TOUCH TO CALL: (800) 517-1614
Illinois Lawyer
Find The Best Attorney For Your Case
(312) 346-5320 or (800) 517-1614
Free Consultations - 24/7
No Appointment Needed, Just Call

Michael Helfand

Talk To A Chicago Lawyer For Free

We are Chicago lawyers who will talk to you for free about any Illinois legal matter. Fill out our contact form or call us any time at 312-346-5320.

We get so many good legal questions that aren’t worthy of a full blog. So every few months I like to group the “best of the rest” in to one post.  Here are some great questions we’ve received recently:

I just found out that my ex-husband took out a life insurance policy on me. Is that legal?

It is. It’s up to the insurance company to choose to write or not write a life insurance policy.  They don’t need your approval, but typically won’t do this because they can’t give you a medical exam. Most likely this is either a continuation of an old policy or an accidental death policy that would cover you if you were killed in a car accident or something like that. Your ex is likely wasting money.

Can you turn down an inheritance? It’s not much and I really don’t want it or to have to go through the legal hurdles.

Yes you can. This is called disclaiming an inheritance and it typically involves putting that in writing.

How do I fire my lawyer? They hardly return my calls and when they do they are really rude.

It doesn’t sound like calling them would do the trick. For most cases I would encourage you to have someone in place before getting rid of your current representation. It’s usually not hard to find (we can help with that), but in some cases it can be.  In my experience, the new attorney can help you in communicating to the old one.  In cases that are in court, the lawyer will need permission of the Judge to get out of the case.

I was accused of shoplifting. I didn’t do it. I wasn’t arrested, but the store had a lawyer send me a letter saying that I need to pay a re-stocking fee of the item for $400.00 and that if I don’t do it I could be arrested or sued. Do I have to pay?

No. I’m not saying you can’t get arrested still. It’s not likely, but possible. I’m not saying they won’t sue you. It’s not likely, but possible.  But in any case they’d have to prove you did it and the fee for their damages can’t just be random like that.  I think the attorneys who do this work are kind of gross and if it was me I wouldn’t pay, especially if I didn’t do anything. That’s not a guarantee of a result, but you don’t usually see a company paying a lawyer to sue someone for a few hundred dollars and if you were going to be arrested it likely would have happened already in most cases.  I really don’t like these tactics because they, in my opinion, take advantage of a lot of people.

There was hair in my food. I’m so grossed out. Can I sue for that?

Anyone can sue for anything, but I don’t know any attorney who would take that case as it has no value beyond replacing the food you bought.

My soon to be ex wants to sell our home.  I don’t want to. We are both on the title. Can she just list it without my approval?

Not unless she forges your name. If you are on the title, a sale can’t happen without your approval unless they get a court order to do so.

I was sued for a car accident but the other person ran the red light. How is that possible?

People lie all the time about what happened and insurance companies go after people who don’t have insurance.  So there is a likelihood that one of those two things is happening here. Or maybe the police report got it wrong. Bottom line is that if you did get sued and had insurance at the time of the accident, report it to them and let them sort it out. That’s what they are there for.

My brother got killed by a random person.  We learned that person was having a psychotic episode because their doctor took them off of their meds.  Can we sue that doctor for not monitoring their patient which led to my brother’s death.

This is a really sad situation. Unfortunately, doctors generally don’t owe a duty to third parties. So if their malpractice causes harm to someone who isn’t their patient, courts have ruled that they can’t be held responsible.

We’ll do another one of these in a few months. If at any time you have a question, no matter what it is, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Illinois Car Accidents When You Are Wrongly Listed As Vehicle One

We are experienced Illinois attorneys who since 2001 have helped hundreds of thousands of people with their legal situations. Call us any time at 312-346-5320 for a free consultation. We help everywhere in Illinois.

Any time there is a police report involving a car accident in Illinois, it will list the vehicles involved.  Most crashes involve two cars and they list one car as vehicle one and the other as vehicle two. That might not seem relevant, but it’s quite often the most important part of any car accident lawsuit in Illinois.

