Police officers who suffer catastrophic injuries in the line of duty while responding to emergencies are entitled to lifetime health insurance benefits for themselves and their families.  In the case of the Sugar Grove officer, who was married with a child on the way, these benefits were of critical importance.  The Village of Sugar Grove initially denied the benefits based on its absurd conclusion that the officer was not responding to an emergency when he was injured.  The Village ignored the fact the officer’s squad was stopped in the lanes of traffic on Route 47 with emergency light on, and the officer was clearing debris that was an imminent danger to motorists.

A Village of Carpentersville police officer was injured while moving a traffic light that had been knocked down and was blocking Route 31 after a motorist collided with the traffic light pole.  The accident occurred late in the evening, and the officer was assisted by his sergeant.  Foote-Meyers attorney Ryan Theriault represented the officer and obtained a duty disability pension from the Village of Carpentersville Police Pension Board and a significant settlement for the officer’s worker’s compensation claim.  Thereafter, the Village of Carpentersville wrongfully denied without explanation the officer’s rights to lifetime health insurance benefits.

Craig Mielke and Ryan Theriault did not abandon their clients.  They have filed lawsuits against the Village of Sugar Grove and the Village of Carpentersville in the Circuit Court of Kane County to compel the villages to honor their obligations to provide health insurance benefits to disabled police officers.  The cases are pending with hearing dates set for later this summer. Stay tuned for the outcome of these important battles.

“It’s the principle of the thing”   Now there’s a phrase that we’ve all heard and used, and it usually refers to an issue that isn’t earthshakingly important, but a clear case of right versus wrong.

As attorneys, we are often faced with handling matters of principle, as in those small injustices visited upon our clients. They’re rarely issues that involve large amounts of money, but what they do involve are issues of fairness our clients need our help to resolve.

A current case of mine is the perfect example of this. It involves a police officer who was injured and subsequently awarded a line-of-duty disability pension.  However, his employer (a village in Illinois) balked at paying his continuing health insurance premiums. The total amount of money involved is less than $2,500 a year, but the issue is of immense importance to my client.

And to me. I handle quite a few workers’ compensation cases, with many of those involving police officers who have been injured in the line of duty.  Prior to becoming an attorney, I worked for eight years at a large Chicago-area police department, and I have family members who are police officers. It’s safe to say I have a special interest in representing public safety officers.

In this case, the officer’s injury occurred when he responded to an automobile crash.  The vehicle involved had struck a tree, which in turn knocked a traffic signal into the intersection. With the help of a fellow officer, my client attempted to move the fallen signal out of the intersection. Unfortunately, when he did so he suffered a serious injury.

Nearly two years later he was awarded a line-of-duty disability pension by his village’s police pension board. However, his application for health insurance benefits, which because of his disability status, should have been at no cost to him, was denied by the village.

The reason for the denial was in my view a misinterpretation of the statute, but unless challenged it would stand as a final decision. Fighting this meant investing a lot of my time and effort, and winning meant my client wouldn’t have to pay a $212.00 monthly insurance premium. Not exactly the case of the century.

But it was a clear-cut matter of fairness, and I took it on because I felt an injured police officer had been wronged. As these things go, the village has dragged its heels for over a year, but I’m in it until we prevail. Frankly, when that day comes I don’t know who will be more pleased, my client or me.

I have handled cases involving far more serious issues, and I have won awards for clients hundreds of times greater than what’s at stake in this case. However, it’s a case I’ve enjoyed more than most others because it involves an injured police officer, it will right a wrong, and, well, it’s the principle of the thing.

An officer with the Aurora Police Department suffered a serious injury to her knee while exiting her squad car.  The City of Aurora denied Officer Carter’s claim for workers’ compensation benefits, arguing the officer was not exposed to an “increased risk” of injury by the “everyday occurrence” of getting into and out of her squad car.
Attorney Craig S. Mielke took Officer Carter’s case to trial before the Illinois Workers Compensation Commission.  The arbitrator found in favor of Officer Carter based upon evidence that the protective vest and duty belt, including service weapon, worn by police officers creates an increased risk of injury when compared to an ordinary citizen in street clothes exiting the family car.  The arbitrator awarded Officer Carter her medical bills, lost time and a substantial permanent disability settlement.
The City of Aurora was not pleased with the result, and started the lengthy process of reviews and appeals.  Officer Carter won her case again and again: first before the panel of Commissioners on review, than before a circuit court judge, and eventually before the Illinois Appellate Court.

