Our Lawyers in the Community
For the past 20 years, Jim Costello has represented one client per year, without fee, in cases which usually involve both medical and legal issues. In the early years, most of these cases involved people who had been denied coverage by their insurance carriers for bone marrow transplants or other issues related to the treatment of cancer. This year’s case was on behalf of the widow and three young children of a firefighter. The firefighter died of a heart attack about an hour after returning home from fighting a fire. Prior to our firm’s involvement, the Attorney General’s Office had denied the claim, finding that the man’s death was unrelated to his work. We then undertook the representation of his family. Our research, both in the medical and in the occupational safety literature, disclosed that firefighters were subject to an enormous amount of physical stress during firefights. It is not unusual for a firefighter to sustain a heartbeat problem at the scene of a fire. The heartbeat problem can then continue on and even cause death a significant period of time after the firefighter’s work at the scene of a fire has been completed. After a preliminary hearing and the scheduling of discovery, the Attorney General’s office agreed to reconsider its initial analysis of the case, taken prior to our involvement in the case. To the credit of that office, rather than engage in a protracted and costly fight in court, they withdrew their recommendation that the claim be denied and agreed to pay the family the benefits due under the Illinois Line of Duty Compensation Act.
Rick Murphy, working for free, put together the medical evidence required to prove that the career-ending, debilitating stroke that a police officer sustained while at work was related to his employment as a police officer. The Department had two opinions adverse to our client’s case. Rick was able to prove that the officer developed sleep apnea as a result of shift work. That apnea was a cause of the officer’s stroke. The officer an his family will now have lifelong financial security.
Rich Egan is a frequent volunteer at St. John Berchman’s Parish located in the Logan Square community of Chicago. He is a member of the Young Irish Fellowship Club of Chicago and serves on the Judicial Evaluation Committee for the Chicago Bar Association.
Paul McMahon is a lifetime member of the Veteran’s of Foreign Wars, a past President of the St. Athanasius Parish Council, and has frequently lectured on the issues of trial skills, particularly in the area of maximizing damages, for the Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education.
Rick Murphy, working for free, sued a well known health insurance company for wrongfully denying the son of a fireman a desperately needed medical procedure. After a hard-fought court battle, the insurance company agreed to pay for the medical procedure. It also decided to changed its medical policy regarding the procedure and agreed to compensate our client for prolonging the course of his medical procedure.
Since 1979, Jim Costello has written or contributed to many appellate briefs in the Illinois Supreme Court as amicus curiae (“friend of the court”). His most recent effort was filled on behalf of the membership of the Chicago Federal of Labor
David Gilbreth currently volunteers as an AYSO soccer coach(7 years) where he is proud to say his girls team is the defending region 418 champions.