The Congregation of Christian Brothers declared bankruptcy in April 2011. As quoted in the Chicago Tribune, Hurley McKenna & Mertz partner Mark R. McKenna explained the significance of the bankruptcy filing:

“There has been difficulty determining what, if any, assets the Christian Brothers have to pay claims. We felt it was important to protect the rights of our clients to file this lawsuit right now.”

The attorneys of Hurley McKenna & Mertz are honored to represent these courageous men who suffered life-altering sexual abuse that could have been prevented if the Congregation of Christian Brothers had acted properly.

This study was published Tuesday in The Journal of the American Medical Association. The study looked at 12 hospitals and found that the hospitals on average made $30,500 more for patients with preventable complications than for patients without complications. The study’s researchers argued that to help reduce these complications, insurers should stop paying for substandard care and should reward high quality care with bonuses. Further, they called for mandatory disclosure of the complication rates of hospitals.

As a medical malpractice attorney in Chicago, I am not surprised by this study at all. For decades, hospitals have been blaming medical malpractice plaintiffs and their attorneys for the high costs of health care. This study shows that the hospitals themselves are to blame for the high costs of health care. Worse yet, this study shows that hospitals have been profiting from their own mistakes, while labeling victims of medical errors who seek compensation through the court system as greedy.

Next time someone tries to tell you that medical malpractice lawsuits are hurting health care in the United States by driving up costs, please refer him or her to this study.

The allegations stem from a former parishioner accusing the priest of touching him inappropriately, taking pictures of him and forcing him to try on clothes in front of the priest as a boy.

According to the hospital, the diocese failed to mention the allegation when it recommended the priest for the chaplain position. The hospital became aware of the allegations only after the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests contacted the hospital and urged it to remove the priest. The diocese undoubtedly put children at serious risk by failing to notify the hospital of these troubling allegations.

As a personal injury lawyer who represents multiple victims of pedophile priests in the Joliet Diocese, I am appalled that the Joliet Diocese continues its practice of transferring pedophile priests elsewhere without giving notice of child sex abuse allegations. Without question, this practice led to the sexual abuse of many children who would not have been abused otherwise, if the diocese had given proper notice.

It is incomprehensible that the diocese would continue such a practice while under intense scrutiny for shielding pedophile priests for decades. This recent failure should serve as a warning to all parents that the Joliet Diocese remains unable to properly handle pedophile priests.

The Joliet Diocese typically responded to allegations of child sex abuse by a priest by moving the accused priest to a different church or sending the priest on an out-of-state assignment. This approach allowed pedophile priests to abuse countless victims as they moved from parish to parish.

Hurley McKenna & Mertz currently represents men who were abused by predators in the Joliet Diocese. These men were not only victimized by their abusers, but also by the Joliet Diocese. The Joliet Diocese is directly responsible for the abuse suffered by these men because it chose to protect the church’s reputation by shielding pedophiles, instead of protecting innocent children.

When metal-on-metal hip implants were initially released, manufacturers said that metal-on-metal hip implants would last much longer than traditional implants, and would allow patients to be far more active with fewer restrictions. Unfortunately, for many patients, just the opposite has been true. In August 2010, Johnson & Johnson recalled two of the hip implants—the ASR XL Acetabular System and the ASR Hip Resurfacing System—because of unexpectedly high failure rates.

Hurley McKenna & Mertz represents multiple individuals who have suffered significant pain and disability as a result of defective metal-on-metal hip implants. As their attorney, I strive to hold these manufacturers accountable for the pain and suffering that they have caused, and I am very pleased to see that this Los Angeles jury has done just that.

Two days later, the employee said she received a call from her boss who told her she was fired because it was bad for business to have a bartender call the cops.

I find this story to be very troubling. As a Chicago personal injury lawyer, I have represented families who tragically lost loved ones in drunk driving accidents. It is infuriating to me that a bar would actively discourage employees from reporting drunk drivers because it is “bad for business.” The bar is simply placing the success of its business ahead of innocent lives.

I hope this bar’s despicable policy against reporting drunk drivers is unique to that bar and not a common practice among other establishments.

Just as he did as a scoutmaster, Hacker used his position as a teacher and park district director to gain unsupervised access to young boys. Unfortunately, these organizations similarly failed to protect children against Hacker. As a result, Hacker sexually abused numerous young boys.

Hacker’s reign of terror finally ended in February, 1988, when he was arrested and convicted of five counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault against three boy scouts and was sentenced to two concurrent 50-year terms.

The attorneys of Hurley McKenna & Mertz are honored to represent these brave men who have come forward to hold the organizations that failed them as children accountable for their actions.

As a Chicago personal injury lawyer who has represented numerous victims of child sexual abuse, I am confident that archdioceses throughout the country took an approach to clergy sex abuse similar to that of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Specifically, church officials consistently put the interests of the church and its pedophile priests ahead of innocent children. Thankfully, the missteps of the Catholic Church with respect to clergy sex abuse are finally being exposed so that victims can receive the justice that they deserve.

