When safety is not prioritized during construction projects, thousands of work-related injuries and deaths can occur each year at the expense of innocent, hard workers.

In 2013, an Illinois-based construction company failed to provide a safe working environment, resulting in the death of a construction worker. The employees were tasked with a late-night renovation of the exterior of a restaurant. As they began to chip away at the wall, cinderblocks and bricks that were not secured in place collapsed onto two men, seriously injuring one and killing the other. Attorneys Joseph Power, Sean M. Houlihan, and James Power of Power Rogers, LLP represented the family of the decedent after hearing of the Defendant’s negligence in remodeling the building. The three attorneys sought justice and brought their experts and DK Global together to create an animation that demonstrated the Defendant’s failure to secure the restaurant’s framework.

The presentation began with a lateral view of the interior of the wall, displaying the loose layers of brick and steel rods laid on top of each other. Then, the exterior of the wall was shown with the cinderblocks placed on top of the free-floating parapet. After setting the scene, the crux of the incident revealed that the Defendant never hired a professional engineer to conduct a mandated survey of the building. Finally, the animation depicted the inevitable tragedy that followed: workers using heavy machinery to chipped away at the exterior of the building, causing its collapse and killing an employee.

With the detailed presentation in hand, the three attorneys were able to secure an $8.1 million settlement for the decedent’s surviving family.

The attorneys at Power Rogers, LLP have won more than $4 billion in verdicts and settlements for their clients. Notably, Joseph Power and James Power obtained a verdict of $95.5 million for a plaintiff who lost both of his legs when he was catastrophically injured while working as a truck driver. This was the largest personal injury verdict in Illinois history for a contested liability case.

The day after obtaining that verdict, Joseph Power, Larry Rogers, Jr., and James Power set out on another complex trial and obtained a verdict of $33.4 million for their clients in a negligent security case against Allied Barton. Recently, Joe, Sean, and James obtained a $20.5 million verdict in a products liability case for a 70-year-old man with a closed head injury.