Aaron Boeder

A Cook County jury awarded $79.85 million to the family of a 10-year-old girl killed when an unauthorized Chicago police pursuit ended in a multi-car crash, a verdict the parties later resolved for $62.5 million.

Kayla Neese, 33, was hurt in a March 2017 collision in Maywood, Illinois that left her with thoracic spine fractures and a spinal cord injury. The court found the other driver negligent before trial, so the jury decided damages only. On December 9, 2021, a Cook County jury awarded $21,059,014.

On June 10, 2025, a Cook County jury awarded $20.5 million to the family of an 11-year-old girl who died in October 2020 of combined morphine, hydroxyzine and gabapentin toxicity, about 36 hours after she was discharged from a visit to the cancer clinic at Advocate Children's Hospital. She had been in remission from leukemia. The family argued she should have been admitted instead of sent home on triple her prior morphine dose. The jury's damages were for the family's loss of society and grief.

A Winnebago County jury awarded $11.25 million to the estate of Chamicwa Black, a 33-year-old mother killed in a February 2015 crash in Rockford when an Anderson Automotive employee swerved into her lane. The company admitted negligence about a year into the case, so the six-day trial decided damages only. The jury awarded $8 million for her young son's loss of society, $3 million for his grief and mental suffering, and $250,000 for future psychiatric care.