On these reports, vehicle one is typically listing the person who the police officer on the scene believes is at fault.  That usually involves them getting a ticket, but doesn’t have to. There will also be a written statement as to what happened and what citations were given, but generally speaking, if you are listed as vehicle two, you’ll have a right to sue the other person. And if you are listed as vehicle one, the officer is saying it was your fault.

Of course in most cases the police officers don’t directly witness these accidents and make their reports based on the statements of the parties. And for many of them, they don’t really care if they get it right or not. It’s paperwork and cops don’t love paperwork.  So if you get hit by someone and end up getting taken away by ambulance, it’s not unusual for the crash scene officer to just take the word of the person that ran in to you. If that person lies, you’ll be listed at fault if you didn’t get a chance to tell your side of the story.

I’m noticing these types of errors more and more recently. In one case, a young kid ran a stop sign and slammed in to a woman’s vehicle who had the right away. She was taken away from the scene in an ambulance with severe injuries. The young kid lied about where he was coming from and she ended up with the ticket. Fortunately video proved that she wasn’t at fault.

The most important thing to remember is that while being listed at fault on the police report is a hurdle, it’s not one that you can’t overcome.  An experienced car accident attorney will investigate the damage on your car, seek out witness statements, search for video recordings, etc. If the damage to your vehicle is at your back bumper, that doesn’t make your case a slam dunk, but can go a long way toward showing that what you are saying happened is the truth. In some cases we can get police officers to amend their reports.

This of course can be very frustrating when you know you weren’t at fault.  The opposing insurance company not only will use it as a reason to deny you payment, but will also go after you. My advice is to not panic. Just get an attorney in your corner who knows what they are doing and has a track record of success to prove it. If you would like a referral to lawyer who handles car accident injury cases, please contact us any time.

Overview Of Illinois Lawyers And Attorney Discipline

Everyone who is currently or was in the past licensed to practice law in Illinois does so through the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (ARDC).  Sometimes I will look up the name of a lawyer for their contact information and see the name of a similar attorney from the early 1800’s. It’s kind of wild, but a great tool for knowing if any specific person is currently authorized to practice law or ever was in the past.

The ARDC released their annual report recently and it had a lot of interesting information.  Currently there are over 95,000 people licensed to practice law and more than 66,500 of those are in Illinois, with almost 29,000 living/working outside of Illinois. It’s not uncommon for someone to get admitted here and then move out of state and either work remotely or get a license in their new state. They keep their Illinois license active for many reasons including convenience, referral fees and because they still do work here.

Approximately 60% of the licensed lawyers are male and 40% are female with .07% reporting as non-binary. I would expect that women will narrow the gap as time goes on. About 47% of all attorneys have been practicing for between 11-30 years so there are a lot of experienced lawyers out there.  Just 10% have less than five years experience and 2% have more than 50 years experience. Generally speaking I tell people not to hire someone too young or too old that they aren’t doing law full time anymore. Just because you have an active law license doesn’t mean you are actively working.

Of the attorneys located in Illinois, 87% of them are in the Chicago area with over 47,000 of those in Cook County alone. So as you get downstate, sometimes it can be more challenging to find the right attorney.  27% of attorneys are solo practicioners meaning that there are no other attorneys in their firm.  26% of lawyers work in firms with over 100 lawyers and another 26% work in firms with 2-10 lawyers.

In 2021, there were 3,881 grievances against 2,979 lawyers representing 3.1% of all registered lawyers.  The main allegations were neglect, failure to communicate, improper billing and incompetence. The two most common areas of complaint were criminal law and family law. Together they comprised over half the allegations.

The number one reason for discipline against attorneys was fraud. In my experience of reading these findings that usually means they stole or misappropriated funds.  In 2021, 16 attorneys were disbarred which means they can never practice law again. That tells you that they did something serious. 12 others were given indefinite suspensions.

