Our Illinois Personal Injury Lawyers Welcome You to Contact Us for a Free Consultation. Our Illinois Auto Accident Motorcycle and Big Rig Truck Accident Lawyers, Premises Liability Attorney, Medical Malpractice Lawyer, Product Liability and Drug Defect Attorneys, Food Poisoning Lawyers and Elder Abuse Attorneys Will Consider Those Seriously Injured Throughout the State of Illinois from Chicago, Rockford and Aurora to Naperville, Juliet and Peoria to Springfield and Downstate Illinois, Metro-East and Belleville.

Our Illinois attorneys welcome you to consider below our discussion of the legal theories and strategies and the often complex responsibilities of medical malpractice lawyers, product liability attorneys, food poisoning lawyers and elder abuse attorneys, premises liability lawyers, auto accident attorneys and motorcycle and big rig truck accident lawyers. We will also discuss the complexity of preparing and presenting general and special damages in the serious and catastrophic injury case and the opportunities for the serious injury Illinois trial lawyer to apply his experience advocacy to maximize the potential for his client to recover the full measure of his damages in serious injury litigation. Our Illinois medical malpractice attorneys and product liability lawyers, food poisoning attorneys, elder abuse lawyers and premises liability attorneys and auto, motorcycle and big rig truck accident lawyers will consider representing potential clients who have suffered serious injury throughout the state of Illinois, from Downstate Illinois, Metro-East and Belleville to Springfield, Juliet and Preoria, Aurora, Naperville, Rockford and Chicago.

Our Illinois personal injury lawyers offer free consultations. You may submit the "Contact" form and one of our attorneys qualified in the relevant practice area and experienced as a serious injury Illinois trial lawyer will contact you to discuss your case with you, offer his preliminary case evaluation and initial recommendations. We consider that the client is best served by considering the credentials of any lawyer whom he would consider to represent him, and as a part of our case consultation, our Illinois personal injury attorneys welcome you to ask about ours.

We will very briefly discuss the subject matters of our practice areas below, deferring to our Practice Areas pages and Serious Injury Attorneys page for the more complete informational discussions. First our Illinois auto accident lawyers will discuss the complexity that our auto and motorcycle attorneys and big rig truck accident lawyers confront, including the "collectability" challenge and potential solutions where the other driver is underinsured to pay the seriously injured accident victim's full measure of his general and special damages.

Our Illinois medical malpractice attorneys will describe the breadth of the subject matter, as broad as all the specialties of medicine, and the function of the experts medical malpractice lawyers will need to call to establish that the physician, hospital or health care provider failed to comply with the applicable "standards of care."

Our Illinois product liability attorneys will discuss lawsuits based upon defects in the product's design, manufacture or warnings, and the options of the product liability lawyer to join individual cases in class actions, where large numbers have been injured by the mass produced product, or to "opt-out" of product class actions to pursue the individual client's case independently. We also discuss pharmaceutical and medical device product liability litigation.

Our Illinois food poisoning lawyers will discuss the possible sources of food contamination, and our Illinois food poisoning attorneys' particular interest in serious illness cases, including as an example, E. coli HUS and TPT cases.

Our Illinois premises liability lawyers will discuss what are colloquially called "slip and fall" or "trip and fall" lawsuits and the common complexity of the cases based upon property defects and failures to maintain property, as well as our Illinois attorneys particular interest in serious injury cases based upon defects or failures to maintain residential, commercial and public property.

Our Illinois elder abuse lawyers will discuss elder physical abuse, senior neglect and abandonment, as well as elder psychological abuse and financial abuse. We will also discuss the tragedy that often our seniors will endure elder physical abuse, neglect, abandonment and psychological abuse for years without reporting it to even the most devoted and loving of family members, often as the result of their fear of retaliation and dependency upon the staff of retirement homes, senior convalescent centers or nursing homes for their nutrition, meals and liquids, access to medical care, drugs, and psychological care, and indeed access to the opportunities they may value greatly to socialize with others. Our Illinois elder abuse lawyers will therefore provide some signs for the senior loved one's family may consider to alert them to the possibility that their loved one may be the victim of elder abuse.

Finally at the conclusion of this page our serious injury Illinois trial lawyers will discuss the complexity of preparing and presenting to settlement judges, mediators and juries the client's general and special damages, including perhaps most complex, in the majority of cases, the client's full measure of future medical expenses that he will likely incur over the remainder of his life expectancy, and the full measure of his future earnings losses.

Our Illinois Auto Accident Lawyers, Motorcycle Attorneys and Large Commercial Truck and Big Rig Truck Accident Attorneys Will Discuss the Challenge of Overcoming the Common "Collectability" Problem in Serious Injury Accident Cases. Our Illinois Car, Motorcycle and Big Rig Truck Accident Lawyers will Consider Representing Those Seriously Injured in Accidents, from Downstate Illinois, Metro East and Belleville to Springfield, Peoria and Juliet, Naperville, Aurora, Rockford and Chicago.

Auto accidents can often be "simple" in their liability, as where the other driver turns left at an intersection into your right of way. Indeed, that is the most common cause of motorcycle accidents, with 75 percent of all multi-vehicle motorcycle accidents resulting from the negligence of the other driver without any fault on the part of the motorcyclists. A big rig truck accident may appear "simple" on the surface, the client's vehicle having been hit after the big rig jackknifed. But as simple as the liability case may be, or appear to be, every serious injury auto, motorcycle and big rig truck accident case is complex in the Illinois auto accident lawyer's preparation and presentation of the seriously or catastrophically injured client's general and special economic damages. And the greatest challenge for the Illinois serious injury lawyer specifically in auto, motorcycle and big rig truck accidents, will often be surmounting the "collectability" hurdle, which is the problem presented when the other driver has insufficient insurance and assets to fully compensate the client for his full measure "damages."

Before reaching the "collectability" challenge, please consider that in serious and catastrophic injury auto accident cases, the measure of the client's damages, including his general damages, and his special economic damages, to wit, past and future medical expenses and past and future earnings losses, may measure in the millions or tens of millions of dollars. In the last section of this page our serious injury Illinois trial lawyers will discuss the complexity of demonstrating the full measure of the client's general and special damages, and the teams of experts required to maximize the potential that the client will recover the full measure of his damages. The client's general damages, as our Illinois serious injury lawyers define it, only begins with the nature and extent of the client's spinal cord injury, quadriplegia or paraplegia, traumatic brain injury, internal organ damage, orthopedic injury or leg amputation. What some lawyers call "pain and suffering," our serious injury Illinois auto accident attorneys often conclude may be the client's most devastating general consequential damages is his "loss of enjoyment of life damages" our strategies for presenting this element of damage deferred again to the last section of this page.

