The outbreak of Salmonella has affected more than 140 people across 20 states and the District of Columbia.  The states most sickened by this disease are New York with 32 confirmed cases, Maryland with 17 cases and Illinois with 16.   Unfortunately, the age range of those infected by the salmonella is 4-78 years old, with a median age of 30 years old.  The tuna has been traced back to a single distributor in California that only uses tuna meat from a singular processing plant in India.

The salmonella outbreak is thought to be a raw yellow fin tuna or more specifically the Nakaochi scrape from Moon Marine USA Corporation.  The Nakaochi scrape is the back meat of the tuna which is scraped off of the tuna bones and bears a striking resemblance to ground tuna.  Moon Marine has initiated the recall of nearly 60,000 pounds of tuna that might have been used to make sushi, ceviche, and sashimi for restaurants and grocery stores.

While salmonella is not very dangerous for a healthy adult, the disease does pose a threat to people with compromised immune systems.  The symptoms of salmonella poisoning generally result in diarrhea, abdominal cramps and a fever for up to seven days.  The loss of hydration can result in hospitalization to restore fluids.  In some cases the infection can jump from the intestinal tract into the blood stream.  The infection can ultimately lead to death without the proper treatment of antibiotics.

It has become increasingly harder to quarantine this tuna due to the distribution and repackaging of the original orders.  Without the initial labeling of the tuna, the CDC is advising people to not to eat the Nakaochi scrape or to ask grocery stores and restaurants where they received their tuna products.  The salmonella outbreak had onset dates from January 28^th to April 1^st.  If you or a loved one has been affected by this illness you may have legal recourses, please contact a personal injury lawyer.

Erwin’s naturally adventurous spirit, even at 70 years old, saw him taking a hike into the woods to look for more plant species on June 17^th 2010.  What Erwin didn’t realize was a research team was in the area and had recently caught a bear.  “He had no idea they were going to be baiting, trapping and collaring bears in our backyard,” said his daughter, Mara Evert Domingue of Ventress, La.

Authorities have said the research team collared a 430-pound male grizzly bear and left the area close to Shoshone National Park about two miles from Evert’s cabin around 1 pm. Evert went for a walk around 12:45 pm and was found dead hours later by the two person grizzly bear study team.  The bear was later killed by a sniper and found to be the bear that mauled Erwin Evert to death by DNA testing.

Yolanda Evert spent some time volunteering for the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team and she knows the practice of teams investigating a sleeping bear.  The only notice that she and her husband had about bears in the area was little yellow ribbons on nearby trees.  Erwin’s widow asserts in her lawsuit that the researchers violated bear-trapping protocols by leaving the tranquilized bear before it was awake as well as taking down warnings about the tranquilized bear.  She maintains that those actions led to her husband’s gruesome death.

The lawsuit filed by Yolanda is now set to go to trial Dec. 3 in Cheyenne, Wyoming.  US District Judge Nancy Freudenthal has set the date to hear Evert’s wrongful death case in which she is seeking $5 million from the federal government.  While the loss of a loved one is never replaced by money, the damage is certainly mitigated.  If you or a loved one has experienced a tragedy along these lines, you may want to seek legal counsel from an skilled personal injury lawyer in Illinois.

Nanny Teri Deal set down the baby she was watching in a colorful and popular Bumbo seat.  She had to grab a snack for the child and didn’t realize what could happen. The 20 lb. boy proceeded to arch his back and fall out of the seat.  His head was fractured when it fell onto a rattle.  These injuries lead to bleeding of the child’s brain and a hospitalization after which he fully recovered.

The boy’s parents Julie and Judd Peak did file a lawsuit against Bumbo to ease their pain and while the specifics are unknown, the case was settled.  Although they maintain that the safety warnings on the seat do not mention the possibility of accidents like this happening.  The nanny Teri Deal said “It’s supposed to be designed so you don’t have to worry the child will fall over, especially when they’re smaller.  There’s a false security that goes on — an extra set of hands — which was not my experience with it.”

Mike Fisher’s son is another victim of a Bumbo seat accident.  His baby was in the seat on top of a kitchen counter.  Similar to what happened to the Peak boy, the Fisher’s saw their 6 month old son launch himself out of the seat and off the counter.  Mike saw his baby’s head bounce on the ceramic floor.  The fall and subsequent bouncing fractured the baby’s head much worse than the Peak’s son.  The Fisher’s feel that there is some internal brain damage that their son has suffered.  At this point, they have retained a lawyer and blame Bumbo for the accident.

