The Illinois Personal Injury Weblog of Schaeffer & Lamere P.C.

Introducing Our Partners

We'd like to introduce you to the two Schaeffer & Lamere partners -- Evan Schaeffer and Andrea Lamere. If you'd like to learn about their backgrounds, we've posted information on the S&L website. Just follow these links to learn more about Evan Schaeffer or Andrea Lamere.

Credit Repair Firms in Missouri

In Missouri, it's illegal for "credit repair services" to charge in advance for their services. As a result, Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon recently ordered Magic Credit Repair in St. Louis to refund almost $6,000 to 27 customers it charged in advance.

For more information, see "Nixon orders St. Louis business to repay customers," in the St. Louis Business Journal.

Robert Wadlow, World's Tallest Man

As roadsideamerica.com puts it, "His name was Robert Wadlow, and he stood 8' 11" tall -- the BIGGEST man who ever lived." This is a picture of the statue commemorating Wadlow in Alton, Illinois. Here's more:

Wadlow was born in Alton in 1918, a normal-size baby, but soon his perky pituitary gland triggered abnormal growth. At the age of 13, already 7 ft. 4 in., he was proclaimed the world's biggest Boy Scout. And he kept getting bigger....

If you're in Alton, don't miss the statue! It's on College Avenue across from the Alton Museum of History and Art.

Better Business Bureau

Need to contact the Better Business Bureau? Here's the link that will take you to the website for the BBB of Eastern Missouri and Southern Illinois.

Democratic Candidates: How They Feel About Limiting Your Rights

An interesting article by Anothony J. Sebok of findlaw.com explores how each of the Democratic candidates for President views the issue of "tort reform," which means imposing limitations on an injured person's right to seek compensation in court. Titled "Issues of Civil Justice and Tort Reform: What Role Will They Play in the Democratic Primaries?," the article examines the views on tort reform held by Howard Dean, John Edwards, John Kerry, and Wesley Clark.

Tips for Buying a Car

Buying a car? We stumbled across a very useful article called "Confessions of a Car Salesman," posted at edmunds.com.

It's a long article, but also very interesting. If you want to skip directly to the section of the article that summarizes the writer's tips for negotiating with car salesmen, click here.

Thanks to boing boing for the link.

Beware of Spam-Scams

Here's some news about e-mail scams in an article from the Oregonian, "E-mail scams seek personal information," by Noelle Crombie:

Jan Margosian, a spokeswoman for the [Oregon] attorney general, said the office has received several complaints about ... scams in recent days. She said that in the past year, e-mail scams have grown more sophisticated, with some scammers using elaborate Web sites that resemble bank sites.

She said scammers are looking for personal information, including Social Security numbers, credit card or account numbers. Often, the schemes fold quickly, making it almost impossible to find the people behind them, Margosian said.

The moral: Be extremely skeptical of unsolicited e-mails seeking personal information.

The Dangers of Mini-Blinds

Most parents are aware that mini-blinds and window cords pose a serious risk to babies and toddlers. Yet one can never be too careful, as this article illustrates: "Young children still being strangled by blinds," by Erin Holmes, Daily Herald. The article states, in part:

For years, corded blinds have topped the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission household hazards list, but the mainstream cautions largely are limited to the dangers of the pull-cord, which can get wrapped around a child's neck.

And even as the death toll climbs - at least 12 children are strangled by blinds each year - pediatricians and others on the front lines of parenting say too many people are unaware of the dangers of the inner cords that killed Lara.

The full article offers more information about the hazard. For information direct from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, see here.

"The Tort Reform Scam"

Here's an interesting opinion piece arguing that the big business lobby uses scare tactics to further its agenda of tort "reform" -- "The Tort Reform Scam," by John David Rose. Mr. Rose offers this explanation for the high cost of medical malpractice insurance premiums for doctors:

True, insurance companies have increased premiums. But the real reason for astronomical rate increases is not an explosion of lawsuits and sky-high jury awards.

When the stock market tanked in 2001, so did insurance company profits. They'd been making a ton of money investing "loss reserves" in the booming, pre-Bush stock market.

When the bubble burst, they raised their rates to keep investors happy.

There is related commentary in today's Edwardsville Intelligencer: "I-Law to post candidates' views," by Norma Mendoza. In this article, a Madison County lawyer, Richard Burke, explained that all those things we've been hearing about out-of-control jury verdicts against doctors in Madison County is false:

"Yes, there is a health care problem, a number of problems," Burke said. "The most obvious answer is [doctors] cannot afford the malpractice rates. When you ask why are they so high, they say, 'Too many lawsuits.' How many is too many and what is too high? Since 1996, there have only been 11 malpractice cases that resulted in verdicts, seven for the doctors and four for the patients. The biggest was $1.7 million which is not very big."

The other three verdicts awarded the patients $450,000, $75,000 and $25,000 in separate cases.

"Why do they assume that jurors don't know how to interpret the facts and evidence?" Burke said. "They are full of everyone, all kinds of people on them. Or is it just an attack on the judiciary?"

Burke said the reason malpractice premiums are high in this area is because this is the most heavily populated area in the Southern part of the state and has more hospitals and doctors than nearly any city south of Chicago.

He said the principle behind insurance has always been that the people who don't have claims must pay for the people who do, but the medical insurers in Illinois don't operate that way. The physicians in counties with smaller numbers don't want to pay for the claims in Madison County and thus it is up to the physicians in the county to pay.

Illinois Personal Injury Lawyers

If you are looking for an Illinois personal injury lawyer or information about personal injury cases, we invite you to take a look at Schaeffer & Lamere's Personal Injury FAQ, which is contained on our firm website.

If you are new to this site, this is a "weblog" or "blog" for consumers and clients of our law firm, Schaeffer & Lamere, P.C. You are welcome to browse through the entries (which we update every day) for news of interest to consumers, including information about the Illinois and federal "no call" lists and the new Illinois traffic laws.

If you came here through Google or another search engine, you may see a link at the top titled "Main." You can follow this link to the main part of the weblog. If you don't have time to look around now, please come back!