The value of the client's special economic damages also may measure in the millions of dollars as the serious injury Illinois auto accident lawyer will substantiate the value by the testimony of teams of experts. Very briefly, presentation of the client's future medical expenses commonly call on our Illinois serious injury auto accident lawyers to engage a number of medical experts, a "life care planner" to speak extensively with the medical experts to arrive at a year by year chronology of medical care and the costs of each big and small item, and then forensic economist to increase the amounts over time to account for the rising cost of medical care and then discount the total to present cash value. Similarly, the Illinois auto accident lawyer will be required to engage medical experts in the number of specialties essential to define the client's disabilities, a "rehabilitation" expert to review the client's educational and employment records, meet with the client, speak to the medical experts, consult with applicable literature, and substantiate the full measure of the client's future earnings losses. The Illinois serious injury auto accident attorney must again engage a forensic economist, this time to increase the lost wages year by year according to wage growth statistics, and then discount the total to present value.

With that quick summary describing how our Illinois auto accident lawyers and motorcycle and big rig truck accident lawyers will hope to substantiate the seriously injured client's damages in the millions and sometimes many millions of dollars, consider the "collectability" hurdle, where commonly the other driver is woefully underinsured, auto drivers commonly carrying only minimum or minimal auto insurance polices. Even big rig truck drivers are required by federal law to carry only $750,000 in liability coverage and commonly carry no more than $1,000,000 liability policies.

The challenge for the serious injury Illinois auto accident lawyer in such cases will be to identify a third party defendant with a "deep pocket" meaning adequate insurance coverage or assets, properly liable either independently or vicariously for the accident and injuries. This may seem an impossible task, but it can be the serious injury Illinois auto, motorcycle and big rig truck accident attorneys greatest opportunity to contribute most creatively, and bring his knowledge of the law, sophisticated strategy, investigative skills, and trial lawyer advocacy to maximize the potential for recovering for his client the full measure of his general and special damages. And the sophisticated serious injury Illinois auto accident lawyer relishes the challenge.

In some cases the Illinois auto accident lawyer or motorcycle accident attorney, through his investigation and that of his accident investigators and accident reconstruction experts will be able to identify a deep pocket defendant independently liable for its contribution to the accident, as where there is a defect in the roadway or the absence of a safety barrier or a tree on public property which through lack of maintenance was permitted to grow to obscure a stop sign. The Illinois auto accident lawyer may discover that a defect in the other driver's car or in the client's car, or negligent maintenance by a car dealership which contributed to the other driver's loss of control of his vehicle or which might explain its rapid accelerations or inability to more rapidly brake. In serious injury auto accident cases the sophisticated Illinois trial lawyer will want to explore every avenue of potential independent liability of a third party defendant because the stakes for his client can again be measured in the millions of dollars.

Often providing the solution to the "collectability" issue, furthermore, is "vicarious liability" theory. For example, the serious injury Illinois auto accident lawyer will through his investigation and discovery, including depositions of the other driver and his employer discover that the other driver was operating his vehicle "in the course and scope of his employment." One case is discussed at the top of the left column of this page in which one of our Law Group motorcycle accident lawyers represented a client who lost his lower left leg in an accident. The other driver had only the state minimum liability coverage. The Group motorcycle accident lawyer discovered that the other driver was on his way to a work site. According to the applicable law, an accident occurring on a commute to work did not render the other driver's employer vicariously liable to pay the motorcyclist's damages. However, upon the motorcycle accident attorney's further investigation, he discovered that the other driver was carrying tools in the trunk of his vehicle at the time of the accident, and that was sufficient to establish that the driver was operating his vehicle in the course and scope of his employment, resulting in the multimillion dollar settlement.

In big rig truck accident cases, while the driver may carry $750,000 or $1,000,000 in liability coverage, again that amount may be entirely inadequate to pay for the seriously injured client's full measure of general and special damages. Furthermore, the trucking companies and shippers will commonly hire the truck drivers as "independent contractors" rather than as employees, in their strident efforts to insulate their companies from vicarious liability. However, sophisticated Illinois large commercial truck and big rig truck accident lawyers will have fluent knowledge of the federal and state laws and regulations governing everything from the drivers logs that must be kept and maintained by the trucking company through specification of permissible loads, and the securing of loads, as examples. And the serious injury Illinois big rig truck accident lawyer will also be familiar with the strategies for asserting liability against the commonly well insured trucking company or shipper based on "negligent supervision" and "negligent entrustment." Briefly, if trucker overloaded the truck or improperly secured it, the Illinois big rig truck accident attorney may develop the evidence substantiating that the trucking company negligently supervised the loading or securing of the load. Commonly the sophisticated serious injury Illinois big rig truck accident lawyer will investigate the driver, including by obtaining his personnel records from the trucking company, often disclosing that the company either knew or should have know that the driver had a history of accidents or traffic violations, or violations of the federal and state laws and regulations mentioned above, substantiating liability against the trucking company for "negligent entrustment." Or the Illinois big rig truck accident attorney may discover that the driver had a history of violating other statutory regulations, such as those defining the number of permissible driving hours between defined rest periods, or company records substantiating trips that were impossible to complete in the times they were completed without violating the laws. Or the serious injury Illinois big rig truck accident lawyer may discover convictions for amphetamine use, or the driver's lack of the appropriate class of license permitting him to operate a big rig truck, semi or 18 wheeler, evidence that also can substantiate the trucking company's liability for "negligent entrustment."

It is the creativity of the experienced serious injury Illinois auto accident attorney, motorcycle accident lawyer and large commercial truck and big rig truck accident attorney in cracking the "collectability" nut, that will commonly mean the difference between a woefully inadequate recovery for the client and one in which the client is fully compensated for his serious injury and the full measure of his general and special economic damages.

