Posted on January 26, 2016 in Articles

Kanoski Bresney named 2015 Litigator Award Winner™. Having been conferred this prestigious National Award, the firm ranks among the Top 1% of all lawyers for: Automobile Accidents, Products Liability, Failure To Diagnose and Truck Accidents Litigation.

BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON: JAN. 14, 2016 Kanoski Bresney, a trial law firm located in Bloomington, Illinois, was today awarded the prestigious 2015 Litigator Award™ for extraordinary achievement within the field(s) of: Automobile Accidents, Products Liability, Failure To Diagnose and Truck Accidents Litigation.

Justly standing as the nation’s most coveted symbol of "Litigation Achievement", this unrivaled annual honor recognizes trial lawyers [firms] who have attained extraordinary litigation achievement within one or more of 72 pre-defined "Practice Specialty" categories. Based strictly on "Verdict and/or Settlement" dollar achievement rather than peer popularity, the Litigator Awards™ are perhaps the most rigorous and openly judged trial law rating. Simply being nominated is to be set among the elite of the profession. Those awarded are generally considered among the finest trial lawyers in the nation.

Continue Reading ››

 Posted on January 22, 2016 in Firm News

We live in a 24/7 world. At least some of us do. Truck drivers could be considered among those who don't always follow the typical 9-to-5 routine that most of the rest of us do in Illinois. And as we noted in a post last November, the demands of the 24-hour long-haul industry have a way of leading some drivers to push the envelope on hours of service a little too far.

Clearly, this is not a new issue, and it's back in the spotlight again courtesy of the National Transportation Safety Board. The board recently issued its annual "Most Wanted List" of safety issues it would like to see addressed in 2016. Coming in at top of the changes the NTSB says it would like to see is reducing the number of crashes involving tired truckers.

Driver fatigue is not something that is unique to truckers by any means. But as we have noted, truckers sometimes face time pressures that push their window of operation well beyond a normal eight-hour day. And when an accident involving a big-rig truck occurs, the outcomes for the victims of other vehicles are very often catastrophic.

Continue Reading ››

 Posted on January 15, 2016 in Firm News

Regular readers of this blog will note that we have been keeping an eye on what is going on with workers' compensation reform in the state of Illinois. The issue has become something of a political football as the Republican governor and the Democratic controlled legislature try to protect their end zones and score points for their respective sides.

How things will play out is unknown, but in the view of at least one pundit, some changes are bound to occur, if for no other reason than because it may be the only way to reach a compromise on the state budget. His prediction is that there might be some minor changes, such as restricting benefit payments only to claims that are clearly work related.

In the meantime, however, the current system is the one we have to work under, and as anyone with experience in this area of the law knows, navigating that system can be a challenge -- even though claims are supposed to be handled on a no-fault basis.

Continue Reading ››

 Posted on January 11, 2016 in Articles

A study into diagnostic errors says they are very common, but frighteningly little understood.

Over the past 16 years the Institute of Medicine (IOM) has released a series of groundbreaking studies into shortcomings in the health care industry. Their first study, "To Err is Human," brought much needed attention to the problem of preventable medical errors. IOM's latest report, "Improving Diagnosis in Health Care," is now shining light on diagnostic errors and the harm they do to patients. However, as U.S. News & World Report notes, perhaps the most frightening conclusion reached by the study is just how little is still known about diagnostic errors.

Lack of studies

The report notes that coming up with a precise figure about how many people are actually misdiagnosed at health care facilities is impossible because the problem is underreported and little studied. As one of the researchers notes, the lack of information surrounding misdiagnoses is distressing because nobody knows "how often it occurs, how serious it is or how much it costs." The report refers to diagnostic errors as a massive "blind-spot" in patient safety.

Continue Reading ››

 Posted on January 07, 2016 in Firm News

Social media platforms are nothing new. They've been around for more than a few years, and new ones seem to pop up every year. The evolution of the channels is not well understood, however, and this could be proving to be something of a problem for the nursing home industry across the country and in Illinois.

The issue, as recently reported by the public interest journalism outlet ProPublica, is the number of disturbing instances in which nursing home workers post photos or videos of residents in their care.

Industry and regulatory officials accept that such practices violate rules of common decency, privacy and dignity. They may also violate federal health privacy laws. But the report observes that most of the cases that have been uncovered have not led to criminal charges.

This raises questions about whether such elder abuse and neglect doesn't warrant pursuing civil action. Those who may suspect that their loved ones have been victims of such activity should be consulting with an attorney to explore what rights they have and what action might be possible.

