Largest Illinois Personal Injury Recoveries Confirmed Paid
Personal injury results in Illinois where the record shows the money was paid, or the defendant is an insurer or institution that pays, ranked by amount.
Browse personal injury lawyers in Illinois →- $21.47 millionVerdictReduced from $22.5 millionPaidWorkplace Injury
Chicago Railroad Conductor Wins $21.4 Million After Foot Crushed Between Railcars
Michael Parsons, a Norfolk Southern conductor, had his left foot crushed between two railcars at the company's 51st/55th Street yard in Chicago after 2010 track work narrowed the clearance between two adjacent tracks to as little as 10 feet 6 inches. A Cook County jury found Parsons zero percent negligent and awarded $22,474,102 in November 2015. The trial court ordered a $1 million remittitur from the lost-earnings portion of the award, which Parsons accepted, reducing the judgment to $21,474,102. The Illinois Appellate Court affirmed that judgment in August 2017, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied Norfolk Southern's petition for further review in October 2018.
After trial: The jury's $22,474,102 verdict was cut by a court-ordered $1 million remittitur that reduced the lost-earnings award from $1.5 million to $500,000. Parsons accepted it on May 4, 2016, leaving a final judgment of $21,474,102.
Cogan & Power, P.C.2015 · Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois (affirmed by the Illinois Appellate Court, First District)Read the full story → - $20 millionSettlementPaidMedical Malpractice
Cook County Pays $20 Million After a Toddler's Heart Stopped Unnoticed for Five Minutes Following Routine Surgery at Stroger Hospital
In December 2011 a 2-year-old boy went into cardiac arrest after surgery at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County to repair an undescended testicle. Doctors and nurses did not notice that his heart had stopped for about five minutes before starting CPR. The oxygen loss left him with permanent brain damage; he cannot walk or speak and needs round-the-clock nursing care. On February 5, 2013, the Cook County Board approved a $20 million settlement of the malpractice suit his mother filed, one of the largest in county history. Timothy Ashe represented the family.
After trial: The $20,000,000 settlement was approved by the Cook County Board of Commissioners on February 5, 2013, and is funded by the county. No appeal; the case resolved before trial.
Schwartz Jambois2013 · Circuit Court of Cook County, Chicago (settlement approved by the Cook County Board of Commissioners)Read the full story → - $10 millionSettlementPaidCivil Rights
Family of Man Killed by Drunk Off-Duty Detective Settles With Chicago for $10 Million
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.
After trial: This was a civil settlement against the City of Chicago and did not affect Frugoli's separate criminal case; he had already pleaded guilty to aggravated DUI and leaving the scene of a fatal crash and was serving an eight-year sentence, with release scheduled for April 2019. No appeal followed the settlement.
Cavanagh Sorich Law Group LLC2018 · U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division (Manzera v. Frugoli, No. 1:13-cv-05626)Read the full story → - $6.88 millionVerdictReduced from $7.8 millionPaidMedical Malpractice
Jury Holds Hospital Liable For Granting Podiatrist Unearned Surgical Privileges
A Cook County jury awarded Jean Frigo $7,775,668.02 after finding that Silver Cross Hospital and Medical Center negligently credentialed a podiatrist who cut through her infected diabetic ulcer during bunion surgery, an error that led to a bone infection and the amputation of her foot. The podiatrist, Paul Kirchner, had never met the hospital's own criteria for surgical privileges and settled with Frigo separately for $900,000 before trial. The trial court credited that settlement against the verdict, entering judgment against Silver Cross for $6,875,668.02. The Appellate Court of Illinois affirmed in full in 2007, in a decision credited with establishing negligent credentialing as an independent cause of action under Illinois law.
After trial: The $7,775,668.02 jury verdict returned on August 26, 2004 was reduced to a $6,875,668.02 judgment against Silver Cross after the trial court credited the hospital with the $900,000 Dr. Kirchner had already paid Frigo in his pretrial settlement.
Hurley McKenna & Mertz, P.C.2004 · Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois; affirmed by the Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, Fourth DivisionRead the full story → - $4.7 millionVerdictPaidMedical Malpractice
Cook County Jury Ties Hospital To ER Doctor's Delay In Securing An Airway
A Cook County jury awarded $4.7 million to the family of Georgia Tagalos, a 49-year-old woman who suffered fatal brain damage after emergency room staff at St. James Hospital of Olympia Fields could not secure her airway during a severe asthma attack. The jury found the hospital and its attending physician, Dr. Perry Marshall, liable, while clearing a resident physician of wrongdoing. The Illinois Appellate Court, First District, affirmed the verdict in full in 2015, holding the hospital vicariously liable for Marshall's conduct because he was the hospital's apparent agent in the eyes of a patient who came to its emergency room for general care.
