GWC Partner Colin J. O’Malley was recently featured in a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article examining the troubled industrial barrel reconditioning industry. The newspaper looked at a decade’s worth of state and federal environmental and workplace records for 50 barrel recycling plants in six states: Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Florida, Texas, and California. The Journal Sentinel found that>> Read More

On January 28, 2018, Panera Bread announced that it was voluntarily recalling its cream cheese products after one of the varieties tested positive for Listeria monocytogenes bacteria. Affected cream cheese has been recalled from Panera locations nationwide. The Panera cream cheese recall also applies to Illinois, where the chain has more than 100 locations, including>> Read More

Implanted medical devices are increasingly commonplace in the modern world. In fact, approximately one in ten Americans have at least one medical device implanted in them, including artificial joints, cardiac stents, pacemakers, defibrillators, nerve stimulators, surgical mesh, replacement eye lenses, heart valves, and birth control. With medical devices so frequently in use, and with the>> Read More

The Chicago City Council, a subcommittee of which had recently held a hearing to discuss changing current to allow police to use a device known as a Textalyzer to confirm whether motorists were texting while driving before crashes, has taken further action on the issue. In a more recent meeting, the full Council approved a>> Read More

A scientific panel commissioned by the federal government has come back with a sweeping report recommending tougher laws to reduce drunk driving rates nationwide. Its chief recommendation for getting rid of the “entirely preventable” 10,000 alcohol-related driving deaths each year is for states to lower their legal threshold for drunk driving. Lower Threshold for Drunk>> Read More

GWC’s Michael D. Fisher and Louis Anthony Cairo recently obtained a verdict of over $418,000.00 from a Jo Daviess County jury for a client who was run over by a tractor. The jury’s verdict far exceeded the Defendant’s proposed settlement of $210,000.00, which had been offered and taken back only the night before the three-day>> Read More

Texting while driving has proven to be a troublingly pervasive phenomenon on America’s roads today. A recent study showed that nearly half of all drivers polled admitted to texting while driving, a dangerous activity that routinely causes auto accidents. Faced with such daunting crash statistics, some lawmakers have had enough. The Chicago City Council is>> Read More

Imagine you’ve just been in an auto accident, which is one of the most traumatic events you can experience in everyday life. You’re in shock, you’re confused, and to make matters worse, you’re injured. Fortunately, you have the presence of mind to exchange insurance information with the driver who hit you. You do the right>> Read More

Contaminated romaine lettuce has been linked to an E. coli outbreak that first appeared in Canada approximately seven weeks ago. A similar E. coli outbreak also recently erupted in the United States, including in Illinois, though American health officials have not yet officially linked it to romaine lettuce. Canada: Romaine Lettuce Source of E. Coli>> Read More

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has been rolling out new guidelines discouraging Medicare from levying fines against nursing homes that place residents at grave risk of injury or cause them harm, even in cases that resulted in death. The nursing home industry has applauded the changes,>> Read More

Eleven lawsuits have been filed against the State of Illinois over a fatal outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in a western Illinois veterans’ home. Three outbreaks have occurred in the facility since 2015, leaving a total of 13 dead and at least 61 sickened. What Is Legionnaires’ Disease? Legionnaires’ disease is a form of waterborne pneumonia.>> Read More

On December 27, 2017, Cook County filed suit against many of the nation’s top pharmaceutical companies in order to recover costs incurred from widespread opioid addiction. This civil action makes the county just the latest of the dozens of government bodies nationwide to have filed an opioid lawsuit. National Opioid Crisis It’s hard to follow>> Read More