Scott Holland News
IL Supreme Court: Lawsuit damages over spouse's wrongful death must still be paid if surviving spouse remarries
The unanimous opinion said a judgment compensating one spouse for the loss of another through medical malpractice or other harm must still be paid by defendants, even if the judgment includes money for "material services" the other spouse would have provided to the household in the form of completed chores like cooking meals and washing clothes
Biometrics privacy claims vs FaceApp must go to arbitration, not class action: Judge
Phone software came used 'hybridwrap' technology to collect user consent
Caterpillar can't dump lawsuit accusing them of wrongly asking about job applicants' family health info
Federal judge rules workers' claims can proceed under Illinois' genetic information privacy law
IL appeals court tosses Samsung from lawsuit over exploding vape battery
Samsung argued it doesn't market batteries in Illinois or for use in e-smoking devices
Judge says veterinarians, clinic not liable for wrongly euthanizing cat
Claims against Woodford County Animal Control remain pending
IL Supreme Court says ambiguous language in insurance policies doesn't necessarily 'stack' liability limits in multi-vehicle accidents
Unanimous ruling affirms appeals court's stance to deny a bus driver's quest for $7M payout stemming from a multi-vehicle crash on I-74 in McLean County in 2018.
Property owners can appeal tax assessments before paying full property tax bill, Supreme Court says
5-2 ruling goes against Shawnee School District 84 and Jackson County in their dispute with power plant owner Grand Tower Energy Center. Jackson County had valued the power plant property to have a taxable value of $31.5 million. Om appeal, the taxable value was slashed to $3.3 million, reducing the tax owed to a fraction of original bill
IL Supreme Court: Plaintiffs don't need to ID proper personal estate representative before suing dead person
A split Illinois Supreme Court ruled insurer State Farm couldn't defeat a lawsuit against a deceased man for insurance proceeds by arguing the plaintiff failed to properly identify and sue a personal representative of the dead man's estate. The majority said it was enough to ask a court to appoint a special representative instead
IL Supreme Court: Family OK to sue nursing home for injuries suffered by woman before death, despite arbitration clause
6-0 ruling by state high court declared the arbitration clause that would have governed claims by the woman does not apply to the same claims brought by her family, because the arbitration clause expired when the woman died.
Appeals panel: Airbnb can't use arbitration agreement to escape lawsuit from man who lost a leg at a friend's party
In a 2-1 ruling, the judges ruled a man should be able to sue Airbnb despite holding a user account that included a mandatory arbitration clause, because the agreement only applies to the people directly renting a property during the time they rented
Federal judge says Chicago woman, backed by anti-gun groups, can't use courts to force changes to state gun laws
The lawsuit, led in part by the Brady Center for Gun Violence, alleged failure to use existing policy causing PTSD in children of Black city neighborhoods with elevated violence rates
Federal appeals panel vacates $57M fee award in $181M settlement ending chicken price-fixing class action
Chicago federal appeals judges said objectors were right to argue a judge failed to give weight to evidence that the plaintiffs' lawyers have agreed to accept lesser amounts in other class action lawsuits on the West Coast
Appeals panel says Champaign hospital entitled to property tax exemptions, refund
The Carle Foundation has stood at the center of a years-long court battle over whether hospital tax exemptions were constitutional.
Judge tosses lawsuit challenging Illinois' vote-by-mail law's 2 week ballot counting window
Rep. Bost, other plaintiffs, alleged 14-day window for counting mailed ballots violates Constitution and federal law
Class action accuses Google of intercepting income tax data without filers' consent
Lawsuit says Google's analytics tool attached to programs used by tax preparers like H&R Block, TaxSlayer and TaxAct, allowed the company to collect prohibited sensitive data, like adjusted gross income
Meta to pay $68M to end biometrics class action over Instagram face scans; Lawyers could get $24M
Milllions of Illinoisans who have used Instagram since 2015 could be eligible for a cut of the settlement, which could amount to far less in per person payments than from previous similar class actions under Illinois' biometrics privacy law
Madison County men oppose state's efforts to continue suspending FOID cards before felony convictions
The Illinois Attorney General's office is asking a judge to put on hold a court order blocking State Police from suspending the FOID cards of people who have only been arrested for crimes, and have not been ordered by a court to relinquish any weapons or permits
White ex-city worker, passed over for promotion, can resume racial discrimination suit vs city of Springfield
An appeals panel says conflicting explanations from Springfield city officials raise many questions over whether they only wanted to promote a Black person to reflect the city's commitment to "reflect the city's demographics."
Supreme Court says lawmakers who voted to cut their own salary can't sue for back pay, because they waited too long
6-0 ruling vacates lower court order to pay out at least $175,000, but state high court shies away from ruling whether the Illinois constitution allows lawmakers to cut their pay
Appeals panel won't block pro-union Amendment 1 from ballot; Critics: Would give unions unconstitutional powers
Appeals panel says the pro-union Amendment 1 must be approved by voters before it can be challenged in court, even though opponents say the amendment's language already blatantly conflicts with federal law and is itself unconstitutional