U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
Recent News About U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
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Five Guys embroiled in legal battle with architect firm over restaurant design rights
Burger joint Five Guys is embroiled in a legal battle with an architectural firm over whether the restaurant had the right to reuse the firm’s copyrighted designs for locations outside of its contract. -
Judge: Ex-O'Hare cops can keep suing city over aviation police disbanding following United passenger dragging
A federal judge has let the state off the hook in a class action complaint airport police officers filed after a high-profile incident with a passenger, but the city of Chicago wasn’t able to earn a full dismissal. -
Trial lawyers: EPA admission of fault in Sterigenics emissions measuring won't matter to lawsuits vs company
As federal environmental regulators reassess their controversial measurements of emissions from the Sterigenics plant in Willowbrook, a group of lawyers representing Willowbrook residents are continuing unfazed in their lawsuits against the company, based largely on findings in a federal report that relied heavily on the allegedly faulty data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. -
Sterigenics: Lawsuits asking courts to rewrite federal clean air rules, based on a 'flawed' report
Saying plaintiffs are asking the courts to essentially rewrite federal environmental laws and regulatory rules based on a single report issued by a federal agency relying on faulty data, medical device sterilizer Sterigenics has asked a federal judge to corral a stampede of lawsuits that have hit the courts in recent weeks amid a blizzard of media reports asserting the company’s use of a key sterilizing agent at its facility in suburban Willowbrook could cause cancer. -
Exotic dancers sue Ocean’s Gentleman’s Club for allegedly unpaid wages, classifying them as contractors
Female exotic dancers are suing a Bedford Park nightclub where they performed, alleging the Ocean’s Gentleman’s Club improperly classified them as independent contractors and illegally withheld wages and tips. -
Federal appeals judges: 'Politics in politics' did not violate rights of GOP state senator who challenged Rauner
The U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals determined Illinois Senate Republican leaders didn’t violate a caucus member’s rights by stripping him of duties after he mounted a third-party gubernatorial challenge. -
Federal judge OKs addition of local store employee to lawsuit vs Home Depot over saw blade accident
A man injured by a circular saw blade in an alleged accident during a home improvement project has won the right to take his lawsuit against retailer Home Depot back to Cook County court after a federal judge cut up Home Depot's attempt to stop the plaintiff from adding one of its local store employees as a defendant, ending the retailer's bid to keep the matter in federal court. -
City fights back vs effort to block Obama Center, says plan legally sound, will benefit Jackson Park
The city of Chicago is defending its plan to build the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park, against a court challenge, saying the group behind the challenge is on soggy legal ground in seeking an injunction by contending the park was once under Lake Michigan and so is protected from development. -
Appeals panel orders hearing on 'pro objectors' Bandas, Thut, attempt to secure payoff from Edelson class action
Two lawyers, described as “professional objectors” to class action settlements, will need to face a hearing and perhaps state disciplinary action, over their alleged attempt to secure a payoff, as a state appeals panel said they had essentially hidden behind a narrow interpretation of a court rule to deflect attempts to sanction them for taking “advantage of a situation described as ‘murky’ and with ‘unpredictable’ or ‘sporadic’ enforcement” to win potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time from other lawyers seeking to close the deal on their own million dollar paydays. -
Judge: Housing groups must show more to back home repair discrimination claims vs Deutsche Bank, others
A federal judge has halted, for now, a lawsuit in which fair housing advocates accused Deutsche Bank of trying to lower property values in minority neighborhoods. -
Judge refuses to shut down racial discrimination class action vs Chicago water department
Judge refuses to shut down racial discrimination class action vs Chicago water department -
Chicago property manger JLL: Ex-tenants can't sue for forcing them to use union labor; allowed under NLRA
The management company that oversees a number of Loop office buildings is saying a suit by an ex-tenant, which alleged the company made them use union rather than cheaper non-union labor for renovations and other work, is groundless, because federal labor laws allow for such union-only conditions. -
Pritzker lawyers: Campaign workers' discrimination lawsuit long on 'overheated rhetoric,' short on facts
Lawyers for the campaign of Governor-elect JB Pritzker have responded to a lawsuit brought by a group of Pritzker campaign workers, in which they accuse campaign officials of racial discrimination and other charges, saying the lawsuit suffers from a lack of “well-pleaded factual allegations” and so should be dismissed. -
Judge sacks suit claiming McDonald’s late night drive-thru-only policy discriminates against visually impaired
A Chicago federal judge has fried a disability discrimination suit by a North Carolina man with visual impairments, saying the man’s lawsuit didn’t offer enough specifics to establish McDonald’s policy of only serving late night customers from its drive-up windows actually discriminated against him or others with visual impairments who cannot drive at night. -
Judge nixes P.I.'s bid to unseal Alvarez deposition, other evidence in Alstory Simon wrongful conviction case
A private investigator who was a central figure in a prominent wrongful murder conviction case has lost a bid to persuade a judge to unseal the video recorded deposition of former Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez and other evidence, as he pursues a defamation lawsuit of his own against the county’s ex-chief prosecutor. -
Judge: IL A/G's pro-union statements don't disqualify her from defending vs union lawsuit over fees
A federal judge has determined a state employee — notable for his public anti-union stances — can’t intervene on behalf of the state in a lawsuit it faces from a union leader asking courts to declare unions aren’t obligated to represent employees who refuse to pay membership dues. -
Appeals panel: Federal judge can't order Cook Courts Clerk to provide immediate access to new lawsuits
A federal appeals panel has tossed out a Chicago federal judge’s order requiring Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown to provide immediate public access to all civil lawsuits filed in the county, saying the judge was wrong to intervene in the matter both because the state courts had not been given the chance to weight in and because the appellate judges doubted delaying access to filed lawsuits violated anyone’s constitutional rights. -
Discrimination lawsuit expanded vs Pritzker campaign, accuses Lt. Gov-elect Stratton of defamation
On the same day Illinois voters by wide margins selected Democrat JB Pritzker to be the state’s next governor, and his running mate, Democratic State Rep. Juliana Stratton, to serve as lieutenant governor, a group of Pritzker campaign workers added Pritzker and Stratton as individual defendants in a discrimination lawsuit the workers brought in the closing days of the gubernatorial campaign, particularly targeting Stratton for allegedly defaming the campaign workers behind the suit as “extortionists.” -
Judge OKs employment discrimination lawsuit, despite plaintiff's failure to list lawsuit on bankruptcy filing
A federal judge will allow a man to continue pushing an employment discrimination lawsuit despite his failure to list the possible proceeds from the lawsuit in an unrelated bankruptcy filing. -
Judge rejects collector's try to dismiss class action over robocalls following notice of legal representation
A federal judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit brought against a debt collector, saying the plaintiff could continue with the action accusing the collector of wrongly placing collection calls to him, even after he had sent a fax telling them he was represented by a lawyer.