During the next few weeks Dolan Law Offices will be posting a series of blog posts on the top verdicts and settlements of 2009.  Each post will highlight a few of the verdicts or settlements that we found significant this year.  We encourage you to leave comments about other jury verdicts or settlements that you found to be significant.

Our first post in this series will focus on railroad accident verdicts and settlements.  Railroad accidents often happen because of negligence, faulty equipment or poorly maintained intersections.

In 2009:

  • A Cook County Jury Returned a $29.6 Million Verdict: this cook county verdict is believed to be the largest in Illinois history for an individual hurt in a mass transit accident.  The plaintiff alleged that the Chicago Metra train that she was riding derailed after it entered a track crossover at 69 miles per hour when the maximum allowable speed was 10 miles per hour.  The plaintiff was 13 weeks pregnant at the time of the accident.  She suffered traumatic brain injuries from the accident and was in a coma for many months.  Her child survived the accident and was born prematurely.  More than 100 other people were hurt in this accident and 2 people were killed but their injuries were not at issue in this lawsuit.
  • A Cook County Jury Returned a $5 Million Verdict: the plaintiffs in the case were the surviving family members of a 60 year old man who was killed when a Metra train hit his car at a railroad crossing in Chicago.  The plaintiff’s attorney argued that the traffic signals were not working properly at the time of the decedent’s death and that the City of Chicago had been warned about this problem in the past.  The jury found that the City was negligent in its maintenance of the traffic lights and was, therefore, liable to the decedent’s survivors.
  • A $30 Million Settlement was reached in a California Metrolink Accident Case:  this $30 million settlement settled many of the remaining lawsuits from a 2005 Glendale accident that killed 11 people and hurt more than 180 people.  The cases that did not settle are scheduled for trial in January 2010.
  • A New York Subway Accident Victim Won a $3.6 Million Verdict: the plaintiff was a 25 year old man who had his lower leg amputated after being run over by a subway train.

The verdicts and settlements described above are just a small sampling of the many railroad accident verdicts and settlements reached nationwide during 2009. 

The Illinois railroad accident lawyersof Dolan Law Offices represent victims of train accidents and railroad workers who have FELA claims.  We encourage you to contact us for a free consultation if you have been hurt in a railway accident.