Guns were made to kill. And now, we are learning that they are killing children with greater regularity. A recent New York Times article highlighted a study published last week, which found “firearm fatalities among children under 18 increased by 87 percent from 2011 through 2021 in the United States,” making firearm injuries “the leading cause of death among Americans under 20[.]” Even more disturbing is the lack of modifications to these weapons to include safety features such as trigger locks and fingerprint identification. The firearms industry has yet to take steps ...

A year after the tragic mass shooting at the 2022 Highland Park 4th of July parade, the state of Illinois has decided to address some of the vulnerabilities faced in securing the safety of large public gatherings at parades and events.

An amendment to 725 ILCS 167, also known as the Freedom from Drone Surveillance Act, now allows law enforcement agencies to utilize drones as a way to oversee the well-being of Illinois residents and their friends and families, as well as tourists and other visitors at events. With public notice, police can now fly drones to monitor any potential breaches to ...

Companies with Illinois employees have been targeted in recent years with class action lawsuits under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). These lawsuits generally allege that employers have not and are not in compliance with BIPA’s notice and consent requirements before collecting or disclosing employees’ biometric information, including fingerprints, retina scans and facial recognition scans.

One of the defenses has been that such claims are preempted under the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act as workplace injuries and, therefore, cannot be ...

Have you ever been fingerprinted or had your face scanned without signing a consent form?  At work, do you ever use a fingerprint or retina scanner to clock in or access part of a building? Has personal information you’ve provided ever been stored on an unsecure computer system? 

If you’ve been in any of these situations, your rights may have been violated because, in Illinois, your biometric information belongs to you and only you.

Illinois was the first state to regulate the collection and storage of biometric data. Generally, the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA ...

While many companies, industries, and individuals have suffered because of the COVID-19 pandemic, personal automobile insurers have reported large windfalls. The reason is simple. In response to the threat caused by COVID-19, governors from across the country issued unprecedented executive orders wisely mandating that individuals stay at home unless they were engaging in specified essential activities. State-wide social distancing and stay-at-home measures led to a drastic reduction in driving and, when you extend this to its logical conclusion, decline in ...

In just the past three years, Illinois residents have seen and been the victims of an overwhelming number of chemical spills and environmental disasters, raising serious health concerns. Those concerns, though, don’t always result in immediate health effects. After all, some of the most fatal and serious diseases caused by chemical exposures—like cancer—are latent, meaning they take time to develop and should be tested for and monitored for early detection and treatment. While some states’ court systems have allowed for the recovery of the expenses of such testing and ...

On December 29, 2020, American Airlines passengers bravely boarded a scheduled flight from Miami to New York on a Boeing 737 MAX 8. This was the first time in 21-months that the MAX 8 had flown passengers in the U.S., paving the way for more flights — and more passengers — to be flown on the jet. By the end of February, it is estimated that nearly 100 daily flights in the United States will be flown by the MAX 8, with United, Southwest, and Alaska also resuming service in the first quarter of the year.1 Soon, it will be harder to avoid the MAX 8.

Since the Boeing 737 MAX 8 was grounded back in March ...

So much has changed since March 2020 – the world around us, our neighborhoods, gathering spaces, our jobs, our schools, and homes. Life in the midst of COVID-19 has sparked fear, frustration, and anxiety, as well as an onslaught of litigation.

One notable area litigation related to the COVID-19 pandemic is disputes about whether commercial insurance policies cover business interruption losses.  Businesses across the country have sued their insurance companies arguing that their insurance policies should cover losses incurred as a result of the presence and spread of SARS-CoV-2 ...