Justia Lawyer Rating for David M. Barish

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Most of us have a reasonable general understanding of the rules of the road. In any intersection situation, one direction of traffic has the right of way and the other flows of traffic are obliged to yield. The requirement to yield can be controlled by a traffic light or a traffic sign. That said, what happens when you failed to yield because the stop sign that controlled your road was missing? Obviously, drivers are not required by the law to be psychics and cannot be liable for not following signs that are missing. In fact, if any driver (including the one who failed to yield) is hurt as a result of such a scenario, then the injured people may have valid claims for compensation based upon the improper failure to re-install or replace the stop sign. For this or any other type of auto accident injury case, be sure to consult a knowledgeable Chicago injury attorney about your options.

That scenario described above, while unlikely, actually happened to one Southern Illinois woman. The website rrstar.com reported on the fatal crash of S.K., a small-town high school teacher. Early one late May morning, she was on her way to her doctor’s office and was driving through a road in rural Stephenson County. She encountered an intersection but, seeing no stop sign and not being familiar with the road, she proceeded ahead. Unbeknownst to her, traffic on her road was supposed to stop and an oncoming vehicle crashed into her. The teacher died shortly after the impact.

If you were (non-fatally) injured in an accident like this, would you know what to do? Would you attempt to sue the other driver in the crash? If a driver improperly fails to yield the right of way and that failure to yield causes an injury accident, then that driver could be liable for the injuries caused as a result of the driver’s negligent failure to yield. However, in this case, the driver who crashed into S.K. had the right of way, and therefore probably could not be liable for improperly failing to yield.

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If you get a call that looks like it’s from the Social Security Administration (SSA), think twice. Scammers are spoofing SSA’s 1-800 customer service number to try to get your personal information. Spoofing means…. (click here for the full article from the FTC website)

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The Pregnancy Discrimination Act is the only federal law aimed at protecting expecting mothers at work. It is four paragraphs long and 40 years old. It says that a company has to accommodate pregnant workers’ requests only if ….(click here to read the full article via the New York Times)

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Suing a school in Illinois can be challenging because this state has a statute that makes schools and school employees immune from liability in several circumstances. In order to succeed in this type of lawsuit, you cannot simply establish that the school made a negligent error; you have to prove that the misconduct that contributed to the injury was “willful and wanton.” This means that you will need more and different proof than if you were simply pursuing a negligence lawsuit. Just because the law requires a higher burden of proof does not mean you should be deterred from pursuing an action if your child was injured at school, however. There are still ways to achieve success. If your child was injured in school, contact an experienced Chicago injury attorney to discuss your options.

The case of K.S. was one that achieved a degree of success for the injured student. K.S. was a student at a high school in a small town west of Elgin and a member of her high school’s freshman cheerleading squad in 2010-11. During a November practice, K.S suffered a fall. She allegedly fell from a height of roughly 10 feet and hit her head on the ground. The varsity coach allegedly asked K.S. if she was okay and basic questions like “where are you?” and “what’s your name?” The girl answered the questions successfully, and was allowed to return to practice after roughly five minutes, according to her complaint.

She suffered a second fall on her head 12 days after the first accident. Allegedly, the freshman team coach asked if the girl was okay and when the student said yes, no further action was taken. The girl’s third fall occurred 10 days after the second. Again, she hit her head and, again, the coach only asked if the girl was okay and took no further action.

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Construction accidents can be the result of a variety of causes. They might be caused by defective or improperly maintained tools or equipment. Alternately, they may be the result of human error or a failure to provide proper safety protections. It is important to retain experienced Chicago injury counsel and get started right away in order to get your investigation started. The sooner you begin, the more causes of action you may unearth. And, the more causes of action you bring, the better your chances may be of getting the full compensation you deserve. Depending on the facts of your case, the law may permit you to bring both a claim for workers’ compensation benefits and a civil lawsuit for money damages.

The case of the family of J.O. was an example of a tragic accident and also an example of how the subsequent legal process worked. CBS 2 recently reported about it. J.O. was a northwest Indiana man who worked construction in Chicago. In January 2015, J.O. was working at a project on the Gold Coast which involved the construction of a high-rise residential tower near Elm and State streets when he was killed. J.O.’s job at the time of his fatal injury involved working inside a crane some six floors off the ground. J.O. was pinned by a cage that descended on top of him as he was leaning into the shaft through which the cage passed.

