Joyce and Pastuovic
Governor JB Pritzker has a May 31 deadline to take action on a bill that would allow plaintiffs in lawsuits accusing hospitals, health care providers and other businesses and defendants of personal injuries or wrongful death to collect interest calculated from the time the lawsuit was filed, not just from the time judgment was entered.
He can either veto Senate Bill 72, sign it or take no action, in which case the legislation would automatically become law.
As reported in March, the state legislature approved a replacement for an earlier bill described as a “gift” for trial lawyers, that would have allowed plaintiffs to collect 9% interest on judgments, using a clock that would begin ticking when an alleged wrongdoer has notice of the injury before a lawsuit is filed.
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review a $70 million compensatory damages award given to a Tennessee plaintiff for failure to warn of side effects tied to the anti-psychotic drug Risperdal, while another legal fight on the subject of punitive damages against Johnson & Johnson looms in the case.
Attorney advertising will receive increased scrutiny as a result of newly adopted rules. | Hecker Law Firm / Facebook
The Louisiana Supreme Court has adopted new rules on attorney advertising in an attempt to make such commercial messaging more transparent and to root out false or misleading ads.
Chief Justice John Weimer made the announcement about the court’s adoption of the new rules earlier this month in response to recommendations from the Louisiana State Bar Association’s Rules of Professional Conduct Committee. The rules will result in the bar putting in place a database of such attorney ads and unsolicited written communications that will be accessible to the public and searchable.
WHEELING – A federal judge has ruled West Virginia can’t enforce a law passed in 2020 restricting lawyer advertising.
On May 8, District Judge John Preston Bailey issued an order granting the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment in a case filed by two attorneys and one of their clients against the state. It relates to the passage of the Prevention of Deceptive Lawsuit Advertising and Solicitation Practices Act, which took effect June 5, 2020.
“Lawyer advertising is protected speech,” Bailey writes in his order. “The act burdens protected speech. The act implicates the First Amendment.” New
With his order, Bailey permanently enjoins and prohibits the state from enforcing the law.
WBGZ Radio 4/15/2021 |
By Greg Bishop - Illinois Radio Network
Business groups are looking for Illinois state lawmakers to provide limited liability from COVID-19 lawsuits, but efforts to bring about such protections have stalled in committee.
Many states across the country have measures in place that limit the liability for a business to be sued if someone alleges they contracted COVID-19 at that business. The American Tort Reform Association tracks policy state-by-state.
ATRA also indicates across the country 9,594 complaints related to COVID-19 have been filed. Through most of 2020, the group also tracked 176,053 TV advertisements in the United States for legal claims or services mentioning COVID-19. More than $1 million of the $3.1 million was spent in Illinois, according to the group.