While many Chicago and Illinois drivers obey traffic laws and are focused on driving safely, there are other drivers who may not prioritize traffic laws and how they keep others safe. When irresponsible drivers break traffic laws, they can potentially harm others in devastating accidents. In these situations, those who were wrongfully injured may look into pursing a car accident claim with an attorney.

The Illinois Vehicle Code lists the various types of driving offenses and their corresponding penalties, but there are five significant laws that Illinois drivers typically break. We’re going to take a look at those laws and what can happen when drivers break those laws.

Parents and guardians always want to make sure their child is safely secured in their car seat before driving. However, some may not know the Illinois booster seat laws that determine what type of equipment your child needs and which direction they should face while in the vehicle. If a collision occurs, a child that is incorrectly secured could sustain severe injuries.

If your child has been injured in a car accident, it’s important to know that there are people who may be able to help you get justice. The lawyers at Thomas Law Offices in Chicago understand that you’re going through a difficult time. When you need someone to speak up for you or a loved one, our lawyers are there for you.

When people need to have a surgical procedure, they’ll likely think they need to have it at the hospital. Then, they’ll probably need to stay there until they’re cleared to go home. This isn’t always the case. Now, people can have procedures at a surgery center and possibly be home within hours after the procedure is done. While this seems like a solution to giving patients the surgeries they need and allowing them to get back home as soon as possible, there are many risks involved with these establishments.

In Aug. 2017, a 45-year-old teacher, Aimee Palmitessa, was arrested and charged with 12 felonies related to having sex with a minor. She taught at Brentwood School in Los Angeles, California, a $44,000 per year private academy. She was known in the school to flirt with male students and make inappropriate jokes. The specific relationship she was arrested for started in 2016 with student John Doe. She first sexually assaulted him in 2017 when he was 17 and the relationship escalated from there. Other than being a minor, he was also unable to consent because the teacher-student relationship contains a power dynamic. When the school found out, she was placed on administrative leave, but the head of the school, Michael Riera, minimized allegations to parents at the school.

John Doe sued the school in Aug. 2018 in Los Angeles County Superior Court for failing to protect him by ignoring the warning signs of her behavior long before he was in her classroom. The 33-page lawsuit included the details of her grooming and assaulting Doe. But the lawsuit quickly went away from public eye from the loophole of forced arbitration.

Forced arbitration is a legal process that keeps a lawsuit from going to the public courts with juries. Instead, the case is handled privately by a disinterested third party. Unlike public court, any information from the case is not released to the public. These cases usually rule in favor of the employer or company, or in this circumstance, JPMorgan Chase.

JPMorgan Chase is trying to reintroduce a forced arbitration clause they got rid of ten years ago. They agreed to temporarily drop the clause after a class-action lawsuit in 2009 that argued large banks work together to force customers into arbitration. Chase continued with the lift on the clause into 2016 because the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued rules that prohibited mandatory arbitration for financial products, including credit cards. In a way, CFPB agreed with the 2009 ruling: consumers deserve their day in court. But in 2017, President Trump overturned the rules. Now, 72% of banks use arbitration clauses. According to Patricia Wexler, a JPMorgan spokesperson, arbitration is already “standard practice” for their consumer banking and auto loan business, and so they want to extend the policy to their credit card accounts.