While federal law bars the city of Chicago and other local governments from slapping taxes on homes acquired by federal home mortgage lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the law does nothing to stop such cities from merely passing on those tax bills to the people who later buy the property from Fannie or Freddie, a federal appeals panel says.
The California-based Animal Legal Defense Fund wants a judge to force Cook County to release information on the county’s animal control department, asserting the county is intentionally withholding a report from the public the group believes likely contains more information about operations at county animal control than what was revealed in a released summary of the report from the county’s inspector general.
A class action suit accusing the maker of herbal supplements of not including enough herbs in their supplements will be allowed to continue, in part, after a federal judge agreed only to dismiss certain elements of the lawsuit against Nature’s Bounty.
A federal judge has bulldozed a lawsuit against Caterpillar, which accused the Peoria-based heavy equipment manufacturer of discriminating against its older workers when it eliminated a supplemental unemployment benefit program for workers laid off at its plant in Joliet.
A Chicago federal judge has boxed up a class action antitrust suit against two containerboard companies, which alleged the companies conspired to fix prices, saying plaintiffs may have raised prices and cut production, but defendants failed to show the acts were part of a scheme and not simply reactions to the market.
A beleaguered Chicago lawyer scored a win in his attempt to fend off claims he should pay for wrongly using a jury note to wrest a $25 million personal injury settlement on the cusp of losing at trial, as a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit brought by the boatmaker he had sued, saying the boatmaker couldn’t demonstrate its rights had been violated.
A state appeals panel has sided with several insurance companies facing class action complaints from a Chicago-based medical practice specializing in treating neck and back injuries as part of worker compensation claims, saying the clinic has no right under the law to demand insurers pay interest on slow-arriving reimbursements.
Saying the basis for the suit has been amputated by Illinois’ highest court, NorthShore University Health System is asking a Cook County judge to dismiss a class-action suit, which demanded hospitals be made to pay back Illinois property taxpayers who have allegedly overpaid because, the plaintiffs allege, the state’s hospitals have wrongly enjoyed tax-exempt status.
A federal judge has burned off two of three counts in a class action complaint facing Dollar General over claims the retailer’s aloe vera cooling gel didn’t actually contain aloe vera.
The owners of two groups operating many of the video gambling establishments in strip malls and other locations across Illinois have sued the Illinois Gaming Board, arguing one board policy and two provisions of the state’s 2009 Video Gaming Act are unconstitutionally depriving them of the chance to negotiate better business deals for a larger share of the revenue they generate.
A group of steel makers, led by Chicago-based ArcelorMittal USA, have beaten down a class-action antitrust lawsuit filed by more than a dozen consumers, who alleged the companies schemed to raise prices for goods made with steel, by pointing out the consumers were too far down the distribution line from the steel manufacturers to claim losses.
A Chicago federal judge has moved to formally block the attempted merger between Advocate and NorthShore, two of the Chicago area’s largest hospital operators, granting federal regulators’ request for an injunction and likely scuttling the merger.
A Chicago federal judge has signed off on a $4.25 million settlement to end years of litigation between financial investment firm Northern Trust Co. and a host of public worker retirement plans in Chicago and elsewhere in the U.S. over claims Northern Trust’s allegedly risky investment decisions had led to hundreds of millions of dollars in losses for the retirement programs when markets crashed at the onset of the Great Recession.
Chicago lawyer Mark McNabola, already being sued by his ex-client - a man left paralyzed from a 2009 boating accident who claims the attorney’s use of jury note, improperly shared by a court clerk, cost him a $25 million settlement - has been hit with another lawsuit, this time from the yacht maker they had sued and who now allege the lawyer should also be made to pay for using the jury note to cost them a verdict from a jury poised to hand the company a courtroom win. The suit also names Cook C
A woman injured in a 2012 car crash has dropped her lawsuit against an Evanston-based medical practice, after a judge signed off on a settlement agreement ending the putative class action litigation in which she had accused the doctors at the practice of wrongly slapping liens on patients in an attempt to collect more than they should under agreements with health insurers.
A group of about 5,500 manufacturers, metal fabricators and others who bought steel from eight American steelmakers about a decade ago have announced a $30 million deal with three of those mill operators – a settlement the parties intend would cap off a massive antitrust class action lawsuit accusing the steelmakers of manipulating supply to boost prices for their steel products.
The city of Chicago should not be allowed to sidestep laws barring cities from collecting taxes on real estate sold by federal mortgage lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by simply passing on the tax bills to those buying the properties from Fannie and Freddie, a federal judge has ruled.
In the wake of a deadlock at the U.S. Supreme Court, letting stand a federal appeals court’s ruling that public unions can compel workers not represented by unions to pay so-called “fair share” fees in lieu of union dues, a Chicago federal judge has tossed a lawsuit brought by several Illinois state workers, similarly challenging the union’s payroll deductions.
NorthShore University Health System will need to continue to defend itself against a class action antitrust lawsuit, after a federal judge ruled a group of patients and health insurers were not years too late in bringing their legal action over NorthShore’s decision to allegedly jack up its rates nearly 16 years ago following its acquisition of Highland Park Hospital.