The scariest part of these stories is that they are not isolated incidents.  Bumbo voluntarily recalled all of their products in 2007 and have since started selling them again.  The design of the seat has not changed; the only difference is there are new warnings on the seat.  Regardless, some estimates say that 45 babies have fallen out of Bumbo seats and seventeen have experienced head injuries like the Fisher’s and Peak’s sons.

Bumbo maintains that the danger of falling from one of their seats “is no greater than the risk of falls when a child is crawling, sitting, or learning to walk.”  Children need a lot of attention and it is easy to be lulled into a false sense of security.  If you or a loved one has experienced an accident like this, then you may want to seek legal counsel.  Make sure you contact an experienced personal injury lawyer in Illinois.

Fritzie and Cameron had suffered two miscarriages before the birth of Genesis.  Their lawyer said that this made them cherish the birth of Genesis much more due to their previous hardships.  The name Genesis itself means “beginning”.  Unfortunately, for the Burketts, their child’s progress abruptly halted on October 15^th when their son died after a heart surgery without any clear difficulties.

It was alleged that Advocate Lutheran General Hospital made a huge mistake in the care of this child.  Genesis was given a dose of sodium chloride through his IV that was 60 times larger than the amount prescribed.  This dose was thought to be fatal to the improving newborn since Genesis went into cardiac arrest.  He was only 40 days old.

An internal investigation at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital did show who was at fault for this horrible mistake.  It was revealed that the solution was incorrectly entered into the machine that mixes the IV solutions.  The hospital is already taking strides to ensure patient safety moving forward from this incident.  This includes “making sure that what is on the IV bag reflects what is actually in the bag, not what the order was. That’s where the mistake was made,” the Burketts’ attorney said.

Since the hospital recognized the error was their fault, they decided to settle the wrongful death and negligence lawsuit that the Burketts filed.  The Law Division of Cook County Circuit Court approved the settlement of 8.25 million dollars on April 5^th 2012.  While the money does not make up for losing a dear child, the Burketts hope to set up a charity to honor the memory of their son.  While it is impossible to know how to react in a situation like this, it is important to have strong legal consul.  Please contact an Illinois Personal Injury lawyer if you or a loved one have experienced a loss this unfathomable.

Are you curious to know whether you can protect personal injury settlement money from credit card judgment in Illinois? You can keep your money but need to undergo laborious legal procedure. Make sure that you enroll in a credit card settlement program before the credit card company files a lawsuit against you.

If your creditor filed a lawsuit against you and the court judgment goes against you, then the court might give the right to the creditor to recover the owed amount. In some cases, the court orders for wage garnishment or place a levy against your bank account.

In case, you deposited your personal injury settlement money in the bank account, then you are required to take necessary action in order to protect your asset from being garnished from your account. You can prevent the creditors from claiming money through a bank levy and remanded to the judgment holder by safeguarding yourself.

Here are a few ways to protect your personal injury settlement money from credit card judgment:

1. Check wage garnishment law in your state:

You are required to check the wage garnishment law in Illinois as there are many states that do not allow the creditors to access the consumer bank account. Therefore, you are required to find whether your state law vested right to the creditors to garnish your bank accounts after a lawsuit with a notification at the state attorney general’s office.

2. Know about the risk of a bank account garnishment:

The debt collection agency might sue you in court to retrieve the owed amount. You are required to remember whether you have made payment to the collection agency through demand draft or personal check. If the creditor is aware of your bank account, then he will provide the bank with a writ of execution to levy your accounts.

Therefore, it is advisable to pay off the debt or negotiate settlement with the creditors before they sue you in court.

3. Take out the fund from your bank account:

The court might permit the creditors to garnish money directly from your bank account. Therefore, you can liquidate the fund from your account as the creditor might not be able claim for the cash you have in your house in Illinois. You can protect your personal injury settlement money from being garnished by liquidating the bank account.

4. Contest the original judgment by reopening the case:

Make sure you reopen the case by filing a Motion to Vacate, if you want to protect your personal injury settlement money from credit card judgment. Once you manage to prove that you have not been properly informed of the original judgment, you can successfully reopen the case. This will help you keep your personal injury settlement money as the garnishment order will be overturned.

Therefore, these are a few crucial ways to keep your personal injury settlement money from credit card judgment.

Chicago’s Fox News reports that according to the Illinois State Police, 43-year-old Thomas Winkelman lost control of his Harley-Davidson motorcycle after swerving to avoid something in the road. Winkelman hit the pavement and was then struck by another motorcycle, which was driven by Kevin Kniskern, a 22-year-old Mundelein, Illinois man.