After the accident occurred, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration opened an investigation into the accident to determine if any violations of laws or safety regulations occurred on the site and contributed to the man’s death. In any case where you are suing for your construction injuries, the results of an OSHA investigation that show that violations took place can be very helpful and go a long way in aiding you to obtain a successful outcome.

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On January 1, 2015, the Illinois Pregnancy Accommodation Law, an amendment to the Illinois Human Rights Act, went into effect, providing greater protection for pregnant employees. Now all employers in the State of Illinois are required to make reasonable accommodations for “pregnancy, childbirth, or medical or common conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth” upon request by the affected employee. The new amendment expands the protections of prior disability discrimination laws in Illinois, which did not cover accommodations for most pregnant employees who were otherwise healthy. Under the new law, virtually every pregnant employee is entitled to a pregnancy-related accommodation. The Illinois Pregnancy Discrimination Law and Illinois Human Rights Act are State laws which provide protections to pregnant employees in Illinois in addition to those protections under the Federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act under Title VII.

In order to assert your rights under the Illinois Pregnancy Accommodation Law, you must make a request for a reasonable accommodation. Upon that request, your employer may require you to provide documentation from your health care provider regarding the need for the requested accommodation. However, your employer may only require your doctor to provide the medical justification for the requested accommodation, a description of the types of accommodations which are medically advisable, the date when the accommodations became medically advisable, and the probable duration of the need for the accommodation. Both the employee and the employer are required to engage in timely, good faith, and meaningful exchange to determine effective and reasonable accommodations.

Once you have requested a reasonable accommodation for your pregnancy or pregnancy-related condition and provided the relevant documentation from your health care provider, it is unlawful for your employer to deny your accommodation request unless it can show that the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the ordinary operation of the business. An “undue hardship” on the employer means an accommodation that would be prohibitively expensive or disruptive to the employer’s business when considering the nature and cost of the accommodation; the overall financial resources and size of the employer; the number of employees and location of the employer’s facilities; and the nature of the employer’s operations.

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Bus-versus-bicyclist and bus-versus-pedestrian accidents can often inflict massive, and sometimes catastrophic, injuries, even at low speeds. The curb weight of a transit bus is 10-16 tons while empty, and can be 15-22 tons when fully loaded. Whether your bus accident occurred at 5 mph or 45 mph, chances are it inflicted serious harm that will affect you negatively for a long time, if not permanently. To ensure that you get the compensation you deserve, you have to be able to demonstrate, with persuasive evidence, all of the damages that you suffered, from medical expenses to lost wages to pain and suffering, among other things. To recover everything the law says you should, reach out to a skilled Chicago injury attorney about your case.

As an example of how serious a bus accident can be, consider the injury incident of D.M., which was reported by WGN. D.M. was a woman who worked as a bartender on Chicago’s northwest side. One recent Friday night, after getting off work, D.M. bicycled home alongside her boyfriend. Before she reached home, however, she was involved in a massive collision with a Chicago Transit Authority bus. According to news reports, the bus turned left and slammed directly into the woman. D.M.’s crash left her with a skull fracture, broken arm, broken rib and a compound fracture of one leg.

Once you’ve decided to sue for the harm you’ve suffered, your case often turns to demonstrating liability and showing the extent of your damages. Anyone seriously injured in a bus crash is going to have substantial medical bills, which can vary in their sum total based upon the severity of the injuries and the injury victim’s insurance status. If you’ve suffered major injuries, like bone fractures, spinal injuries or a brain injury, you may need extensive ongoing medical care in the future, which could greatly increase the total of your medical expense damages.

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At the end of 2017, United Airlines (now known as “United Continental Holdings, Inc.” after the merger with Continental Airlines) announced that it would be issuing each of its flight attendants a new Tumi brand bag. In March 2018, United Airlines began requiring its flights attendants use the newly issued two-wheel or four- wheel “rollaboard” Tumi brand bags.

Unfortunately, the transition to the new Tumi brand bags has created numerous issues for United Airlines flight attendants. Almost immediately, United Airlines flight attendants began noticing that these bags are awkward, hard to maneuver, and in some circumstances, even dangerous to use.

As flight attendants already often need to be performing physically strenuous tasks, moving quickly, working in tight and awkward spaces, and lifting, pushing, and pulling heaving luggage, the additional requirement to use these awkward and uncomfortable bags is unfortunately causing injuries to flight attendants’ wrists, arms, shoulder, backs, necks, and legs.

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