The U.S. Department of Transportation announced this week that nearly half of the nation’s 16,000 truck driving schools may not be complying with federal safety requirements. This revelation has significant implications for road safety and anyone who has been injured in a commercial truck crash.

According to the federal review reported by the Chicago Tribune, approximately 3,000 trucking schools may have their certifications revoked in early 2026 unless they can demonstrate compliance with training standards. An additional 4,500 schools have been warned they may face ...

On June 12, an Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, an aircraft widely praised for its safety, became a danger to its passengers and those on the ground. Despite what began as a textbook takeoff and an experienced pilot with over 8,000 flight hours at the controls, the aircraft suddenly lost altitude, caught fire and crashed into residential buildings below.

Of the 242 people on board, only one person survived.

Now, investigators and aviation experts are looking into a concerning possibility: that the aircraft may have failed mechanically.

What We Know So Far

The 11-year-old aircraft ...

As we write this in early May of 2025, we have deep concerns about what is going on in Washington, D.C., with multiple executive orders from the President that are coming down against law firms. About 45 days ago, we began to see executive orders against a number of big law firms, and some of them have capitulated and relented to the administration's wishes as to doing pro bono work for the administration. However, some of these law firms, including one very near us in Chicago, Jenner & Block, have not - and they've decided to fight back.

Our firm has decided to show our support by signing on to ...

The story of a Backpage.com-hosted listing of a minor available for sex that led to her death at the hands of a male solicitor is a horrific reminder of the human cost of online sex trafficking. Backpage.com was more than a website; it became a breeding ground for exploitation and facilitated the abuse of countless victims.

Once a basic website for classified ads, essentially a Craigslist clone, it evolved into a dark hub for human trafficking, including the sexual exploitation of individuals. The friendly classifieds façade hid a brutal underworld that ruined countless lives. Sex ...

Being sick or injured is an intimidating experience, and placing your life in the hands of doctors is not only scary but can also be dangerous. Medical doctors in specialty training (residents) routinely work 80-hour weeks. Now, there are efforts to unionize these residents to improve working conditions. Will it also lead to better patient outcomes?

As a medical malpractice attorney, I see troubling errors by doctors who move too quickly and don’t read the patient’s chart carefully (or at all) or who are spread too thin and don’t take the time to truly listen to their patients… ...

Hospital ownership should not affect a patient’s potential outcomes after admission. However, a study of 51 hospitals’ data shows that private equity investment has been associated with a significant increase in adverse events among Medicare patients during treatment at those facilities.

According to research by Dr. Zirui Song from Harvard and Joseph Dov Bruch from the University of Chicago, hospitals owned by private equity firms between 2009 and 2019 experienced the following outcomes:

• a 25% increase in surgical infections and bed sores;
• 38% more central line ...

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 ...

Plaintiffs Can Now Obtain Punitive Damages

On Friday, August 11, 2023, Governor Pritzker signed HB0219, which amends the Illinois Wrongful Death Act and allows Plaintiffs to pursue punitive damages in most wrongful death cases. Prior to this amendment, only injured Plaintiffs who were alive had the opportunity for punitive damages. The changes found in HB0219 now provide an opportunity for the estates of those who have died to pursue punitive damages for wrongful conduct.  

This new law will no longer give a corporation or individual who wrongfully killed someone a discount on ...

The revelation this week of a six-month-long investigation at Northwestern University into allegations of hazing and sexual abuse within the football program is troubling and sadly not a surprise. The dynamics of this type of aggression and hazing, veiled as “tradition,” have been prevalent in sports programs for many years and persist despite growing public awareness and pressure to end it. Despite this advocacy, these practices persist because the pressure to win at all costs in sports programs is greater than the attention paid to student-athletes’ well-being.

Our law ...

A year ago on the Fourth of July, like many of us, I was happily sitting at a parade in my hometown of Highland Park, Illinois, with my family, including two of my young sons, watching the procession begin. What I thought was fireworks turned out to be a maelstrom of bullets from an AR-15 assault weapon, fired by a 21-year-old on a rooftop above. I was shot twice. The bullets ripped through my skin, and I could feel them burning. I was fortunate to survive one of the worst shootings in Illinois history — but seven others lost their lives.

A year has passed — and I still think about the shooting ...

La Administración de Salud y Seguridad Ocupacional (“OSHA”) y el Departamento de Trabajo federal ampliaron recientemente las protecciones para los trabajadores indocumentados que denuncian malas condiciones de trabajo, lesiones en el lugar de trabajo, e infracciones reglamentarias. La Legislatura de Illinois también está considerando la “Ley de Trabajo sin Miedo,” que brinda más protecciones a los trabajadores indocumentados que presentan quejas laborales.