Thomas Winkelman was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. Kniskern was rushed to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital with serious injuries. His current condition is unknown. Police say that alcohol was not a factor in the crash, and Winkelman was not wearing a motorcycle helmet. They are conducting further investigations to determine if speeding played a part in the accident. Several lanes of Interstate 90 were closed for 5 hours following the accident.

If negligent driving on the part of either motorcycle driver played a part in this accident, the other party (or their estate) is legally entitled to monetary compensation. If you’ve been injured or lost a loved one in a motorcycle accident in Chicago, you don’t need to wait for the police to establish fault in the accident before contacting a top Cook County personal injury lawyer. It’s best to contact a DuPage County personal injury lawyer who is experienced handling motorcycle accident cases as soon as possible.

After his premature birth, the Burketts’ son had been receiving treatment in the hospital for close to six weeks. The faulty IV was administered just after a heart surgery all hoped would move him closer to a state of health that could send him home. After grieving their son’s October 2010 death, the Burketts filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Park Ridge hospital in April of last year.

In a FOX Chicago News article published last April, Cameron Burkett explained, “After experiencing this you wouldn’t want this on anybody, and you want to make some awareness that these type of things go on. And if there’s anything we can do to change that after having gone through the situation, that’s what we want to do.”

The Burketts’ personal injury lawyers told news teams that the $8.25 million settlement the state of Illinois has ever seen in this category. The settlement was approved Tuesday morning by a Cook County judge.

Although the Illinois court awarded the Burketts an historically large sum, nothing can replace the loss of their infant son. Although little helps to erase pain and suffering or mental anguish suffered by those who lose loved ones, taking action against negligence can create awareness, so that others may not suffer needlessly. If you or your loved ones may be the victims of negligence,  consult with one of our Sycamore, Illinois personal injury attorneys today.

However, this wasn’t the case for several other Chicago-area wrong-way accidents. According to The Chicago Sun-Times, there were three alcohol-related crashes involving wrong-way drivers in February alone. One, on February 6, involved a driver who made an illegal U-turn on Interstate 80, hitting another car and killing four people. On February 9, a woman drove the wrong way on Lake Shore Drive, causing a multiple car accident that seriously injured two. And on February 23, a drunk driver drove the wrong way on the Kennedy Expressway, causing a crash between three cars and a semi-truck.

Additionally, there were two alcohol-related car accidents involving wrong-way drivers in January of this year: a head-on crash in Woodstock that resulted in multiple citations for the driver, and an SUV that was going the wrong way in Lincolnshire, causing a wreck that severely injured one.

Even though these drivers have been charged with DUIs and other offenses, this alone doesn’t provide any compensation to those who were injured – or lost a family member – in these drunk driving accidents. The people injured in these Chicago car wrecks, and the family members of those who were killed, are entitled to financial compensation from the responsible parties, and should contact an experienced Lake County personal injury attorney as soon as possible to discuss their options.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles

The Illinois legislature recently responded to this research by enacting the new seat belt law, which took effect on January 1, 2012. Law enforcement officials can now can stop a vehicle in which any passenger is riding unrestrained, no matter where they are sitting in the vehicle. Fines for riding in the back seat without a seat belt start at $25, but the cost could be higher depending on the court costs involved.

While ensuring that all drivers and passengers wear seat belts when traveling will certainly help reduce the number of fatalities and serious injuries from accidents, the fact remains that some accidents will still result in personal injuries. If you’ve been injured in an auto accident that was someone else’s fault in Illinois, you will need to contact an experienced Bloomingdale, Illinois personal injury attorney as soon as possible following the accident. With the help of a top Bloomingdale auto accident lawyer, you can rest assured that you will receive adequate compensation for your injuries from the responsible party.

There are a few precautions that can be taken against the inadvertent disclosure of information that could harm a case. If you’re party to a injury lawsuit, ensure that your profiles and photos are marked “private” and viewable only by those in your inner circle. You should also refrain from connecting with anyone that you’re not personally familiar with.

However, even that may not even be enough. A Pennsylvania court recently ordered the defendant in a personal injury case to provide his social media website log-in information to the plaintiffs.  Although this case involved unique circumstances – in particular a knowledge that the defendant had posted information relevant to his injuries – the specific interpretation of this decision going forward is yet to be seen. As such, it’s best to refrain from posting anything related to your accident or injuries anywhere on the web.

A skilled Oak Brook, Illinois, personal injury lawyer is aware of the implications that social media can have on accident cases, and will advise their clients accordingly.

(Image courtesy of SimonQ via Flickr Commons)