Continue Reading ››

 Posted on December 31, 2015 in Firm News

One of the most common concerns that anyone might have after becoming the victim of an accident in Illinois is whether they should consult with an attorney. It's a fair question to ask if you presume that hiring an attorney always requires an up-front outlay of cash. But that often is not the case.

Especially where a claim of personal injury is concerned, it is a very common practice for an attorney to offer the initial consultation on a case for free. And equally common is that if the circumstances of your case are such that a viable claim exists, representation may well be provided on a contingency fee basis.

That said here's a better question to ask. If you've been injured in a motor vehicle accident, on the job, as a result of caregiver negligence or a property owner's failure to fulfill a duty of care, the question worth asking is, why not consult an attorney?

Once you take advantage of the opportunity to get educated about all your rights and options, the question of whether to go ahead with your case can be addressed. And if you choose to press ahead, the next things you will want to consider are the benefits that you may gain from having an attorney's help. These could include:

Continue Reading ››

 Posted on December 17, 2015 in Firm News

It is no secret that the United States faces economic challenges. One of them, as we pointed out in at least one post in the not-too-distant past, is the fact that there is a growing shortage in Illinois and elsewhere of people willing to get into the truck driving trade.

On the face of it, this might seem to be something that simple market forces should be able to handle. The law of supply and demand dictates that where demand exists, the market responds by filling it. But that presumes a strict free market, and one could well argue that the trucking industry does not quite fit that bill.

Driving a truck does have its allure but it is hardly an easy job. It requires a specific set of training and experience just to get licensed. If a driver does get hired, it means days away from home. There are many regulations regarding when they can drive, when they can't and how heavy their loads can be.

Pay can vary and in some circumstances the method of payment and the demands of shippers are such that it actually motivates drivers to violate the rules. That has a way of creating conditions that result in catastrophic truck accidents.

Continue Reading ››

 Posted on December 11, 2015 in Firm News

If you've been injured on the job and it's never happened to you before there's a good chance that you have a lot of questions. Hopefully, you can get answers easily from your employer. If you are finding information difficult to come by through that channel, you might consider seeking help from the state of Illinois.

But long before turning to it as a last resort, and especially if your case is proving to be particularly knotty, you should be seeking the help of an experienced employment law attorney. That's the surest way to be confident that you're protecting your rights to the greatest extent possible.

In the meantime, we offer some broad observations about the kinds of benefits you should be able to expect to receive if you've suffered a workplace injury. Keeping in mind that every state's laws are different, here's what's generally true.

Medical treatment

If you've been hurt at work, you have a right to any care that is required and necessary to deliver a cure or provide relief. In addition, you can seek to be compensated for related medical bills and prescriptions. If you were taken to or drove to the hospital, you can usually get your mileage recouped.

Continue Reading ››

 Posted on December 04, 2015 in Car Accidents

All it takes is a split second for a car accident to happen. Then, the thing you never imagined could happen does. This scenario is perhaps more likely to occur at this time of year than almost any other in Illinois.

If you're like most people, you have parties on the calendar for nearly every weekend between now and New Year's Day. Families are getting together from all over the region and probably further away than that. Meanwhile, the weather is such that the roads can get turned into an ice rink in no time.

Car accidents are the last thing any of us want and so in a bid to hopefully make the season just a tad brighter we relay a set of tips for safe holiday travel. These come courtesy of Safe Kids Worldwide and General Motors.

• Click it. No matter how long or short a trip may be, everyone in the vehicle should buckle up for safety. The data supports the old saying that most accidents occur within 25 miles from home. But seat belt use can make them less likely to result in injury or death.

Continue Reading ››

 Posted on November 25, 2015 in Firm News

If you've ever had a horse or cow step on your foot you know that working around a farm can be hazardous. But the risk of injury in the agricultural setting is a lot greater than that posed by just livestock.

As we wrote about last month, modern farming is right near the top of the list of sites where industrial-type accidents can occur. The machinery is dangerous, requiring a significant level of training and experience, and the regulatory oversight is not always what it could or perhaps should be.

Such accidents happen all too often around central Illinois and victims of them need to be aware that obtaining due compensation can be challenging. Working with experienced legal counsel is always advisable.

Accidents involving tractors have proven to be among the most deadly. According statistics compiled by Country Financial of Bloomington, more than a third of farm-related deaths every year are due to tractor rollovers. The second most common cause of farm-related fatalities is attributed to collisions involving farming equipment.

Continue Reading ››