Our Illinois motorcycle accident lawyers, big rig truck accident attorneys, and auto accident lawyers will consider representing seriously injured clients throughout the state of Illinois in Chicago and from Rockford and Aurora to Naperville, Juliet and Peoria, in Springfield and Downstate Illinois, Metro-East and Belleville. It is our Illinois lawyers' philosophy that the potential client should compare the credentials of any lawyer whom he would consider to represent him. It is the right of the potential client to inquire and be informed of the credentials of the lawyer in the practice area, here, either as an auto accident lawyer or motorcycle accident attorney or big rig truck accident lawyer, as well as each lawyer's experience as a serious injury trial attorney, along with such other credentials as the individual client may deem important in the lawyer who he will choose to represent him.

Free Consultation. Our Illinois auto, motorcycle and big rig truck accident lawyers welcome you to contact us for a free consultation. Submit the "Contact" form and one of our appropriately qualified accident attorneys and serious injury trial lawyers will call you to discuss your case. We will offer our preliminary case evaluation and initial recommendations. And we invite you to inquire about our qualifications and experience.

Our Serious Injury Product Liability Attorneys Will Discuss Both Independent Product Defect Cases and Class Actions, Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Product Liability Litigation. Our Illinois Product Liability Lawyers Will Consider Represent Those Seriously Injured as the Result of a Defective Product Throughout the State of Illinois from Downstate Illinois, Metro East and Belleville to Springfield, Peoria and Juliet, Naperville, Aurora, Rockford and Chicago.

Illinois product liability lawyers will be called upon to evaluate the broad range of products defective in their design, manufacture or warnings. One might be a infant's toy, "defective in its design," incorporating detachable parts that can get lodged in the child's airways, leading to the infant's brain damage or death. Or the Illinois product liability attorney may be presented with a case involving car tire, "defective in its manufacture," which blows out on a freeway, rendering the car out of control, leading to the deaths of the driver and his passengers, or to the serious injuries of those whom the car collides with. Or the Illinois product liability lawyer may be confront with pharmaceutical drug product "defective in its warnings," with wonderful properties providing critical relief from the progression of a disease, but lacking in a warning, for example, not to take the drug during the first trimester of pregnancy, leading pregnant women to give birth to babies born with tragic birth defects.

A discussion of the very broad subject of product liability, negligence and strict liability, and the desirability of filing cases independently or in class actions is beyond the scope of the permissible page limit here, and is covered more fully on the "Product Liability Page" on our "Practice Areas" menu. A number of product liability cases, including independently prosecuted pharmaceutical product liability cases, the most complex of all, are discussed under "Jury Verdicts & Settlements" in the left column of this page.

Our Illinois product liability lawyers will consider representing potential clients who have suffered serious injuries as the result of the broadest range of products throughout the state of Illinois, from Chicago, Rockford and Aurora to Naperville, Juliet and Peoria to Springfield and Downstate Illinois, Metro-East and Belleville. Our Illinois product liability attorneys will consider representing client's who have been injured by defective products in Illinois in individual product lawsuits and in class actions.

Often times our Illinois lawyer will need to prosecute the client's case as an individual case, unless there are many injured by the product, in which the attorney and client may discuss the advisability of joining a pending class action. There are advantages and disadvantages to joining class actions. One advantage of joining a class action is that the substantial costs associated with prosecuting the product liability case, including the often large costs of paying the experts for their preparation, for appearing at depositions and trial, are shared with the many other class members. A disadvantage is the loss of immediate control over the manner in which the liability case is prosecuted, although the client's attorney will retain responsibility for the preparation and presentation of the client's general and special economic damages, and if not satisfied with the award will commonly retain the right to appeal it. In the recent Vioxx litigation, for example, our Law Group pharmaceutical product liability lawyers successfully appealed the initial settlement panel awards of most of our clients, obtaining superior awards.

Our Law Group product liability lawyers have been at the forefront of insisting upon the client's right to choose whether to participate in class actions or prosecute their cases independently. One of our Law Group member's very important contribution to product liability class action law was a published opinion he obtained from the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit severely restricting thereafter a court's leeway to certify a "mandatory class action," in favor of "voluntary class action," guaranteeing the individual product liability client, including those whose causes of action arise in the state of Illinois, the guarantee that they can choose their own attorney and control the course of their individual litigation.

In that case the federal Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation had transferred over 1000 cases involving children born with severe birth defect as the result of a teratogenic drug to the federal District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. The federal District Court then certified a "mandatory class action" purporting to bind also all others similarly born with birth defects as the result of mothers ingestion of the drug during pregnancy, including those independently filed in the state courts nationally.

The Law Group pharmaceutical product liability lawyer and his firm had 40 cases filed in the state courts involving serious limb defects, carefully selected for their evidence that the mother took the drug during the relevant narrow period of the baby's organogenisis when its limb buds were forming. And they had engaged a team of experts to testify in the cases.

Following the federal District Court's certification of the mandatory class action, the Plaintiffs Lead Counsel Committee and the attorneys for the defendant pharmaceutical manufacturer reached a settlement of all cases nationwide for the sum of $120,000,000, and the Federal District Court approved the settlement.

The Law Group drug product liability lawyer and the other members of his firm and other highly experienced pharmaceutical product liability attorneys nationwide considered the settlement completely inadequate to compensate even the smallest fraction of the general and special damages of the thousands of children joined in the mandatory class action. The Law Group drug product liability lawyer filed a "petition for writ of mandamus" on behalf of one of his clients, urging to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit that the "mandatory class action" violated his client's right to the attorney of his choice and control over his individual litigation. He arguing that mandatory class action should be permissible only in the rare case where the defendant has demonstrated a limited fund of insurance and assets inadequate to compensate all members of the class, proof that the large pharmaceutical manufacturer could not possibly substantiate.

The United States Court of Appeals granted the Law Group attorney's petition, ordered the federal District Court Judge to decertify the mandatory class action and ordered the Judge to void the settlement. The Court of Appeals issued a published opinion, adopting the reasoning of the petition, severely restricting the future availability of mandatory class action, with the single exception suggested above. As the result, now mandatory class action is an essentially unavailable legal relic, substituted almost exclusively with "voluntary class action" where the individual client is permitted the choice to "opt-in" or "opt-out" of the class action, and pursue his case independently.

Our Illinois product liability lawyers are experienced both in prosecuting serious injury product defect cases individually and shepherding them through the class action process, also experienced in preparing and presenting their client's general damages and special economic damages in either.

Our Illinois product liability lawyers welcome you to contact us for a free consultation. Simply submit the contact form and one of our appropriately qualified Illinois lawyers experienced in product defect cases or pharmaceutical or medical device product liability litigation will call you.

