Practice Area: Wrongful Death
Outcome: $1,300,000.00
Description: The decedent was a 40 year old licensed practical nurse (African-American Female) with two adult children from her marriage and an eight year old son from a relationship. The year before her death, she earned $14,500.00 and had gone to a part-time position so as to be able to return to nursing school on a full-time basis. While driving home from work, she exited the Dan Ryan Expressway at 47th Street southbound onto Wentworth and was proceeding past 47th when an Art's Transportation van went through the red light and struck her van on the driver's door. Witnesses after the fact testified that she moaned in pain for about 20 minutes before dying and before any ambulance had come to the scene. A CTA bus driver on the 47th Street line had been seen pulling away from the scene just after the crash. I sent a subpoena to the CTA and obtained the names and addresses of every driver on the 47th Street line for the date of the crash. With a court reporter, I went to 25 of the 26 houses until I found the driver who had seen the crash and the Art's driver go through the red light. Once his statement was taken, the only question was one of damages. Two of the three children took a share in a lump sum. The eight year old son had a structured settlement arranged with $50,000 per year being paid from age 18 to 21 on each of the four birthdays, $100,000 at age 25, $200,000 at age 30 and $300,000 at age 35 with a trust fund set up for emergency needs right away of about $20,000 in addition.