sweater back on a shelf. It’s almost always nonsense.

Over the years we’ve seen letters like this come from Target, Walmart, Menards, Macy’s and many others. Why do they do this when they are asking for what is relatively little money for them and they’ve suffered no harm? The answer is because people will pay it. It’s estimated that stores get hundreds of millions a year in payments from people who are scared or think they have to pay this.

Quite often the letters imply that if you don’t pay that charges could be pressed still or that they will sue you and ask for thousands. Should you pay it? The answer depends, but often we tell people no. In fact, sometimes these letters could actually lead to you having a lawsuit against the company and/or the law firm who sent the letter.

If you do pay it and don’t make clear that you dispute the allegation, you could be handing them evidence that could be used against you in a criminal trial. The only reason to pay is if you are worried they will actually sue, but even then it’s best to try to negotiate down to a lower amount and make sure that they can’t go after you for anything else.

We can’t guarantee they won’t sue you if you don’t pay, but often they don’t because the dollar amounts are too small or they know that you did nothing wrong. We are happy to discuss with you for free and in confidence what you should do and also go over whether or not you may have a lawsuit against them.

We are experienced Illinois lawyers who will talk to you for free. You can fill out our contact form or call us at 312-346-5320 any time. We cover all of Illinois and promise to give respectful, direct and honest guidance.

Illinois probably has the best laws in the nation when it comes to protecting the rights of injured workers. The Illinois Workers’ Compensation is mostly common sense and worker friendly while still keeping insurance costs down.  In almost every case you are entitled to a settlement at the end of your care. The insurance company doesn’t have to offer one, but a lawyer can usually make it happen or get an award for you at a quick arbitration.

There are other things to know about settling an Illinois work comp case. In no particular order, here are things that you should be thinking about.

– Any settlement is tax free.

– Once you settle your case, you typically close out your rights related to the injury/accident forever. So if you end up missing more work or need more treatment, the work comp insurance wouldn’t have to pay for it.

– Because of that, you should never consider settling your case until you are as good as you are going to get health wise which is known as maximum medical improvement. That doesn’t necessarily mean you are good as new, but that you aren’t going to get any better.  It’s possible that you could need future care down the road or might have to keep taking medication. Those costs should be considered in any settlement that you make. Quite often a side arrangement called a Medicare Set Aside is put in place.

– A Medicare Set Aside happens when it’s anticipated you will need more care down the line for your injury. The insurance company funds an account that should be used to pay for this care. It’s designed to protect the interests of Medicare so they don’t make payments that they shouldn’t. You can control this account and spend it how you choose, but should know that if you don’t use it for your medical bills, you might not have anyone to pay for treatment at a later date if needed.

– We typically recommend that you be back to work and able to do your job without problems for at least a month or two before considering any settlement. The value of your case is in part based on your ability to do your normal work.

– If you can’t return to your old job due to permanent physical restrictions, you can continue to get paid while looking for work within those restrictions. If the only jobs you can find pay much less than what you’d make in your prior job, you could be entitled to wage differential benefits. That is 2/3 of what you would be making in the old job versus what you can make now. For example, if in your old job you made $1,800 a week, but now can only make $1,200 a week, you are entitled to weekly payments of 2/3 of the $600 difference or $400 per week. That is tax free and will continue until you reach 65 or five years, whichever is longer. It also can result in a lump sum settlement for your future wage loss.

– The amount you get for any settlement depends on a lot of things including your wage, the injury you sustained, the treatment you had, your age, the job you can return to, whether or not you have restrictions due to the injury, prior health problems and any defenses the insurance company might have.

– You almost never get the “best offer” with the first offer.

– A settlement can only happen if each side signs contracts and they are approved by an Arbitrator at the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission.

– Once a settlement is approved, you typically get paid within 30 days.

– Attorney fees are capped at 20% of the settlement. You almost always will get more with a lawyer than without one. If a settlement offer is made before you hire a lawyer, it can be difficult to get an attorney to take the case and you might get stuck having to take a low value settlement.

– If you don’t like the settlement you can always go to trial and get compensated that way. Trial of course has some risks too but that depends on the strength of your case.

