Our Library: Articles
The attorneys at Horwitz, Horwitz & Associates believe that an informed public is a more powerful and inspired public, able to better protect themselves and their families against injustice.
How Unions Can Level the Playing Field with Non-Union Contractors
Union contractors in the construction trades have long fought an uphill battle, forced to compete at a financial disadvantage with non-union contractors who pay their employees less, offer few, if any benefits, and have historically reduced their overhead by not providing legally mandated workers’ compensation insurance.
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Liability for Falls on Ice and Snow
A winter wonderland can quickly produce conditions that result in slip and fall accidents. Injuries, from falling on wet floors from snow tracked in by customers of retail stores skyrocket. But you’ll be surprised to learn how limited the liability is for storeowners when falls on ice and water occur on their property.
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Company Physician Vs Private Physician
A common theme to many of the questions we’re asked by injured workers involves the treatment and diagnosis provided by a company physician.
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Death Panels and Advanced Directives
Neo-conservatives have been pushing fear and paranoia to unthinkable and false ends, claiming that health care reform bills, such as that voted on in the House, will REQUIRE seniors on Medicare to submit to mandates regarding end-of-life care, killing them prematurely as a means of controlling costs.
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State of Illinois Employee Awarded College Education, Penalties and Attorneys Fees
We hear it every day; injured workers who trust that their Workers’ Compensation benefits will be there, trusting too, that their employer’s Worker’s Compensation insurance company has their best interests at heart and have been very nice.
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General Contractor Assigns Right to Sue Employer to Injured Employee
Uniquely Structured Settlement Allows Injured Ironworker to Recover between $2.8 and $5.6 million by Suing Employer on behalf of General Contractor
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What Jurors are Never Told
Jurors face a daunting task as they collectively strive for a fair and just conclusion, often under circumstances where important financial information is never disclosed that greatly reduces any compensation an injured party is ultimately awarded.
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Horwitz Attorney Prevails in Supreme Court Challenge
In a landmark case spanning twelve years, lead trial attorney Jay Luchsinger of Horwitz, Horwitz & Associates prevailed before the Illinois Supreme Court, securing justice for two families in in the death of their sons.
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Insurance Company Attempts to Use ‘Soldiers & Sailors Act’ to Deceive and Delay …and Loses
It’s not all that unusual; a teen borrows a parent’s full size 4X4 pick up and along with a few friends, decides to have some off-road fun in a corn field. As these stories often go, fun turns to tragedy and someone gets seriously hurt. Such was the case in Lake County, July of 2002.
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The Yamaha Rhino; A UTV or DTV (Death Trap Vehicle)?
Most people see the popular and sporty Yamaha Rhino, a UTV (Utility Terrain Vehicle) with its supped up bucket seats, a steering wheel instead of handlebars and sturdy roll cage, and instantly get visions of off-road family fun.
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Medical Device Makers Immunized from Lawsuit by Persons They Exploit.
It’s interesting to note the number of federal agency insiders stepping up to the plate during these final Bush hours, all wanting to spill the beans to President Elect Obama about the corruption and mismanagement found within the their agencies under the Bush Administration.
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Fraud Puts Union Pension Funds at Risk
Union pension funds have continued to suffer unnecessary losses due to corporate fraud and mismanagement.
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When Workers’ Compensation Benefits Are Denied, You Need a Skilled Labor Attorney
When Workers’ Compensation benefits are denied following an on the job injury, the success or failure of the case is often determined by the quality of skilled attorneys representing the laborer and their commitment of resources to accept nothing but full justice for their clients.
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Two Local 1 Ironworkers Recover $1.8 Million
During the construction of Millenium Park in 2003, two Local 1 ironworkers were injured, resulting in a recovery of $1.8 million between the two – a compromise of highly disputed claims.
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Local 11 Roofer Recovers $2 Million
After falling through a hole in a roof causing multiple fractures to both wrists (requiring surgical placement of pins and screws), a local 11 roofer lost his career due to the restrictions caused by his injuries
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Delay, Deny, Dispute …and Then Blame the Trial Lawyers
For the victims of personal injury with even modest medical bills of $10,000 or less, insurance companies have adopted tactics to deny claims and add to their fortune.
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Accident Victims with Only “Soft Tissue Injuries” Gaining Long Overdue Justice
For the second time in recent months, the personal injury law firm of Horwitz, Horwitz & Associates, Ltd has proven that jurors have the capacity to prove an insurance company wrong regarding the chronic impact of certain soft tissue injuries.