¿Qué derechos tienen los trabajadores cuando se lesionan en el trabajo?

• Todo trabajador ...

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the federal Department of Labor recently expanded protections for undocumented workers who whistleblow on working conditions, workplace injuries, and regulatory violations. The Illinois Legislature is also considering The Work Without Fear Act, which gives more protections to undocumented workers filing complaints. 

What rights do workers have when injured on the job?

• Every worker, regardless of their residency or citizenship status, has the right to work in a safe environment that does not cause illnesses or ...

While a child’s birth should be among the happiest days of a parent’s life, the possibility of a birth injury can cause major concern. Birth injuries happen not only at delivery; they can occur before, during and even after the baby arrives. If you are worried about potential issues for your child at any point in the birthing process, there are significant and vital steps to take:

• Document everything: The video of your child’s birth can be more than a memento. Video, photos and other forms of documentation will capture key moments before, during and after the birth. Parents should ...

It is my hope as a trial lawyer that problems our clients face can be overcome, and our law firm works hard to solve problems in our communities, whether they involve poor policy, corporate or municipal negligence, or the lack of oversight of a bad doctor or otherwise dangerous person.

The hope is to see a reduction in certain types of cases. We’ve accomplished this by removing dangerous drugs from the shelves, ending dangerous environmental practices, and making transportation safer. However, the ongoing tragedy of being a mass shooting attorney is that the exact opposite has ...

Last month, Romanucci & Blandin hosted a Continuing Legal Education seminar that was attended by referring attorneys. The event, “Easiest Catch: Don’t Be Another Fish in the Dark ‘Net’” was presented by Mark Lanterman, Chief Technology Officer of Computer Forensic Service, via Zoom. A former member of the U.S. Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force, Mark spoke on common hacking techniques, common misconceptions about online security, and preventive measures to protect both personal and professional digital information. Read on to learn tips and tricks from ...

It has been another agonizing week in America. Blood in the streets of a Chicago suburb on the Fourth of July has given way to funerals and rallies, including an outpouring of support for two little boys, one a toddler orphaned as his two parents died in the shooting and another 8-year-old boy fighting for his life in the hospital with his spine severed by a bullet. This, among dozens of other families grieving and treating injuries both physical and mental from the traumatic event. Is this what you want, NRA? How can the supporters and manufacturers of assault weapons sleep at night knowing ...

Train crossings built for much slower trains

The Southern Transcon line of train tracks, where the deadly Amtrak derailment happened on June 27, 2022, was completed in 1908. Trains of that early 20th Century era travelled at approximately 40-60 miles per hour, so people who needed to drive across in rural locations had a reasonable amount of time to see the train approaching and cross safely - even if they were driving heavy, slow farm equipment. Fast forward a hundred years, and trains travel at increasingly faster speeds due to technology and the human need for speed, yet rural ...

Columbine. Parkland. Sandy Hook. Santa Fe. Uvalde. This is no longer tolerable. All of these schools are now ingloriously known for the massacres that took the lives of so many precious children, causing a lifetime of grieving families and losing generations of talent, love, brainpower and smiles. I know so many people who are sick of hearing that action must be taken, but by the time we are blue in the face debating the change that NEVER comes, another act of carnage happens. And this disgusting cycle repeats. Everyone needs to wake up and demand change.  

This rhetoric about our inability ...

“The Home Edit” star Clea Shearer bravely announced she has aggressive breast cancer, which is a shock for anyone, even more so because she was younger than 40. Shearer said she had asked repeatedly for an appointment with her OBGYN after finding a lump, but could not get in, so she refused to let her concerns wait and asked her primary care doctor to order the mammogram that led to her diagnosis. Her Stage 2 diagnosis, of course, if delayed any further, could’ve been even more dangerous. Shearer was fortunate to have self-detected her lump, and her fierce self-advocacy may have saved ...

In 2019, more than 36,000 people died in motor vehicle collisions in the United States. Then, in March of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic shut the country down and dramatically changed people’s daily lives for the better part of 2 years. While Americans drove less in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)  estimates that fatalities from motor vehicle collisions are increasing at a rate not seen since World War II ended.

Between the late 1960s and 2019, fatalities from motor vehicle collisions had been falling ...

R&B Partner Michael E. Holden’s approach to his work is methodical, committed and smart, and he lets his results do the talking. Since joining the firm as a law clerk more than 15 years ago, he has risen through the ranks and been a dependable force, ultimately being named Partner in 2021. He plays a leadership role in the office, mentoring and supporting younger attorneys and conveying his deep knowledge about personal injury litigation.

