Justia Lawyer Rating for David M. Barish

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When you are injured in a car crash, your lawsuit may be as simple as suing the other driver involved in the accident. When your accident, however, involves a vehicle like a semi-truck, a bus or a commercial airplane, your case may involve many more defendants, especially if a mechanical flaw or malfunction in the large vehicle is one of the crash’s alleged causes. In either situation, but especially in the latter scenario, you need the skill and knowledge of an experienced Chicago injury attorney. Your knowledgeable injury attorney can help you overcome the various roadblocks the defense may try to place in your way, such as challenges based upon personal jurisdiction.

If you’re injured (or a loved one dies) as a result of a plane crash, there may be a large number of people and entities who were potentially negligent and possibly owe you compensation for the harm you suffered. Some of them may be out-of-state businesses and may have relatively limited interaction with Illinois. Based on that, they may claim they cannot be sued in this state.

The law in Illinois, however, often says otherwise. A recent case originating here in Cook County is a good example. In the late hours of April 6, 2015, a Cessna bound for Bloomington, Illinois left Indianapolis, Indiana. In the early morning hours of April 7, the plane crashed roughly one mile northeast of the airport. All seven men aboard the plane tragically died in the crash

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Autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles are becoming more and more popular these days. At the same time, more accidents involving these vehicles are making the news. Many of these accidents are high-speed collisions and several have had tragic results. On December 29 alone, two accidents involving vehicles with autopilot technology killed three people. When these accidents hurt or kill people, someone is legally responsible for the harm that has been caused, whether that someone is the driver or the auto manufacturer. If you have been injured in an accident involving a vehicle with autopilot or driver-assist technology, you should reach out promptly to an experienced Chicago car accident attorney about your case. Your skillful attorney can help you do the discovery necessary to find those truly responsible and hold them accountable.

Two different December accidents – both involving Tesla vehicles and both involving fatalities – have once again brought Tesla’s autopilot feature into the spotlight. In one accident, a 23-year-old woman was riding with her 25-year-old husband when their Tesla Model 3 slammed into the rear of a parked fire truck along Interstate 70 in rural Putnam County, Indiana. In that accident, which occurred just before 8:00 a.m., several emergency vehicles (including the fire truck) were parked in the left lane to deal with an earlier incident. All of the emergency vehicles had their flashing lights on. Despite that, the Tesla barreled into the fire truck “at a high rate of speed,” according to Car and Driver.

In the other accident, a speeding Tesla Model S ran a red light in Southern California and crashed into a Honda Civic, killing the two occupants of the Honda. Reports indicate that these are not completely isolated incidents. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has, according to Reuters, investigated nearly two dozen accidents that involved self-driving or “driver assist” systems. More than half of those (14) involved a Tesla vehicle, with the Indiana crash representing the 14th.

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animated-balance-weigh-scales-2The State-Wide minimum wage becomes $9.25 per hour beginning January 1, 2020. The minimum wage in Cook County will become $12.00 per hour and increase to $13.00 per hour in the City of Chicago. The change to the State-Wide minimum hourly wage will result in an increase of Workers’ Compensation Weekly Temporary Total disability benefits. Under Illinois law, this benefit will become $246.67 per week for a single person and will be raised by 10% for each dependent, not to exceed $370.00 per week or the employee’s average weekly wage, whichever is less.

Please note this State-Wide minimum wage is scheduled to increase again on July 1, 2020 to $10.00 per hour. The Workers’ Compensation temporary total disability minimum rate will increase to $266.67 per week for a single person and will be raised by 10% for each dependent, not to exceed $400.00 per week or the employee’s average weekly wage, whichever is less. The minimum permanent partial disability rate will similarly increase for low wage workers.

Effective January 1, 2020, it becomes lawful for persons 21 years of age or older to possess, use and purchase limited amounts of cannabis for personal use. For those injured on the job, this means that if a post-accident drug test is positive for cannabis consumption, the work injury is no longer automatically denied as a result of that test, provided your consumption was from a legal purchase.

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For every 100 workers at Amazon facilities, nearly 11 were injured on the job in 2018, making it three times as dangerous as employment across the private sector, and twice as dangerous as warehouse work in general, according to the study from a coalition of more than 40 groups, including the National Employment Law Center and United for Respect.

Based on logs from 28 Amazon facilities in 16 states, the study found….click here to read the full article via CBS News

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If you’ve been checking the news headlines – or this blog – regularly over the last several months, you know that one of the issues facing rideshare service users (and some drivers) is sexual assault. Recently, a report released by Uber provided a shocking image of just how prevalent this problem is. That report indicated that, just in 2018, more than three thousand Uber riders and drivers were sexually assaulted, according to ABC News.

In politics, a politician’s level of blame for a scandal may be measured by answering the questions “what did he know and when did he know it.” Sometimes, a civil lawsuit against an entity may also be greatly strengthened by providing proof of what the entity knew (or reasonably should have known) and when it knew it. While these pieces are important, they aren’t everything. To be sure your case has everything it needs for success, be sure to obtain skillful representation from an experienced Chicago Uber injury attorney.

