Chicago Personal Injury Blog

Taking legal action after a hotel room burglary

On behalf of Mark L. Karno & Associates, L.L.C. posted in Premises Liability on Friday, September 21, 2018.

When you are staying in a hotel, it is natural to treat the room as if it was your home for the time you are staying there. This means that you will likely leave valuable items in the room while you go out for the day. However, while you have a high degree of control when it comes to the security of your home, this is not so much the case in a hotel room.

Unfortunately, countless people become victim to hotel room theft every year in the state of Illinois. Theft can occur for a number of reasons. Sometimes, cleaners or other people with access to the room use this power to commit criminal acts. Other times, the lack of hotel room security can lead to break-ins being committed easily.

Nursing Home Residents And Dangerous Falls

On behalf of Mark L. Karno & Associates, L.L.C. on Wednesday, September 19, 2018.

Residents at nursing homes must often deal with muscle weakness, loss of flexibility and impaired equilibrium. Due to this, they might be physically compromised while walking. This means that they should use wheelchairs or walking frames when necessary. They should also be using chairlifts or elevators in order to move between floors in the nursing home.

A nursing home staff has the responsibility to assess the abilities of all nursing home residents and to ensure that they have the adequate amount of care and support. This is vital to help prevent accidents such as falls.

Is it legal for nursing homes to use restraints?

On behalf of Mark L. Karno & Associates, L.L.C. posted in Nursing Home Abuse on Friday, September 14, 2018.

People who reside in nursing homes do so generally because they are very vulnerable. This means that they are at a higher risk of being taken advantage of or abused. If you have a loved one who resides in a nursing home in the state of Illinois, you may be concerned about the way they are being treated or have questions about what type of treatment is legal.

Many nursing home residents are subject to the use of restraints at one point or another. This is a controversial method of safeguarding very vulnerable residents who may have a habit of leaving their bed, which increases their risk of suffering from a fall, for example. If you believe that your loved one might have been mistreated due to the use of restraints, you should learn more about what type of treatment is considered illegal.

The most serious outcomes of car accidents

On behalf of Mark L. Karno & Associates, L.L.C. posted in Serious injuries and wrongful death on Friday, September 7, 2018.

Car accidents can vary from very minor collisions to multicar incidents that cause many casualties and deaths. Unfortunately, some of these accidents can be completely unavoidable for drivers. Perhaps, for example, there was extreme weather or a fault in road signage. But for the vast majority of incidents, especially those that resulted in serious injury, fault can be assigned to one or more of the drivers.

The injuries suffered from car accidents have the potential to be life-changing. An impact at speed is very traumatic for the body, and often the head, neck and spine are the most vulnerable parts of the body. The following are some of the most serious types of injuries that occur after a car accident.

Movie theater visits can result in injury

On behalf of Mark L. Karno & Associates, L.L.C. posted in Premises Liability on Friday, August 31, 2018.

In any premises where a large number of people are present, there are certain hazards and risks associated with being there. Movie theaters often have the potential to house hundreds, if not thousands, of people under their roof at any one time.

This large number of people needs to be managed and safely controlled in order to prevent injuries from happening. This is particularly true when it comes to using the stairs within the movie theater itself. When the movie ends, there is likely to be a large volume of traffic wanting to exit the room. This must be managed logistically by the employees to prevent injuries from occurring.

Is it possible for bullying to take place in nursing homes?

On behalf of Mark L. Karno & Associates, L.L.C. posted in Nursing Home Abuse on Friday, August 24, 2018.

Bullying is often something that we associate with the behavior of children at school. However, bullying can actually be done by people of all ages, from those in the workplace to residents of nursing homes. It can even be initiated or encouraged by social workers.

Nursing home residents are typically very vulnerable, and therefore may not be able to defend themselves adequately from many different types of abusive behavior, including bullying. If you have a loved one who resides in a nursing home, it is important that you monitor them closely and look for signs that they may be being bullied.

Your rights to good working conditions as an IL truck driver

On behalf of Mark L. Karno & Associates, L.L.C. on Wednesday, August 22, 2018.

In any profession, employees have certain rights to standards of working. This means that they should be employed in a place that is reasonably safe, and they should not be forced to work to an extent that is detrimental to their health or could potentially cause an injury.

When it comes to commercial truck drivers, there can be a lot of pressure faced on a day-to-day basis. Many truck drivers have extremely ambitious deadlines which means they can be forced to drive long hours across states. However, suffering from exhaustion as a commercial truck driver can be extremely dangerous. Being overworked or forced to work when you are fatigued can potentially lead to fatal accidents.

The most common claims made against nursing homes

On behalf of Mark L. Karno & Associates, L.L.C. posted in Nursing Home Abuse on Friday, August 17, 2018.

Many people each year become residents at nursing homes. This can be a big shift in their lives and a difficult thing to get used to, and this is why it is important that nursing homes help their residents to feel as comfortable and as safe as possible.

While most nursing home residents are cared for adequately in their home, there is currently an understaffing epidemic in nursing homes that means the quality of care as suffered across the United States considerably. There is a low supply of qualified carers available and in a bid to cut costs, nursing homes often employ less carers than what is sufficient to ensure the proper standard of care.

Trucker exhaustion or distraction can lead to injury or death

On behalf of Mark L. Karno & Associates, L.L.C. on Tuesday, August 14, 2018.

Sharing the road with larger vehicles puts passenger vehicles at risk. When commercial trucks and passenger vehicles collide, the people in the smaller vehicles almost always suffer injuries worse than the commercial drivers. The discrepancy in size and weight is what leads to the imbalance of risk in these collisions.

Although some commercial truck accidents are the result of poor driving practices, such as driving in blind spots or cutting off a commercial truck, many are the result of poor decisions on the part of a truck driver. In these situations, victims from the crash may have the right to seek compensation from a truck driver or their employer.

Was an injury due to bad lighting the fault of the premises?

On behalf of Mark L. Karno & Associates, L.L.C. posted in Premises Liability on Friday, August 10, 2018.

When you are in your own home, you have the responsibility to create a safe environment for yourself, your family and any visitors to your home. When you become aware of a potential danger, it is very likely that you will act immediately in order to make it safe. When you are on a private premises, such as a restaurant or a health club, it is the responsibility of the premises owner to ensure that the environment is safe.

If you have been injured because you tripped or fell on private property, it may have been because there was not adequate lighting in place. Inadequate lighting can mean that you could not properly see down a corridor or stairwell. If you have been injured in this kind of situation, it is important to understand how fault is proven and how compensation is recovered.