Shawn Kasserman of Tomasik Kotin Kasserman recently had the opportunity to teach constitutional law to the eighth-grade class at Dirksen Elementary School through the Constitutional Rights Foundation’s program, Lawyers in the Classroom. This program partners attorneys throughout the Chicagoland area with local schools to teach constitutional law to children in second through eighth grade. On January 15, 2019, Shawn taught Dirksen’s eighth grade class about the Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures in the context of schools. The students discussed possible violations under the Fourth Amendment and debated whether these violations had any merit. 

By: Tim Tomasik, Pat Grim, and Lindsay Proskey

Uber investigators are overworked, underpaid, and in many cases have no experience qualifying them to examine thousands of serious reported incidents, according to an internal memo obtained by CNN. The 26-page memorandum revealed employees on Uber’s special investigation unit (“SIU”) routinely faced “serious level of stress and anxiety” related to massive caseloads handling the most severe incidents reported to the company, including verbal threats, physical and sexual assault, rape, theft, and serious traffic crashes. The internal document highlights the ride-share giant’s concerns about lost revenue from riders who learn about specific cases and hold a lasting impression that Uber is “unsafe” and “not worthy of their trust” after acknowledging CNN had actually underreported the incidence of sexual assaults.

As of May 2018, Uber's SIU consisted of approximately 75 people, whom the memo documents struggled to handle nearly 1,200 cases per week, (62,400 annually), with team members reporting stress, anxiety, and depression. The memo stated six of Uber’s investigators “were experiencing profound stress requiring clinical care” and that "although some reports shared with the SIU [were] frivolous” that “most of the cases reported have some basis of substantiation.” 

By: Patrick Grim

An inbound United Airlines flight with 129 people on board slid off a runway at O’Hare International Airport Saturday afternoon according to the Chicago Fire Department. Shortly after the plane came to rest, Chicago Firefighters assisted in getting the passengers deplaned from the aircraft which had taken off from Phoenix hours earlier.

Although the Chicago Department of Aviation indicated other aircraft had landed safely on the runway just minutes before the attempted landing, snow had been falling for sometime after a winter storm descended upon Chicagoland Friday night and dumped five inches of snow on O’Hare by noon, according to the National Weather Service. At the time local media outlets reported the incident, Department officials indicated that it was in the process of working with United Airlines and City officials to recover the aircraft.

By Lindsay Proskey 

Tort reform legislation requiring Kentuckians to submit medical malpractice claims to a review panel of three physicians before they can file lawsuits was recently struck down by the Kentucky Supreme Court for violating the state constitution. 

Tort reform efforts aim to reduce the ability of victims to bring tort litigation or to reduce damages they can receive. Kentucky state Sen. Ralph Alvarado (a practicing physician and lawmaker) has sponsored several pieces of legislation, including the Medical Review Panel Act, to deter plaintiffs from suing healthcare professionals.  

By Tim Tomasik

Recurring technical issues and Indonesian carrier Lion Air’s failure to ground its Boeing 737 MAX led to pilots' battle for control over their jet as it plunged into the Java Sea on October 28, investigators said on Wednesday. Stopping short of saying what exactly caused the plane to crash, investigators cited multiple contributing factors centered on the plane’s anti-stall system, faulty sensors, and Lion Air’s inferior safety culture.  

One day before the crash, pilots flying from Bali to Jakarta experienced similar issues and manually shut down the plane’s anti-stall system to adjust the plane’s pitch, regain control, and land safely. The flight crew immediately reported the occurrence to Lion Air maintenance, who deemed the plane airworthy for the next morning’s flight.  Mechanics certified the Boeing but failed to check sensors that measured whether the nose of the plane pointed up or down.