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Why Hostile Work Environment Claims Are Hard to Prove
The term "hostile work environment" seems like it should be self-explanatory. If an employee goes to work every day and is treated with great disrespect or harassed by colleagues, she would not be remiss in describing her work environment as hostile. However, "hostile work environment" has an extremely specific meaning in employment law. First, the harassment the worker endures must be so severe and persistent that it interferes with her ability to perform her work. This is a fairly high bar - having a supervisor who is merely rude or coworkers who occasionally make insulting comments is not considered enough to stop a reasonable employee from carrying out her job duties. Even if an employee can show this level of harassment, she must also be able to prove that she was harassed for a discriminatory reason.
If your company has been threatened with a hostile work environment claim, you should contact an experienced Lisle, IL commercial litigation attorney. A lawsuit that is unlikely to succeed can still cause trouble for your small business, especially if it attracts media attention. All discrimination-based claims should be handled with care by a skilled lawyer.
Managing Expectations When Divorcing a Narcissist
While few divorces are considered "easy," some have more conflict than others. High-conflict divorces are particularly emotional and tumultuous for all those involved. There may be intense animosity, prolonged legal battles, and disagreements that seem to take on a life of their own. Each decision becomes a point of contention, beginning with the division of marital assets and continuing through the allocation of parental responsibilities and determining parenting time.
A high-conflict divorce tends to bring out the worst in all those involved. Spouses who are divorcing a narcissist can usually expect a high-conflict divorce. Since narcissism may have played a major role in the divorce, spouses of narcissists likely already know to expect a contentious divorce. If you are divorcing a narcissist, you need a Kendall County, IL divorce lawyer who has experience dealing with narcissists to ensure you and your children are protected.
Proving Fault in a Weather-Related Accident
Unfortunately, one cannot file a personal injury lawsuit against Mother Nature. The weather contributes significantly to many car accidents, especially in the winter. However, drivers have a duty to take the weather conditions into consideration and adjust their driving accordingly. Simple measures like slowing down earlier when approaching a red light can keep drivers safe even in harsh weather. While it is harder to avoid an accident when the roads are icy and visibility is poor, most car accidents in poor weather could have been prevented through more careful driving. Proving fault can be slightly more difficult when the weather contributes significantly to an accident. You will need an experienced DuPage County, IL car accident attorney to help hold the at-fault driver responsible for the crash.
Why Establishing Paternity of a Newborn Fast is Important
Finding out that you were going to become a father might have been one of the most exciting moments of your life - and maybe one of the most anxiety-inducing as well. If you are not in a committed relationship with your child’s mother, you will need to create a parenting plan. A parenting plan sets out each parent’s responsibilities and establishes a parenting time schedule. While you cannot actually formalize your parenting plan or start a child custody case until your child is born, you should be prepared to act quickly after your child arrives. This all begins with establishing that you are your child’s legal parent. An experienced Lisle, IL child custody and parentage attorney can help you prepare to protect your rights as a father as soon as you officially become one.
When Paternity Must be Established Immediately
The sooner you are able to legally establish that you are your child’s father, the better protected you both are. If you and the mother are legally married, paternity is established automatically. Otherwise, you will need to either use a Voluntary Acknowledgement of Paternity or start a paternity case in court. Which route you take depends on whether your baby’s mother is willing to have you declared the father voluntarily.
How Nursing Home Resident Rights Impact a Lawsuit Defense
Nursing homes must strike a careful balance between keeping their residents safe and respecting their residents' rights. Families with loved ones in nursing homes often believe it is the nursing home’s duty to prevent all harm to residents. However, it is both illegal and impossible for care providers to prevent one hundred percent of accidents and illnesses. People who live in nursing homes still have the right not to be restrained except for short periods of time when it is absolutely necessary to prevent imminent harm. Nursing home residents may refuse some types of care or some precautions and must be allowed to make their own decisions as much as possible. If your skilled care facility is being sued for an injury you could not prevent, an experienced DuPage County, IL long-term care defense lawyer can work to protect you from liability.
Falls and the Right to be Free From Restraint
Nearly everyone who lives in a nursing home is a fall risk. Nursing home residents are generally very elderly and have health issues that prevent them from living independently. Most nursing home residents have issues that affect their balance or make walking difficult. While some residents are aware that they have these age-related disabilities and should not try to walk unassisted, others have cognitive issues that cause them to forget they need help getting out of bed. Although using restraints like bedrails to prevent residents from trying to stand up alone would significantly reduce the likelihood of falls, it would also be a violation of resident rights.
How to Divide the Holiday Decorations in a Divorce
Your holiday decorations may or may not have much monetary value, but they probably have a lot of sentimental value, especially if you have children together. The kind of items you only bring out of storage around the holidays can be difficult to divide up during divorce, especially if you are getting divorced right around the time of a major holiday. If you are working towards an uncontested divorce, your Lisle, IL divorce attorney can help you work with your spouse to divide all your marital property, including your holiday items. Dividing the items you use for celebrating the holidays out of court is often preferable, as you can choose a much more personalized solution than the court might.
