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Latest news on personal injury and workers’ compensation.

December 15, 2025

Companies hit with hundreds of Lake County EtO lawsuits cry foul

December 15, 2025

IL, Chicago, suburbs to get up to $280M in Monsanto PCB deal

December 9, 2025

COVID comp claims keep landing in courts, with trend seen continuing

Latest News

Personal Injury

Companies hit with hundreds of Lake County EtO lawsuits cry foul

A group of big medical device and chemical manufacturing companies are pushing back against attempts by trial lawyers to rope them into another big potential payout in the continuing legal actions over claims ethylene oxide emissions from factories and medical device sterilization plants in Lake County caused cancer. In motions and briefs filed in November and early December, the companies…
Etzler Lawhead Legal Group, PC
December 15, 2025
Personal Injury

IL, Chicago, suburbs to get up to $280M in Monsanto PCB deal

Illinois' state government, as well as Chicago and nine North Shore suburbs, could be in line for as much as $280 million under a deal struck with agrichemical giant Monsanto, through its parent company Bayer, to end governmental lawsuits accusing the company of allegedly contaminating water with so-called PCBs. The settlement was announced Dec. 2 by both Illinois Attorney General…
Etzler Lawhead Legal Group, PC
December 15, 2025
Workers' Compensation

COVID comp claims keep landing in courts, with trend seen continuing

Five years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, workers compensation litigation over the virus continues to move through jurisdictions. Courts are actively revisiting questions of causation, rebuttals of statutory presumptions — many of which have expired — long-COVID determinations, disability and the broader boundaries of occupational disease law. Decisions issued in 2024 and 2025 continue to reshape the system,…
Etzler Lawhead Legal Group, PC
December 9, 2025
Workers' Compensation

Bipartisan bill seeks to expand provider access for injured federal workers

A bipartisan bill newly introduced in Congress aims to “modernize” the federal workers compensation system by allowing physician assistants and nurse practitioners to diagnose, certify and oversee treatment for federal employees injured on the job. The proposal, titled the Improving Access to Workers’ Compensation for Injured Federal Workers Act and introduced Tuesday on the Senate floor, would amend the Federal…
Etzler Lawhead Legal Group, PC
December 8, 2025
Personal Injury

Illinois Attorney General Announces $120M Settlement With Monsanto

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced a $120 million settlement with Monsanto Company (Monsanto) and affiliates Solutia Inc. and Pharmacia LLC over the environmental and health effects of Monsanto’s decades-long production of polychlorinated biphenyls, known as PCBs. Raoul’s office filed a 2022 lawsuit alleging the company was aware of the chemicals’ toxicity while publicly denying any knowledge of the danger…
Etzler Lawhead Legal Group, PC
December 8, 2025
Workers' Compensation

Injured Police Officer Loses Challenge to Commencement Date of Disability Benefits, Amount

An Illinois Appellate Court upheld a lower court's decision, rejecting a Berwyn police officer's challenge to the commencement date and amount of his disability benefits. The officer, Michael Vokac, was injured in March 2020 and had been receiving benefits under the Public Employee Disability Act, but disputed when his pension benefits should have started and how much they should be.…
Etzler Lawhead Legal Group, PC
December 2, 2025
Workers' Compensation

Metro East employees are first in Illinois to get workers’ comp for radiation

Roughly 70 former employees of a Metro East factory tied to the Manhattan Project, and the spouses of deceased workers, have become the first group in Illinois to receive workers’ compensation for radiation exposure. “I am literally a landmark decision,” said Larry Burgan, one of the former employees of Spectrulite Consortium Inc. That old Spectrulite facility that straddled the municipal…
Etzler Lawhead Legal Group, PC
December 1, 2025
Workers' Compensation

Careful recordkeeping of patient care key to cutting nurse med mal claims

Nursing professionals should carefully document patient care to avoid malpractice claims, which experts say are increasing in severity. From 2020 to 2024, the average total incurred cost of malpractice claims involving nursing professionals increased by 12.5% to $236,749, according to a report released recently by the Hatboro, Pennsylvania-based Nurses Service Organization, a division of Aon Affinity, in collaboration with CNA…
Etzler Lawhead Legal Group, PC
December 1, 2025
Personal Injury

7th Circuit sides with doctor in case involving Hepatitis C treatment of IDOC inmate

The daughter of a former Indiana Department of Correction inmate failed to prove a doctor’s liability in the inmate’s death from Hepatitis C complications, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday in affirming a district court’s summary judgment order. The circuit court ruled that the appellant, Skyler Tackett, presented insufficient evidence for a reasonable jury to find appellee Dr.…
Etzler Lawhead Legal Group, PC
November 25, 2025
Personal Injury

7th Circuit upholds dismissal of wrongful death lawsuit filed against Evansville police

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s decision that Evansville police officers did not use excessive force on a man who died following a violent 2019 struggle, in a case which sparked nationwide publicity and an investigation by the Associated Press and Frontline. The plaintiffs, the family and estate of Edward Snukis, sued the City of Evansville…
Etzler Lawhead Legal Group, PC
November 24, 2025

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