Chicago Injury Attorney Blog

A number of high profile recalls this month are serving to remind parents and guardians that there may products and furniture items out there that are not safe for kids and babies to use. Our Chicago products liability lawyers want to remind you to explore your legal options right away if you believe that a dangerous or defective product caused Illinois injury to a child.

• Most recently, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission and B.O.B. Trailers Inc. recalled almost 360,000 B.O.B.® single and double strollers because they come with a drawstring that may pose a strangulation hazard if it wraps around a child’s neck. There has been at least one report of his happening. The child was an 11-month-old girl. Fortunately, her mother was able to free her before she suffered injury.

• On February 17, IKEA and the CPSC announced the recall of approximately 20,000 SNIGLAR cribs. Ill-fitting bolts can cause the mattress to detach and collapse. This can create a suffocation and entrapment hazard for a child who might fall into the opening.

• Just the day before, Burlington Basket Company and the CPSC recalled about 500,000 Bassinets that could pose a potential fall hazard. In the event that the cross-bracing rails do not fully lock into position, the bassinets can collapse. There have been 10 reports of such incidents. Two of them resulted in minor injuries.

• On February 11, the CPSC and Summer Infant Inc. recalled approximately 1.7 million video baby monitors following the deaths of two babies from strangulation. The babies died after the monitor’s electrical cords ended up around their necks. The CPSC says to keep these monitors and their cords away from kids’ reach.

Manufactures are responsible for making sure their products are free from design or manufacturing flaws that could make them unsafe for use. Our Chicago injury law firm is dismayed at the number of products that cause injuries to children and babies each year. We are here to make sure families obtain their financial recovery from defective products claims based on strict liability, negligence, or breach of warranty.

Summer Infant Recalls Video Baby Monitors After Two Fatalities, Bloomberg, February 11, 2011

Bassinets recalled for fall hazard, Reuters, February 16, 2011

337,000 B.O.B. jogging strollers recalled, KVUE, February 23, 2011

Related Web Resources:
IKEA Recall Page, IKEA

Products liability law: an overview, Cornell University Law School

More Blog Posts:
Chicago Products Liability Lawsuit Seeks More than $600,000 from McDonald’s Over Glass Found in McChicken Sandwich, Chicago Injury Attorney Blog, February 14, 2011

DePuy Hip Implant Recall May Be Grounds for Chicago Products Liability Lawsuits, Chicago Injury Attorney Blog, January 10, 2011

Parents File Chicago Products Liability Lawsuit Against Baseball Bat Maker Easton-Bell Sports Inc., Chicago Injury Attorney Blog, December 8, 2010

The wintertime brings another Illinois slip and fall hazard to premises: the accumulation of snow and ice on the ground. Serious injuries can result from slipping and falling on ice or melted snow, which is why property owners must attempt to clear potentially hazardous patches as soon as possible. In Illinois, the ice or snow cited in a slip and fall accident must have been a result of unnatural accumulation for a property owner to be held liable.

Recently, Lori A. Wallace filed an Illinois slip and fall lawsuit seeking damages from the owners of a building in Godfrey. Wallace says she was visiting friends when she fell on an unnatural accumulation of ice on a driveway that was from a broken sewer line. She contends that the premise owners, Glori McGaughey and David McGaughey, not only failed to remove the ice, but also they neglected to warn that it was there. Wallace is also suing the village of Godfrey for failing to repair the sewer line. She is seeking over $100,000 plus costs and other relief. Wallace says she lost income, incurred medical costs, suffered disfigurement and disability, experienced pain and suffering, and was made sick, lame, sore, and disordered.

Meantime, Marilyn Gilmer is also seeking compensatory damages for her Illinois slip and fall injuries that she says she sustained in Fairview Heights in 2009. She says the black ice that she fell on had accumulated in front of a building’s entrance.

At the time of the Illinois slip and fall accident, Gilmer was visiting defendant National Vision. She claims that slipping on the black ice, which had accumulated after melting from the building’s roof and then froze up again during the night, caused her to suffer permanent and significant injuries.

Gilmer is accusing National Vision and building owners Bluma and Phillip Hirsch and America's Best Contacts for failing to use salt to melt the ice, not correcting a design flaw that allows the snow from the roof to melt onto the floor in front of the building entrance, and failing to get rid of the black ice that was an unnatural accumulation.

Proving that the snow or ice that caused your Chicago slip and fall accident can be tough, which is why you must work with a premises liability law firm that knows how to handle this type of injury case.

Godfrey business owner sued over ice accumulation, The Record, February 17, 2011

Refrozen melted snow turned to black ice and slip and fall, The Record, February 15, 2011

Related Web Resource:
Slip and Fall, Nolo

More Chicago Injury Attorney Blog Posts:
Chicago Slip and Fall: Woman Settles Cook County Injury Lawsuit with Brookfield Zoo, Chicago Injury Attorney Blog, November 2, 2010

Target is Sued for Illinois Slip and Fall, Chicago Injury Attorney Blog, July 6, 2010

Shopper Files Illinois Slip and Fall Lawsuit Against Schnuck Markets, Chicago Injury Attorney Blog, June 11, 2011

Vjollca Lecaj is suing McDonald’s for Chicago personal injury. She claims that she got hurt on August 5, 2010 after biting into a McChicken sandwich and chewing on a large shard of class that was in it. She is seeking over $600,000 from the McDonald’s in Oak Lawn, McDonald’s USA, LLC, McDonald’s Corporation, and JDD Investment Company.