Of the 83 attorneys in total who were disciplined last year, 70% of those were solo practicioners. That can be a warning sign for you when it comes to hiring a lawyer. Sometimes these attorneys don’t have a good support staff or become bogged down by too many cases, but can’t afford to hire someone to help. Other times they take on cases they shouldn’t because they need the money. I’m not saying you should never hire a one lawyer firm, but you should think about if there aren’t better choices.

When an Illinois attorney steals from a client, the ARDC has a program in place to help you recover some of your lost funds. Last year they gave out over $715,000.00 from 58 claims against 31 different lawyers. I doubt that everyone was made whole, but every little bit helps.  22% of those payments came from real estate or loan modification cases.

The ARDC to their credit is also worried about substance abuse and mental illness.  183 attorneys were monitored for this issue with 40 of those referred for treatment help.

It’s great that this information is so public and transparent. If you want to read the full report go to their site.

Arrested With A Gun At O’Hare Or Midway Airport

I try to never fly out of O’Hare because for me getting to Midway is easier.  It’s about half the time on the train from the Loop and when you get to the airport at O’Hare it feels like it takes forever to actually get to a gate. That’s to be expected at what was once known as the world’s busiest airport.

Despite my personal preferences, more than 30 million people come through O’Hare each year which is almost double the traffic of Midway.  And while crimes can occur at both places, I definitely see more arrests at O’Hare by far.  One of the biggest is for people who are found to have a gun in their carry on luggage or a loaded weapon in their checked luggage.  While you can legally check an unloaded firearm in a locked hard-sided container, many people make a mistake.

The most common error we see is someone who simply forgot that they had a gun in a backpack or didn’t know. Often these are legal gun owners from places like Indiana who drove to O’Hare to catch a longer flight.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) can issue a civil penalty to you for this type of violation with a first offense being around $4,000.  The fine could exceed $13,000 depending on aggravating factors.  The bigger worry is that in most cases you will get arrested for this error and charged with at least a misdemeanor. That is potentially punishable by up to a year in jail. Of course a felony charge could have a more significant jail sentence.  Although TSA is a Federal agency, any arrest would be made by the Chicago Police and you’d end up in criminal court in Cook County.  You will get arrested even if you have a valid FOID card and a concealed carry permit. Simply put, there is no right to bring a gun through security at an airport.

The good news is that most of these cases are charged as misdemeanors and attorneys who know how to defend criminal gun charge cases in Chicago can usually get the case dismissed.  There’s no guarantee of that of course, but in almost every case we’ve been contacted in, the lawyers we have recommended have been able to achieve a successful outcome to the case.

In other words, this arrest is of course something you should worry about, but not something to panic about.  Unlawful use of a weapon is a serious charge, but with the right attorney in your corner, you can avoid a conviction and jail time.  Most of these attorneys are former prosecutors with over 20 years of experience and a great track record of success.

If you would like to speak with a lawyer for free about these charges and get help in a referral to the best Chicago criminal defense attorney for your case, please call us any time at 312-346-5320.  All calls are free and confidential.

Camp Lejeune Water Contamination Attorneys

We are experienced attorneys who will talk to you for free. If you would like to speak with a lawyer, call us at 800-517-1614.

Although we are Illinois attorneys for Illinois legal matters, there are some unique cases in which and Illinois lawyer can handle a case for an injury that occurred in another state. One such time is when suing the US Government.  There is an active situation right now that we are helping former marines and there family members with, many of whom live in Illinois or surrounding areas.

Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune is a military training facility in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Those serving in the United States Marine Corps and going through combat training likely spent time at Camp Lejeune.

Between 1953 and 1987, the servicemen and women at Camp Lejeune, their family members (including those in utero), and others who worked there were exposed to contaminated water. As many as half a million people may have been exposed over those thirty-four years.

Water testing found that drinking water sources at Camp Lejeune were contaminated. The main chemicals found were benzene, trichloroethylene (TCE, a degreaser), and perchloroethylene (PCE, a dry cleaning solvent), but more than 70 chemicals have been identified as contaminants at Lejeune. These chemicals are known to be carcinogenic or harmful to people.

