Largest Illinois Group Settlements and Injury Recovery Funds
The largest group recoveries in Illinois on record here: class actions, global settlements, and pooled compensation funds, ranked by amount and clearly labeled. Each links to the full story and the record behind the number.
Browse personal injury lawyers in Illinois →- $650 millionSettlementGroup recoveryProduct Liability
Boehringer Ingelheim Pays $650 Million to Resolve Pradaxa Bleeding Lawsuits in MDL Where TorHoerman Law Served as Co-Lead Counsel
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.
TorHoerman Law2014 · U.S. District Court, Southern District of Illinois (MDL No. 2385)Read the full story → - $110 millionSettlementGroup recoveryWrongful Death
American Eagle Flight 4184: $110 Million Crash Settlement and a Courtroom Apology
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.
Clifford Law Offices1997 · Federal/state litigation, Chicago, IL (crash near Roselawn, IN)Read the full story → - $75 millionSettlementGroup recoveryPremises Liability
John Hancock Center Scaffold Collapse: $75 Million Settlement for the Killed and Injured
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.
- $20 millionSettlementGroup recoveryWrongful Death
$20 Million Settlement for Families of Two Men Killed by Drunk Off-Duty Detective on Dan Ryan Expressway
Chicago agreed to pay $20 million to the families of Fausto Manzera and Andrew Cazares, two men killed in 2009 when off-duty detective Joseph Frugoli struck their disabled vehicle on the Dan Ryan Expressway with a blood-alcohol level more than four times the legal limit, after trial evidence exposed the department's years-long failure to discipline Frugoli for prior suspected drunk driving.
Cooney & Conway2018 · Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois / Chicago City Council approvalRead the full story → - $16.6 millionSettlementGroup recoveryPremises Liability
Lincoln Park Porch Collapse: $16.6 Million for 13 Killed and Dozens Hurt
After one of the deadliest building failures in Chicago history, Corboy & Demetrio's Francis Patrick Murphy led 14 of the victims and their families to a $16.6 million global settlement against the property owner and the porch builder.
- $13.4 millionSettlementGroup recoveryWrongful Death
$13.4 Million Settlement for Families of Two People Killed in 2015 Prairie Fest Tent Collapse
GWC Injury Lawyers secured a $13.424 million settlement for the families of two people killed and dozens injured when an improperly anchored 'Mega Tent' collapsed at Wood Dale's Prairie Fest on August 2, 2015.
All Illinois verdicts and settlements
84 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.
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 $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 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 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.