There are several exceptions to this general rule:
First, if you have a contract with the employer, you can only be terminated in accordance with the contract terms. That contract could be a union contract covering you and number of other workers or a personal services contract between only you and the employer. If the contract says you can only be fired for cause, then the employer cannot simply terminate the contract because they no longer need you.
Second, the employer's reason for terminating (or taking other adverse action against you) cannot be a discriminatory reason. In other words, they cannot fire you due to your race, sex, religion, age, or disability. If you have reason to believe your employer's actual reason for terminating or disciplining you was discriminatory, you should consult with a Chicago employment discrimination attorney right away.
Also, you should bear in mind that you must file a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or the Illinois Department of Human Rights within six months or you may not be able to pursue a case against your employer. Generally speaking, the sooner you file a charge, the better.
]]>The rule permits judges to determine whether a jury will be allowed to ask questions of a witness once attorneys finish their questioning. If allowed by the judge, jurors may submit their questions in writing. The judge will meet with the attorneys outside the jury's presence, allowing them to contest any questions. The judge will rule on any objections and determine if the questions will be allowed, modified or excluded.
Effective July 1, 2012
Supreme Court Rule 243 will take effect on July 1, 2012, according to a statement issued by Chief Justice Thomas L. Kilbride.
The Chief Justice also commented that "This proposal was the subject of much discussion - both internally by the Illinois Supreme Court Rules Committee at several of its meetings and at a public hearing in May 2011. Based on the comments of those who have used or seen the procedure at trials, such a rule enhances juror engagement, juror comprehension and attention to the proceeding and gives jurors a better appreciation for our system of justice. The rule is written so that its implementation rests with the discretion of the trial judge and with safeguards so that the testimony it elicits complies with the rules of evidence."
The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin noted that though no high court rule previously forbid the practice, the Supreme Court's announcement marked the first official authorization that civil trial judges may accept juror questions. The Illinois Supreme Court Rules Committee spent several months discussing and developing the measure before submitting it to the justices, and heard testimony from lawyers and judges on its possible impact at a hearing in Chicago last year.
]]>The amendment broadens the category of income received as a result of a personal injury or physical sickness that can be excluded from gross income. The new regulation removes the requirement that damages received from a legal suit, action or settlement must be based upon "tort or tort type rights" in order to qualify as an exclusion from gross income.
The "tort type rights" test was initially intended to distinguish between damages for personal injuries and other types of damages, such as damages for breach of contract. With the new amendment, however, the exclusion from gross income may apply to damages recovered for personal physical injury or physical sickness under a statute that does not provide for a broad range of remedies. Also, the injury need not be defined as a tort under state or common law.
While the IRS Code still limits the exclusion to damages for personal physical injury or physical sickness, the regulations do permit the exclusion of damages for emotional distress to the extent the emotional distress is attributable to a physical injury or physical sickness.
The new rule helps to clarify tax obligations related to monetary damages received for physical injury or emotional distress.
Source: Sally P. Schreiber, "IRS issues final regs on exclusion of damages for personal physical injury," Journal of Accountancy, January 20, 2012
]]>The date of the adverse employment action you suffered as a result of discrimination begins the clock ticking on the time limit. An adverse employment action includes termination, demotion, cut in pay, cut in hours, disadvantageous reassignment or other negative actions taken against you by your employer.
How to File a Claim
It is in your best interest to file the charge of discrimination as soon as possible. The reason for this is that the Illinois Department of Human Rights (IDHR) and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) may only take into consideration evidence of discrimination that occurred in the six month period prior to the date of the alleged adverse event, such as being fired from the job.
Therefore, if there were a series of separate actions or incidents that occurred at your work place, some of which occurred more than six months prior to the date of your charge, you may not be able to use the evidence older than six months in supporting your case.
If you believe you have been discriminated against, file a charge of discrimination with the IDHR and EEOC as soon as possible to protect your legal rights. Then your next step should be to contact an experienced Chicago employment discrimination attorney.
]]>Your natural instinct will be to trust that the doctors, nurses and care takers caring for your loved one will treat him/her with kindness, dignity and respect. However, more often than not, that is not the case. Nursing home negligence and abuse cases are not uncommon.
What to Look for When a Loved One Enters a Nursing Facility
When your loved one enters a nursing home for the first time they will often become disoriented, confused and even angry. Hearing them call out for their spouse who has been deceased for years is hard to hear. Having your elderly relative or friend tell you that the reason why he or she will not eat food is because the staff poisoned it can be even more upsetting.
This type of change in your loved ones' behavior or personality will be extremely troubling especially if your loved one was a strong-willed and independent person before becoming a resident in a nursing home.
If your loved one is beginning to lose awareness of time, has no memory of the events that occurred that day and does not have an existing debilitating mental condition, it could mean that he or she is being neglected by the nursing home staff.
]]>Most commonly, Necrotizing Fasciitis develops after some type of puncture to the skin such as a cut, injection, surgical procedure or dog bite. The symptoms of Necrotizing Fasciitis usually begin within 24 - 48 hours after the initial rupture to the skin and commonly involve a high fever, pain, swelling as well as temperature and color changes to the injured area. If not caught and treated early, the Necrotizing Fasciitis will progress and start to eat away at the skin and underlying muscle tissue.
