Daniel Downes

A Cook County jury found the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority negligent for a 2016 construction zone crash on I-90 that killed one limousine passenger and left Rob Rosá paralyzed from the neck down, awarding Rosá and his spouse just over $104 million on October 9, 2025.

A freight train broadsided a car carrying an Illinois couple and their adult daughter at a malfunctioning railroad crossing in Bloomingdale in January 2001, after a Canadian National/Illinois Central dispatcher mistakenly lifted the safety stop-and-flag order protecting the crossing. Fidel and Francisca Velarde each suffered permanent traumatic brain injuries that left them needing round-the-clock supervision. A Cook County jury found the two railroads and the driver at fault and awarded the Velardes a combined $21 million as part of a $55 million verdict that also covered their daughter's injuries and her husband's loss-of-consortium claim. The Illinois Appellate Court, First District, affirmed the verdict in full in 2004, rejecting the railroads' bid for a new trial or reduced damages.

Early on April 10, 2009, off-duty Chicago police detective Joseph Frugoli, driving with a blood alcohol level about three times the legal limit, slammed his SUV into a car stopped on the shoulder of the Dan Ryan Expressway with a flat tire. The car caught fire and both occupants, 23-year-old Andrew Cazares and 21-year-old Fausto Manzera, were killed. The families sued Frugoli and the City of Chicago, arguing a departmental 'code of silence' had let Frugoli drink and drive for years without discipline. The city settled in December 2017 during closing arguments, and the Chicago City Council approved the payout on February 28, 2018: $20 million total, split evenly between the two families. Timothy Cavanagh and Michael Sorich were attorneys of record for the Cazares side, which took $10 million; Kevin Conway of Cooney & Conway represented the Manzera family.