Chicago Injury Lawyers Blog

On March 31, 2010, Pfizer disclosed that it has paid $20 million to doctors and researchers for consulting and speaking in the last six months of 2009. The figure does not include monies paid to others outside of the United States. This is the first public accounting of the amount of money paid to persons who may be recommending drugs to patients. However, the amount has not been audited by any outside agencies.

How many more millions of dollars will be disclosed from other drug companies in the coming weeks and months remains to be seen. However, the ethical issues remain: Should drug companies be compensating doctors for promoting their products? Does this payment to researchers and doctors compromise the judgment of doctors and researchers? Does this payment to doctors compromise the patient/doctor relationship?

Prominent Chicago injury law firm, Cavanagh Law Group is investigating potential product liability cases arising out of the Toyota recall. For weeks, the media has reported on disturbing evidence that Toyota withheld evidence of the number of complaints from sudden acceleration incidents. The company originally claimed that it started receiving complaints in 2007 but new evidence has revealed that complaints started as early as 2004. While Toyota issued a recall of certain vehicles in 2007, it originally blamed floor mats for sudden accleration problems. Last week, an internal Toyota memo from July, 2009 came to light. The memo revealed that Toyota saved $100 million by getting the government to allow it to replace floor mats in 55,000 vehicles as a solution to its sudden acceleration problem. While Congress investigates, there is a reported criminal investigation pending.

The attorneys at Cavanagh Law Group have handled significant product liability cases throughout their careers. Tim Cavanagh has obtained numerous multi-million dollar settlements in product liability cases including a $4.5 million settlement in Taylor v. Chrysler and a $3 million settlement in Munoz v. Mack Trucks. The firm is currently prosecuting a number of significant product liability cases involving wrongful death and catastrophic injuries.

On the evening of December 30, 2009, Qusai Issa was driving his 2003 Ford Expedition in Berwyn, Illinois. The inside of his vehicle suddenly became engulfed in flames. A local newspaper reported that a man driving behind the Ford Expedition saw the fire erupt and saved Qusai from certain death. Qusai was transported to Loyola University Medical Center with third degree burns over 50% of his body. Qusai remains in the Intensive Care Unit of Loyola to this day.

Unbeknownst to Qusai, Ford Motor Company had been aware of a dangerous defect in its vehicles for many years. It had received hundreds of complaints for "cruse control switch" fires in the years preceding Qusai's injuries. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened an investigation and Ford has responded by recalling hundreds of thousands of its vehicles.

On February 16, 2010, Tim Cavanagh of Cavanagh Law Group filed a lawsuit against Ford Motor Company in the Circuit Court of Cook County. The case is Qusai Issa v. Ford Motor Company, et al., Case No. 2010 L 2042. On February 17, 2010, Mr. Cavanagh will present an Emergency Motion for a Protective Order before Judge Savage at 9:15 a.m. in Room 2201 of the Richard J. Daley Center to ensure that the vehicle is preserved and available for safety experts to view and determine the cause of the fire.

Tim Cavanagh, founder and partner of Cavanagh Law Group, has been recognized by "Leading Lawyers Network Magazine--Consumer Edition" as one of the top 100 consumer lawyers in Illinois. The magazine, published by Leading Lawyers Network, a division of Law Bulletin Publishing Company, named Cavanagh a "Leading Lawyer" for the 8th consecutive year. The honor was based on surveys conducted by Leading Lawyers Network.

The announcement by Leading Lawyers Network comes on the heels of Tim Cavanagh being named to the "Lawdragon 500" as one of the top 500 plaintiffs lawyers in the United States by Lawdragon Magazine. The magazine can be found at www.LawDragon.com.

Cavanagh Law Group is proud to announce that Tim Cavanagh has been named an Illinois Super Lawyer for 2010. Mr. Cavanagh has been recognized as a Super Lawyer every year since its inception in 2005. Matt Rundio, a partner at Cavanagh Law Group, was recognized as a "Rising Star" for the third consecutive year. Jeff Escher, an associate, was named a "Rising Star" for the first time.

Attorneys who were recognized on the Super Lawyers List were nominated by their peers. The Illinois Super Lawyers List was sponsored by Law & Politics, a legal trade journal. Lawyers in Illinois were sent ballots and asked to vote for the best lawyers they had personally observed in action. Each lawyer was given a score based on the number and types of votes received.