Our Illinois Medical Malpractice Attorneys Describe Lawsuits Against Physicians, Hospitals and Other Health Care Providers, and the Function of Medical Experts in Identifying Failures to Adhere to the Standard of Care. Our Illinois Medical Malpractice Lawyers will Consider Representing Clients Throughout the State of Illinois in Chicago, Rockford, Aurora, Naperville, Juliet, Peoria, Springfield, Downstate Illinois, Metro-East and Belleville.

Medical negligence lawsuits are as varied as all the subjects covered in all the test books in every specialty of medicine, and Illinois medical malpractice lawyers must be willing to learn the medicine anew with every case. Medical malpractice lawyers must have an appreciation, even an awe for the extraordinary achievements of the medical profession, giving rise to their abhorrence of the physicians failure to use the tools available to him defined by the medical "standards of care."

The Illinois medical malpractice lawyer must have a intellectual thirst to learn the sliver of medicine governing the endocrinologist's framing of the differential diagnosis, or the obstetrician's technique for turning the baby in delivery when the baby presents with shoulder dystocia, or the acceptable oncologic modalities for treating lymphoma, so that he can take the podium confidently to interrogate the defendant doctor at trial and call him on his efforts to mislead or fill the jury's ears with pseudo-scientific gobbledygook, or shift responsibility to another of his patient's health care providers.

Critical to the education of the Illinois medical malpractice lawyer is his experts to whom he will initially send the client's medical records to review and report back their opinions whether the client's treating physicians violated the applicable standards of care, and if so, explaining the standards and identifying the physicians errors. But the medical malpractice attorney will often hit the medical text books also to learn the subject matter from the bottom up.

A number of medical malpractice cases are discussed in the left column of this page. One illustrative of medical malpractice attorney creativity in demonstrating the negligence of an internist and neurologist in failing to diagnose the most rare tumor in the human body. The patient presented first to the internist with a history of 2 episodes of feinting, the internist performed a battery of tests, including an electrocardiogram, didn't find a plausible medical cause for the feinting and referred the patient over to the neurologist. The neurologist in turn did another battery of tests, couldn't find a medical cause, and sent the patient back to the internist. The internist diagnosed "vaso vagal syncope" a fancy medical term for feinting due to psychological stress and referred the patient to a psychologist. She then had a stroke and was admitted to the hospital, then another stroke before the hospital diagnosed the "atrial myxoma" a tumor in the left upper chamber of the heart which had been flipping off emboli that traversed the left ventricle, the aorta and got lodged in the vasculature of her brain. Once the diagnosis was made, the tumor was removed, the patient suffered no more feinting spells or strokes but was left with a mild aphasia.

The Group medical malpractice lawyer's experts agreed that the internist and neurologist could not have been expected to consider atrial myxoma in their differential diagnoses, as most cardiologists will have never heard of an atrial myxoma, it only having been discussed in a few scant case reports in the medical literature, but they identified a somewhat convoluted series of premises by which they asserted that the physicians should have considered other more common cardiac entities that the physicians, if they had included them in their differential diagnoses, should have done an echocardiogram to rule them out, and if they had, would have seen the atrial myxoma on the echocardiogram.

And the convoluted set of medical premises formed the substance of the Group medical malpractice attorney's unsatisfactory opening statement to the jury, but those were the cards he was played. He would be the first to admit that the attorneys for the defendant doctors gave much more powerful opening statements, slamming their hands on the podium yelling at the jury about how rare the tumor was, and the audacity of our Group medical malpractice lawyer for filing the lawsuit given that in every case report in the medical literature the discovery of an atrial myxoma was an autopsy diagnosis, the tumor never before having been identified in a live patient!

Duly scolded, our Group medical malpractice attorney rose to his feet and called as his first witness the defendant internist, leading with his chin, "Doctor, upon Mrs. Z's presentation with the history of the two feinting spells, did you consider atrial myxoma in your differential diagnosis? The internist replies, as he was surely coached to do by his attorney, "Mr. Henke, you don't think of zebras when you hear hoof beats!" And indeed that was a common medical syllogism of which the medical malpractice attorney was aware, describing the physician's function in forming a differential diagnosis to list the most commonly likely causes for the patients symptoms, and then doing the appropriate testing to rule them out from top to bottom.

But a light bulb went of in the brain of the Group medical malpractice lawyer, and he turned to lean over the podium, and first softly said, "Mitral valve prolapse," and then more loudly, "It's a horse, isn't it doctor." The internists attorney objected, but the judge agreed that the doctor had "opened the door" and ordered the doctor to answer. The internist feigned confusion, "I don't know what you mean." So the Group lawyer explained it, first softly, "Mitral valve prolapse will occur approximately 6 percent of the time in a randomly selected population of females Mrs. Z's age," and then more loudly, "It's a horse, isn't it." The internist replied, "Okay, its a horse." The Group medical malpractice attorney then again said softly, "Mitral stenosis," and then more loudly, "It's a horse, isn't it doctor," and then internist replied, "Okay, its a horse." And the Group medical malpractice lawyer continued, softly "Idiopathic subaortic stenosis," and then more loudly "Its a horse, isn't it." And the internist was forced to agree. And then the punch line, "Well, upon hearing the hoof beats, Mrs, Z's history of feinting spells, had you just thought 'horse,' these other common cardiologic entities, and looked in the direction of the hoof beats, done an echocardiogram, you would have seen the zebra, wouldn't you have Doctor."

The zoologic syllogism was the gift of the defendant internist, but the several premises leading to the punch line were all faithful the lawyer's expert's theory of the case. The hoof beats, horses and zebra all made the honest medicine wonderfully visual and understandable for the jury, and our Group medical malpractice lawyer returned to the zoologic explanation in his closing argument, yielding the multimillion dollar jury verdict against both doctors.

Medical malpractice lawyers have to thrive on stepping into the antagonistic arena defined by their opponent's art, in which they must live by their finely crafted swords of intense preparation and trial lawyer advocacy.

