Illinois Personal Injury Practice for Paralegals
Agenda
Webinar instructions will be emailed before the date of the webinar.
Please log into the webinar 15 – 30 minutes before the start time.
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
8:30 am – 4:00 pm CST
Understanding Illinois Personal Injury Law
Presented by: Kristin Barnette McCarthy
- The development of personal injury law in Illinois
- Statutes and regulations that affect liability law
- An overview of liability law in different types of personal injury cases
- Automobile accident
- Slip-and-fall
- Medical malpractice
- Product liability
- The law of damages
- Recent developments and anticipated changes in Illinois law
Investigating and Evaluating a Personal Injury Claim
Presented by: Ian R. Alexander
- Obtaining information from/about the plaintiff
- Using (and not using) investigators
- Identifying and locating parties and witnesses
- Investigating/documenting the incident
- Interviewing witnesses
- Obtaining information on damages
- Identifying and obtaining other relevant information
- Helpful resources
Handling Ethical Issues in Personal Injury Practice
Presented by: Olaide A. Banks
- Maintaining client confidentiality
- Avoiding conflicts of interest
- Avoiding the unauthorized practice of law
- Communicating with clients, the court and opposing counsel
Litigating Personal Injury Cases
Presented by: Scott D. DeSalvo
- Drafting, filing and serving initial pleadings
- Participating in the discovery process
- Drafting admissions, interrogatories and requests for production of documents
- Responding to discovery requests
- Deposition practice: preparing for, attending and reviewing
- Working with expert witnesses
- Preparing for and assisting at trial
Assisting with Medical Issues in Personal Injury and Workers’ Compensation Cases
Presented by: Martha Niles
- Obtaining and reviewing medical records
- Finding and working with medical experts
Webinar Instructions
All attendees must log-on through their own email – attendees may not watch together if they wish to earn continuing education credit. HalfMoon Education Inc. must be able to prove attendance if either the attendee or HalfMoon Education Inc. is audited.
Certificates of completion can be downloaded in PDF form upon passing a short quiz. A link to the quiz will be sent to each qualifying attendee immediately after the webinar. The certificate can be downloaded from the Results page of the quiz upon scoring 80% or higher.
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Credits
Paralegals
6.5 CLE Hours (Including 1.25 Ethics Hours)
NFPA - National Federation of Paralegal Associations
6.5 CLE Credits (Including 1.25 Ethics Credits)
Continuing Education Credit Information
This webinar is open to the public and is designed to qualify for 6.5 CLE hours, including 1.25 ethics hours, for paralegals. Paralegal certification is not required to participate in this course.
The National Federation of Paralegal Associations (NFPA) has approved this webinar for 6.5 total CLE credits, which includes 5.25 general CLE credits and 1.25 ethics CLE credits.
Attendance will be monitored, and attendance certificates will be available after the webinar for those who attend the entire course and score a minimum 80% on the quiz that follows the course (multiple attempts allowed).
On-Demand Credits
The preceding credit information only applies to the live presentation. This course in an on-demand format is not pre-approved by any licensing boards and may not qualify for the same credits; please consult your licensing board(s) to ensure that a structured, asynchronous learning format is appropriate.
Speakers
Ian R. Alexander
Goldberg & GoldbergSince 1995, Mr. Alexander has proudly represented the victims of negligence. He only represents those people who are injured, mostly by big corporations and hospitals. He is proudest of his work representing children who have been injured at birth and have been left with profound brain damage and the victims of sexual abuse. Mr. Alexander concentrates his practice on representing the victims of catastrophic injuries in the areas of medical malpractice and complex personal injury litigation.
Olaide A. Banks
Banks & AssociatesMr. Banks is the principal attorney at Banks & Associates, PLLC, a Houston-based law firm focused on meeting the needs of government and construction contractors throughout Texas. He is a trusted advisor for licensed professionals, CEOs and managers in construction firms, and government contractors. Mr. Banks was licensed as a CPA in 2003 and has more than 20 years of experience as a lead accountant and CFO for successful government contractors. He earned his B.B.A. degree with a double major in Accounting and Finance from the Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston and secured his J.D. degree from South Texas College of Law. Mr. Banks is a member of the State Bar of Texas, the Association of Corporate Counsel and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). He is a member of the Construction Law Section of the State Bar of Texas.
Kristin Barnette McCarthy
SCHWARTZ | JAMBOISMs. McCarthy is a trial attorney at Schwartz Jambois and focuses her practice in the areas of personal injury, wrongful death, medical malpractice, nursing home abuse and neglect, as well as other catastrophic injuries. She has tried in excess of 100 jury trials to verdict, has successfully argued and achieved reversal before the 7th Circuit United States Court of Appeals, as well as in the First District Appellate Court, and obtained hundreds of settlements for both individual and corporate clients. Ms. McCarthy is a leader in the Chicago legal community. In 2020, she was named to the highly-selective Illinois Super Lawyers list, and voted as #1 of the “Top 10 Emerging Lawyers” and also voted as #1 of the “Top 10 Emerging Women Lawyers” by her peers in a survey conducted by Leading Lawyers. Ms. McCarthy was named by Crain’s as one of the “Most Influential Women Lawyers in Chicago” in 2017, as an “Emerging Lawyer,” in 2016, and one of the “40 Illinois Attorneys Under Forty to Watch” in 2014 by the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin.
Scott D. DeSalvo
Law Office of Scott D. DeSalvo, LLCMr. DeSalvo, a Chicago native and DePaul University graduate, has been a fiercely independent Plaintiff’s Personal Injury lawyer for more than 25 years. He is the son of a catastrophically injured truck driver whose injury case dragged on for more than 17 years and has dedicated his career to fighting for the rights of injured people. A real trial lawyer, Mr. DeSalvo is a graduate of the Gerry Spence “Trial Lawyers College”, as well as the prestigious “The Keenan Edge” advanced programs for trial lawyers, post-law school curricula than not one in 100,000 lawyers has mastered. He brings his working class work ethic and a ‘tell it like it is’ approach to the thousands of clients he has helped, and continues to help from his Oak Brook and Chicago offices.
Martha Niles
The Illinois Hammer Injury AttorneysMs. Niles has handled over 4,000 cases throughout her career, where she fought tooth and nail to achieve the best settlements possible for her clients. She has gone to trial nearly 300 times and boasts an impressive 93% winning record in appealed cases. She is one of the hardest working women in Illinois, evident from the beginning of her law career when she put herself through law school at IIT-Chicago Kent College of Law. During Ms. Niles’s very first job out of law school, she tried the Smith Case that became the seminal reference for the proposition that an employer cannot create a job and artificially inflate a wage just to avoid paying an 8(d)(1) wage differential. From there she has gained over 24 years of experience, working on both sides of workers’ compensation law. Her experience provides insight into how the defense thinks and allows her to anticipate their arguments, thus making her clients’ cases stronger in advance.