Consider Keeping Some Items With the Children
If you plan on having your children for your family’s major holidays in alternating years, consider moving some items with the children. Having the same set of decorations up every year can be comforting to your children, especially while they are still getting used to the new arrangement. This will be more practical for spouses who live fairly close together and drive their children back and forth between households.
Am I Automatically At Fault in a Rear-End Collision?
There is a pervasive myth that a driver who hits another car from behind is automatically liable. The police officer who comes to take a report may even assume you are liable if you rear-ended another vehicle. However, in Illinois, liability is not automatic in rear-end collision cases. This myth likely comes from the fact that drivers are legally obligated to use a safe following distance and are generally liable if they caused an accident by failing to do so. However, not all rear-end collisions are caused by the driver in the back failing to follow at an appropriate distance. There are cases where the driver in front was substantially at fault for causing the car accident. If you are being sued after rear-ending another vehicle, a DuPage County, IL car accident defense lawyer can help you fight back.
Negligence Per Se and Rear-End Collisions
In car accident law, there is a concept called negligence per se. It means that when a driver is breaking a law designed to keep people safe and causes the kind of injuries that law was meant to present, the driver is automatically deemed negligent. In the context of rear-end collisions, the safety law at issue is usually the law that requires drivers to use a safe following distance. The law is designed to prevent people from getting hurt in a rear-end collision. If a driver was following too closely and rear-ends someone, causing injury, his negligence is presumed.
Will Having a Messy House Affect Child Custody?
Ordinarily, having a messy house is unlikely to affect your child custody proceedings. Parents - especially those with babies or toddlers - are certainly not expected to keep their homes looking magazine-worthy at all times. Having piles of clean laundry on the coffee table, a few dirty dishes in the sink overnight, or toys scattered around is the norm for most families. Typical clutter is not worth mentioning in court when you are fighting for custody of your child. However, if the home is so dirty that it poses a health hazard to children, or the clutter is so bad that it borders on a hoarding situation, this could impact a court’s child custody decision. If you are involved in a child custody battle, you need an experienced Lisle, IL child custody litigation attorney on your side.
A Messy Home and an Unsanitary Home Are Different Issues
When a parent works full time and is newly single, letting the housework slide is normal. If a parent is behind on cleaning - perhaps the kitchen counters have not been wiped down in a few days, or the carpet has some crumbs on it - this is not the sort of mess a court would be concerned with. However, if the home is unsanitary and poses a health hazard, the court may be reluctant to allow children to visit the parent who lives there in the home. A dangerously unclean environment is not in a child’s best interests. Unsanitary messes the court might be concerned with include:
3 Reasons Not to Settle When You Are Sued for a Car Accident
Even a very skilled and attentive driver can get into a car accident. Anyone can be accused of causing an accident he or she was involved in. People who have been injured in a car crash often need to blame someone for a myriad of reasons. From a practical standpoint, the person suing you may not have good insurance and needs to find a way to pay his medical bills. Other people seem to believe they are perfect drivers and could only have gotten into an accident if the other person did something wrong. Some people simply cannot accept that the accident happened due to reasons beyond either party’s control. Just because you are being sued does not mean that you have to settle. An experienced DuPage County, IL car accident litigation attorney can help you fight back.
A Third Party Was at Fault
Say an SUV swerved out of its lane and bumped your rear tire, causing you to lose control and hit a car, injuring its driver. The SUV speeds off and disappears at the next exit. The car’s driver is suing you, claiming that you swerved because you were illegally texting. She did not see the SUV hit you. In this case, your lawyer can try to find evidence showing that the SUV did hit you and that you could not have prevented the collision.
Dismissing an Unfair Prenuptial Agreement During Divorce
A prenuptial agreement should not act as an insurmountable barrier to divorce. If the terms of your prenuptial or postnuptial agreement leave you with nothing, you might feel that you are trapped in your marriage because leaving would lead to financial ruin. However, courts can refuse to enforce marital contracts that are extremely unfair, or that one party was coerced into signing. If your prenuptial agreement is the main reason you have not filed for divorce even though you want to end your marriage, you should speak to an experienced Lisle, IL divorce lawyer about whether the court could set it aside.
When Will Courts Refuse to Enforce a Prenuptial Agreement?
Courts might refuse to enforce premarital contracts in cases of:
- Coercion - If your spouse created a situation where you felt that you had to sign the agreement he or she wanted you to, you might have been coerced. For example, if your spouse hired his attorney to draft a prenuptial agreement without your input and then presented you with the agreement the morning of the wedding, threatening to call off the marriage unless you signed, this might be coercion.
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1001 Warrenville Rd, Ste 210, Lisle, IL 60532
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