– The bigger the injury, the more important it is to have legal representation. Not only can a good Illinois work comp lawyer prevent problems from occurring during the case, but in the end, having an attorney could literally put hundreds of thousands more in to your pocket.

There’s more to think about, but this is a good start. If you have questions and want a free, confidential consultation, please call us any time.

We are attorneys who will talk to anyone for free and answer questions about Illinois law. We got a lot of great questions and some of them are not enough for a full blog post, but still interesting. Here are some of the best ones from this year. If you have any questions and want to talk with a lawyer for free, call us any time at 312-346-5320. In no particular order.

Can a husband get alimony from a wife?

Yes. It’s called maintenance in Illinois and if one spouse makes a lot more than the other, the lighter earner could get it. And that’s true whether you are a husband or a wife.

My Chicago personal injury lawyer said I have to go to the doctor he wants to send me to. Is that true?
That is not true and in my opinion, only scummy personal injury lawyers in Chicago or elsewhere try to make you do this. There’s nothing wrong with them getting you in to a doctor if you don’t have one. But if it’s a requirement it’s gross and probably a sign that they are getting something in return from that doctor. I would never recommend you hire a lawyer that pushes that.
My mom passed away and her house is under water and she has a lot of other debt. Can they come after me for that?
If you didn’t co-sign on the mortgage or anything else, it’s not your responsibility. Beware of them sending you a document that tries to make it your problem. Nothing requires you to open up an estate after a parent passes. If you do, the estate would have to pay the debts most likely, but not you as an individual.
Been in my rental for seven years. Now on a month to month lease. Great tenant, never missed a payment. Landlord wants to rehab the place and sell it. Can they kick me out after all this time?
Unfortunately they can. If you don’t have a lease it gives you the flexibility to leave when you want and for them to get you out. If you don’t leave you’ll likely get evicted.
I fell at work inside the office and they said since I wasn’t at my work station on a factory line they aren’t covering anything. I hit so hard that I knocked out five teeth. Do I have a case?
Yes, depending on what caused you to fall. But if you were in your place of employment and slipped on water or tripped on a loose carpet or something like that, it’s a case and you are entitled to full Illinois work comp benefits.
My mom took out a life insurance policy out on me and my kids. We haven’t talked for years. Is it legal for her to do that?
Yes. It’s up to the insurance company to agree to create a life insurance policy. While usually they want a physical exam, if they are dumb enough to write a policy for people that they can’t interview, that’s their business. There is nothing you can do to stop this..
How do I revoke a power of attorney I gave to someone?
The best way is to do it in writing. There are many Illinois Power Of Attorney Revocation Forms available for free online if you do a quick search for that. You should then serve a copy on all parties who had your old power of attorney form such as the actual POA, doctors, etc.
I got Covid so my roommate moved out while I recovered. He’s now saying I owe him $500 for expenses that he had to pay while gone. Do I owe that money to him?
No. This is ridiculous. I get why someone moved out, but nothing in the law requires you to pay them anything for doing that.
I hope that this helps. We look forward to some great questions in 2023. As always, please contact us any time if we can help you in any way.

A few months back, there was a legal “expert” column in the Wall Street Journal about Twitter suing Elon Musk for trying to bail on their deal. I can you that I know nothing about securities law or mergers and acquisitions law, but multiple attorneys online said that this article got just about everything wrong. Those people were lawyers in the industry who have dealt with similar cases before who outlines why the WSJ article was likely wrong.

Now maybe that author is really an expert and maybe he’s right on this one. Or maybe he usually gets things right, but got this one wrong. I’m not sure, but I can tell you that just because someone is in the paper or on TV, don’t assume they know what they are talking about.

I know this from personal experience. I was recently contacted and asked to appear on a morning news show to discuss a class action lawsuit versus Uber. I was called by some producer the night before the segment was to air. What was my main qualification? I think it’s that I was available and they saw an article I had written about suing Uber. Of course the article I wrote had nothing to do with the case they wanted me to speak about, but that didn’t seem to bother them. I declined to participate.

I have on other occasions given “expert” quotes to newspapers.  Many of those were fake it until you make it situations where they asked me questions about a case and I googled that case while we were talking in order to form an opinion based on what seemed correct to me. I think I was right, but who knows?

