Michigan Avenue in Chicago’s Magnificent Mile is a popular tourist hotspot with heavy foot traffic. A police officer was stationed down the road when a darkened license caught his attention. Suspicions raised, the officer aggressively pursued the vehicle to pull over. However, instead of stopping, the vehicle fled. Red and blue lights flickered, and sirens blared through the busy district. The suspect vehicle wove through traffic and sped past pedestrians. With public safety as a priority, the police officer needed to manage the chase to protect innocent bystanders from injury. However, the police cruiser was hot on the culprit’s tail for eight minutes, the suspect driving more and more erratically with each block. Suddenly, the suspect’s SUV hit another car as it tried to run a red light, ricocheted onto the sidewalk, and careened into a pedestrian. The victim was pinned between the vehicle and an electrical box, his lower legs crushed by the force and weight of the impact.
The pedestrian, a St. Louis native, had brought his wife into town while on business. Heroically, in the split second before the crash, he pushed his wife out of the way, sparing her. The man, though, sustained gut-churning leg injuries. The collision forced his legs over the cement base of the electrical box, fracturing both limbs midway down his shins. At the hospital, he underwent seven surgeries over the following month and a half. Tragically, surgeons needed to amputate both of his lower legs and feet.
Distraught and in an unfamiliar city, the recovering pedestrian sought legal help. As he learned about Chicagoland attorneys, multiple sources pointed him toward one firm: Power Rogers, LLP. Uniquely, they had prior experience successfully litigating double leg amputation cases. Within a few weeks of the incident, trial lawyers Larry Rogers, Jr. and James Power were actively helping the man build a case.
Larry and James laid out the case and its challenges for the Plaintiff and his family, explaining the Illinois legal system and how they could position the family to maximize their damages. The duo’s main goal was to demonstrate the City of Chicago’s liability by arguing that a place with heavy foot traffic like Michigan Avenue was not an appropriate location for a traffic stop.
The Defense placed sole blame on the pursued suspect for fleeing from the traffic stop. They posited that as police officers, they were charged with enforcing the law, and therefore there was nothing wrong with conducting a traffic stop — regardless of where it happens or the severity of the outcome. The Defense had no interest in settling.
Larry and James augmented their case strategy with a variety of experts. They hired two police procedure experts, along with an accident reconstructionist who established the police vehicle’s speed down Michigan Avenue. The attorneys also retained a prosthetist, a physiatrist, and an economic expert to break down the Plaintiff’s future life care plan. Next, Larry and James focused on where the decision to conduct the stop began and followed each step the officers took through the ordeal. In addition, they cited similar double leg amputation cases that Power Rogers had worked on. Like those cases, Larry and James hired DK Global to create visual presentations two to three months before trial began.
The attorneys had DK Global produce two demonstratives: one of the police pursuit and another of the surgical procedures.
The pursuit demonstrative used the police dashcam to reveal the foot traffic during the pursuit. The dashcam also showed how aggressively the squad car behaved in pulling behind the runaway vehicle. The demonstrative also incorporated a map with arrows to depict the progression of the police and fleeing vehicle, along with each crosswalk and the at-risk pedestrians. The demonstrative finally highlighted the police procedures violated along the way and how following proper procedures would have made a difference.
The surgical demonstrative animated each of the Plaintiff’s seven surgeries. The video began with photos of the injuries, laying bare how grotesque and painful they were. The animation showed how external fixators were attached to the Plaintiff’s legs. Then, the amputations began. Bone saws carved and beveled off the Plaintiff’s leg bones, followed by the surrounding muscles being sutured to the remaining bone. Finally, the flaps of skin around the surgical site were sewn shut, saving the rest of the damaged limbs.
With the Defense refusing to make a settlement offer, James and Larry were ready to take the case to trial. While both sides agreed on the facts of the case, the Defense believed they could convince a jury that the city held no responsibility for the Plaintiff’s injuries and amputation. After picking the jury, the duo revealed the animations they would show the twelve peers. That was when the tide turned. Right before opening statements, the Defense asked for a conference with the judge, hoping for an opportunity to resolve the case. The Defense offered increasing amounts until they reached a figure acceptable to Larry and James’s client. The case resolved with a settlement worth $32,000,000.
Larry Rogers, Jr. is a partner at Power Rogers, LLP and a trial lawyer with over 30 years of experience advocating for victims and fighting for victims’ rights. Rogers has successfully obtained numerous multimillion-dollar settlements and verdicts in a variety of serious personal injury and wrongful death matters. He has pursued cases against municipalities, healthcare providers, and corporate defendants whose wrongful conduct in aviation, medical treatment, transportation and trucking matters, as well as product liability and civil rights matters, has caused catastrophic injuries ranging from paraplegia to brain injuries and even death.
James Power of Power Rogers, LLP primarily focuses on personal injury and wrongful death, including medical malpractice, automotive and trucking negligence, products liability, premises liability, breach of contract, and other professional malpractice. He also collaborates within the firm in pursuing environmental claims on behalf of home-rule cities and small towns across the State of Illinois.