In her Chicago products liability complaint, Lecaj says that the restaurant failed to properly inspect the sandwich, as well as the processing and cooking equipment. She says she suffered permanent and severe oral injuries, in addition to experiencing great anguish and pain.

Restaurants can be held liable for personal injury or products liability if a food item that they serve causes injury or death. From contaminated foods to too hot liquids to foreign items in sandwiches and soups, over the years people have claimed damages for injuries, illness, trauma, and death.

There was, of course, the products liability lawsuit against McDonald’s in the 90’s filed by a woman who says that she suffered burns from the hot coffee she bought at the fast food chain burned her. A jury awarded her $2.86 million, although that amount was later reduced. Recently, the parents of a four-year-old boy have filed an injuries to a minor lawsuit against Walt Disney Parks and Resorts over severe burns that they say he sustained from eating very hot nacho cheese. They say that Isaiah Harris experienced pain and suffering and sustained permanent scarring because Disney did not attempt to regulate the temperature of the cheese. His parents are claiming emotional distress and they are asking for compensation for legal and medical bills and punitive damages.

Recently, Rep. Dennis Kucinich settled his food injury lawsuit with Restaurant Associate over an injury he sustained when he bit into a sandwich from the congressional cafeteria. Kucinich says that he split his tooth in half because there was an olive with a pit in his meal. His tooth became infected. He claims that he had to undergo oral surgery and several teeth were replaced.

Last year, in Illinois, plaintiffs filed DuPage County personal injury lawsuits against Subway after its Lombard restaurant served food that exposed people to the Shigella sonnei bacteria. More than 20 Shigella poisoning cases ensued. At least seven people were hospitalized.

Lawsuit: Glass Found In McDonald’s Sandwich, CBS Local, February 10, 2011

Parents sue Disney, say son suffered 'severe burns' from nacho cheese, Orlando Sentinel, February 11, 2011

Ohio: Kucinich Settles Suit Over Olive Pit, The New York Times, January 29, 2011

Related Web Resources:
Products Liability, Justia

McDonald's

More Blog Posts:
Chicago Personal Injury Lawsuits Filed Against McDonald’s and Chipotle Over Food Injuries, Chicago Injury Attorney Blog, September 2, 2010

DuPage County Injury Lawsuits Accuses Lombard Subway Restaurant for Serving Bacteria-Tainted Food, Chicago Injury Attorney Blog, March 29, 2010

The family of Jaylen Raggs has settled their Chicago injuries to a minor case with the city for $1.55 million. Raggs, then 4, sustained a depressed skull fracture and other injuries when a fallen tree branch struck him on March 31, 2006. City workers had trimmed the parkway tree.

The tree branch fell because of heavy winds. Raggs, who had to undergo a craniotomy to decrease the swelling of the brain, was hospitalized for two weeks. He received months of occupational and physical therapy.

Now, almost five years after the accident, Raggs, who doctors say sustained brain damage, is still behind in school. His verbal abilities were affected, and he has a slight limp from a permanent left-foot drop.

Raggs’ mother filed the Chicago personal injury case on his behalf. She accused the city of negligence in trimming the tree. An expert she retained said that the city crew should have realized that the branch was weakened or dead.

Falling Tree Branch Injuries
It is a premise owner’s responsibility to make sure that a property is safe so that anyone who is legally allowed to be there does not get hurt. Although it may be hard to believe, falling tree branches that strike a person can cause serious injuries.

For example, in addition the Chicago personal injury accident mentioned above, a 60-year-old woman had to undergo spinal surgery after a tree branch struck her while she was in a state and county park last year. Marcia Anderson suffered fractures to her skull, vertebrae, ribs, and scapula. She also sustained blood in her cavity chest, a collapsed lung, and a subarachnoid hematoma.

Also last year, a 6-month-old baby died in her mother’s arms after a falling tree branch struck her. At the time, baby Gianna Ricciutti and her mother Karla DelGallo were posing for a photograph near the Central Park Zoo. DelGallo was in a coma for weeks following the tragic accident.

City to settle for $1.55 million with boy badly hurt by tree branch, Chicago Sun-TImes, February 8, 2011

Lawsuit likely in San Bruno falling tree branch injury, San Francisco Examiner, December 8, 2010

Parents of Infant Killed by Central Park Tree Branch to File $50M Lawsuit, DNAInfo, October 11, 2011

Related Web Resources:
City of Chicago

Proving Fault in Accidents on Dangerous or Defective Property, Nolo

More Blog Stories About Chicago Premises Liability:
Hooters Restaurant Sued for Chicago Personal Injury Over Alleged Excessive Use of Force by Security Guard, Chicago Injury Attorney Blog, November 18, 2010

Chicago Slip and Fall: Woman Settles Cook County Injury Lawsuit with Brookfield Zoo, Chicago Injury Attorney Blog, November 2, 2010

Cook County Wrongful Death Lawsuit Filed After Man’s Fatal Dive into Shallow Pool, Chicago Injury Attorney Blog, October 12, 2010

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