Since then, I’ve noticed many other lawyers offering their opinions on matters they really know nothing about beyond understanding general legal principles. It’s just like guys who predict what’s going to happen to the stock market or in politics. If you act like you know what you are talking about, people believe you. And if you end up predicting things that are totally wrong, nobody is going to go back and call you out on it.

I don’t believe in the concept of “fake news.” I generally think that most papers and TV stations try to get it right beyond the ones that are so obviously partisan. But I do believe that news reporters are lazy and careless and with cuts to budgets as well as a desire to be first, not necessarily right, mistakes happen. This includes giving platforms to people who have no idea what they are talking about which is sometime me.

We get calls every week, unfortunately, about loved ones being abused in a nursing home, rehabilitation center, or long-term care facility. The people being cared for in these facilities are often vulnerable, physically and sometimes mentally. With Covid, there have been a lot of restrictions on visitors that has impacted care. Family members place a lot of trust in the staff at these centers. They trust that the workers will treat their loved ones with dignity and take care of their needs. When that trust is broken and a loved one suffers, it is heartbreaking. And sometimes it’s worthy of a lawsuit or at least talking to an attorney about it.

Abuse at a nursing home, rehab center, or long-term care facility can take many forms. It is not just actively harming a person physically. It can be passive, as in neglecting to provide proper care or ignoring instructions that are specific to that patient. Here are examples of nursing home abuse:

Physical abuse (cuts, scrapes, or bruises resulting from being hit, slapped, etc.). It’s shocking, but true that some staff members can get physical with clients and in other cases, other residents are known to have abuse issues and hurt someone.

Sexual abuse (rape, sexual assault).  We’ve seen this happen to residents by staff members, other residents, security guards and relatives of others in the facility. It should never happen and if it does it’s worth a call to the police and an attorney.

Physical injury from falls that could have been prevented (broken bones or bruises resulting from staff not responding to call buttons, not putting up bed rails). It blows my mind how often this happens. Lack of staffing is a huge contributor, but sometimes workers are just careless and don’t pay attention to simple instructions or put in safeguards to protect those who are fall risks.

Bedsores due to neglect/failure to move or turn a patient.  This is probably the number one call we get which is frustrating because these injuries are very avoidable. If the bedsore (ulcer, pressure sore) is beyond superficial, it’s usually grounds for a good lawsuit.

Medication errors (improper or inadequate use of medications). If this negligence causes an injury, it’s worth having an attorney investigate what happened.

Your loved one may be able to communicate to you the mistreatment that has occurred. You may be able to see the visible signs of it, such as cuts, bruises, and other injuries. Other signs of abuse include mood or personality changes, unexplained or rapid weight loss, and previously unreported health problems.  And sometimes you discover these abuses when the person you care about ends up in the hospital.

If you suspect that your loved one has suffered harm due to the action or inaction of the staff at a nursing home, rehab center, or long-term care facility, call us at 312-346-5320 to speak with a lawyer for free. We cover all of Illinois and have a great track record of helping people in these situations. There is no cost to hire an attorney to sue a nursing home for an injury. All cases are handled on a contingency basis which means we only get paid it you win the case and a recovery is made.

We are experienced Illinois attorneys who help with serious injury cases everywhere in Illinois. Call us at 312-346-5320 to speak with a lawyer for free and find out who is the best Illinois law firm for your case.

We get calls on a regular basis from people who have been injured in Illinois vehicular accidents. One of the first questions we ask is, “What type of vehicle hit you?” What many people don’t know, is that being hit by a semi-truck versus by a car or pickup truck leads to a very different type of case. Here’s why:

