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News You Can Use

News and Law Updates from Ozmon Law

 

 

Protecting Your Rights When You’re in a Bicycle or Scooter Accident

Last year at this time I wrote about the various modes of transportation that fill our roadways and sidewalks especially during these long-awaited sun-soaked days of summer. As a personal injury lawyer my mind quickly turns from delight to disaster as I see the sidewalks riddled with scooters and bicyclists narrowly missing pedestrians because I know the worst-case scenario.

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Litigation in the Time of the Withering Attention Span

Neuroscientists can attest—our brains are changing. The human attention span is short; it has been clocked at as low as 8 seconds. Some neuroscientists say stop blaming you're smart phones, it’s your brain’s fault. Technology just makes it worse.Our brains...

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Laird M. Ozmon, President of Ozmon Law

Attorney Laird M. Ozmon discusses his firm and experience in the areas of personal injury, medical malpractice, wrongful death and birth-related injuries in Chicago and Joliet, Illinois.

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GRAB YOUR LIFEJACKET, THERE ARE WAVES IN THE JURY POOL

The prospective jurors who are wading into the jury pool today are not like jurors from the early days of my career as a plaintiff’s attorney. The speed of the cultural changes and shifting attitudes has accelerated precipitously with the advent of...

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Facing Fear Pays Off for Plaintiffs

Around this time last year I was preparing for a trip to Australia and New Zealand looking forward to checking a few things off of my Bucket List, including Bungy Jumping at the world’s oldest commercial site in New Zealand, Kawarau Bridge. Notably, New...

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Even Plaintiff’s Lawyer’s Hearts Get Broken

As Valentine’s Day comes and goes, I’m reminded of the biggest heartbreak I’ve suffered in recent years. It involved a wife and her two young children who lost a beloved 32-year-old husband and father to medical negligence. We knew it was an uphill battle as we...

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The Value of Experts in Personal Injury Litigation

Litigation is expensive. Speaking from the plaintiff’s perspective, costs related to a personal injury claim are steep. Plaintiff’s attorneys do not relish spending money; but the fact of the matter is that in order to prove (or disprove) a case, the parties must hire...

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Who Wins When Punitive Damages Are Awarded?

Recently a huge punitive damage award made the news. A groundskeeper sued Monsanto alleging its well-known weed killer Roundup caused his terminal cancer. The jury attributed $250 million of its $289 million award for the plaintiff to punitive damages...

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STUDY GIVES SKEWED VIEW OF THE U.S. TORT SYSTEM

Beware of a recent study conducted by the biased U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform claiming the costs and compensation paid for the U.S. tort system totaled $429 billion for 2016. In an effort to incite public outcry it implies it is scandalous that plaintiffs...

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MAKING OF A GOOD WITNESS

Recent news events have highlighted the importance of being a compelling witness on your own behalf. The quality of witness’s presentation both superficially and substantively directly impacts one’s ability to make a case. In the context of a personal injury claim, if...

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UNDERSTANDING PERSONAL INJURY DAMAGES

Often when people are injured they have difficulty articulating their injuries. It's usually a case of underreporting (failing to mention the MRI you had) or over reporting (trying to blame every ache and pain on the injury). My decades-long career as a plaintiff's...

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PROS AND CONS OF THIRD PARTY LITIGATION FUNDING

Third party litigation funding services are trending. They have been around in some form for many years, but now they are taking on a new prominence as litigation becomes ever more prevalent, sophisticated and accessible to the masses. Civil lawsuits are expensive....

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MAKING ATTORNEY REFERRAL NETWORKS WORK FOR YOU

Believe it or not, lawyers have friends. Those of us who have been in the trenches for a long time have worked with other lawyers as collaborators, adversaries or strategic partners. Unlike many professional colleagues, we often see each other in action, in court, at...

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AATD commonly misdiagnosed as chronic asthma

Antitrypsin Deficiency, known as AATD, is an inherited condition passed from parents to their children through their genes. The deficiency will result in serious lung disease in adults and, at times, can also cause lung disease in young adults. AATD is commonly...

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3 Things to Know about Birth Injury

The arrival of a baby should be a happy and joyous occasion, but sadly, birth injuries occur all too often around the country. A birth injury is a health problem that an infant is born with that, in most cases, is completely preventable. These injuries may...

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How to Recognize Medical Malpractice

Medical error is the No. 3 leading cause of death in the U.S., according to a 2016 Johns Hopkins University Study. While cancer and heart disease gain a lot of media attention, medical malpractice claims are not as widely reported. Ozman Law believes is in...

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Fighting for a Plaintiff’s Right to a Jury Trial

You may not have noticed it with all of the other bad news these days, but your right to a jury trial in a civil action is being eroded. Between the Federal Arbitration Act that allows the inclusion of arbitration agreements in a number of consumer contracts and the...

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A Glimmer of Hope for Plaintiffs on Health Care Liens

Healthcare liens can trip up plaintiffs and their counsel as well as derail reasonable settlements. Since the Illinois legislature “clarified” the obligations of the parties in the Health Care Services Lien Act, 770 ILCS 23/1 et seq., injured victims have generally...

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Sharing Safety Strategies for Shared Vehicles

Looking out over the newly unveiled Chicago Riverwalk the city has never looked more vibrant. It’s alive with boats of every size and shape sharing the waterways, and bikes, Segways and pedestrians sharing the roads, sidewalks and paths. The City of Big Shoulders has...

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Can Civil Damages Right the Wrong of Police Misconduct?

This month our country was stunned by another jury verdict exonerating a police officer for criminal conduct in shooting an innocent black person. Police officer Jeronimo Yanez of St. Anthony Minnesota shot Philando Castile five times during a routine traffic stop in...

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Product Recalls Plague Consumers

Product recalls are constantly in the news these days. Last month four car companies, Toyota, BMW, Subaru and Mazda, settled a class action covering nearly 16 million vehicles that plaintiffs claimed contained defective Takata airbags. The settlement didn’t even...

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