Water contamination at Camp Lejeune has been linked to cancer and other serious health issues including:

  • Bladder cancer
  • Breast cancer
  • Esophageal cancer
  • Female infertility
  • Hepatic steatosis
  • Kidney cancer
  • Leukemia
  • Liver cancer
  • Lung cancer
  • Miscarriage
  • Multiple myeloma
  • Neurobehavioral effects
  • Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
  • Renal toxicity
  • Scleroderma
  • Parkinson’s disease
  • Other health conditions

People at Camp Lejeune who have suffered from cancer or another serious health condition have filed claims for disability only to be denied by the Veterans Administration. However, there is hope that a bipartisan bill called The Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022 will be passed. This Act will allow those who worked, lived, or were exposed in-utero to the contaminated water to file a claim in U.S. federal court. Those harmed by the water contamination may finally receive the compensation they deserve.

We are monitoring the status of this proposed Act and can speak with you in greater detail about what your rights are and what the best course of action will be if and when the Act passes. There are lawyers we work with that already have cases up and running and know how to secure maximum compensation for these cases. And of course there is no fee unless they are successful and you will only pay a fee if they make a recovery for you.

If you were exposed at Camp Lejeune and have any of the above issues, we would love to speak with you. Contact us any time.  We can not promise you a result, but do guarantee to treat you like a family member or friend and connect you with an attorney who gives you the best chance of success.

One Very Important Thing To Know If Representing Yourself In Court

There are many things in our country that could be better. Our health care system is atrocious. We have great doctors, but so many people can’t afford treatment, and for many others, you have to go through a lot of red tape to get a procedure approved.

Like healthcare, our legal system is well-intentioned and there are many great lawyers (and some not so great). And just like with medicine, your outcome is often due to how much money you have and what you can afford.  There isn’t true equal justice for everyone.

So what happens is that some people can afford the right attorney for the case and get the best result possible.  Others can only afford a cut-rate attorney who isn’t experienced or doesn’t specialize in the area of law your case involves. So maybe you lose because you have someone who is out-matched.  And for some people, they can’t afford anyone and they have to represent themselves.

I don’t blame anyone in that situation.  In some of the cases like small claims court, it only makes sense to represent yourself. In others, if it’s a choice between paying your rent or hiring an attorney, it might make sense to pay the rent.

For others, they choose to represent themselves because they know they are in the right and believe if they go to court and tell the truth, things will work out.  In a sensible legal system that is how things would work.

In reality though, that’s not how it usually goes.  There are two reasons for it, one that is really unfair and you have to know about.

The first is that when you represent yourself, you are held to the same standard as an attorney. That means you have to know how to properly enter evidence, the appropriate way to write legal motions, how to ask questions of witnesses, etc.  These are hurdles that some people can overcome. While it would be nice if each court had someone to assist these pro se litigants, that doesn’t happen.

The second reason which you must know about is something that ruins the process. There are many Judges in Illinois who simply will not listen to someone who chooses to represent themselves in court. They won’t let you speak.  They will shut you down. They’ll only engage with the lawyer for the other side.  They’ll tell you that you have to come back with an attorney.  So you might be prepared.  You might be clearly in the right.  You might know exactly what to say to the Judge. And none of that will matter.

The legal system shouldn’t work this way. The goal should be to get the best result. The reality is that many Judges view themselves as the Kings/Queens of their courtroom and unless they do something outrageous, there is no check or balance on them.  And not listening to you isn’t outrageous.

While you want to get your story out, many Judges just want to get through the 100 or so cases on their docket every day. If it’s summer they might have a tee time or desire to enjoy the warm weather. Or maybe they have a kid and want to pick them up from school. Or it could be a Friday (the worst day to be in court if you are representing yourself) and have a desire to make it to Wrigley Field or a happy hour.

So what happens is that they try to move as many cases as quickly as possible. The lawyers that are there a lot know what to say, how to say it, and say it quickly.  In the view of some Judges, if they let everyone talk, they’ll never get out of there, so they don’t let any non-lawyer talk. In fact, some of them won’t listen very long to attorneys that they don’t know.

