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Recent Blog Posts
Illinois Laws Concerning Ridesharing Companies and Drivers
Technology is a wonderful thing - we have the ability to do more online than ever before, such as ordering groceries and making appointments. Ridesharing is another service that is available to smartphone users, allowing them to request rides from independent drivers, rather than calling a taxi company or trying to hail a cab from the side of the street. With the emergence of companies such as Uber and Lyft, ridesharing has become more popular and more readily available to people, but they also bring about certain issues that lawmakers are still in the process of figuring out. Liability in ridesharing accidents is still a fuzzy area and can be difficult to determine, but an experienced attorney can help hash out the details.
What Constitutes a Ridesharing Company?
The Illinois Transportation Network Providers Act outlines the laws concerning the operation of companies. The Act states that a transportation network company (TNC) is any company that uses digital means to connect passengers with ride services provided by TNC drivers who own their own vehicles. Popular TNC’s include Uber, Lyft, Sidecar, and Via. These apps work with passengers logging into the company’s app and inputting their location, alerting drivers who are nearby. Those drivers then utilize the app’s GPS technology and pick up the passenger to take them to their destination. These apps typically give users information such as estimated fares, the number of drivers nearby and driver ratings and feedback.
McDonald’s Salad Linked to Multistate Cyclosporiasis Outbreak
McDonald’s is known around the world for their golden arches, Ronald McDonald and their famous hamburgers and fries. Lately, McDonald’s has been in the news because of a suspicion that lettuce in their salads has caused over 100 people in the Midwest to become sick with an intestinal parasite. In response to the trend of people reporting they had eaten a salad at McDonald’s, the Illinois Department of Public Health is investigating the cases of food poisoning to determine if there is a link between the outbreak and the restaurant.
Investigations Are Underway
Over 100 people have reported cyclospora poisoning after they had eaten a salad from McDonald’s. The reports began in Illinois and soon were also reported in Iowa. The lettuce from the salads in Illinois and Iowa came from the same supplier, so McDonald’s, which is based in Chicago, has stopped serving salads at 3,000 restaurants in 14 states across the Midwest as a precautionary measure.
Car Insurance Requirements in Illinois
Almost every state in the country requires drivers to have some sort of car insurance. It is illegal for you to drive without insurance or to have financial responsibility for any damages that may occur while you are driving. Though the laws on the amount of insurance and the type of coverage that you are required to have vary from state to state, many states require that you at least have bodily injury and property damage coverage. Though it is illegal to drive without insurance, many people do--according to the Insurance Information Institute, in 2015, an estimated 13 percent of drivers were uninsured. In Illinois, the number was estimated to be slightly over the national percentage at 13.7 percent. It is important to understand what type of insurance you are required to have in the state of Illinois and what it means if you are in an accident that involves an uninsured or underinsured motorist.
Types of Dog Bite Injuries and Infections
Dogs are commonly called man’s best friend--and for good reason. More than 36 percent of American households own at least one dog. Dogs have even been proven to decrease stress, get us moving more often and are great playmates for children--but they can also be dangerous. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), more than 4.5 million people are bitten by dogs each day, with nearly 800,000 people needing medical attention. Children are most susceptible to dog bites--nearly half of all dog bites that occur happen to children, especially children under the age of 14.
Injuries caused by dog bites can range from mild to severe and may leave lasting damage if the injury was bad enough. It is important to understand that any dog can bite--it does not matter what breed or how big the dog is, there is always a risk of being bitten. Understanding the injuries they cause can help you keep yourself and your loved ones safe around these lovable companions.
Distracted Driving Causes Accidents
Distracted driving has become a problem in recent years, with the number of crashes involving distracted drivers steadily increasing year after year, according to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimated that 3,477 people were killed in car crashes involving a distracted driver and another 391,000 injured in 2015.
What Is Distracted Driving?
When people talk about distracted driving, oftentimes the conversation revolves around texting and driving, but that’s not the only distraction that could take your mind off the road. The NHTSA has identified three main types of distractions:
- Visual - taking your eyes off the road;
- Manual - taking your hands off the steering wheel; and
- Cognitive - taking your mind off the road.
Being Proactive with Insurers Following a Car Accident
Traffic in the O’Hare Airport area is an intense nexus of departing and arriving travelers, taxis, ride-sharing services, and individuals who simply traverse I-90 or I-190 on a daily basis as part of their work commute. With so much activity, often governed by time-sensitive schedules, car accidents are an unfortunately daily inevitability. Whether around the perimeter of O’Hare or in nearby Rosemont or Park Ridge, when you meet the misfortune of a car accident, it is important to navigate the subsequent healthcare, insurance, law enforcement, and if necessary, legal interactions with as much preparedness and assertiveness as needed to cover your accident expenses, medical bills, and other losses.