  1. Tractor-trailer accidents are more complicated because there are usually multiple parties at fault. Often those trucks drive poorly because of maintenance errors or because they are loaded improperly. The parties you end up suing and recovering from may not be known at the scene of the accident
  2. The commercial aspects of the case create complexity. The insurance companies that represent trucking companies are very experienced in defending personal injury or wrongful death lawsuits. A lot of trucking companies operate under shell companies. That means a big company will create a lot of smaller companies under the same wing so if something goes wrong they can act like they are a small company. Often it will appear that there is only $1 million in insurance coverage when we discover the bigger company. That leads to a larger settlement.
  3. Due to the sheer size and power of an 18-wheeler, the injuries caused by the collision with a truck are often more severe. Not only do you need a lawyer who knows how to investigate these cases, but you also want a law firm with a track record of success with catastrophic injuries such as brain damage, paralysis, life altering back damage, etc.
  4. Trucking accidents often require quick investigation. Time is of the essence. The sooner someone on your side is on the scene, the better. In one case we were involved with, a defendant was caught on film attempting to alter the scene of the accident which could have put the whole case in jeopardy. These big companies care about their bottom lines and nothing else.
  5. Trucking accidents also may require accident reconstruction. An experienced firm will know the best companies to hire in order to recreate how an accident happened so they can prove negligence to a jury. For example, in one case we are involved with, we believe the evidence shows that a semi truck rolled backwards and caused a death. The accident reconstruction specialist will prove this and the end result of that work can be the difference of literally millions of dollars as well as winning or losing the case.
  6. Different/additional driving laws may apply to those with a commercial driver’s license. Commercial drivers have laws as to how many hours in a row they can drive. They are required to keep driving logs. These factors can matter a lot in winning a case.
  7. When looking for an attorney for a trucking accident case, your options are more limited. There are roughly ten or fewer Illinois law firms that have demonstrated a strong track record of success in these cases. Almost every personal injury lawyer in Illinois would want you to hire them, but the reality is that so few are truly right for these cases.

There are other things to think about as well. If you’d like a free consultation, please contact us any time.

It’s heartbreaking to think about, but unfortunately, it is a reality. Infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and even older children are hurt or injured at day care. Mothers and fathers put their trust (not to mention their money) in day care centers like KinderCare, La Petite Academy and Kiddie Academy. They expect their children—first and foremost—to be looked after and safe at the end of the day. While most injuries that happen at day cares aren’t intentional, a lot do happen due to negligence and abuse.

This year alone we’ve had five potential clients for injuries at Chicagoland Kinder Care facilities as well as others against various providers. Let’s take a look at how these injuries might happen in day care centers. 

Defects in the Day Care Environment 

Although these centers are designed with children’s safety in mind, there could be defects in the center or defective baby products and toys. A loose floor tile could cause a child to trip and hit their head. A baby may fall out of a bouncy seat that is prone to tipping. That seat may have been recalled by the manufacturer but the day care center neglected to pay attention and remove it. Lots of these facilities have playgrounds and it’s not uncommon for their to be sharp objects on a slide or jungle gym. When the staff isn’t inspecting the property on a regular basis, injuries can happen.

Neglect/Mistakes by the Staff Members 

As every parent knows firsthand, children need constant supervision. Children are curious and obviously can’t gauge whether something they are doing is dangerous or not. Day care staff members are trained and paid to pay attention to what the children are doing and how they are interacting with each other. If a child gets into someone’s purse and mistakes medication for candy, a bad situation can occur. If a child becomes aggressive with another child, and the staff fails to notice or step in, an injury can happen. Perhaps the staff thinks a water balloon fight is a good idea for the older kids at the center. But not all pieces of the broken balloons are picked up and a younger child puts a piece in their mouth and chokes on it.  We’ve seen a lot of cases where generally there is negligent supervision or too many kids and not enough staff. Injuries that occur when that happens usually result in lawsuits.

Abuse by the Staff Members 

Although the employees of child care centers are interviewed, screened and trained to take care of your child/children and never do any harm, we do see situations where staff members intentionally hurt children. The abuse might include pinching, slapping, shaking or hitting a child. Bruises, broken bones, or more severe injuries might result, as well as mental trauma. In some terrible cases there have been instances of sexual abuse by adults on children by staff members. In other instances a non-employee family member of a staff member has been able to roam freely and abuse the kids.

We described a few scenarios above, but there are sadly many other examples. No matter what the cause was, if your child was injured or abused at a day care center, you may be entitled to compensation. We have over 25 years of experience and would be happy to talk to you for free. Call us any time at 312-346-5320 to speak with an attorney at no cost and in confidence.