After trial: The hospital and Dr. Marshall appealed the $4.7 million jury verdict on separate grounds: the hospital argued it could not be held liable through the nurse's conduct or Marshall's independent-contractor status, and Marshall argued he was entitled to a new trial over the use of a medical treatise at trial.
Hurley McKenna & Mertz, P.C.2013 · Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois; affirmed by the Illinois Appellate Court, First DistrictRead the full story → - $3 millionSettlementReduced from $12.5 millionPaidCivil Rights
Mother of Unarmed Bystander Shot in the Face by a Chicago Police Officer on a CTA Platform Wins $12.5 Million Verdict, Later Settles for $3 Million After Reversal
On March 8, 2003, Chicago police officer Alvin Weems shot 23-year-old Michael Pleasance in the head at the 95th Street Red Line station while trying to break up a fight in which Pleasance was only a bystander. CTA surveillance video contradicted the officer's claim that Pleasance lunged for his gun, and the City admitted liability, so the May 2007 trial was on damages alone. A Cook County jury awarded his mother $12.5 million for loss of society. The Illinois Appellate Court reversed in December 2009 over prejudicial closing arguments and a jury instruction, and the City settled for $3 million in March 2011.
After trial: The $12.5 million verdict did not stand. The Illinois Appellate Court reversed it on December 14, 2009 (Pleasance v.
- $2.38 millionVerdictPaidMedical Malpractice
Coles County Jury Awards $2.38 Million to Prostate Cancer Patient Left Incontinent After a Nurse Gave an Enema a Surgeon Had Not Approved
Five days after a radical prostatectomy at Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center in Mattoon in August 2003, Clinton Dean Lovell was admitted with constipation. A physician ordered an enema only if Lovell's urologist approved; a nurse skipped that step and had an aide give a tap-water enema, which tore open the freshly sutured area and created a fistula between his rectum and bladder. Lovell went through a colostomy, a bladder catheter, fistula repair, colostomy reversal and an artificial urinary sphincter, and was left permanently incontinent. The hospital admitted negligence but blamed the surgery for the fistula. In September 2008 a Coles County jury awarded $2,378,258, and the Illinois Appellate Court affirmed in January 2010.
After trial: Affirmed on appeal by the Illinois Appellate Court, Fourth District, on January 12, 2010 (Lovell v. Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center, No.
78 results, largest first
Boehringer Ingelheim agreed to pay $650 million in May 2014 to resolve approximately 4,000 federal lawsuits claiming the blood thinner Pradaxa caused life-threatening bleeding injuries without adequate warnings, in an MDL presided over by Judge David Herndon in the Southern District of Illinois where the court appointed TorHoerman Law's Tor Hoerman as one of five plaintiffs' co-lead counsel.
A Champaign County jury returned a $535 million verdict -- the largest known single-plaintiff verdict in Illinois history -- against a psychiatric facility that failed to prevent the rape of a 13-year-old female patient by another adolescent resident.
A Cook County jury awarded Tierney Darden $148 million after a 750-pound pedestrian shelter toppled onto her at O'Hare and severed her spine, a record the city later settled for $115 million.
Robert Clifford co-led the families of 68 people killed when American Eagle Flight 4184 iced over and crashed near Roselawn, Indiana, to a record $110 million settlement and an apology in open court.
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 Cook County jury awarded $95.5 million to a truck driver who lost both legs when improperly loaded carbon steel bundles fell from a crane during unloading, with a 10% comparative fault reduction bringing the net award to $85.9 million, the highest double-amputation verdict in Illinois history.
A suburban Chicago man who lost both legs above the knee when a car jumped the curb and pinned him against a Bensenville 7-Eleven secured a $91 million settlement, the largest pretrial personal injury recovery in Illinois history, after Power Rogers LLP showed the company had documented thousands of similar storefront crashes and still refused to install protective bollards.
A Cook County jury awarded $75,859,000 to a baby girl left with permanent brain damage and physical injuries after doctors needlessly turned her during a twin delivery at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
Thomas Demetrio of Corboy & Demetrio represented seven of the people killed and injured when a suspended work platform fell from the John Hancock Center in 2002, part of a $75 million global settlement reached on the eve of trial.
