Top 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 →- $35 millionSettlementPaidPremises Liability
Violinist Dragged by Metra Train Recovers $35 Million After Her Leg Was Lost in Closing Doors
In January 1995 a Metra commuter train pulled away from the Winnetka station with a 20-year-old violinist's case strap caught in the doors and dragged her about 366 feet, costing her a leg. A Cook County jury found the railroad and Metra at fault in 1999, and the verdict was affirmed on appeal in 2001. The railroads paid $35 million in March 2002, which included interest on the judgment.
After trial: The First District Appellate Court affirmed the 1999 verdict on September 14, 2001, and the railroads paid $35 million in March 2002, including interest on the judgment. The jury had assigned 4.5 percent of the fault to the plaintiff, which reduced the original award before interest.
- $25 millionSettlementPaidProduct Liability
Quadriplegic Yacht Passenger's $25 Million Settlement With Brunswick
Scot Vandenberg fell from the upper deck of a Brunswick-built yacht and was left quadriplegic. Brunswick's insurer offered $25 million during jury deliberations in June 2015, and the plaintiffs accepted. A trial judge first rescinded the settlement, but a successor judge reinstated it and entered a $25 million final judgment on February 15, 2017. The Illinois Appellate Court affirmed in November 2017.
After trial: The trial court rescinded the settlement in January 2016, and a successor judge reinstated it and entered final judgment on February 15, 2017. The Illinois Appellate Court affirmed on November 27, 2017.
- $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: Reduced and paid. A court-ordered $1 million remittitur cut the $22,474,102 verdict, Parsons accepted it on May 4, 2016, and the $21,474,102 judgment was affirmed by the Illinois Appellate Court on August 25, 2017.
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
$20 Million Cook County Settlement After Toddler's Heart Stopped Unnoticed for Five Minutes Post-Surgery
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 → - $10.5 millionSettlementPaidCivil Rights
Elk Grove Village Settles for $10.5 Million Over Police Shooting of Man in Mental Health Crisis
Jack Murray, 24, was shot and killed by Elk Grove Village police on December 1, 2023, after he called 911 during a mental health crisis. His mother sued the village and its officers for wrongful death in Cook County Circuit Court. In June 2026 the village board approved a $10.5 million settlement, funded almost entirely by the village's insurance carriers.
After trial: Settled before trial in Cook County Circuit Court with no appeal. The village's insurance carriers funded the settlement apart from the village's deductible.
- $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: Settlement with the City of Chicago, with no appeal. The Manzera family's separate $10,000,000 share of the same $20,000,000 resolution was negotiated by other counsel and is not part of this figure.
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: Reduced and paid. The $7,775,668.02 verdict of August 26, 2004 was reduced to $6,875,668.02 after a $900,000 credit for a pretrial settlement, and the Illinois Appellate Court affirmed in full on September 20, 2007.
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: Affirmed. The Illinois Appellate Court, First District, affirmed the $4.7 million verdict in full on December 31, 2015 and denied rehearing on January 28, 2016.
Hurley McKenna & Mertz, P.C.2013 · Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois; affirmed by the Illinois Appellate Court, First DistrictRead the full story → - $4.25 millionPaidProduct Liability
Jury Awards $4.25 Million to Mill Worker Burned in 1963 Calcium Stearate Dust Explosion
Two brothers were burned in a July 1963 calcium stearate dust explosion at a Cramer Company mill in Oak Lawn, Illinois. After a 1971 directed verdict for Swift & Co. was overturned on appeal and the case retried, a 1994 jury found Swift failed to warn of the explosion hazard. It awarded $4.25 million to Izzie Baylie and $1.95 million to the estate of his brother Forest Bailey.
After trial: The Illinois Appellate Court affirmed the judgment in full on September 9, 1996, rejecting Swift's laches, JNOV and new-trial arguments. The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin reported in 1997 that Swift paid the verdict after the Illinois Supreme Court denied review.
- $3 millionSettlementReduced from $12.5 millionPaidCivil Rights
$12.5 Million Verdict for Unarmed CTA Bystander Shot by Chicago Officer
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: Reduced by reversal and settlement. The $12.5 million verdict was reversed by the Illinois Appellate Court on December 14, 2009 (920 N.E.2d 572) for prejudicial closing argument, with a new trial on damages ordered.
All Illinois verdicts and settlements
122 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 Cook County jury found Sterigenics and its corporate owners liable for Sue Kamuda's breast cancer from ethylene oxide emissions and awarded $363 million, then the largest individual-plaintiff verdict in Illinois history.
Eric Johnson, a 64-year-old Missouri courier, lost consciousness and later died after carbon dioxide from dry ice-packed strawberries filled his subcompact car in 2016. His widow sued Prairie Farms Dairy for failing to warn or train him. A Madison County jury awarded $49.5 million in compensatory and $191.5 million in punitive damages in February 2026. Prairie Farms later settled with the family after the verdict.
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 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 $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 federal judge in Chicago entered a default judgment against the Islamic Republic of Iran for a 2009 roadside bomb attack in Iraq that killed Army Sergeant Joshua Soto and injured his platoon leader, First Lieutenant Miles Murray. Iran never appeared, and the court heard the plaintiffs' proof at a four-day evidentiary hearing. Murray was awarded $28 million, Soto's widow $32 million, and the couple's minor son $20 million, each including punitive damages.
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.
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.
On June 29, 2026, a Cook County jury returned a $50 million verdict against First Ascent Climbing and Fitness for the sexual abuse of an 8-year-old boy by an older camper at its Peoria summer camp in 2022. The award was $49 million in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages. The jury found the company negligent and guilty of willful and wanton misconduct. The company has said it is weighing an appeal.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.