Anesi Ozmon is pleased to announce that Scott C. Sands has joined the firm as a Partner and Tracey L. Schroeder has joined the firm as an Associate. 

Scott C. Sands has more than 30 years of experience in the area of personal injury litigation and trial law and has earned a national reputation as an expert and leader in the field of Railroad Law. He represents injured railroad employees under the Federal Employer’s Liability Act, the Locomotive Inspection Act, and the Safety Appliance Act. He has tried cases in both state and federal courts in multiple states including Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Iowa, Tennessee, and Montana. He takes great pride in protecting the rights of the injured. Sands earned a J.D. from The John Marshall Law School and a B.A. from Southern Methodist University.

Tracey L. Schroeder concentrates her practice in personal injury law and general litigation matters. She is a flexible practitioner who works to distill complexity, build consensus, and take action. Prior to practicing law, she served as a member of senior leadership teams in the private and...

ANESI OZMON partner Steven A. Berman  recently obtained an important appellate court victory for workers’ rights, setting a new first district precedent to better argue control in construction cases. The Illinois First District Appellate Court reversed the trial court’s ruling that granted summary judgment in favor of a general contractor, dismissing the case of an injured ironworker. The Appellate Court agreed with Mr. Berman’s position that the facts established during discovery created a genuine issue of fact as to whether the general contractor retained supervisory control over work safety on the jobsite and therefore had a duty to exercise that control with reasonable care.

John Foley, a Local 1 Ironworker, was working for a subcontractor, Chicago Town, on a Builtech jobsite in Chicago. Builtech was the general contractor for the new building project and had a full-time superintendent assigned to the project. Mr. Foley was injured when he attempted to pull a piece of rebar from a pile and injured his back. Evidence in the case showed that the rebar pile had been unsafely relocated on the site and stacked in a “tangled mess”.

Chicago Town, in its contract, agreed to be responsible for the...