In many medical malpractice cases the medical subject matter is so complex that most attorneys recognize that it can be difficult to guarantee that the jurors will even be capable of understanding it. One solution for the experienced medical malpractice lawyer in those cases is to recognize that the jurors will be able to distinguish the qualifications of the medical experts, and where the medical malpractice lawyer has right on his side, he should be able to engage the better qualified experts to prevail in the qualifications contest. In another case described in the left column of this page, the same Group medical malpractice lawyer represented 5 AIDS patients whose cases he consolidated into a single trial as they were all close to death. He brought the suit against their physicians, a surgeon and hospital, alleging a dozen causes of action, including medical and hospital negligence, fraud and conspiracy to defraud. The experts he called were the most highly qualified experts in the world, including Luc Montagnier, the head of France's AIDS Laboratories and the discoverer of HIV, Michael Gotlieb, the astute physician who discovered AIDS and co-founded the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AMFAR), Don Francis, the highly regarded epidemiologist who headed up the CDC's first task force on AIDS and discovered that AIDS was a sexually transmitted disease, Roger Detels, the Chairman of the UCLA Department of Epidemiology and senior investigator on the largest study to determine the efficacy of AIDS drugs, John Curnutte, the senior investigator on the largest AIDS vaccine project in the world, Peter Wolfe, member of the Scientific Advisory Committee to AMFAR, and a dozen others of the most respected scientists and AIDS physicians.

Following the four month trial, the jury returned a multimillion dollar verdict against all of the defendants, including for medical and hospital negligence, and for fraud and conspiracy to defraud, including a $1.6 million dollar punitive damage jury verdict against the hospital for failing to have revoked the staff privileges of one of the doctors.

If you were seriously injured by a surgeon's ill placed scalpel or if your disease was permitted to progress as the result of a misdiagnosis, or if you suffered brain damage as the result of an anesthesiologist's error, or otherwise have suffered as the result of a physician's failure to adhere to the medical standards of care, our Illinois medical malpractice attorneys would welcome the opportunity to speak with you. Our Illinois medical malpractice lawyers will consider representing potential clients throughout the state of Illinois, from Chicago, Rockford and Aurora to Naperville, Juliet and Peoria to Springfield and Downstate Illinois, Metro-East and Belleville. Our Illinois medical malpractice attorneys will consider medical negligence arising from the physicians failures to adhere to the standards of care in every medical specialty and discipline. We believe that the client has the right and should compare the qualifications of any lawyer whom he would consider to represent him.

Our Illinois medical malpractice lawyers provide free consultations. If you will submit the "Contact" form one of our medical malpractice lawyers also experienced in serious injury litigation will call you to discuss your case, provide you with our preliminary case evaluation, and our initial recommendations. Our Illinois medical malpractice lawyers will consider cases against physicians, hospitals and other health care providers. We are here to serve you.

Our Illinois Elder Abuse Attorneys Will Discuss Elder Physical Abuse, Senior Neglect, and Elder Abandonment, Elder Psychological Abuse. Our Illinois Elder Abuse Lawyers Will Consider Representing Seniors Throughout the State of Illinois, from Downstate Illinois, Metro East and Belleville to Springfield, Peoria and Juliet, Naperville, Aurora, Rockford and Chicago.

Our Illinois elder abuse lawyers will consider representing our seniors who have suffered elder physical abuse and senior psychological abuse, elder neglect and abandonment against retirement facilities, senior assisted living centers, nursing homes and convalescent homes, throughout the state of Illinois, in Aurora, Bellville, Chicago, Juliet, Naperville, Peoria, Springfield, Downstate Illinois, including Metro-East.

Our Illinois attorneys provide an "Elder Abuse Lawyers" page on this site in which we more comprehensively discuss elder physical abuse, distinguish elder neglect from abandonment and define elder psychological abuse. However, we will briefly discuss the subjects below in part because tragically it is our Illinois elder abuse attorneys concern that often our seniors will endure abuse by staff and employees of nursing homes, senior assisted living centers and retirement homes for years without telling their even their closest family members. It is our Illinois elder abuse lawyers only explanation that the senior may often fear retaliation, or deprivation of nourishment, meals and liquids, medical care or essential drugs, or may fear being isolated from social relationships. Therefore, our Illinois elder abuse attorneys will provide some suggestions in terms of signs of abuse that the family should be alert to, in order to attempt to their best ability to assure that their loved one will not endure physical or psychological abuse in these last days of their lives.

Elder physical abuse can take many forms, all of them tragic. Our Illinois elder abuse lawyers define physical abuse first in terms of the intentional, willful or malicious state of mind of the retirement facility staff member or employee who commits it. In the experience of our Illinois attorneys, elder physical abuse can take the form an assisted living facility employee beating a senior resident, or inflicting humiliation by slapping him, a nursing home staff member may apply restraints, confining him to his bed, where the restrains are unnecessary for his safety. The family should inquire of their loved one if he or she is being treated well, and specifically ask whether any employees of the assisted living center or nursing home have mistreated them physically. But again, you can't assure yourself of their safety merely by asking. Our Illinois elder abuse lawyers urge that you look for physical signs of abuse, including bruises, and keep in mind that the malicious employee may confine his beating to places on your loved one's anatomy that may not be readily seen. Look for marks at the locations where your loved one might have been restrained to his or her bed. And where you find cuts or bruises or marks, ask your senior how he sustained them, consider the plausibility of the explanation, ask the staff too, and compare the two stories. Be alert to the staff member who appears cold in his treatment of our loved one, and be suspicious too of the staff member who is overly affectionate, or insists on being present whenever you visit your parent or grandparent. Insist on some private time with your senior, and gauge the staff members response, and ask your loved one privately about the overly affectionate staff member and gauge his or her responses for hints of reservation or discomfort in speaking about the particular employee.

Our Illinois elder abuse lawyers define senior neglect in terms of the failure of the retirement or assisted living facility or nursing home to fulfill its duties to use reasonable care to assure that the senior's needs are met, including assuring that his physical needs, such as adequate nutrition, meals and liquids are provided, assuring that he receives needed medical and psychological care, adequate hygiene and protection from safety hazards at the facility that might endanger him. Our Illinois elder abuse attorneys would define senior abandonment in terms of the retirement home or senior assisted living facility or nursing home's malicious, intentional or willful refusal to provide for the elder's physical needs, nutrition, hygiene, medical and psychological care and protection from safety hazards.

