Recently in Personal Injury Law and Process Category

The next time you step into a McDonald's, you may notice the crisp smell of apples wafting in the air along with the smells from French fries, McFlurries, cheese burgers, and chicken nuggets. McDonald's has announced that they are going to step up the sale of apples as part of Happy Meals, perhaps due to the Happy Meal lawsuit.

According to the Daily Herald, McDonald's customers can currently order apples with their Happy Meals. However, only 11 percent of customers are doing so. Instead, the vast majority of customers still opt for French fries to go along with their cheese burgers. But now, in an effort to make the apple option more appealing, McDonald's plans to offer a half-order of apples to go along with a half-order fries, so that customers will no longer have to choose between the two. Customers can still order all fries or all apples if they want.

In a civil suit filed by an African-American family against the city of Chicago and two police officers, a man was removed from the jury in the middle of the trial. During proceedings in federal court, the city's lawyers found that he failed to mention his arrest record during jury selection, according to Chicago Breaking News.

The attorneys had been suspicious when the man appeared to smile during voir dire while he said he had never been arrested by Chicago police. The lawyers also noticed the juror nodding in agreement when the plaintiff's attorney presented their side of the case. They eventually asked the Law Department to check the juror's background, and records revealed he had been arrested 8 times.

Chicago entrepreneurs Kevin Wielgus and Angelo Rago have created a new website called JabberJury.com. According to the ABA Journal, the site provides an opportunity for individuals to settle their personal disputes and problems before an online jury of their peers.

The idea came about after Rago resolved an argument he had with his girlfriend about whether she had the right to be mad at him for refusing to visit her father in the hospital. (Her father was suffering from hemorrhoids at the time.) Angelo Rago was apparently able to settle the issue after he asked a few bar patrons to share their views on the dispute.

The Cook County town of Crestwood, accused of secretly pumping contaminated water to homes for more than 20 years, has agreed to pay residents $500,000 to settle one of the class action suits against it, the Chicago Tribune reported. Residents also will get two years of free garbage service, free vehicle stickers and free business licenses as part of the deal.

A 2009 Tribune investigation uncovered the tainted water scheme. State environmental officials told Crestwood officials in the mid-1980s that its well was contaminated with cancer-causing chemicals, but nothing was done.

Two California men claiming they suffered hot butter burns from "exploding" escargot were denied a trial by a recent court ruling, as reported by the San Jose Mercury News. Their lawsuit holding the restaurant responsible for the allegedly dangerous French delicacy was dismissed with prejudice.

Diners Chadwick St. O'Harra and Steve Righetti sued San Rafael restaurant Seafood Peddler last June after their delicately prepared snails allegedly ruptured (i.e. "exploded") and splattered hot garlic butter across their faces and clothing.

Carnival's ill-fated Splendor cruise ship took its 4,500 passengers on what many dubbed the "cruise from hell," as described in a CBS News article and other news articles. A fire broke out and subsequently killed power to the large boat, which was left adrift 200 miles off the Pacific coast near San Diego.

All of the passengers eventually were rescued without any injuries to speak of. But while many of them have pursued lawsuits, a prominent maritime attorney wrote on his law blog that without injury there is no basis for a personal injury case, USA today reported.

There are so many Illinois injury attorneys in the metro Chicago area that there's no reason to feel "stuck" with one who doesn't meet your needs. And despite the widely held belief that clients can't fire their attorneys, Chicago Now's Real Law Blog explains how that just isn't true.

Michael Helfand, the attorney who writes the regular blog, said attorneys tell their clients this lie quite often, saying "it happens all the time in
workers' compensation and personal injury claims and often in criminal cases too."

It happens all the time? That's surely up for debate; but you should know that the attorney is there to represent your interests and works for you. If he or she fails to meet reasonable standards, feel free to shop for another lawyer.

While Halloween is about embracing the scary side of life, there's nothing fun about getting hurt. The Orlando Sentinel culled some pearls of wisdom from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Centers for Disease Control intended to help its readers trick-or-treat safely this weekend.

No one wants to spend the next day meeting with Chicago injury lawyers; so check out the following tips for Halloween safety:

A New York judge's recent ruling on the privacy of material posted on Facebook or MySpace also has nationwide implications. The Suffolk County judge in an injury lawsuit ruled that social network data presumably protected by privacy settings can be accessed and used as evidence in court, according to a Wall Street Journal blog.   

The ruling was based on an interpretation of the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA), which which is in the process of being updated by lawmakers, according to Forbes.

Although an arrest warrant was issued for ex-Bulls player and Chicago native Eddy Curry last month for failing to appear at a court hearing, the Associated Press reported that both parties have agreed to vacate the warrant. He was reprimanded for failing to pay the damages of a lawsuit he lost last year.

Eddy Curry's Chicago injury lawyer, Mark Belongia, said his client and the prevailing plaintiff in the suit have agreed to a payment plan and that he already has made the first installment.