Recently “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 ...

In 2019, more than 36,000 people died in motor vehicle collisions in the United States^[1]. Then, in March of 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic shut the country down and had 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 ...

Someone who experiences sexual violence, assault or harassment in the workplace will now have a powerful choice in how their claim is resolved, thanks to a new law passed by both houses of Congress in February of 2022. Instead of mandating a survivor must have their complaint resolved in an arbitration with their employer, those victims can now choose to have their case heard in court, in front of a jury of their peers. The passage of the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act follows years of vigorous advocacy from organizations like the American ...

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 ...

Bhavani Raveendran was named Partner of the firm in 2021 and brings both a keen intelligence and a passion for civil rights to her work. Bhavani has a long and growing list of success for clients, including being a key contributor to the historic $27 million settlement for the family of George Floyd. She is also proud of justice secured for others who have endured civil rights violations or experienced sexual abuse. Bhavani leads the Romanucci & Blandin civil rights team and works closely with Founding Partner Antonio Romanucci as well as Ben Crump of Ben Crump Law and other co-counsel.

She ...

Listen here

Listen here

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 ...