Author: Collins Law Environmental & Personal Injury Lawyers

Ice and Snow Injuries and the Partial Immunity of Land Owners The Illinois Supreme Court has recently ruled on a case that could shed some light on the duties and responsibilities of landowners during this frigid weather and the recent snowfall. The case, Murphy-Hylton v. Lieberman Management Servic...

The Illinois Supreme Court recently decided a case that directly affects the amount of time a plaintiff has to file a wrongful death suit after the death occurs. Prior to the case, the statute of limitations proscribed a two-year window for the filing of a lawsuit after a death caused by negligence....

A shift in power and control has returned to those who most need it – nursing home residents and their families. In a recent ruling, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) prohibited mandatory pre-dispute arbitration agreements between federally funded nursing homes and their residen...

The national spotlight has recently shifted its attention to Disney World and the awful tragedy that transpired at one of its resorts when an alligator attacked and killed a small child. While there are many questions and much more to be learned, the most immediate question is how could this happen?...

This is about the importance of clean water to sustain health and life; how we as Americans assume (often mistakenly) that we will always have it; and an extraordinary young man named Seth Maxwell who founded Thirst Project, which is dedicated to the simple but powerful idea that clean water is ever...

Co-Authored by Norman B. Berger A comparison of Pope Francis’ recent encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si’, with our Supreme Court’s recent decision on power plant emissions raises troubling questions regarding the moral core of our environmental decision-making. The Pope wrote passionate...

Co-Authored by Norman B. Berger If a new environmental regulation requiring power plants to reduce toxic emissions would prevent 11,000 premature deaths every year; prevent many thousands more illnesses every year; and produce benefits that outweigh the costs by as much as $80 billion every year, wo...

Co-authored by Gregory Zimmer of The Collins Law Firm, P.C. Shouldn’t it be that living in a pollution-free community is a basic right of American citizenship? Shouldn’t it be that having clean air to breathe and safe water to drink does not depend on whether you are wealthy, or well-educated? I...

Co-authored by Gregory Zimmer of The Collins Law Firm, P.C. What are the most common harmful chemicals in the water that many Americans drink every day? What harm can these chemicals cause to people? The EPA regulates the nation’s drinking water supply through National Primary Drinking Water Regul...

On May 14, 2015, in a federal courtroom in Greenville, North Carolina, coal combusting giant Duke Energy pled guilty to committing 9 environmental crimes for its years of illegal discharge of coal ash pollution throughout the State of North Carolina. Duke Energy will also pay some $102 million in fi...