• Skip to main content

Levinson and Stefani Injury Lawyers

Client-first legal representation for injury victims. Injured? Free Consultation:

(312) 376-3812

  • Home
  • About Us
    • Attorneys
      • Ken Levinson
      • Jay Stefani
      • Vanessa A. Gebka
    • Practice Areas
      • Truck Crashes
      • Bus Collisions
      • Auto Accidents
      • Child Injuries
  • Firm News
  • Library
    • Articles
    • Cases
    • Law
    • Video
  • Blog
  • For Lawyers
    • Focus Groups
  • Free Case Review

Speaking

Ken Speaks to Select Group of Trucking and Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyers

December 4, 2018 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Founding partner, Ken Levinson, was honored with an invitation to help teach other trial lawyers at a private program for attorney members of the American Association for Justice last week in our nation’s capital. Ken shared his knowledge and experience advocating for victims of serious truck collision and traumatic brain injury cases with his fellow practitioners in conferences held on Friday and Saturday.

Ken taught other trucking attorneys about his experiences running focus groups in Chicago. In one example, he discussed a serious injury resulting from a tractor-trailer crash. Ken detailed ideas and strategies to help a severely injured young man hold a driver and trucking company accountable for their careless actions.

Through his talk, Ken helped other lawyers by testing themes that would resonate with a jury and to craft arguments that would most effectively help to obtain a fair result for their injured clients. He shared exhibits, videos, photos of the crash scene, as well as examples of truck safety rules and regulations that were helpful in telling the young man’s story and how to best express to a jury how the defendants’ careless acts led to his condition. He also showed the approximately 80 lawyers in attendance video clips demonstrating how participants of his focus group reacted to his presentation and what they thought of the case.

On Saturday, Ken spoke to a group of trial lawyers about effectively representing clients in traumatic brain injury cases. Specifically, he shared his experience helping another lawyer with a case in a rural, conservative county, where even after the wife of a brain injury victim testified at a deposition, the insurance company offered no money for her husband’s tragic and avoidable injury.

After spending the day with the victim’s family and learning about what they have gone through and what they have been dealing with since this awful crash, Ken shared his experience with his colleagues of how he was able to help the family’s attorney, despite no offer to settle from the defense, to present the family’s testimony at trial in a more effective way leading to the jury awarding a record setting verdict in the case, by truly learning their story and helping share it effectively on the client’s day in court.

Sgt. Levinson? Ken Instructs Lawyers at Nursing Home Boot Camp

June 19, 2015 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Ken - AAJ Nursing Home
Partner Ken Levinson teaches lawyers at the AAJ Nursing Home Boot Camp

Ken, a drill sergeant? No way!  But he is very active in the American Association for Justice, and was honored to be invited to the faculty of Nursing Home Boot Camp.  The 3 day program held in Denver, CO, earlier this month was designed to have experienced lawyers like Ken share their stories and strategies on handling clients’ cases against nursing homes.

The nursing homes are highly regulated, and in many states, nursing homes are owned only by a few very large corporations.  If you or a loved one are injured in a nursing home – or worse – because the nursing home provided substandard care or was negligent, you want to be able to protect your rights and hold the nursing home, its staff, and its ownership accountable.  There is a complicated web of corporate entities and laws to go through in order to accomplish this goal, and having a skilled attorney familiar with how nursing homes operate – for example, how they are staffed, their management structure, and their record-keeping – is extremely important. There are also medical issues that are more common in nursing home patients – like bed sores, elopement (dementia patients wandering away), and injuries from falling while unsupervised.

Handling nursing home cases for people who have been hurt as a result of nursing home negligence is no small undertaking.  Ken was happy to teach other trial lawyers how to better litigate nursing home cases and strongly advocate for their clients.

Ken Opens National Conference on Helping Truck Crash Victims

June 11, 2015 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Ken Levinson AAJ Trucking Litigaiton Group Presentation
Ken Levinson presenting at the AAJ Trucking Litigation Group Members Only Seminar in Minneapolis (June, 2015)

Last week in Minnesota, Ken was thrilled to kick off the two day “Members Only” seminar hosted by the Trucking Litigation Group of the American Association for Justice.

The event, which draws top personal injury lawyers from across the country, focused on how truck drivers contribute to catastrophic accidents and taught attorneys what they need to do to provide the best possible representation to their clients in accidents involving truck drivers.

Ken was honored to be on the faculty of such an important program. He taught the lawyers there how to handle the nuanced issues that are part of  a truck accident lawsuit.  Some topics of discussion were:

  • tractor-trailer driver qualifications;
  • truckers driving in dangerous conditions;
  • trucks carrying hazardous materials;
  • “backing,” “under-ride,” and turning cases;
  • how to best represent an injured truck driver as a client;
  • conspicuity cases (safety issues when driving at night),
  • the rules, regulations, and safety issues related to truck drivers’ driving time and sleep time (hours of service); and
  • dealing with trucking companies’ typical excuses for causing a crash.

Ken and the other presenters spoke specifically about truckers and issues unique to people injured by a truck driver. Truck accident cases can involve more complex issues and technical rules compared to a car-verse-car crash case. This is largely because of the many federal requirements in place to monitor trucks and truck drivers so as to ensure the safety of the public. Still, the rules are often broken, and lawyers with knowledge of these different laws and issues particular to the trucking industry are more well-equipped to fight for victims of truck drivers’ negligence.

Ken teaches at NJAJ’s Trucking University

May 8, 2015 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Ken Levinson at "Trucking University: Safer Roads, Better Lawyers" at NJAJ Boardwalk
Ken Levinson presenting at Trucking University: Safer Roads, Better Lawyers as part of the NJAJ Boardwalk Seminar 2015

Last week, at the New Jersey Association for Justice’s annual Boardwalk Seminar, partner Ken Levinson was an invited faculty member at “Trucking University: Safer Roads, Better Lawyers.”  He taught the trial lawyers in attendance more effective ways to represent families dealing with serious injury or wrongful death arising out of tractor-trailer collisions.

While sharing some of the ways he’s helped families in truck crash cases, Ken described effective strategies to obtain the appropriate information from witnesses and necessary documentation to prevent the trucking companies from hiding key documents and witnesses.

Plus, with the recent news from automaker Daimler of a self-driving semi truck that is road-ready, attorneys need to stay on the cutting edge of the industry’s developments.

Ken Levinson Presents on Child Injury Lawsuits

March 22, 2015 by Ken Levinson Leave a Comment

Ken Levinson, Levinson and Stefani

Today, I am joining a national group of trial lawyers gathered in Las Vegas, NV, to teach them about handling cases with children injured in motor vehicle crashes.  My presentation, “Maximizing Damages for the Child Plaintiff,” will focus on strategies that attorneys can use in all stages of child injury litigation.

I am honored to once again join top auto-accident attorneys from around the country for Auto Crash Litigation 3.0, put on by Advocacy360.  The conference agenda can be found here.

Levinson and Stefani Injury Lawyers in Chicago / Attorney Advertising