Lawyers know if they are going before a Judge for the first time to ask others about the Judge’s tendencies. Even that is no guarantee that they will get fully heard and they will get shut down too if they don’t keep things simple and short.

This can be infuriating to hear and it’s maddening to even type.  But this is the reality of how the legal system works. It’s why many traffic and criminal defendants get supervision on their cases. I’ve seen Judges tell everyone in a courtroom with a first offense under 20 miles an hour to see the court clerk for supervision which essentially wipes out half the cases on a morning docket within minutes.

For you, if you have to represent yourself or choose to do so, if you find that the Judge isn’t going to listen to you and believe they are about to enter an order against you, you should ask for a 30-day continuance to try and secure legal representation. They don’t have to do that for you, but usually, if you ask early enough they will grant that.  If you try to get an attorney once you’ve lost, it will likely be too late.

If I had a magic wand and could change the court system so people don’t need lawyers as much, I would.  Or there would be court-appointed and paid-for attorneys when needed. But until that happens just be very careful if you do go at it alone. You can be right and lose because nobody knows you are right but you.

Chicago Criminal Lawyer Advice – Talk To The Police?

Maybe it’s because I’ve been watching “Better Call Saul” that I’ve been thinking about this a lot, but I did get asked recently by someone if you should ever talk to the police. It’s a really easy answer.

No.

But what if you are innocent?  No.

But what if you think you can explain what happened? No.

How about if they tell you that things will go easier or it’s not a big deal? No.

What if they’ve caught you committing the crime? No.

What if they tell you if you don’t talk, you are going to lose rights to your children? No.

What if they say they will arrest a family member if you don’t cooperate? No.

What if a witness is saying something in front of them and I want to rebut that? No.

Won’t I look guilty if I don’t talk? Who cares, just don’t talk.

You’ve surely heard the saying that anything you say can and will be used against you. That is the warning that the police must give you before they try to question you about a crime.  It doesn’t always happen, but this Miranda Warning exists for a reason. It’s a bad idea to talk to the police.

In most situations, they are not looking out for you or your best interests.  While you can feel pressure being with the police or just want your problem to go away, the smart thing to do is say nothing and focus on the long term.  Whatever you personally think about the police, the reality is that they don’t solve most crimes.  Most of the convictions that they help get occur because a suspect agrees to talk and provides the information needed to convict themselves.

When you say nothing other than you want a lawyer present, it protects you. Anything an attorney says can not be introduced as evidence. The less evidence you create, the more leverage you give your attorney to get you the best result possible.  The police aren’t your friend and are not on your side.  They aren’t looking out for you and don’t care about you.

I can tell you that if you surveyed 100 experienced criminal lawyers in Chicago or anywhere else in Illinois, they’d tell you the exact same thing. And if you’ve started to talk, but now realize you shouldn’t, just stop talking. If they want you to come in for an interview, you either decline or have an attorney accompany you.  In almost every situation this is how you best protect yourself and end up with the best result possible in your case. And that is the goal. Period.

If you have any questions or want to speak with a Chicago criminal lawyer for free, call us any time at 312-346-5320.

See also: Chicago Criminal Law – Will I Look Guilty If I Hire An Attorney?

A Great Question To Ask Illinois Personal Injury Lawyers

If you are in a car accident or looking to sue a doctor and do an internet search for “personal injury lawyers,” you will come up with thousands of law firms and attorneys who say they can help you. If you don’t know who is who, it can be really confusing to figure out who to hire.

One thing you should know if you’ve been in a serious accident is that there are certain types of injury lawyers that are better than others for every case.  If you’ve been in a car accident and have $15,000.00 in medical bills, hiring a lawyer who regularly handles major trucking crash injuries would not be a good idea.  And if you have a very serious injury case such as a death, something that required surgeries, etc., hiring a law firm that usually handles smaller cases would not be a great idea.