Michael’s practice is primarily focused on transportation and car accidents, workplace injury, premises and product liability, nursing home ...

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 ...

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 ...

At Romanucci & Blandin, we handle a wide array of practice areas, from personal injury and medical malpractice to civil rights cases and class actions. Working on such a diverse caseload is a privilege, but it also poses challenges that can only be overcome with diligence and organization. 

When presented with new and often complex cases, it is vital for the attorney and their team to thoughtfully and efficiently develop a case strategy. We then break the case strategy into clear action items to ensure the most efficient path to resolution. Teamwork and division of labor are the most ...

In March 2021, our world was no longer as we knew it. It shut down, forcing business owners, including our law firm, to reimagine how they do business. In a law firm setting, so much is gained from in-person communication, whether it be client meetings, depositions, collaboration among attorneys and staff, or mentoring, just to name a few.

In an instant, our law firm went strictly remote- transitioning from a significantly hands-on office and an intensively collaborative environment, to Zoom meetings all day, every day. We learned a lot during this past year. We learned that our ...

Low-income victims of automobile collisions rely on Medicaid to cover their medical bills. But what happens when the hospitals and doctors who provide these victims medical care never send the bills to Medicaid? What happens when medical providers try to profit from their misfortune rather than submit the bills to Medicaid, even when the victims provide their Medicaid cards? What happens when the hospitals refuse repeated requests to do so?

Rather than billing Medicaid, unethical hospitals and doctors deliberately bypass Medicaid and place a lien, an interest over an asset or ...

The law is always changing. Whether it be from legislative changes made by the government, judicial rulings by judges or arguments thoughtfully made by attorneys, the law constantly evolves.  

Romanucci & Blandin has made it a goal to keep up with changes in the law and to emphasize education among its attorneys and staff. To this end, the firm has prioritized Continuing Legal Education (CLE) for the office. To stay current, the firm hosts in-house CLE seminars throughout the year on relevant legal issues, including the practice areas we focus on, as well as technology and community ...

In recent weeks, our team at Romanucci & Blandin filed a lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and its subsidiary, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, for permanent vision damage caused by the prescription medication Elmiron (pentosan polysulfate sodium, or PPS). It is just the latest of lawsuits against one of America’s most notorious lawbreakers and its subsidiaries, like Janssen Pharmaceuticals, whose products have caused cancer (Talc), addiction (Opioids), bleeding events (Xarelto), kidney damage (Invokana), metal poisoning (hip implants), and male breast growth ...

Members of the Illinois General Assembly;

Solitary confinement or long-term punitive segregation is a psychological wasteland. It is an environment that not only causes inmates to psychologically deteriorate - it causes undue horror and stress for those that work there too.

I spent two decades in solitary confinement in the Illinois Department of Corrections. I lost my social identity in solitary confinement. I felt rejected, lost and alone. In desperate attempts at a sense of humanity, I used to mutilate my neck, arms, legs and private parts. I used to put razors in my eyes that ...

One of the fundamental assumptions in America is that if, for some unfortunate reason, you or someone you love is seriously injured or, heaven forbid, loses their life because of another person or organization, then you can ultimately find some justice in the court system. Maybe it’s in the form of criminal charges and a conviction. Or, in the case of civil litigation, it can be financial compensation to help make things right – pay for lost wages, future medical bills, pain and suffering. Money can never fully make up for what was damaged or lost, but it can bring badly needed resources ...

At Romanucci & Blandin, we have the distinct privilege of representing clients in some of the most significant and most devastating cases from around the world: the Boeing 737 MAX 8 crash in Ethiopia, mass shootings in Las Vegas and Orlando, and claims nationwide for cancer caused by products like Roundup and Zantac. These cases bring together individuals who have all been injured, sickened, or otherwise harmed or killed by a common cause. Our firm is proud to not only seek justice for those people but also lead groups of law firms in that pursuit in such other high-profile cases as:

On June 5, 2020, Governor Pritzker signed into law the COVID-19 Presumption Bill which stated that for purposes of the Illinois Workers Compensation Act or Occupational Disease Act, for front-line Workers and first responders who were exposed to and contracted COVID-19, there will be a rebuttable presumption that the exposure and contraction of the virus arose out of and was in the course of their employment, and that the disease was causally related to their employment – meaning it will be presumed that it was contracted at work, and no further proof will be necessary. This ...

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 carried 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 in March 2019 ...

