Latest Illinois Headlines
All the headlines from our Illinois Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Train Derails, Spills 20K Gallons of Exxon’s Oil in Illinois
Jul 5 2017 // About 20,000 gallons of crude oil belonging to Exxon Mobil Corp. was released after a Canadian National Railway Co. freight train derailed on June 30 at Plainfield, Illinois. The cause of the derailment was unknown, a...
How States Rate in Preventing Home, Auto, Work Accidents
Jun 28 2017 // No state goes far enough to protect its residents from leading causes of preventable deaths and injuries – commonly known as “accidents” – on the road, in homes and communities and at work, according to the...
Illinois Jury: AbbVie Must Pay $15M in Depakote Birth-Defect Case
Jun 12 2017 // A federal jury in East St. Louis, Ill., has awarded $15 million to a 10-year-old boy whose mother blamed his birth defect on AbbVie Inc.’s bipolar disorder drug Depakote that she took while pregnant, in the latest...
Illinois Court Upholds $1.5M Judgment for Six Flags Waterslide Injury
Jun 5 2017 // An Illinois appeals court has upheld a $1.5 million judgment against Six Flags Great America for a hand injury a woman suffered on a waterslide. In her lawsuit in Lake County Circuit Court, Shatoya Meeks claimed that while...
Illinois’ Palestine Insurance Agency Adds Erton
Jun 1 2017 // Palestine Insurance Agency in Palestine, Ill., recently hired Mindy Erton as a customer service representative (CSR). In this position, Erton will handle the collection, processing, and distribution of all agency...
Arthur J. Gallagher Acquires Williams-Manny Insurance in Illinois
May 30 2017 // Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has acquired Williams-Manny Insurance Group, headquartered in Rockford, Illinois. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Founded in Rockford in 1896, Williams-Manny Insurance Group is a...
Illinois Senate Passes Bills Requiring Work Comp Pre-Approval, Creating Nonprofit Insurer
May 30 2017 // The Illinois Senate has passed two workers’ compensation measures — one that would require companies writing workers’ comp insurance to get state approval for the rates they charge, and another that creates a...
Injured Worker Attorney Involvement Varies Widely by State
May 18 2017 // There is a wide variation in the percentage of claims with worker attorneys involvement across state workers’ compensation systems, according to the latest research from the Workers Compensation Research Institute...
Walmart Denies Discrimination Claims by Pregnant Workers
May 16 2017 // Two former Wal-Mart Stores Inc. employees have filed a lawsuit accusing the retailer of treating thousands of pregnant workers as “second-class citizens” by rejecting their requests to limit heavy lifting,...
Illinois’ Cost per Workers’ Comp Claim Trending Down
May 15 2017 // The average total cost of a workers’ compensation claim in Illinois has dropped by 6.4 percent since 2010, but the state still has relatively high costs per claim, according to a report by the Workers Compensation...
Illinois’ Árachas Group Joins Keystone Insurers Group
May 12 2017 // Árachas Group of Bartlett, Illinois, created by the merger of two local insurance agencies, has joined Keystone Insurers Group, becoming the network’s 18th partner in the state. Sullivan & Associates, led by...
‘Poaching’ Suits Like Aon v. Alliant: Nothing Personal, Just Routine Business
May 11 2017 // An ongoing legal battle between two large national insurance brokerage firms over employee poaching is a byproduct of a hazard faced in the financial services industries where relationships and knowledge of business...
Illinois Distracted Driving Campaign Results in 1K Citations
May 9 2017 // Illinois State Police say troopers issued more than 1,000 distracted driving citations during a week-long enforcement campaign. The inaugural awareness campaign kicked off April 24 and concluded April 28. Troopers also...
Midwest Flood Crisis Remains as Officials Warn of Floodwater Risks
May 5 2017 // River levels fell on May 4 after record and near-record flooding in parts of the Midwest, but the crisis is far from over. Officials have not said when hundreds of residents displaced from flooded properties in suburban...
Cost of Workers’ Comp Claim Down in Illinois but Still High: WCRI
May 5 2017 // The average total cost of a workers’ compensation claim in Illinois has dropped by 6.4 percent since 2010, but the state still has relatively high costs per claim, according to a report by the Workers Compensation...
Insurer Group: Illinois Workers’ Comp Bills Would Disrupt Private Market
May 1 2017 // Two pieces of legislation recently passed by the Illinois House would harm the workers’ compensation system in the state, a national insurer group says. American Insurance Association (AIA) said HB 2525 would require...
Warrant Issued For Illinois Man Accused of Burning Down Business for Insurance
Apr 18 2017 // Authorities in central Illinois have issued an arrest warrant for a businessman they allege burned down his auto and tire shop last year. The State Journal-Register in Springfield reported the Montgomery County...
Illinois Company to Pay $325K to Settle Federal Discrimination Suit
Apr 17 2017 // Decatur, Ill.-based company King-Lar will pay $325,000 to settle a federal discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). In its lawsuit, the EEOC alleged that King-Lar, which...
ProPublica Report Alleges Auto Insurers Overcharge Minorities
Apr 5 2017 // A new report published by ProPublica accuses the auto insurance industry of pricing discrimination against minorities. The report, titled Minority Neighborhoods Pay Higher Car Insurance Premiums Than White Areas with the...
Illinois Company to Pay $325K to Settle Federal Discrimination Suit
Apr 3 2017 // Decatur, Ill.-based company King-Lar will pay $325,000 to settle a federal discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). In its lawsuit, the EEOC accused King-Lar, which provides...