The bigger firm cases will usually turn down your case if it’s too small or refer you elsewhere. Most firms that don’t regularly handle seven-figure cases though will act like they do if your case is catastrophic and could be worth a lot. They want to make money and some will sadly do what’s best for them and not best for you.  So how do you avoid hiring the wrong firm if you have a potential seven-figure case?

One great question you can ask is, “How many seven-figure cases have you tried or settled in the last five years?” It’s a really direct and relevant question.  There’s no magic number answer, but if you ask it to a few different firms and one says zero, another says two, and the third says 15, it’s a really strong indicator as to who is used to dealing with high-value cases and who isn’t.

Some of these less accomplished attorneys who don’t have the track record you should want will try to tell you that they are great trial attorneys. That may be true for the cases that they usually handle, but you don’t want them getting their first experience with a major case while representing you.  You also don’t want a firm to feel pressure to settle a case for $3 million when it may be worth $15 million.

In many ways, figuring out who to hire is like realizing that just because someone can run a five-person business doesn’t mean that they could be CEO of United Airlines or some major corporation like that.  There is a huge difference between running a five-person company and a 100 person company and a 10,000 employee company.  The skillset for each is way different which is why you see these companies bring in new people with experience as they grow.

The same idea is true when it comes to hiring a lawyer. The small case attorney might fantasize that they could do well with a big case and they might be right. But more likely than not your best chance of success comes from a law firm that can really show a track record of winning these cases and getting the best results possible.

If you have any questions or want our lawyers to refer you to the best personal injury law firm for your case, please call for free at any time at 312-346-5320.

When Your Illinois Workers’ Compensation Checks Are Late

We are lawyers who will talk to you for free and give you a referral to the best attorney for your situation. Call us any time at 312-346-5320 to discuss your case. 

When you are hurt on the job in Illinois, and your doctor takes you off work (or gives you restrictions that your job can’t accommodate), you are entitled to temporary total disability benefits or TTD.  This is 2/3 of your average weekly wage, tax-free.  This is of course very important because this money allows you to survive while you focus on getting healthy.

Sadly, many injured workers in Illinois have to deal with shady insurance companies. They are looking for a way to not pay you your owed benefits and sometimes do it in an illegal manner.  So what do you do when your check is constantly late or stops showing up without any reason?

The first thing to know is that you are not alone. This is a common insurance company tactic when it comes to IL work comp benefits. They want to frustrate you so you’ll go against your doctor’s advice and return to work before it’s safe to do so. They know that many people live paycheck to paycheck and if they squeeze you just enough that you’ll do things against your best interests. It’s a real scummy thing for them to do, but to them, it’s just business.

The way to solve this problem is for a lawyer to file what is called a 19(b) petition for an immediate hearing.  It’s essentially a trial motion that says benefits are being improperly denied and allows you to jump ahead of other cases that want a trial and get before an arbitrator. While not every case needs a lawyer, when your benefits are delayed, you certainly do.  And having an attorney on the case before a problem happens not only acts as a deterrent to bad behavior by the insurance company but also gets you into court faster.

When the insurance company is really acting in bad faith, we can also file what is called a petition for penalties and fees. You’ve probably heard the term “punitive damages.” This isn’t that, but it’s similar in that the insurance company can be forced to pay you extra money and your lawyer fees for acting so inappropriately.

The point is that when an insurance company is being aggressive to you, you need a lawyer in your corner who will be aggressive back. A good Illinois work injury law firm uses the law to make sure their clients don’t get taken advantage of. In fact, even just the filing of these motions is often enough to get the insurance company to back down. If they don’t, they know they’ll lose and also waste a lot of money on a defense attorney to fight a case they have no defense against.

Beyond that, when your checks are late, experienced attorneys who deal with the same insurance companies and insurance adjusters all of the time, often have relationships where an email or phone call can get results.

In sum, if your TTD checks are late, don’t panic, but also look out for yourself. There are solutions to these problems that can work for you.

I hope this helps. If you have any questions or want to speak to a lawyer, get in touch with us any time.  We cover all of Illinois.

