Some Sample Solutions
Medical Cannabis and IL Workers Compensation Claims
Medical Cannabis and IL Workers Compensation Claims
Presented by Mark Slavin, Partner at Slavin & Slavin
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Beyond the workers’ compensation claim
Beyond the workers’ compensation claim
Our clients rely on us to seamlessly manage the integration of third party liabilities that arise. Our lawyers have recovered hundreds of thousands of dollars in subrogation actions, including direct litigation on novel reimbursement theories such as breach of contract. We have represented and defended employers named as third-party defendants in civil cases arising out of work injuries for which compensation was paid. Our understanding of the big picture of litigation practiced by our Firm’s civil litigation team allows us to shape how we handle the individual task at hand to maximize the global outcome for our clients.
Comprehensive experience in complex litigation
Comprehensive experience in complex litigation
Our Firm’s defense practice includes one of the nation’s largest traffic control and pavement marking companies involved in some of the largest interstate and intrastate road projects. The third party liability claims we defend run the gamut on the injury spectrum and include catastrophic injury claims for which plaintiffs pursue each and every contractor along with the State, City and Municipality as owners of the roadway. We bring our comprehensive experience in the handling of complex litigation to the defense table urging the adoption of a cohesive strategy to use defense dollars wisely and minimize exposure.
Construing and applying contractual indemnifications provisions
Construing and applying contractual indemnifications provisions
Tendering, rejecting and/or accepting a tender in accord with contractual indemnification provisions requires a multi-layer analysis of strategies involving business and legal decisions. Resisting a tender for actions believed to be outside the scope of a party’s undertaking of indemnification has risks. Our Firm has a deep level of knowledge and experience in the application and interpretation of insurance contracts and complex construction contracts. We are experienced litigators and bring well developed strategies to cases in which a party interprets an indemnification provision as a means to shift liability.
Defending actions against municipalities and their first responders
Defending actions against municipalities and their first responders
Our lawyers have ardently and successfully defended civil actions in state and federal courts involving allegations of excessive force and false imprisonment brought against police officers and their municipal employers. Our Firm appreciates the unique accountability these clients have to the citizens and we work collaboratively with the municipality’s personnel to achieve the best possible outcome.
Defending actions against municipalities challenging local ordinances
Defending actions against municipalities challenging local ordinances
We have defended our municipal clients in cases challenging the constitutionality of local ordinances enacted for the health and safety of their citizens. In the recent past, a Midwest law firm engaged in the filing of federal cases accusing various municipalities of violating the First Amendment through the enforcement of ordinances covering the number and locations unattended donation bins. Because the United States Supreme Court holds that donation bins are entitled to protection under the First Amendment and because legal fees are recoverable from the defendant in cases involving constitutional violations, the municipalities were faced with serious financial impacts. We defended these cases, worked with our dedicated city employees to draft compliant ordinances and negotiated consent decrees to end the litigation and cap the plaintiffs’ legal fees.
With the passage of the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act which took effect January 1, 2020, our team of lawyers is ready to address the needs of municipalities and local governing bodies to advise and assist in the drafting of appropriate regulations for the flurry of anticipated business activities.
Defending and protecting professional licenses
Defending and protecting professional licenses
We defend our professional clients against complaints brought to the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) by dissatisfied patients, customers and other agencies. Our experience extends to the most serious proceedings seeking licensure suspension and revocation (matters that may be further complicated by ancillary criminal exposure) to actions involving alleged infractions for which the Department seeks restitution and fines. Depending on the nature and history of violations, the proposed fines can have a crippling impact on businesses operating with limited profit margins. We work on behalf of our professional clients to minimize the financial impact and suggest creative ways to satisfy the Department.
Defending third party liability claims
Defending third party liability claims
Our defense of third party liability claims requires our team of attorneys to be well versed in the interplay of construction contracts, insurance policies and the often complicated relationships of owners, general contractors and subcontractors, as well as borrowing and loaning employers. We work closely with our clients in determining when and if indemnification clauses are triggered and how to respond when that potential exits — whether our client is the indemnitee or indemnitor in any given situation.
Litigating complex business contracts
Litigating complex business contracts
Complex business relationships, often governed by complicated agreements, sometimes go awry. Our lawyers understand business and appreciate that where litigation is necessary, it must be swift, precise and handled in a manner which causes the least disruption to the client’s operations. We also understand when there is a need to take a stand. Faced with allegations of intentionally violating an exclusive supply and distribution agreement involving unique products, we recommended a proactive approach to litigation, countersuing the plaintiff, and successfully defending our client’s business practices.
Navigating the terrain of complicated business disputes
Navigating the terrain of complicated business disputes
In yet another high-stakes matter, our litigation team successfully defended a suit seeking the entry of a preliminary injunction against a client for the allegedly unlawful use of a supposed proprietary process used for the extraction of cannabinoids from hemp plants. Balancing our client’s need to protect its own processes and technology with the federal court’s discovery mandates, required our lawyers to navigate through legal mine fields. Developing a record to demonstrate the fallacy an alleged poaching of technology had to include site inspections, using experts sworn to secrecy and nondisclosure agreements. This comprised only one aspect of the delicate nature of the case. This type of litigation, which goes to the very heart of a client’s business, requires a law firm willing to immerse itself into a mode of complete understanding of the client’s business. Slavin & Slavin is that firm.
Securing professional licenses to conduct business in Illinois
Securing professional licenses to conduct business in Illinois
Our Firm also represents individuals and businesses in the often competitive and complex license application process required to do business in the State of Illinois. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) issues, regulates and rigorously enforces compliance for some 150 professions ranging from doctors to funeral directors, cosmetologists to dog groomers, and pharmacies to medical marijuana dispensaries. Due to the often onerous application requirements, and the limited availability of certain licenses, we provide the knowledge and direction to put our clients in the best posture to secure those coveted licenses from the State.
Strategic handling of workers’ compensation claims
Strategic handling of workers’ compensation claims
Our Firm resolves workers’ compensation matters throughout the State of Illinois. We have a team of attorneys that understands that each case must be addressed on its own merits, and that while some cases may be resolved amicably others require mounting a full-scale defense. The vast experience of our attorneys assures that clients are positioned to strategically address the most complex claims and to promptly and efficiently resolve routine claims. Our careful analysis of the facts in each individual case provides for development of legal theories to at times support retroactive denial of accepted claims, and we have successfully incorporated those theories in proceeding to trial and securing Commission awards resulting in absolute denial of cases previously deemed compensable and, often, catastrophic. We have handled numerous other catastrophic claims, working directly with third-party administrators and excess carriers to aggressively mitigate exposure by hundreds of thousands of dollars.