If it is found that the senior has developed a bed sore, as an example, and the staff of the retirement home or senior assisted living facility fails to notice the sore, permitting them to fester without appropriate medical care, then as our Illinois elder abuse lawyers would assess it, the retirement facility or senior nursing home has failed to fulfill its duty of care to the senior, and the case would fall into the category of elder neglect. However, where the nursing home staff is aware of the bed sore, and the senior assisted living facility or retirement home maliciously, intentionally or willfully refuses to obtain the essential medical care and treatment, then our Illinois elder abuse attorneys would categorize it as elder abandonment. If a staff member fails to notice one day that the incontinent senior has soiled his bed and doesn't promptly provide for the senior's essential hygiene, that may be neglect. However, our Illinois elder abuse lawyers would consider elder abandonment the refusal of the facility to adequately provide for the senior's hygiene, where it has knowledge of his needs. If the facility knows that a senior might fall from his bed and when a nurse is called away on an emergency fails to raise the rail, that might be categorized as senior neglect. When the senior has once fallen from his bed, and despite knowledge of the safety hazard, maliciously, intentionally or willfully fails to provide a bed with railings, our Illinois elder abuse lawyers would classify that as elder abandonment.

Our Illinois elder abuse attorneys urge the families of our seniors be alert to the their elder's needs that may not be adequately fulfilled by the staff of the senior assisted living facility or retirement home, be alert to manifestations of neglect or abandonment, such as malnourishment or dehydration or bed sores, or injuries, or the sights and smells that may alert the family to failures of staff to adequately provide for the senior's essential hygiene. Inquire of the senior, and the retirement home or senior nursing facility about the daily menus, and the nutrition and liquids provided to the senior, bring to their attention the bed sore and inquire about the practices of the retirement home or senior assisted living center to assure that bed sores don't develop in the first place, are promptly discovered and immediately treated. Be alert to resistance on the part of the staff or administration of the senior nursing home to alter its practices in light of a senior's injury, to assure that the rails on his bed are always raised and protected from any other safety hazards, or that he has greater opportunity to get out of bed or is turned to avoid the development of bed sores, or that his hygiene be more carefully monitored to assure the comfort of your loved one. Our seniors who once cared for us in our infancy, when we were vulnerable may now be vulnerable themselves, dependant on the retirement home or for their protection and care, but also dependant on their families to assure that the assisting living facility or nursing home is fulfilling its obligations to the senior.

Elder psychological abuse can be the most devastating and heart wrenching. As our Illinois elder abuse lawyers define senior psychological abuse it is the malicious, intentional or willful mistreatment of the senior by retirement facility or nursing home staff that is calculated to cause emotional harm or stress. Staff may threaten the senior, or humiliate him, or slap him, sometimes just out of meanness, sometimes in an attempt to modify the elder's behavior over which he has no control, such as incontinence, or an inability on his own to transfer from his bed to a wheelchair. In our Illinois elder abuse attorneys estimation, perhaps the most damaging example of elder psychological abuse can be his isolation, the depravation of his opportunities to interact with others, a type of social and sensory deprivation that can sometimes lead the senior even to lose his will to live.

Often times the senior may be reluctant to inform family members of psychological abuse by family members. Our Illinois elder abuse lawyers consider that this may often be due to the fact that the senior indeed recognizes the maliciousness of the staff member. The senior might fear retaliation, or that the retirement home employee will carry out his threats, or, that their abuse might escalate, that he might endure even greater humiliation, or that staff might deprive him of the nourishment or medical care or drugs or social interaction with other seniors for which he relies on the nursing home staff.

Our Illinois elder abuse lawyers urge the family members of our seniors to be alert to changes in your loved one's mental state, ask if he feels depressed, and about what troubles him. Notice if he appears to tense up or show evidence of fear when a particular nursing home staff employee appears. Our Illinois elder abuse attorneys urge you to be alert to the demeanor of the retirement home employees, both those who appear cold in their interaction with your loved one, and those who appear overly affectionate, or who insist on being present when family visits, and insist yourselves on spending some time alone with your loved one. Ask your senior about the particular staff members, and if he is on good terms will all. Ask him about his activities at the retirement home, friendships or acquaintanceships he has developed. Our elder abuse lawyers suggest that you might offer to take your loved one the common rooms, and observe the greetings of the other residents. Do they ask why they haven't seen your senior in months? Our seniors deserve better than to be psychologically abused in the last days of their lives by employees or retirement homes, threatened, humiliated, or isolated. So where our seniors are being psychologically abused, the family should be alert to discover it promptly.

Our Illinois elder abuse lawyers will consider representing our seniors who have been physically abused or have suffered the neglect or abandonment or psychological abuse at retirement homes, senior assisted living facilities or nursing homes throughout the state of Illinois, from Chicago, Rockford and Aurora to Naperville, Juliet and Peoria to Springfield and Downstate Illinois, Metro-East and Belleville. Our elder abuse attorneys invite the senior to contact us if they are have been ill treated or mistreated, and welcome family members to contact us to discuss their observations or concerns that their family member has been the subject of physical abuse, or neglect or abandonment, or psychological abuse.

Our Illinois elder abuse lawyers welcome you to contact us for a free consultation. You may simply submit the "Contact" form, and one of our experienced Illinois elder abuse attorneys will call you to discuss the facts of your case, offer our preliminary case evaluation and initial recommendations. We are here to serve you.

Our Illinois Food Poisoning Attorneys Discuss the Panoply of Biologic Food Contamination that May result in Human Illness, and will Describe Specifically E. coli HUS Litigation. Our Illinois Food Poisoning Lawyer Will Consider Representing Those Who Have Suffered Serious Illness as the Result of Ingesting A Contaminated Food Throughout the State of Illinois, from Downstate Illinois, Metro East and Belleville to Springfield, Peoria and Juliet, Naperville, Aurora, Rockford and Chicago.

Our Illinois food poisoning lawyers have provided a separate page on this web site discussing more fully the subject, under the heading "Food Poisoning Attorneys" in the Practice Areas menu in the above left aspect of this page. Below our Illinois food poisoning lawyers will discuss both individual cases and "outbreak" cases, and as an example we will discuss more fully here Echeveria coli, or E. coli, and its potential sequalae, Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome, HUS, Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura, TTP as examples of serious consequential illness or disease that may result from food poisoning.

Food poisoning occurs as the result of contamination of the food product where it is grown or processed and then purchased from our grocery store shelves, or where it is prepared in the kitchen of a restaurant and then served to us at our table. Examples of the biological contaminants that can result in human illness include E coli, Salmonella, Listeria, Botulism, Campylobacter, Norovirus, and Shigella.