The legal system took two years to uphold Officer Carter’s right to full compensation for her injuries.  Craig S. Mielke and Foote-Meyers took her case all the way, defeating the City of Aurora no less than four times.  They made sure that the City of Aurora paid Officer Carter every penny, plus interest.

If you’re injured on the job, call the experienced attorneys at Foote-Meyers.  Craig S. Mielke, Ryan P. Theriault, and Brian J. Perkins are ready to work for you and take your case all the way.

These and many other questions are answered in  a free booklet available from Foote, Meyers, Mielke & Flowers.

Just call 1-877-221-6333 or e-mail info@foote-meyers.com and we’ll send you this handy pocket guide.

Not knowing your rights can cost you benefits; contact is today!

“He got his bell rung.” “He saw stars.” “He was out of it for awhile”

Familiar phrases we’ve all heard and probably used to describe someone who’s just gotten a blow to the head. One thing all these phrases and many others like them have in common is how they trivialize an injury that is anything but trivial. In my dealings with several clients I’ve come to understand just how serious even the most seemingly mundane head injury can be.

One such client that comes to mind was a police officer in Illinois; a man who’d spent thirteen years in uniform without harm, only to be brought down by a freak incident. The officer and his partner were in their department’s booking room, waiting to process an arrestee. The arrestee became unruly, and began fighting with the partner. When my client attempted to help his partner, he was knocked to the floor and struck his head.

After the fracas was brought under control, my client went to the hospital with concussion like symptoms. Despite his pain, he quickly returned to duty, assuming, as I believe many men do, that he could just “shake it off.” Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to happen, and after a week of half-duty he was diagnosed with post-concussive syndrome. Eventually this condition would be enough to end his career with a duty related disability, but not without a fight with his employer.

Post-concussive syndrome (PCS) is what at one time was called “shell-shock,” the term first given to returning WWI vets who had suffered concussive injuries. Now we realize it is a form of traumatic brain injury, and its effects can last from days to years to a lifetime.

The main PCS symptom is headache. While most people have headaches of the same type they experienced before the injury, people with PCS often report more frequent or longer-lasting headaches. Between 30 and 90% of people treated for PCS report having more headaches than they did before the injury, and between 8 and 32% still report them a year after the injury.

Dizziness, the second most common symptom, occurs in about half of people with PCS and is still present in up to a quarter of them a year after the injury. Older people are at especially high risk for dizziness.

About 10% of people with PCS develop sensitivity to light or noise, about 5% experience a decreased sense of taste or smell, and about 14% have blurred vision. People may also have double vision or ringing in the ears, also called tinnitus. Loss of hearing occurs in 20% of cases. PCS may cause insomnia, fatigue, sleepiness, or other problems with sleep. Other physical symptoms include nausea and vomiting.

For my client, his most serious lingering symptoms still include short-term memory loss and loss of peripheral vision in his right eye. He was diagnosed by three different physicians, and all agreed that, for all intents and purposes, his career as a police officer was over.

Incredibly, this wasn’t enough for the pension board of the municipality who employed him to initially agree to a line of duty disability pension. Although the issue was eventually resolved in my client’s favor, I believe the reluctance of the pension board was more rooted in our old ideas about head injuries than in the medical evidence. Too many of us, and frankly I’m referring to men, think a blow to the head is nothing to get worked up about, and, just as my client believed, you can simply “shake it off.”

Truth is, you can’t, and even the most innocuous smack to the noggin can have a serious and long-lasting effect. My association with this case and others like it have made me very aware of the dangers posed by head injuries, but even more so the dangers of ignoring or minimizing those injuries.

Go to www.spokeo.com and type in your name in the search box. This database will, in most case, give your address, your spouse’s name, a map to your residence, and often a street level view of your residence .

The site also provides with some other “personal”  information that does not always seem accurate, but the major issue is the map to your residence. Just because you are a police officer and have your information blocked from the public does not mean you can’t be found on this site.

Make sure you check and have your information removed. If you pull your information up and click on the privacy at the bottom of the page you can follow the directions to remove it yourself.