According to the report, the Archbishop and his top advisor worked with other church officials to send pedophile priests out of the state so that the pedophiles could avoid criminal prosecution. This approach likely led to these pedophiles being able to abuse many more innocent children at dioceses in other states.

As a Chicago personal injury attorney with extensive experience handling sexual abuse cases, I know that Catholic Church officials throughout the country took actions similar to those taken by these officials. This approach put thousands of children at risk by allowing pedophile priests to join new parishes whose members had no knowledge of their past abuse. Furthermore, this approach clearly demonstrates that Catholic Church officials chose to put the reputation of the church above the safety of children.

With the release of these documents, I am hopeful that the Catholic Church in California will no longer be able to deprive the victims of sexual abuse of the compensation that they unquestionably deserve.

As a medical malpractice attorney in Chicago, I believe that proper supervision of physicians as well as discipline for bad doctors is crucial to our healthcare system. I am troubled that the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation responded to budget constraints by cutting back in such an important area. I believe that medical malpractice attorneys, like me, play a vital role in protecting patients by policing negligent doctors and health institutions, yet, medical regulators are also very important to protecting patients. I hope the State of Illinois reconsiders these cutbacks for the sake of Illinois' healthcare system and its patients.

It is absolutely shocking that the Boy Scouts national director for youth protection possessed child pornography. In other words, the person who was responsible for rooting out pedophiles serving the Boy Scouts of America was himself a pedophile. I believe this irony exemplifies how incompetently leadership in the Boy Scouts of America has handled child sex abuse over the past century.

According to one researcher on this issue, some men did not recognize their attraction to children until they were scout leaders. This may partially explain the pervasiveness of child sex abuse in the Boy Scouts of America. In some instances, predatory pedophiles may have joined the Boy Scouts with the sole intention of satisfying their sick and twisted desires, whereas in other instances, pedophiles may have joined the Boy Scouts without bad intentions, but ultimately could not resist the opportunities for abuse presented by the Boy Scouts.

As a Chicago personal injury attorney who has handled Boy Scout sex abuse cases and other sex abuse cases, I believe that all abusers should be held equally accountable for their actions, regardless of whether they joined organizations with the specific intent to abuse children. Moreover, the Boy Scouts of America must be held accountable for allowing this widespread abuse to occur virtually unchecked for decades.

This man had access to many children as an assistant scout master in the Boy Scouts. These children were at great risk when around this pedophile. I am very thankful that he has been arrested for these crimes and will no longer have access to children.

Unfortunately, it appears that pedophiles are drawn to organizations like the Boy Scouts of America because they are able to have unchecked access to children. Worse yet, Boy Scouts of America has consistently failed to properly police their staff over the past century. Because of this, countless children were victimized by predatory pedophiles serving the Boy Scouts

As a personal injury attorney in Chicago with extensive experience handling child sex abuse cases, I currently represent courageous individuals who survived sexual abuse at the hands of two of Illinois’ most notorious sexual predators in Boy Scouts - Thomas Hacker and Charles Bickerstaff. I am honored to help these men hold the Boy Scouts organizations accountable for their many failures with respect to predatory pedophiles in the Boy Scouts.

Researchers also noted that these “never events” have resulted in nearly 10,000 paid malpractice judgments and claims adding up to approximately $1.3 billion over the last 20 years. Furthermore, they believe that their estimates as to the number of errors is low because some items left after surgery are never found if a patient does not suffer complications. In other words, the only way that doctors can discover that an item has been left in a patient is when the patient starts getting sick.

As a medical malpractice attorney in Chicago, I have represented victims of surgical errors throughout my career, and I am not surprised by the results of this study. The responsibility to curb these errors falls not only on surgeons and their staff, but also on hospitals. Namely, hospitals need to implement better safety procedures to protect against “never events.” Patients who suffer these errors face significant additional health problems that, in some cases, result in their deaths. Therefore, these errors need to be reduced immediately through all possible means.

Since November, 37 people have died as a result of the tainted injections and hundreds more have suffered serious health problems. Approximately 14,000 people received the tainted injections from the New England Compounding Center, which has been subsequently shut down. At his point, it is still unknown how the contaminating fungus was able to enter the substances at the compounding center.

As a personal injury attorney in Chicago, I have handled cases dealing with various prescription drug issues. Regardless of how the contaminating fungi actually entered the substances, I am confident that the negligence of those in charge at the New England Compounding Center allowed this to occur. I hope that the many victims of this outbreak aggressively pursue those responsible for this troubling pharmaceutical mistake.

Reports indicate that drugs known to cause this interaction with grapefruit rose from 17 in 2008 to 43 in 2012, including drugs that treat high blood pressure and cancer. Adverse reactions caused by this combination of grapefruit and medication include kidney damage, altered heartbeat, stomach bleeding and sudden death.

As a personal injury attorney in Chicago, I believe that drug manufacturers must immediately begin warning patients of this dangerous combination. Many people consume grapefruits and grapefruit juice on a daily basis and would never expect that this otherwise healthy fruit could have deadly interactions with their medications. Therefore, drug manufacturers, physicians, and pharmacists must identify each medication that can react adversely with grapefruit and provide clear warning to patients who are prescribed these drugs.