$204,000 Jury Verdict in Admitted Liability Rear-End Crash; Solis v. Giannoulias

David Solis, 19, was sitting on the hood of his car, which was stopped on the shoulder of eastbound Peterson Avenue at the off ramp of Interstate 94 (Eden’s Expressway) when the defendant, a 66-year-old doctor, rear-ended his car. Solis suffered multiple injuries to his back that were all treated conservatively with physical therapy and injections. He lost 13 weeks of work as a Federal Express shipping laborer.

The defendant admitted liability. However, the defendant argued that the plaintiff’s medical treatment was connected only to a degenerative disc disease and not this incident. The defendant also contended that there was proof that Solis had a pre-existing degenerative disc disease because it showed up on an earlier MRI. Any of the recent medical care that plaintiff received, the defendant alleged, was not related to this crash because there was a 3-year gap in medical treatment.

The jury, however, agreed with the plaintiff that he was injured to the extent he claimed and returned a verdict for $204,814, which included $41,993 for medical expenses and $3,031 of lost time from work.

Before the trial, the Solis demand to settle this case was $100,000. It was reported that the defendant driver offered $55,000 to settle the case before trial. The attorneys for Mr. Solis were David J. Schwaner and Christopher Cortese.

David Solis v. Spiros Giannoulias, 10 L 14503 (Cook County).

Kreisman Law Offices has been handling car accidents, truck accidents, bicycle accidents and elevator accidents for individuals and families for more than 36 years, in and around Chicago, Cook County and its surrounding areas including, Berwyn, Bolingbrook, Romeoville, Elgin, Naperville, Chicago (Lincoln Park), Alsip, Homewood, Rockport and Zion, Ill.