Some people may be more prone to the development of Necrotizing Fasciitis who have conditions such as diabetes, alcoholism or liver disease, to name a few. However, Necrotizing Fasciitis can be acquired in perfectly healthy individuals through something as simple as a muscle strain.
One recent case study involved a 42 year old man that developed a pectoral strain while unloading boxes from a truck during a work accident. Within 72 hours of suffering the muscle strain, the man was in the hospital fighting for his life and diagnosed with Necrotizing Fasciitis at the exact site of the muscle strain in the pectoral area. Another recent example involved a 49 year old woman who suffered a shoulder strain from a seat belt after being involved in an auto accident. Within 72 hours after the accident, the woman had full blown Necrotizing Fasciitis in the area of the shoulder where she had suffered the original muscle strain. Thankfully, both this man and woman survived the Necrotizing Fasciitis after receiving prompt and appropriate treatment.
Many people can survive Necrotizing Fasciitis if the symptoms are recognized early enough and proper treatment is rendered. Treatment consistently involves heavy doses of antibiotics to treat the infection, surgery and in some cases amputation to stop the spread of the disease and plastic surgery to repair the devastating damage to the skin resulting from the infection.
]]>Under current Illinois law a health care provider does not have to accept an injured person's insurance. Rather, health care providers can choose not to submit their medical charges to an available insurance plan and file a legal right of recovery out of the injured person's lawsuit. The health care provider's right of recovery is known as a medical lien, and must comply with The Health Care Services Lien Act. Although this sounds like a reasonable process, it has a drastic and unjust effect to an injured person's compensation for the injuries they have suffered.
When health care providers accept insurance from public health plans and major insurance companies, they generally accept a reduced amount of payment to satisfy their bill. For example, if the charge for a particular medical service was one-thousand five-hundred dollars ($1,500.00), no personal injury lawsuit is pending and the health care provider chooses to accept Medicare or Medicaid patients, then the charged service will most likely be paid off in the hundreds of dollars, versus the entire one-thousand five-hundred dollars ($1,500.00). However, when the patient has been injured by the fault of another, the health care provider can choose not to report the charged medical services to the available insurance plans, and place a lien on the patient's personal injury lawsuit.
Under the current Illinois law, although the health care provider has already agreed to take a lesser amount as full payment of the services charged, the medical lien entitles them to the full amount charged. The effect of the current Illinois law results in the injured person paying a health care provider far more than they would have if they had not been injured by the fault of another person. Unfortunately, the people who end up paying the most under current Illinois law are the underprivileged. Health care providers frequently will not opt out of insurance payments from well-to-do individuals with an insurance plan that pays most of their medical bills. However, Doctors and medical institutions more frequently opt out of public health plans or less robust private plans like an HMO, which by agreement pay less to the health care provider. Thus, people of lesser means pay the most for the provided medical services.
Proposed Legislation Would Level the Field
House Bill 5823 seeks to amend The Health Care Services Lien Act to level the playing field between well-to-do injured individuals and impoverished individuals. The amendment provides that if a health care provider wishes to opt out of an available insurance plan and file a medical lien on an injured person's lawsuit, that health care provider cannot make a windfall profit and limits their recovery of funds to an amount to which they have already agreed to accept.
The proposed legislation has already passed the Illinois House of Representatives and is currently on assignment within the Illinois Senate. If the ends of justice are served, the amendment will pass and level the field between well-to-do injured individuals and impoverished injured individuals.
]]>In 2010, the federal government estimated that faulty medical care contributed to the death of about 15,000 Medicare patients per month. By these measures, faulty hospital care and hospital errors are leading causes of death, behind heart disease and cancer. Research has been conducted on what hospitals are doing to address patient safety and what strategizes have been implemented so far to address the issue.
In 2008, doctors through the World Health Organization created a checklist for doctors and nurses to use prior to surgery that covered essential medical protocol and fostered communication between doctors and nurses. The checklist was then implemented in 8 hospitals worldwide. These hospitals reported a 36-percent drop in major surgical complications and a 47-percent decline in death. Checklist use can help prevent the estimated 40 "wrong-site" operations that occur in the U.S. each week, and helped Johns Hopkins cut ICU bloodstream infections by 90-percent when consistently using checklists. These checklists force the doctors and nurses to go through a procedure step-by-step when they may be dealing with fatigue and multiple tasks to perform.
Digital Records Another Way to Improve Safety
Another way hospitals are improving safety is by digitizing patient records. In mid-2010, just 15-percent of the nation's acute-care hospitals had electronic health records, according to the American Hospital Association. That number is expected to grow, as the government has invested billions of dollars to help hospitals and physicians invest in electronic records.
New laws require hospitals to provide more patient-safety data to the public. The current lack of transparency makes it hard for people to figure out which of their local hospitals is safest. The Medicare Hospital Compare website is the only comprehensive source of data on hospital safety and that information lags about a year and mostly captures care of those ages 65 and older. Beginning in January of 2012, the site began reporting on central-line infections in the broader population and more data on other types of infections will be available in 2013.
The more patient-safety information that is public, the better it is for everyone because it will push hospitals to compete with one another on patient-safety.
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