An individual case or small number of cases of food poisoning can occur at a restaurant can result from contamination in the kitchen's environment or from unsanitary practices of the food handlers. Sometimes also large numbers of people can fall ill in a state or across many states as the result of what the epidemiologists call an "outbreak." Examples of outbreaks are many, but our Illinois food poisoning lawyers will chose two as illustrations of contamination at the site at which the food product is grown or processed. The 2006 outbreak of E. coli illness affected hundreds across 25 states, killing several, and was traced to contamination at the location where lettuce was grown in California. The lettuce was then sold by the grower through distributors to packaged food manufacturers who in turn distributed their products widely to retail stores such as grocery stores in the many states. In 2009 there was an outbreak of Salmonella poisoning that also resulted in the illnesses of hundreds. The salmonella contamination was traced to a Peanut Corporation of America processing plant which distributed a peanut paste to numerous food manufacturers who incorporated it into a wide variety of products from energy bars to cookies and crackers to ice cream, resulting in the largest food product recall in United States history.

Our Illinois food poisoning lawyers will consider the individual cases of those who have suffered serious illness or serious medical sequelae, where we can establish evidence that the individual contracted his illness as the result of a contaminated food. And our food poisoning attorneys will consider cases in which a potential client has suffered illness as the result of an outbreak. Our food poisoning lawyers will consider representing potential clients who have suffered serious illness throughout the state of Illinois, from Chicago, Rockford and Aurora to Naperville, Juliet and Peoria to Springfield and Downstate Illinois, Metro-East and Belleville.

An example of an individual case of E. coli illness traced to contamination at a restaurant and inadequate food management practices in the kitchen is discussed on our "Food Poisoning Lawyers" page. E. coli illness is usually relatively mild, beginning 3 to 4 days following ingestion of the contaminated food and generally lasting no more than 10 days, with symptoms of stomach cramps and often bloody diarrhea or bloody stools. Sometimes, however, as in the case referred to above, our Illinois food poisoning lawyers observe that there may be serious sequelae of E. coli poisoning, including Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome, HUS, Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura, TTP.

Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome, HUS, can result in acute renal failure, kidney damage and can require a life time of dialysis treatment. Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura, TTP, can result in the same, and can also result in serious neurological consequences such as stroke or headaches, alterations in behavior or mood changes.

The Illinois food poisoning lawyers responsibilities in prosecuting the individual case can call on his creativity and intense investigation, and the litigation can be very expensive to properly litigate. It involves reviewing the pathology reports of the physicians or hospital which diagnosed food poisoning as the cause of the patient's illness, identifying the particular biological contaminant, reviewing records pertaining to investigations of the restaurant's practices, and taking the depositions of the employees. In case referred to above, our Law Group food poisoning lawyer, a very highly regarded trial lawyer and former President of his prestigious bar association, took the course in food management, and actually became a certified food manager, in his intense preparation to take the depositions of the restaurant staff.

Food poisoning outbreak cases have the advantage that the FDA and CDC commonly will conduct an extensive investigation to identify the source of the contamination through to identifying retained food products either still on the grocery store shelves or in the refrigerators of those who have fallen ill, identify the specific biologic entity, right down to its genetic markers, providing for the Illinois food poisoning lawyers and those nationwide a big leg up on their investigation.

Free Consultations. If you suffered serious food poisoning illness or catastrophic medical sequalea our Illinois food poisoning lawyers welcome you to contact us for a free consultation. When you submit the "Contact" form, one of our experienced Illinois food poisoning attorneys will call you to discuss your case, your illness, your diagnosis, the evidence or suspicions you may have in terms of where you may have been exposed to the contaminated food product, and we will provide you with our preliminary case evaluation and initial recommendations. We are here to serve you.

Our Illinois Premises Liability Attorneys Will Discuss the Common Complexity of What are Colloquially Called "Slip and Fall" or "Trip and Fall" cases. Our Illinois Premises Liability Attorneys Will Consider Cases Involving Serious and Catastrophic Injuries Resulting from Defects or Failures in the Maintenance of Commercial, Residential and Public Property from Downstate Illinois, Metro East and Belleville to Springfield, Peoria and Juliet, Naperville, Aurora, Rockford and Chicago .

Premises liability attorneys are commonly referred to as "slip and fall lawyers" or "trip and fall attorneys," however, the terminology may serve to overly simplify the often complex responsibilities of the Illinois premises liability lawyer, given that many cases involve complex proof of property defect, and every case in which the client suffers serious or catastrophic injury is complex in the sophisticated trial lawyer's responsibilities in preparing the teams of experts that will be required to establish the client's full measure of general damages and special economic damages.

Establishing liability in the premises liability case may be aided by identified violations of building codes, other statutes and regulations, or may require experts, for example to investigate residential premises and testify with regard to coefficients of friction, and a the excessive slipperiness of a floor surface or stairs. Establishing the negligence of a commercial establishment failure to maintain its property may require the Illinois premises liability lawyer's investigative skills to develop the evidence of when the commercial property owner first had notice of the safety hazard in order to prove that it was negligent in failing timely to correct it.

But again regardless of the simplicity of a particular fall case, or medical malpractice case for that matter, where the client has been seriously injured, as where he may have suffered a severe spinal cord injury, quadriplegia or paraplegia, or severe orthopedic injuries, or a traumatic brain injury, TBI, or limb amputation or internal injury, the case recommends sophisticated premises liability attorneys who also have substantial experience in prosecuting serious injury litigation.

To fully appreciate the complexity of the serious injury Illinois premises liability lawyer's responsibilities in preparing and presenting the seriously injured client's general and special economic damages, we recommend our "Serious Injury Attorneys" page, and you may also consider the somewhat briefer discussion immediately following this one.

Our Illinois premises liability lawyers will consider representing those seriously or catastrophically injured in falls on residential, commercial and public property throughout the state, from Chicago, Rockford and Aurora to Naperville, Juliet and Peoria to Springfield and Downstate Illinois, Metro-East and Belleville. Our premises liability lawyers consider that it is the right of the potential litigant to ask about the credentials of any lawyer whom he would consider to represent him. Our Illinois premises liability lawyers invite you to inquire about our qualifications as premises liability attorneys and about our experience in prosecuting serious and catastrophic injury cases, or any other question you may have with regard to the credentials you consider most important in the lawyer who you will chose to represent you.