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Jury Awards Local 93 Plumber $11 Million after 30 Foot Fall from Catwalk
At forty-nine, he had been a union plumber spanning over twenty years on the job until a brisk February day in 2003 when a thirty-foot fall left him in critical condition with a fractured heel, fractured ankles, multiple severe fractures to both legs, three fractured vertebrae in his back and a herniated disc in his neck. He fell because a general contractor and the consulting engineer permitted metal grating to be installed contrary to the jobsite’s plans and specifications.
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Outreach Alert in Support of House Bill 3445
Nursing Home Liability Insurance
Despite an unprecedented increase of citations against nursing homes
for violations that pose a risk of injury and death to patients, the
requirement of liability insurance has been ignored; prevented through
strong lobbying by corporations and the nursing home industry itself,
and set aside by lawmakers who until now, were unwilling to enact
legislation that protect our most frail and aging.
Please join Horwitz in support of House Bill 3445. Find out how you can help.
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Property Owner “Hedges” Bet Against Injured Local 179 Teamster
Justice for this Teamster did not come easy.
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The Unacceptable Truth About Nursing Home Falls
An unacceptable, estimated 75% of nursing home and long-term care residents fall each year (twice the number of falls suffered by the elderly living independently within their communities), 1,800 of which will be fatal.
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Labor Bytes Streaming Content Continues the Conversation
Horwitz, Horwitz & Associates continue the dialogue between labor leaders and workers through Labor Bytes, an online audio program hosted by Rosemary Roberts
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Worker Recovers Lost Wages and 4-Yr College Degree
As insult often follows injury, his employer’s workers’ compensation provider had gone bankrupt and no new coverage had been obtained.
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Local 916 Carpenter Recovers $2 Million
A local 916 carpenter reached an approximately $2 Million settlement shortly after opening statements during a jury trial regarding an on-the-job injury that left his leg fractured in three places.
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Who are the Good and Bad Automobile Insurance Companies?
That our law firm, or any other in the state, should have to engage representatives of insurance companies in pitiful games of hoop-gymnastics, deferral marathons, or blatant disregard for the law -- a large portion of our practice -- suggests an industry in dire need of oversight that appears to be ‘out of sight’.
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Healthcare Drug Benefits for Union Members at Risk
If brand name pharmaceutical companies get their way, your ability to purchase new generic prescription drugs at a reduced cost over expensive name brands will disappear, and along with it, future union drug benefits that remotely resemble those afforded union families today.
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Nursing Home Abuse & Neglect
The House That Terror (and Your Tax Dollars) Built:
Senior Neglect and Abuse More the Norm, Not the Exception
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Suffering the Misery of Not Having Enough Insurance
Just as an umbrella protects us from a downpour, an Umbrella Liability Policy can save you from getting financially drenched.
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A Merry Christmas for Pharma; a stocking full of coal for Americans
Without fear of liability and legal recourse for injured consumers, manufacturers of drugs become the sole guardians over the number of deaths and injuries that are acceptable in the course of producing and administering new drugs and vaccines; the sole proprietors over the risk-to-benefit ratio (deaths Vs lives saved) that meets both demand and profit margins.
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Little-Known Federal Law Protects Subcontracted Engineer in
Employed by Central Intermodal (a subcontractor for the railroad at the time), the engineer was working at the Burlington Northern rail yard at 38th and Kedzie in Chicago in 2002 when he fell, fracturing both ankles, one of which required fusion of the bone.
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Leaders Unite Against Wal-Mart Policies
Last month in Chicago, union and labor representatives joined political and faith-based community leaders in a first of its kind forum to discuss the alleged unfair labor practices and policies of America’s #1 private employer, Wal-Mart.
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Laborer Recovers 1.3 Million for Hip Injuries.
It was the winter of 2000 and work was hard to come by, so when offered a job, he considered himself lucky. But after a near-fatal fall left him with a fractured hip, he knew his luck had changed.
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Jury Validates Teamster 705 Trucker’s Three-Year Battle for Justice
A Cook County jury of twelve awarded $2,031,513 (August 2005) to a 48-year old man from Teamsters 705 for an injury that ended his career as a truck driver.
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Choosing Oil Companies over the Health of Americans;
Joining a majority of senators who voted to pass legislation immunizing the oil companies from prosecution in 2003 (or favor-by-payback) were Illinois representatives, Jerry Wheeler and Jerry Costello¹.
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New Workers’ Compensation Law a Win for All Sides
The needs of working people and employers for a fair and adequate Workers’ Compensation policy were finally addressed with the passing of House Bill 2137; legislation that was signed yesterday by Governor Blagojevich.
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