On May 29, 2009, attorneys from the Cavanagh Law Group representing the Estate of Dijion Sanders, a 6 year-old boy who was crushed by a garage door on May 9, 2009 on Chicago's south side, inspected the garage door and electric garage door opener involved in the incident.  Sears Roebuck & Co./The Chamberlain Group manufactured and sold the electric garage door opener.  Cavanagh Law Group had consulting experts present for the inspection.  The garage door involved in Dijion Sanders' death was not equipped with InfraRed or motion sensors that would have stopped the door from closing if a person or object was in the door's path.  Since the early 1990's the Consumer Products Safety Commission has recommended that garage doors be equipped with InfraRed or motion sensors to prevent automatic garage door opener entrapment incidents which are known and foreseeable dangers of electric garage doors.  

The Consumer Products Safety Commission has also recommended that electric garage door openers have automatic reversal mechanisms that reverse the garage door from closing when it presses on an object in its path such as a person, child's ball, or bike.  Additional inspections and testing of the Sears/Chamberlain Group electric garage door opener will take place to determine if it had an automatic reversal mechanism and, if one was present, if it malfunctioned by not reversing the garage door after Dijion Sanders was trapped.    

If electric garage door openers are manufactured and installed correctly and maintained properly, garage door entrapment injuries and deaths should not happen. 

On May 5, 2009, Timothy J. Cavanagh and Matthew M. Rundio of Cavanagh Law Group obtained a settlement of $3 million on behalf of their client, Carmen Shafer, for injuries she sustained after receiving an electric shock from the microwave oven in her kitchen.

On November 5, 2002, Plaintiff Carmen Shafer, age 30, received an electric shock when she brushed her right hand across the surface of the microwave in her kitchen at 1123 W. Washington St., Oak Park, Illinois. A post-incident inspection by the Village of Oak Park Electrical Inspector and a private electrician revealed that the electrical outlet to which the microwave was plugged in violated the village electric code because the hot and neutral poles were reversed, the outlet was not connected properly, and the outlet was not grounded. Experts agreed that the faulty outlet was the cause of the surface of the microwave oven becoming energized with electricity which caused Shafer's shock.

Defendants disputed that the incident happened and that it happened as Carmen Shafer described. Defendants contended that, if anything, Carmen Shafer received a static shock, not an electrical shock. Defendants also claimed the Construction Statute of Repose barred Plaintiffs' claims because the outlet was allegedly installed more than 10 years before the incident. The apartment building where the incident took place was owned by Defendant Society of the Divine Word and managed by Defendant Wolin-Levin, Inc.

As a result of the shock, Shafer suffers from Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome ("CRPS") in all 4 of her extremities. She has 2 spinal cord stimulators installed in her spine to control the pain. Shafer has received medical treatment from numerous specialists and pain care practitioners. Plaintiff Jason Shafer claimed damages for the loss of consortium of his wife. The Shafers were married just months before the incident.

Defendants disputed that Shafer suffered any injury and that she had chronic pain. Defendants also contended that Shafer was malingering and fabricating her pain condition.

The case, Shafer v. Wolin-Levin, Inc. and Society of the Divine Word, Cook County Case No. 03 L 6779, had been pending before Circuit Court of Cook County Judge Marcia Maras since January 2008 for intensive case management, including approximately 26 substantive motions that were briefed, argued, and ruled on. The case was set for trial on May 5, 2009.

On May 13, 2009, Timothy J. Cavanagh and Matthew M. Rundio of Cavanagh Law Group filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of the family of Dijion Sanders, age 6. Dijion was killed on May 9, 2009, when the garage door at 9228 S. Saginaw Avenue, Chicago, Illinois closed on his body.

The lawsuit was filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County. The lawsuit named Sears Roebuck & Company, the manufacturer of the garage door opener, Mid America Door Company, the company that installed the garage door and Darrell Washington, the owner of the property as defendants. The complaint alleges that the garage door opener should have been equipped with an electronic sensor to stop a garage door from crushing a child.

Tomorrow morning, Cavanagh Law Group will present an Emergency Motion to Preserve Evidence requesting that the garage door, garage door opener and all pertinent evidence be preserved. The purpose of the Motion is to ensure that the court retains jurisdiction over all pertinent evidence so that it is preserved for the civil trial.

Tim Cavanagh stated:

Dijion was a happy young boy surrounded by a loving family. This tragedy could have been avoided had the garage door opener come equipped with a sensor to stop the garage door from crushing the body of an innocent 6 year old boy.

Dijon is survived by his parents, Angela C. Washington-Sanders and Marshall D. Sanders, and six siblings.  Services are pending.

The case is entitled Angela C. Washington-Sanders and Marshall D. Sanders, Co-Special Administrators of the Estate of Dijion Sanders, Deceased v. Darrell Washington, Mid-America Door Company and Sears Roebuck & Company 09 L 5674.