Civil Lawsuit Filed in Sexual Assault Case

Pfaff & Gill, Ltd. recently filed a lawsuit on behalf of a young woman who was injured at a Michigan campground when a man entered the showers at the camp and sexually assaulted her. Following the events at the campground, the man was arrested, charged, and later sentenced to a year of prison. The defendants in the lawsuit include the local group that organized and supervised the outing for negligent supervision and for their role in allowing the man to attend the camp. The owner of the campground was also named a defendant for failing to provide proper security and locking devices on the women's showers.

The case is pending in the Circuit Court of Cook County and seeks compensatory damages for the young woman. For more information, please contact Matt Ports at Pfaff & Gill, Ltd.

Wrongful Death Lawsuit Filed in Stem Cell Cardiac Injection Case

Pfaff & Gill, Ltd. recently amended their lawsuit arising out of the wrongful death of a 74-year-old gentleman who died at Rush University Medical Center. The amended complaint claims that investigational protocol 24779 was negligently developed by Baxter Healthcare Corporation, with the collaboration of Johnson & Johnson subsidiaries. The subsidiaries supplied products used in the protocol.

During the course of the June 6, 2007 procedure, the patient's left coronary vein was lacerated, apparently by the MyoStar injection catheter developed by the J & J subsidiaries. The patient died after the laceration caused cardiac tamponade and arrest.

The case is pending in the Circuit Court of Cook County and seeks compensatory damages for the patient's surviving wife and their children.

For further information on the case, please contact Bruce Pfaff at Pfaff & Gill, Ltd.

Giving Back

Photo: Christy Belue, second from left, on Friday June 5th, at the plaza at NBC-5 Chicago,

with other volunteers promoting Chicago Cares' upcoming Serve-A-Thon.

Around the Pfaff & Gill office, we call her the goddess of scheduling. But when legal assistant, Christy Belue, isn’t busy working her magic on behalf of the firm, or busy raising her three sons, or giving blood, or donating a kidney, she takes pride and pleasure in giving back to the Chicago community. Through Chicago Cares, the city’s premier volunteer organization, Christy found SOS Children’s Villages Illinois. At the urban village, located on Chicago’s Southside, SOS provides a viable alternative to traditional foster care. Children that are orphaned, abandoned, neglected, or abused, live together with their siblings in private homes.

“At SOS, they attempt to keep large families of foster children together,” says Christy. “I volunteer twice a month (at the Village). I spend an evening reading to 3-6 year old children. During the first half hour of this program volunteers read with children and the second half hour the volunteers work on a related craft with the children. I believe I get more out of it than the children. It’s so they can have some one-on-one attention for an hour; for one hour they are the center of one adult’s attention.”

Chicago Cares is the city's premier volunteer organization. The organization provides opportunities for individuals and businesses to improve the Chicago community through participation in creative, structured group volunteer programs that address Chicago's most pressing needs. This coming Saturday, June 13, 2009, is Chicago Cares’ 16th Annual Serve-A-Thon. To learn more about how you can take part in this citywide day of service, click here.

“My son, Jamal and I are going to be roadies Saturday morning, since we can’t commit to the entire day. We are going to welcome and check-in volunteers, hand out lunches, usher, distribute goody bags, help with buses and direct traffic. I’m sure it’s going to be fun! And this way I get to spend some time with my middle boy.”

Visit us at http://www.pfaffgill.com/ to find out more about some of the other charities and community service organizations we support.

Bruce Pfaff co-author of article in CBA Record

In May 2009, the CBA Record, the monthly journal of the Chicago Bar Association, published a scholarly article by Bruce Pfaff, co-authored by defense trial lawyer John Stalmack and Kent Law Professor Nancy Marder. The article is entitled "The Right to Submit Questions to Jurors," and makes a strong case for trial judges in Illinois to permit jurors to submit written questions for witnesses to answer. In current Illinois practice, it is rare for jurors to get the chance to submit questions. The authors feel that this should change. After a witness is questioned by the lawyers, jurors should be given the chance to submit written questions which are then reviewed by the court. If the questions are appropriate, the judge reads them to the witness and the jury is given the information they need to decide the case.

For article reprints, please contact tdaley at pfaffgill dot com

Not All Work in May

Bruce Pfaff was part of the winning Texas Scramble team at the Royal Dornoch Golf Club in Dornoch, Scotland on May 24. Bruce had the pleasure of teaming with the club's Captain, Jim Campbell, far left, the incomparable Sue, and Jamie Pfaff, his college golf teammate, far right. The team's gross score was 63 and they had a net 58.4, defeating a foursome from London by half a shot.