Workplace injuries are commonplace in our country, regardless of industry or occupation. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, there were over 2.8 million workplace injuries reported in the United States in 2019. Included in that number are over 5,000 fatal injuries and over 850,000 nonfatal injuries that caused a worker to miss at least one day of work. The most common types of workplace injuries are overexertion, falls/slips/trips, contact with objects or machinery, workplace violence, and transportation accidents.

Workplace injuries can happen for a number of reasons ...

Imagine hearing that your once healthy two-year-old has lead poisoning, which may have caused permanent brain damage. It is every parent’s worst nightmare, and a nightmare one of our clients is currently living. When you hear this terrible news, the first question you may ask is how did this happen? How was my child exposed to lead? Will he ever be back to normal? How could this have been prevented?

Lead-based paint was widely used in the United States because of its durability. In 1972, the federal government banned the manufacture and consumer use of lead-based house paint after ...

The Third Dist. IL Appellate court decision, Armstead v. National Freight, Inc. (2020 IL App (3d) 170777), may have significant ramifications for Workers’ Compensation (WC)practitioners (and Pro Se claimants) because the court held that Plaintiff’s personal injury (3rd party) claim was barred by collateral estoppel based on the description of the injuries in the Pennsylvania WC settlement contract.

Here, the Plaintiff agreed that his injury was a “right knee strain” and did not list all other claimed injuries that he may claim in the Personal Injury case. To my ...

Romanucci & Blandin is proud to share that the firm was ranked among the top 10 law firms in Illinois, settling cases totaling $38,850,000 between July 2019 and June 2020. The news was published in Chicago Lawyer Magazine’s 2020 Settlement Report, which shares the results from the Jury Verdict Reporter’s annual analysis.

This year’s report features 118 firms with settlements of $500,000 or more between July 2019 and June 2020. According to Chicago Lawyer, thanks to COVID-19, which closed the courts, the number of settlements in the 2020 Jury Verdict Reporter Settlement Report ...

You have suffered an unjustified wrong, and after researching, you find: “I’m not the only one.” Immediately, the phrase “class action” comes to mind. However, that is not the only legal path to justice, and in some cases, a class action does not make sense; a mass tort does, instead. So what is a class action, and why do some cases get filed as class actions while others do not?

A class action is a type of lawsuit in which one person or group of people (the class representative(s)) represents the rights of others (the class members) who were victims of a similar wrong and suffered ...

More than 250,000 people die every year in the United States due to medical mistakes, according to a 2016 study by Johns Hopkins, making those mistakes the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer. For patients who are victims of medical mistakes, there are strict time limits in each state for filing a lawsuit. These are known as statutes of limitation and statutes of repose. If a lawsuit is not filed within these time limits, it can be dismissed, even if it is otherwise valid. The specific statute of limitations, in any case, will depend on the facts and circumstances of ...

With everyone staying closer to home this summer, it’s important to be aware of the dangers at/on playgrounds and other common places that could cause children to be injured. Stay safe this summer by following our proposed safety guidelines below:

• Adult Supervision
  • Adult Supervision is a MUST. Young children are not always able to measure distances and have difficulty foreseeing dangerous situations.
• Playground Design Safety
  • The most important factors in evaluating the safety of any playground are proper surface, design and spacing, and equipment inspection and maintenance.

The team at Romanucci & Blandin, like all of our law firm peers, has been navigating this incredible time by adapting to work from home, continuing to advocate for our clients and keep our staff connected.

With the Governor of Illinois now moving us into the next stage of recovery, we are all trying to plan for the re-opening of our offices while keeping people distanced and healthy yet productive. At R&B, we have created a Return to Office model that we feel accomplishes all of those goals by using a staff rotation, allowing some team members to continue to work fully remote and installing ...

The economic devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic is cratering the restaurant and retail sectors, where the necessary government shutdown for non-essential businesses has quickly crippled thousands of companies.

Unlike many other businesses that have a robust online component, restaurants are in-person experiences and are all about sharing: sharing a physical space, being served by wait staff who handle your plates and beverages, and eating food prepared by others. The social distancing guidelines have made all of that impossible, and even restaurants that remain open for ...

In these unprecedented times, many people are struggling with both the loneliness of the stay-at-home order and the fear of an uncertain world and an unknown health threat. In these challenging times, many wellness experts and other gurus share their views on how to get through dark times. However, a truly inspiring perspective comes from someone who has known even greater isolation and fear, during more than twenty years in solitary confinement in prison.

Anthony Gay was released in 2018 after more than two decades in a cell the size of a parking spot with nearly complete absence of ...