Our Illinois premises liability lawyers provide free consultations. You may submit the "Contact" form and one of our Illinois premises liability attorneys will call you to discuss your case, your fall, the circumstances of your fall, the location, and your injuries and damages, and will provide you with our preliminary case evaluation and initial recommendations.

Our Illinois Serious and Catastrophic Injury Lawyers Will Discuss General Damages and Special Economic Damages. All Serious Injury Cases Are Complex. Our Illinois Auto Accident Attorneys, Motorcycle and Big Rig Truck Lawyers, Medical Malpractice Attorneys, Product Liability Lawyers, Food Poisoning Attorneys, Elder Abuse Lawyers and Premises Liability Lawyers Are Serious Injury Attorneys Serving Illinois from Chicago, Aurora and Rockford to Naperville, Pioria and Juliet to Springfield and Downstate Illinois, Metro-East and Belleville.

Our Illinois serious and catastrophic injury lawyers have provided a separate page on this web site which describes in greater detail the responsibilities of the sophisticated trial lawyer in preparing and presenting his client's "general damages" and "special economic damages," the teams of experts that he must engage, and the strategies he will commonly employ to maximize his client's opportunity to obtain the full measure of his damages at settlement conferences or in the jury's verdict.

We welcome you to consult our "Serious Injury Lawyers" page for the more complete discussion. Here we will only endeavor to briefly outline the elements of the seriously injured client's damages, and outline the role of the Illinois serious injury attorney in preparing the evidence essential to demonstrate the full measure for the seriously or catastrophically injured client's general damages and special economic damages.

Initially our Illinois serious injury lawyers would point out that as "simple" as an auto accident case might be as where the other driver violated the client's right of way causing the accident, or as simple as a medical malpractice case might appear, the surgeon having left a sponge behind after closing, leading to serious abdominal infection and organ damage, or the product liability case, involving an infant toy with detachable parts which became lodged in the infant's windpipe, resulting in his brain damage or death, or the premises liability case in which the client fell into a hole in a sidewalk that the county workers abandoned without erecting a barrier, ALL serious injury cases are complex in the preparation and presentation of the client's general and special economic damages.

General damages are described by many personal injury lawyers as "pain and suffering." However, in the experience of our Illinois serious injury lawyers, often times the consequence of the client's injury which he discusses as the greatest is his "loss of enjoyment of life." The client who was rendered paraplegic in an accident, as an example, may not identify pain and suffering as his greatest consequential damage, but rather his inability to do all of the activities that he most enjoyed doing before the accident and injury. Our Illinois serious injury lawyers will call medical experts to describe the full nature and extent of the client's injury, and will often call on the client, friends and family members to describe all of the activities, gather the photographs and home movies demonstrating his enjoyment of them, and then juxtapose against that evidence a professional "Day in the Life" film showing the seriously injured client's courage in overcoming all of the big and small challenges in his daily life.

Special economic damages include the client's past and future medical expenses, and past and future earnings losses. Our Illinois serious injury lawyers will require teams of experts to establish the full measure of these elements of the client's special economic damages.

In demonstrating, for example, the client's future medical expenses, our Illinois serious injury lawyers will first require the number of medical experts in the specialities essential to describe the full nature and extent of the client's injury, his diagnoses, prognoses, and to outline the medical care and treatment that the client will require over his remaining life expectancy. Our Illinois serious injury attorneys will engage a "life care planner" to read their reports and extensively discuss with them the medical expenses, small and large, that the client will likely require year to year, from future surgeries to hospitalizations or assisted living facilities the client may require over time, full time or part time nursing care, replacement prostheses or wheel chairs, down to the medical sundries that will be required over the course of the client's lifetime. The life care planner will then consult trade journals with regard to the current costs of all of the various elements of medical expense and create a chart year by year of all of the likely medical expenses the client will require. The Illinois serious injury lawyer will commonly take part in the process and will ultimately provide the life care planner's report to a forensic economist who will increase the individual amounts of the medical expenses year by year by using statistics on the historical growth in costs of medical expenses, and then will discount the total to present cash value, using the historical inflations statistics. The attorney will present the various expert reports to the settlement judge, or if the case can't be settled for the fair value of the client's full measure of damages, then he will present the testimony of his team of experts at the trial.

Our Illinois serious injury lawyers will also quickly take the example of preparing future earnings losses, although for the purposes here, only the simplest case, as presenting future earnings losses for the business owner-operator can indeed be extremely complex. However, in the simplest case of the wage earner, assuming also hypothetically that he would have no potential for advancement, just to avoid the additional complexity, again the Illinois serious injury lawyer will require a team of experts. First, he will require the medical experts essential to describe the full extent of the client's disabilities. Then he will require a "rehabilitation" expert whose responsibilities are to consult with the medical doctors and often extensively with the client, obtain his education and employment records, and consult with the trade journals to determine the categories of employment, if any, that the client' might still have available for gainful employment, and the narrowing of such categories of potential employment resulting from the client's injuries and disabilities. His objective must be to arrive at the client's "net" earnings losses, year by year, as required by law and the jury instructions that will be read at trial. Again the Illinois serious injury attorney will be required to engage a forensic economist to increase the yearly earnings losses over time by statistics on wage growth in the trades or professions, and then discount the total to present cash value.

Our Illinois serious injury trial attorneys will consider representing the potential client who has been seriously or catastrophically injured as the result of an auto accident, medical malpractice, a defective product or defect or failure to maintain residential, commercial or public property, food poisoning or elder abuse. Our Illinois trial lawyers will consider representing potential clients who have suffered serious injury throughout the state of Illinois from Chicago, Rockford and Aurora to Naperville, Juliet and Peoria to Springfield and Downstate Illinois, Metro-East and Belleville. Our Illinois serious injury trial lawyers welcome your inquiries with regard to our credentials in the relevant practice area, be it as auto accident lawyers, product liability attorneys, medical malpractice lawyers, premises liability attorneys, food poisoning lawyers and elder abuse lawyers, and with regard to our experience in prosecuting serious and catastrophic injury litigation.

Free Consultation. We welcome you to contact us for a free consultation. Simply submit the "Contact" form and one of our Illinois serious injury trial lawyers will contact you to discuss your case, your injuries and damages, and provide our preliminary case evaluation and initial recommendations. We are here to serve you.