Lavelle Burt v City of Chicago

Michael Carter was honored to argue the case before the Appellate Court and was very happy the Court upheld the verdict that Michael Wierzbicki had won.

The case involved the City of Chicago's construction of an unsafe wheelchair ramp in front of a retirement complex. The ramp would have been better suited for use in the X games than by senior citizens. Unfortunately, Lavelle had to use the ramp and she, quite expectedly fell, severely injuring herself.

The City of Chicago used its usual defense. This defense consisted of arguing that they didn't construct the ramp, they didn't know who did and they never had a complaint about the ramp. None of these were believable. A City employee testified he was in charge of keeping all complaints about sidewalks and ramps. He testified there was never a complaint about the ramp. Michael Wierzbicki pointed out that there wasn't even a complaint listed at the time of trial, some years after the city was served with a formal complaint filed in the court. The City must have wanted the jurors to believe there was some entity or person out there who just decided to install a curb ramp in front of the senior citizen home.

After the Appellate victory the City tore out the dangerous ramp and replaced it with a safe one.