Receiving the Full Compensation You Are Entitled to under Your Insurance Policy
It is in an insurer’s interest with regard to profit margins to pay out the minimum compensation required when a valid claim is filed. As such, knowledge and assertiveness are essential in obtaining the full extent of compensation you are entitled to receive from car accident claim. So know your insurance policy and do not settle for less than you deserve. Consider relying on an experienced car accident attorney – especially one who has dealt with insurance companies countless times and knows full well the internal procedures they utilize in an effort to pay out less than full compensation to claimants.
Compensation for Auto Accident Injuries Involving Industrial Vehicle
Driving in the Chicago area at rush hour is anxiety-inducing enough when major throughways such as 90/94, 290, 55, and Lake Shore Drive are facilitating traffic with optimal results. When additional variables are present, such as unexpected temporary lane closures or reductions, the stress, and danger increase. This is especially the case when driving alongside a semi-truck, flatbed carrying wide contents, or an industrial grade vehicle utilized for purposes such as construction, waste management, or agriculture.
The larger, longer, and wider the vehicle, the greater the chance it has of a crossing a lane boundary, especially when weather conditions or city construction has reduced lane sizes. When a boundary is crossed, a collision may occur. Similarly, a chain reaction may occur when one driver panics at the sight of a veering large vehicle, thereby introducing chaos and disarray into traffic and causing an auto accident. When one of these scenarios plays out and personal injuries are suffered, the law allows for victims to pursue monetary damages for medical bills and other losses.
Apportioning Responsibility for a Late-Winter Slip-and-Fall
In the Chicago area, the battle between the end of winter and the start of spring in the months of March and April can wreak havoc on Illinois roads, sidewalks, and points of ingress and egress at local businesses. Rain turns to snow, snow turns to rain, and sometimes precipitation however between its solid and liquid states, coating surfaces with a dangerous layer of icy slush. The city is usually dogged in its efforts to plow snow to the sides of roads and dissolve ice with salt. The same is true of most local business owners, whom, like the city government, literally have a duty to safeguard persons visiting, entering, exiting, or crossing a business’s premises.
As such, if a retailer, bar, restaurant, or other business fails to protect customers (and even mere visitors or passersby) by diligently keeping ice at bay and posting warning signs about slick surfaces, and a slip-and-fall in which personal injuries are sustained results, the business may be held liable for the injuries and other losses.
Seeking Compensation for Injuries Suffered in a Mass Transit Accident
The Chicago area is a virtual unfathomably bustling hub of activity, with more than 1.5 million people riding the “L” trains and buses operated by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) every day. Most of the time, the CTA system functions well, safely delivering area residents and visitors to and from home, work, and cultural centers. Sometimes, however, things go wrong.
If you have ever stood outside waiting for a bus at rush hour during the city’s famously inclement wintertime weather, or witnessed the mad dash of a throng of people rushing to catch a train home from a baseball stadium or Michigan Avenue thoroughfare, you have likely marveled with at least some small degree of anxiety over how the overlapping layers of movement can all work without devolving into constant conflict and danger. When, on occasion, things go wrong and an accident occurs, the consequences can be dire, with severe injuries and fatalities a disconcertingly real possibility.
Compensation after a Chicago Car Accident
When it comes to shouldering responsibility, car accidents may be more complicated than they might initially seem. Complexities may emerge in either the sequence of events leading up to the moment of collision and personal injuries that follow or in the capacities of each driver (and in some cases pedestrians) involved. Your job as a car accident injury victim is not to play detective. Recovering from the harms you have suffered and adjusting your work and other schedules accordingly are your proper focus. Recording every detail of the facts at issue is the territory of law enforcement, and in apportioning blame and imposing liability, the province of an attorney.
Multi-Party Auto Accidents and the Question of Fault
As a Chicago area resident, you are already familiar with the complexity of the city’s system of roads and highways. Take, for example, the frequent site of road construction area where lanes narrow and traffic snarls. Now, factor in winter weather. You are on your way to work as driving lanes on both sides of a median or temporary traffic divider are halved by red cones and a squad of city workers. You adjust accordingly, slowing to the reduced speed limit.
Quinn Law Group, LLC
847-232-7180
350 S. Northwest Highway, Suite 300, Park Ridge, IL 60068
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