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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Jury declares Abbvie's Androgel didn't cause man's lung clots, Abbvie didn't falsely market medication
After split verdicts in two prior trials over alleged harmful side effects and alleged misleading marketing of its testosterone replacement drug led to questionable verdicts worth more than $140 million each, drugmaker Abbvie has scored a clean win in the latest jury review of a plaintiff’s claims over the promotion and health impacts of Androgel. -
Female ex-instructor sues Moody Bible Institute, says wrongly fired for advocating gender equality
A female ordained minister who served on the faculty at Chicago’s Moody Bible Institute has sued the school for discrimination and retaliation, allegedly because she advocated for women who wanted to pursue careers in ministry. -
Judge: Hispanic ex-IIT manager can't claim Latino employee meetings were protected activities under civil rights law
A Chicago federal judge has delivered a split decision in a lawsuit brought against Chicago's Illinois Institute of Technology by a 63-year-old former administrator at the school, who claimed he was wrongly fired because of his age, because he was Hispanic, and because the school discovered he was organizing meetings with other Latino faculty and staff to discuss Latino issues at the school. -
Federal judge certifies class in dispute over unwanted texts, even though lead plaintiff could land $100K
A Chicago federal judge has allowed a lawsuit over unwanted text messages to continue as a class action, even though the lead plaintiff could be in line to collect more than $100,000 if she were to litigate the matter on her own. -
Mom's T-Mobile contract terms can't force arbitration for son's class action vs Subway over text message ad
A federal appeals panel has reactivated a man’s class action lawsuit against sandwich seller Subway, saying the restaurant chain can’t invoke T-Mobile’s contract to force to arbitration the man’s claims Subway broke federal telecommunications law by sending text messages to T-Mobile users advertising “T-Mobile Tuesday” sandwich deals. -
Franchisee can't sue KFC for restricting marketing of halal fried chicken at Chicago area restaurants
KFC will be allowed to tell a Muslim Chicago area franchisee he is not allowed to advertise the use of halal chicken at his Chicago area restaurants, after a federal judge ruled the fast food chain’s franchise agreements can give the mother brand the power to restrict restaurant owners’ advertising decisions. -
Burr Ridge trucking firm sues ex-lawyers, saying missteps cost millions in Texas motorcycle crash verdict
A Burr Ridge-based trucking company has sued its ex-lawyers for malpractice, asserting they should pay for allegedly mishandling the trucking firm’s defense in a personal injury lawsuit in Texas, resulting in a jury order to pay $32 million. -
Judge cites SCOTUS' Bristol-Myers decision to gut class action over Body Fortress dietary supplement
A Chicago federal judge has relied on the U.S. Supreme Court's recent Bristol Myers Squibb decision to gut a suit against the makers of a dietary supplement, who allegedly made bogus claims about its effectiveness, saying non-Illinois claimants can't participate in a suit in Illinois. -
Student loan holders accuse FedLoan Servicing of mishandling accounts, costing borrowers big bucks
Three Illinoisans have filed a class action complaint accusing student loan lenders of improperly cancelling loan repayment plans, misprocessing applications to income-driven repayment programs and improperly applying delinquency forbearances, causing borrowers to incur interest and potentially pay much more to repay their loans they otherwise should have. -
Chicago chief federal judge: Local federal courts can maintain full functions til Feb. 8, despite shutdown
Should partisan politicial fighting lead to a shutdown of the federal government, as many expect, Chicago’s chief federal district judge says the courts will remain open – for now. -
Southeastern US grocery chain joins court fight vs chicken producers over alleged price collusion
A major grocery chain is the latest company to allege leading poultry producers manipulated chicken prices. Bi-Lo Holdings LLC, which also operates Winn-Dixie Stores Inc., filed a complaint Jan. 12 in federal court in Chicago, alleging producers and related businesses “conspired and combined to fix, raise, maintain, and stabilize the price of” broiler chickens, which constitute roughly 98 percent of all chicken meat sold in the United States. -
Dunkin' Donuts can't sidestep class action over blueberry content in donuts
Dunkin' Donuts will need to try again to poke holes in a lawsuit claiming it deceived consumers about how much blueberry is actually in a blueberry donut, after a Chicago federal judge refused to toss the class action. -
Cook Sheriff: Backpage's fraud accusations vs Dart merely deflection from 'damning' sex trafficking ad evidence
Saying the online classifieds site is merely trying to “deflect” a judge’s attention from its “own fraudulent acts,” the Cook County Sheriff’s Office has asked a federal judge to put a quick end to an attempt by Backpage.com to pin the sheriff for allegedly lying about a CCSO staffer’s job status to protect thousands of documents from disclosure under the auspices of a nonexistent attorney-client relationship. -
Report: Settlement payments to end employment-related class action lawsuits skyrocketed in 2017
Top workplace class action lawsuit settlements skyrocketed by nearly $1 billion in 2017, reaching an overall record high of $2.72 billion after a brief one-year decline, a new report indicates. -
Attorney: Seventh Circuit's decision to OK AmEx settlement giving lawyers more than class members an 'eye-opener'
A decision by a federal appeals court to uphold a settlement awarding attorneys more in fees than was paid to class members in total should serve as an "eye-opener" for the public and businesses concerning the nature of class action litigation in U.S. courts, said a local attorney who defends employers against such suits. -
Judge OKs $29M deal to end class action vs Ascension Health over Wheaton Franciscan pension claims
In the wake of last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that religiously-affiliated hospitals can qualify for exemption from certain federal pension rules, a Chicago federal judge has signed off on a $29 million settlement, designed to end class action litigations against Ascension Health, in which the country’s largest Catholic hospital system was accused of attempting to use the religious exemption improperly to underfund its employees’ retirement plans. -
Judge asked to OK final deal to end suit vs Uber over texts; lawyers to get $6M, class members $103 each
A federal judge has been asked to grant final approval to a $20 million deal to settle a class action lawsuit brought by a group of people who claimed Uber sent them multiple unwanted text messages. Plaintiffs' lawyers would get $6.35 million, while each class member could get $103. -
Church's fired gay music director tries harassment claim to negate church's 'ministerial exception' defense
A man who lost his federal lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Chicago, which claimed the church wrongly fired him from his music director job at a suburban church for marrying another man, is back in court for another try, arguing the church's ministerial exception defense doesn't apply, because the harassment he allegedly suffered was not ecclesiastical in nature. -
Ex-Motor Werks salesman's costly sale of rare Land Rover reason for termination, not age discrimination: Judge
A Chicago federal judge has shown the door to counts of discrimination, interference and retaliation brought against sububran auto dealer Motor Werks of Barrington by a former salesman, who claimed the company wrongly fired him amid a flap over the sale of a rare Land Rover vehicle that cost the dealership money. -
PI counter sues for $25M claiming defamation involving Alstory Simon, Northwestern University saga
Nearly a year after his first attempt to sue was rejected by Chicago federal judge, private investigator Paul Ciolino has returned to court, this time in Cook County, claiming former Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez defamed him, partnered with others to ruin his career and set a murderer free to settle a score with Northwestern University.