A Cook County jury found plastic surgeon Dr. Ayoub Sayeg liable for the death of Idalia Corcoles, a 39-year-old mother of four who bled to death after liposuction and a tummy tuck, in a case that produced a $66.262 million judgment.
A Cook County jury awarded $64 million to Ronald Bayer, a union ironworker paralyzed from the neck down after falling 15 feet at a Panduit Corp. warehouse construction site in DeKalb, Illinois -- at the time the largest verdict ever returned for a quadriplegic in Illinois.
Clifford Law Offices secured a $60 million settlement for Sarah Grasser, 31, left paraplegic when another driver swerved to avoid a deep pothole in an I-55 work zone and struck her car, rolling it into a ditch.
A Cook County jury awarded Shamond Butler $55.5 million after finding that doctors at University of Illinois Hospital caused severe, permanent brain damage during his April 2003 birth. The suit centered on a delayed response to his mother's high-risk labor and the mismanagement of Pitocin, which cut off his oxygen supply. Butler, who was 20 at the time of trial, functions at the cognitive level of a toddler and requires round-the-clock care. The jury returned its verdict on October 11, 2023, and no appeal has surfaced in coverage since.
A 54-year-old woman underwent a routine bronchoscopy for a possible tuberculosis biopsy, but physicians ignored oximeter alarms and delayed intubation until she had suffered irreversible anoxic brain damage, leaving her with locked-in syndrome; the Cook County jury returned a $55.4 million verdict against the responsible physicians, then the largest medical malpractice award in Illinois history.
Geoffrey Fieger and Jack Beam won the largest birth-injury verdict in Cook County history against the University of Chicago Medical Center, after a mother in fetal distress was left without an obstetrician for hours before an emergency cesarean.
A Cook County jury found that staff at University of Chicago Medical Center let a newborn boy go without an emergency cesarean section for roughly 11 hours despite a non-reassuring fetal heart tracing, leaving him with severe hypoxic brain damage and cerebral palsy. On June 29, 2016, after nearly a month of trial, the jury awarded the family $53 million, broken down across past and future medical costs, lifelong caretaking, lost earning capacity, and pain and suffering. The hospital sought a mistrial over alleged misconduct by plaintiff's counsel; a Cook County judge denied that motion in December 2016 and instead trimmed the award by $950,000, entering judgment at $52,050,000. The hospital said it would appeal further, and no independent source confirms what became of that appeal.
A Winnebago County jury awarded $52 million to the Krischon family for a 2018 crash caused by an off-tracking Panera Bread semi-truck that killed an 88-year-old man and seriously injured his son, finding the company and its driver 90 percent at fault. The award was part of a $67 million total verdict that also compensated a second family represented by separate counsel.
A Kendall County jury awarded Logan Bland, a Marine Corps veteran left a quadriplegic after bar staff broke his neck while removing him from a Plano bar, $51.6 million in 2021. The award was reduced to roughly $41 million for Bland's 20 percent share of fault and stood as the largest verdict in county history until the Illinois Appellate Court reversed it in January 2023 and ordered a new trial.
A Cook County jury awarded $51 million to John Reinke after OSF Heart of Mary Medical Center discharged him without testing his blood sugar, leading to a diabetic cardiac arrest that left him with a permanent brain injury.
A Cook County jury returned a $101 million verdict against West Suburban Medical Center after staff ignored fetal monitoring for six hours during labor, though a pre-verdict high-low agreement limited the family's recovery to $50 million.
A Cook County jury awarded Joseph and Christine Browning $49.25 million after physicians at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital waited 11 days to perform exploratory surgery on a sepsis infection that destroyed most of Joseph's small bowel. Sharon L. Heath and Timothy W. Heath of Heath & Heath, P.C. represented the Brownings, and the Illinois Appellate Court affirmed the verdict in 2023.
A Cook County jury awarded $45.3 million to Steven Butts, a 30-year-old Army veteran who suffered permanent brain damage after an Advocate Trinity Hospital ER doctor paralyzed him for intubation, placed the breathing tube in his esophagus, and left him without oxygen for about 11 minutes; the verdict and roughly $2.8 million in prejudgment interest were affirmed on appeal in 2024.
A $45 million payout for 15-year-old Nathen Jones, left unable to walk, speak, or feed himself after Chicago officers chased a car over a minor traffic stop, believed to be the largest the city has ever paid for a police-pursuit crash.
A Cook County jury found Advocate Condell Medical Center responsible for the death of a 47-year-old quadriplegic father who suffered fatal baclofen withdrawal while waiting for a delayed surgery to replace his medication pump, and the verdict was later affirmed on appeal.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.