A Cook County judge has allowed medical device sterilization company Steris to end hundreds of lawsuits over claims emissions from a Waukegan plant operated by Steris subsidiary Isomedix caused people living nearby to develop cancer. In July, Cook County Circuit Judge Kathy M. Flanagan ordered dismissal of claims against Isomedix pending in her court. That order came a little less…
Hair care and cosmetics product maker Revlon won’t get the chance to review certain internal communications and other “work papers” related to the studies that have formed the basis of thousands of lawsuits accusing the company of selling hair straightening products that allegedly caused cancer. On July 22, U.S. District Judge Mary M. Rowland rejected Revlon’s request to enforce a…
An Illinois state appeals panel has agreed that generic drug makers can’t face lawsuits claiming Zantac causes cancer. Plaintiff Angela Valadez said she developed colorectal cancer, allegedly as a result of treating heartburn from 1995 to 2014 by taking Zantac and ranitidine, its generic equivalent. She sued Zantac-maker GlaxoSmithKline and Boehringer Engelheim, which made and sold the active ingredient ranitidine,…
In a significant premises liability decision, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled that victims of the 2022 mass shooting at Greenwood Park Mall may proceed with their lawsuit against Simon Property Group and its security contractor, Universal Protection Service, LLC. On July 17, 2022, a gunman entered Greenwood Park Mall, where he spent over an hour in a restroom assembling…
The Illinois Supreme Court has affirmed a decision allowing a food distributor to proceed with a breach of warranty claim against two produce wholesalers, holding that the wholesalers had sufficient notice of the alleged product defect through existing personal injury lawsuits. The case stems from multiple personal injury suits filed by restaurant patrons who became ill after consuming contaminated cilantro….
Franklyn Neter-Nu, a truck driver, filed a medical negligence lawsuit after complications from an improperly administered IV led to a below-the-knee amputation. The case originated from a 2015 visit to Methodist Hospital in Gary, Indiana, where Neter-Nu sought treatment for nausea and vomiting. During his hospital stay, Nurse Morgan Mittler noticed that the IV line had become detached from Neter-Nu’s…
Saying he has been unfairly victimized in the press, an Ohio abortionist who is being sued for allegedly badly botching an abortion at his Champaign clinic, perforating an Indiana woman’s uterus and leaving half of the aborted fetus in her body, has asked a judge to both force the woman to publicly identify herself and impose a gag order to…
A judge has axed dozens more lawsuits from the list of thousands pending in Southern Illinois federal court accusing the makers of commercial weed killer Paraquat of allegedly causing Parkinson’s disease. On June 16, U.S. District Judge Nancy Rosenstengel adopted the recommendation of court-appointed special master Randi Ellis and dismissed 69 Paraquat exposure lawsuits for failure to return required plaintiff…
In a pivotal decision, the Indiana Supreme Court has reinstated a lawsuit filed by a former student who was injured by a falling window at Indiana University, holding that negligence may be inferred under the legal doctrine of res ipsa loquitur. The incident occurred in April 2018, when Kiera Isgrig, a college student, was studying in a university room and…
In coming weeks, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker will decide to either veto or sign a new law which would greatly expand the ability of trial lawyers to drag companies from all over the country into Illinois’ famously plaintiff-friendly state courts to face big money lawsuits that may have nothing to do with Illinois or anyone in the state. However, as…