 

Kernicterus, Jaundice And Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

We are experienced Illinois attorneys who since 2001 have helped tens of thousands of people with their cases. If you would like to speak to a lawyer for free to see if you have a case, call us any time at 312-346-5320.

There is nothing more exciting in life than seeing your child be born. It comes with hopes, fears, a bit of nervousness, and a lot of joy.  Most births go smoothly, but occasionally there are problems. Some are unavoidable due to genetics. Others happen from hospital errors and at times this leads to a birth injury lawsuit.

One rare, but very serious birth injury involves something called kernicterus.  To understand that though, you must know about jaundice first.

What is Jaundice?

Most people have heard the term “jaundice” in relation to newborn babies. Jaundice occurs when a chemical called bilirubin builds up in the baby’s blood. Bilirubin is a yellow substance your body creates when red blood cells break down.

When the mother is pregnant, her liver gets rid of the bilirubin for the baby; however, once the baby is born, his/her own liver has to remove the bilirubin. In some babies, particularly premature ones, the liver might not be developed enough to effectively get rid of the bilirubin. In these cases, the baby’s skin and whites of their eyes may appear yellow. Jaundice refers to this yellow discoloration.

Signs and Symptoms of Jaundice

Jaundice is common. About 60% of all babies have it. The main sign of infant jaundice, the yellowing of the skin and the whites of the eyes, usually appears between the third and fifth day after birth. Jaundice typically appears on the face of the infant first, then it moves to the chest, belly, arms, and legs as the bilirubin levels increase. Jaundice can be harder to see in babies with darker skin color.

Symptoms of jaundice, aside from the change in coloring, include the baby:

  • being hard to wake up, or conversely, not sleeping at all
  • not breastfeeding or sucking from a bottle well
  • being very fussy, having high-pitched cries
  • not having enough wet or dirty diapers.

Diagnosis and Treatment of Jaundice

The baby’s doctor or nurse can check how much bilirubin is in the baby’s blood by using a light meter that is put on the baby’s head. If the level is high, the doctor or nurse will likely order a blood test. Typically, a small blood sample from the baby’s heel is taken to obtain a total serum bilirubin level.

Jaundice is easily treated. The baby will be undressed and put under special lights that do not hurt the baby. This can be done in a hospital or even at home. The baby’s milk intake may also need to be increased. In cases of very high bilirubin levels, a blood transfusion may be needed.

What is Kernicterus?

No baby should develop brain damage from untreated jaundice. However, this is sadly not always the case. When severe jaundice goes untreated for too long, it can cause a type of brain damage called kernicterus.  Affected infants may experience respiratory distress, muscle spasms (including those in which the head and heels are bent backward and the body bows forward), and diminished muscle tone.

As infants with kernicterus get older (about the age of 3 or 4), other symptoms may develop, including:

  • delayed motor development or abnormal motions
  • convulsions or seizures
  • muscle rigidity resulting in muscle spasms
  • slow, involuntary, writhing movements of the limbs or entire body
  • hearing loss
  • problems with vision
  • difficulty speaking

What Should I Do If I Suspect My Baby Has Kernicterus?

If your child has been diagnosed with kernicterus, or if you suspect that they might have kernicterus, you need to get with a top pediatrician right away. They will test for bilirubin levels and try to reduce them before brain damage becomes permanent in your child.  This is also done with light therapy.  It’s really important that the baby be treated quickly.  You can’t reverse the damage that has been done, but you can stop it from getting worse.

Finally, if your child does have kernicterus, you should speak to an experienced birth injury attorney. It’s possible the doctors or their staff dropped the ball and failed to prevent this often treatable problem from getting worse. Depending on whether or not any Federally funded doctors were involved, you may have as little as two years from the birth to file a lawsuit (up to eight years in other cases) so time is of the essence.

If you would like to speak to a lawyer for free to see if you might have a case, please contact us any time. All calls are confidential and require no commitment on your part.

Free Case Review
From Our Attorneys

Archives