That Uber report also indicated that 464 people were raped using Uber in 2017 and 2018, with roughly 425 of those 464 being passengers. Stock market analysts declared the shocking report to be “another black eye for Uber as the company continues have business model issues which need to addressed,” according to a Mercury News report.

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In the past, this blog has informed readers about how they may potentially be able hold their rideshare service like Uber or Lyft liable for negligence for injuries riders suffer as a result of the rideshare service contracting with a driver that the service knew or should have known was unsafe. That type of liability, where an entity is held liable for negligently hiring and/or training a driver, even if that driver is an independent contractor, is not something that is limited to situations involving rideshare services. This technique may also be an important element of your successful Chicago truck accident case against a transportation company for the injuries you suffered as a result of an unsafe truck driver. Whether you were hurt by an unsafe Uber driver or an unsafe trucker, there may be many different ways to get the compensation you deserve, not just from the driver but from the entity that put that unsafe driver on the road.

Recently, the Illinois Appellate Court affirmed a multi-million dollar jury verdict against a trucking company that employed a driver it knew or should have known was dangerous. A Michigan-based trucking company received an application from D.L.J., who was applying to be a truck driver. The company discovered that the applicant had never completed a truck driving course and, in the three years before submitting his application, had racked up four accidents, three moving violations and two license suspensions. In the previous 10 years, the applicant had been fired from four differed truck driving jobs, including one termination for crashing into another vehicle while the trucker was driving aggressively on an interstate highway. He also had a felony conviction in connection to his truck driving, where he tried to shatter the headlights of a woman’s car after he perceived the woman to have tailgated him.

The company declared D.L.J. a marginal candidate and hired him. The driver quickly picked up a speeding citation and again got his license suspended. Nevertheless, the company kept using the man. A year later, the driver rear-ended a man, causing him to suffer massive but non-fatal injuries.

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tumblr_oywrc8mAF01qfr6udo1_500The holiday-shopping season, and the extended hours that come with it, are taking a toll on America’s retail workers.

Employees at shopping malls and other outlets in 2018 were more likely to get sick or injured than the prior year, making it the only U.S. industry with a meaningful uptick. The increase means retail-store workers are now worse off than those working in the manufacturing sector. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 3.5 of every 100 retail workers suffered from illness or injury last year, up from 3.3 in 2017 and compared with 3.4 in manufacturing.

The uptick in non-fatal injuries, from sprains and tears to…

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Senator and presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren is drafting a bill that would ban “mega mergers” between the nation’s largest companies as well as try to improve the bargaining power of short-term and temporary workers.

The forthcoming legislation, a collaborative effort with Rep. David Cicilline of the House antitrust subcommittee, would bar tie-ups including a company with over $40 billion in annual revenue or two companies each with at least $15 billion in annual revenue, according to a person familiar with the matter.

It would also grant gig workers the power to unionize, a potential landmark change for rail-hailing companies like Uber Technologies and (click here) to read the full article via CNBC.

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In many auto accident cases, insurance policies and insurance coverage will play an important role in securing payment for the damages you suffered. That inevitably means dealing with, and sometimes battling in the courts against, insurance companies. The law has rules designed to protect consumers when it comes to insurance coverage and dealing with insurance companies, which is just one of many reasons why it is so important to make sure you have skilled Illinois car accident counsel on your side before you take on an insurance company in court.

A case from southern Illinois recently provided an example of how the law can help you in the case of an ambiguous insurance policy. A Massac County teen, Austin, and his passenger, Lesley, were hit by an underinsured driver in June 2015. Both the driver and the passenger settled with the at-fault driver for $25,000. Austin and Lesley’s total damages were far greater than $25,000, however.

The pair then pursued Austin’s parents’ insurer. They asserted that the insurance policy that the parents had signed allowed for $75,000 of underinsured motorist coverage and that, since there were four vehicles on the policy and the insurer charged four separate premiums, they were entitled to seek payment of $300,000 in underinsured motorist coverage.

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Rideshare services in the U.S. have been in the news recently with the tragic death of a South Carolina university student, who was kidnapped and murdered by the person she mistakenly believed to be her Uber driver. While events like that are thankfully rare, car accident injuries involving rideshare drivers are less so. Sometimes, those damages are suffered due to the missteps of a rideshare driver, sometimes the rideshare driver is the person who was harmed.

Whether you’re an injured rideshare driver or someone hurt by a rideshare driver, there are several things you need to know in order to take legal action in the most effective way possible. One of the most basic of these is: whom should I sue? This can be more complicated than you might think, given the complexity of the corporate structure of some of the rideshare services. Every choice you make matters and may mean the difference between success and defeat, so be sure you have a skilled Chicago injury attorney representing you at every step along the way.

One question being asked these days, in relation to rideshare services, is “what is Raiser, LLC?” Raiser is an integral part of the corporate structure of Uber and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Uber. (Uber has several of these entities.) Raiser is the business entity with whom Uber driver are technically contracted. When an Uber driver gets paid, it is Raiser that is technically paying that driver.

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