I write to let you know about a positive development for many workers who have been on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic and have contracted the virus. For many of those COVID-19 first responders and front-line workers, there is the real possibility that they could have been exposed to the virus in the course of their work, and now the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission has acknowledged that risk and will allow those workers to more easily obtain benefits under the IL Workers’ Compensation Act (the Act). It’s important to note that during this pandemic, the ...

Dear friends and clients,

Here at Romanucci & Blandin, LLC, we are meeting this extraordinary time with both confidence and measured caution. We have taken substantial steps to ensure that the spread of the COVID-19 will be limited in its effects of any contamination on our team. We wanted to share with you the leadership steps we have taken to ensure the continuity of our important work on your behalf.

In accordance to the guidelines set by the CDC, our office will shift to full remote work beginning later today. Our superior office and communications technology, resilience and the ...

There have been promising developments in recent months for anyone involved in a workers’ compensation (WC) case in Illinois. WC attorneys are pleased to see so many needed and overdue resources added to speed the resolution of more WC cases in the state. The appointment of new arbitrators and an enhanced document-handling process will deliver greater efficiency and more prompt conclusions for parties.  

Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission (IWCC) arbitrators conduct judicial hearings, render awards and decisions, and approve settlement contracts in accordance with ...

The cost of the tragic 737 MAX continues to increase, with Boeing bleeding money to get it back in the air. Beyond dollars, Boeing has lost consumers’ confidence, who will forever be wary of putting themselves or their loved ones on a 737 MAX, regardless of how safe the company claims it is. 

Boeing CEO David L. Calhoun needs to simply stop. Focus efforts on repairing your corporate culture, which, according to recent memos, is at best broken and, at worst, corrupt. Go back to go forward. Earlier 737 models have a solid safety record, which businesses, individuals and economies around the ...

For over 30 years, I have been fighting for victims of catastrophic neglect and misconduct. In the last decade, we have seen a tripling of cases in the medical neglect arena - doctors, nurses, and health systems making repeated life-and-death mistakes, leaving babies, children, and adults permanently and unnecessarily harmed. Research has shown that medical negligence is now the third leading cause of death in the United States. 

A case we recently settled exposed some of that negligence in the healthcare ecosystem that ultimately cost a young mother her life. With the case now ...

On Friday, June 7, 2019, Antonio M. Romanucci, Founding Partner at Romanucci & Blandin, LLC, was installed as the 66th President of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association (ITLA) at its annual convention at the JW Marriott Chicago.

Since 1995, Romanucci has been an active member of ITLA. He was elected to the Board of Managers in 2003 and has served on ITLA’s Executive Committee and Nominating Committee.

“As a trial attorney, it is my life’s mission to make a difference in the lives of my clients while changing society to better protect us all. If it weren’t for instrumental ...

A new study from the Booth School at the University of Chicago estimates that ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft have become significant contributors to the rise in fatal traffic accidents. They are not only increasing street congestion and hurting transit companies, but are also killing people.

An article from Streetsblog notes that the increase in congestion is partly due to drivers spending 40 to 60 percent of their time circling without passengers, known as “deadheading.” Uber and Lyft have increased traffic deaths by 2-3 percent nationally, which is 1,100 ...

Romanucci & Blandin, LLC is proud to be recognized in the 2017 annual list of “Top 100” verdicts, released by VerdictSearch and ALM. The firm’s record-breaking $44.7 million jury verdict in LaPorta v. City of Chicago is ranked as #42 on this year’s list of highest verdicts throughout the nation.

In October of 2017, the jury impaneled before U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber issued its verdict, finding Chicago Police Officer Patrick Kelly responsible for shooting Romanucci & Blandin client, Michael LaPorta, and the City responsible for failing to investigate its ...

When the term “civil rights” is invoked, many think of images of Martin Luther King, Jr., standing at the forefront of a street march, protesting, or at a podium challenging the leaders of this country for equality and inclusion. However, the reality is that civil rights is far older than MLK, and from its genesis, it has evolved into something far more prevalent, which dominates today’s news headlines.

How many times do you think you have recited the Pledge of Allegiance? Surely, in the hundreds, if not the thousands, of times. How many times have you said the words “and liberty ...

Having recently crossed the 30-year line as a practicing attorney and staying committed throughout my career representing only criminal defendants and victims injured through the wrongs of others, I have learned quite a bit about our city streets, both literally and figuratively. Coupled with my love of politics and the fact that I have lived and worked in Chicago almost my entire life, I feel viscerally connected to the city I love and the one I call home.

Because I am now considered old by law school grads and anyone under the age of 40, many of these young lawyers come to me for counseling ...