About Hannah Vitello
Hannah Vitello is an attorney at Trial Lawyers for Justice, where she represents clients in medical malpractice and catastrophic personal injury cases involving life-altering injuries and wrongful death. She has worked on complex civil cases from investigation through trial and has helped secure millions in verdicts and settlements for her clients.
Hannah began her legal career as a law clerk for the Rhode Island Supreme Court, serving Justices Erin Lynch Prata and Francis Flaherty, as well as in the Trial Court Law Clerk Department. That experience provided a foundation in judicial reasoning and civil procedure that continues to inform her approach to litigation.
Hannah’s approach to her work is rooted in empathy. She believes that the best advocacy starts with truly listening to and understanding the people she represents. By taking the time to see clients in their own environment and hear their stories, she builds the trust that allows her to uncover the truth behind each case.
Hannah graduated magna cum laude from Roger Williams University School of Law and earned her undergraduate degree magna cum laude from the University of Rhode Island.
She is admitted to practice in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, and Iowa, and before the United States District Courts for the Districts of Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
Hannah is active in the Rhode Island Bar Association, where she serves as Co-Chair of the New Lawyers Committee, a member of the House of Delegates, and a member of the Superior Court Bench-Bar Committee. She is also a member of the Rhode Island Women’s Bar Association, the Rhode Island Association for Justice, and the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys. She has been recognized as a Super Lawyers Rising Star from 2023 through 2025.
Outside of her practice, Hannah enjoys reading and spending time with her family at the beaches near her home in Rhode Island.
Proven verdicts and settlements at Trial Lawyers for Justice
These results are credited to Trial Lawyers for Justice. A result appears under an attorney's own name only when a published source names them as counsel on the case.
Carrie DeJongh, 40, of Hull, Iowa, died on June 9, 2015 after receiving iodinated contrast dye for a CT scan at Sioux Center Health, when the physician treating her gave her an antihistamine but did not immediately check her vital signs or give epinephrine. Her family sued Sioux Center Health and Dr. Roy T. Slice for negligence, and both defendants denied the allegations. A Sioux County jury in Orange City returned a $29.5 million verdict on June 13, 2018, covering DeJongh's pain and suffering before her death and loss of consortium for her husband and four children. No appeal, remittitur or reduction has turned up since.
In February 2017, a physician assistant at a UnityPoint urgent care clinic in Des Moines diagnosed Joseph Dudley with the flu despite a negative flu test, sent him home on Tamiflu, and never ordered a complete blood count. Two days later Dudley was hospitalized with bacterial meningitis caused by an undetected heart valve infection, spent eight days in a medically induced coma, and suffered a series of strokes that left him with permanent brain damage, hearing loss, vertigo and nerve damage. A Polk County jury tried the malpractice claim against physician assistant Melanie Choos and Central Iowa Hospital Corp, doing business as UnityPoint Clinic, over a week in November 2022 and returned a $27,000,000 verdict, all of it noneconomic damages. The defense moved for a new trial afterward and UnityPoint said it was weighing an appeal.
Richard J. Pellock, 80, had surgery to remove bladder cancer at UnityPoint Health Finley Hospital in Dubuque, Iowa in January 2015, and the operation succeeded. Days later he needed a second procedure for a post-surgical complication, and the nurse anesthetist handling that procedure induced anesthesia without first emptying his stomach despite signs he had a full one. Pellock aspirated, developed aspiration pneumonia and respiratory failure, and died. His widow and son sued the anesthesia group and a Dubuque County jury returned a $10 million verdict against it in September 2017, awarded entirely as loss-of-consortium damages. Defense lawyers were reported as saying they would challenge the verdict, but no Iowa appellate decision in the case has ever been published.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
