I'll never forget the call I got one freezing January night. A family near Northwestern Memorial Hospital reached out to me. Their situation? A father of two young kids had been catastrophically injured in a construction accident. His wife was a stay-at-home mom who'd been raising their children.
And now? Everything had changed.
How were they going to pay the medical bills piling up? The mortgage was due. Who was going to provide for the family now that their breadwinner couldn't work?
Look, I've been a catastrophic injury lawyer in Chicago for over two decades. I've walked alongside hundreds of families going through the absolute worst moments of their lives. Whether you're dealing with a traumatic brain injury from a crash on the Kennedy, a spinal cord injury from a construction site fall, or any other life-altering injury that's taken away your ability to work and provide for your family—I get it. Your world has been turned upside down.
You're worried about medical care. You're wondering if you'll ever get back to normal. You're scared about how your family is going to make it financially.
That's exactly why I built my practice around one simple promise: no money out of pocket, and no fee until we win. Period.
You shouldn't have to worry about lawyer fees when you're just trying to keep your head above water and your family stable. My team and I are available 24/7/365—and I mean that. Catastrophic injuries don't happen during business hours, and neither should your access to a lawyer who knows what he's doing.
From Lincoln Park to Pilsen, from the Loop to Logan Square, I'm here to fight for what you deserve while you focus on what matters most: getting better and taking care of your family.
If you've been catastrophically injured, don't wait another day. Call (312)-500-4500 now for your free case evaluation.
Here's the deal: a catastrophic injury is any severe injury that permanently prevents you from working and requires ongoing medical treatment or help with daily activities.
These aren't the kind of injuries that heal up in a few weeks. We're talking about life-changing events that affect every single aspect of your future. In my years handling catastrophic injury cases in Chicago, I've seen firsthand how these injuries don't just impact the victim—they turn entire families' lives upside down.
The legal definition matters because catastrophic injury cases demand significantly higher compensation than your typical personal injury claim. You're not just recovering for past medical bills. You're securing money for decades of future care, lost earning capacity, home modifications, assistive equipment, and the loss of being able to enjoy your life the way you used to.
Under Illinois law, catastrophic injuries result in permanent disability, disfigurement, or loss of bodily function. These cases often involve economic damages in the millions when you calculate a lifetime of medical expenses, rehab costs, lost wages, and everything else that gets destroyed when you're catastrophically injured.
My practice focuses on the most severe injury cases—the ones that require specialized legal knowledge and someone who's willing to fight hard for every dollar you deserve. Each type of catastrophic injury has its own unique medical, legal, and financial challenges:
Traumatic brain injuries from construction accidents, car crashes, or slip and falls can result in permanent cognitive problems, personality changes, and the need for lifetime care. I work with the best neurologists at Chicago's top hospitals—Northwestern, Rush, University of Chicago Medical Center—to document the full extent of brain damage and figure out what your future care is going to cost.
Whether you're dealing with a bad concussion, diffuse axonal injury, or a penetrating head trauma, I know how to prove the damages that insurance companies love to minimize. Brain injuries affect memory, speech, motor skills, emotional regulation—all the things that make it impossible to work and live your life normally.
And here's the thing: insurance companies are pros at saying brain injuries aren't a big deal. You need someone on your side who knows better.
Learn more about our Brain Injury legal services →
Spinal cord injuries that result in paraplegia or quadriplegia are some of the most expensive injuries to deal with over a lifetime. We're talking wheelchair-accessible vehicles, in-home nursing care, modifications to your house—it all adds up fast, and we have to calculate every penny.
I've successfully represented construction workers injured in scaffolding falls, accident victims with crushed vertebrae, workers hurt in industrial accidents across Chicago's manufacturing districts. These cases often involve both Illinois workers' comp claims and third-party personal injury lawsuits that have to be coordinated carefully to get you maximum recovery.
Whether your spinal cord injury came from a workplace accident, car crash, or medical malpractice, you deserve compensation for a lifetime of care and the independence you've lost.
Learn more about our Spinal Cord Injury practice →
This is the hardest part of what I do. Sometimes, despite the best efforts of Chicago's emergency medical teams, catastrophic injuries are fatal. When that happens, surviving family members face not just grief, but financial devastation.
I help families pursue wrongful death claims that account for lost income, loss of companionship, funeral expenses, and the future financial support that children have lost. Under Illinois' wrongful death statute, surviving spouses, children, and parents can recover damages for their loved one's pain and suffering, medical expenses before death, and the financial and emotional losses they've suffered.
These cases carry enormous emotional weight. I approach them with the sensitivity and respect they deserve—because I know what it's like to watch someone you love suffer from a catastrophic injury.
Learn more about our Wrongful Death legal services →
Some catastrophic injuries don't show up on an x-ray, but they're just as devastating. Chronic pain from injuries can make it impossible to work or enjoy life. Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), severe nerve damage, chronic pain from spinal injuries—these can be as bad as visible impairments, but insurance companies fight these claims tooth and nail.
I work with pain management specialists, neurologists, and vocational experts to show how chronic pain has destroyed your ability to function and earn a living. Chronic pain cases require careful documentation and expert testimony to prove that your suffering is real, permanent, and deserves compensation.
Learn more about our Serious Chronic Pain injury cases →
Beyond brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, wrongful death, and chronic pain, catastrophic injuries include severe burns requiring skin grafts and reconstructive surgery, amputations that mean a lifetime of adaptation and prosthetics, multiple fractures needing extensive reconstruction, organ damage from trauma or medical negligence, and any injury that permanently impairs your physical or mental function.
What all these cases have in common: they demand maximum compensation—often millions of dollars—to account for a lifetime of reduced earning capacity and increased expenses. I've handled amputation cases from industrial accidents in Bridgeport's manufacturing area, severe burn injuries from defective products and fires, multi-trauma cases from high-speed crashes on Lake Shore Drive.
Here's something people don't always realize: catastrophic physical injuries almost always cause severe emotional and psychiatric trauma. PTSD, depression, anxiety, traumatic stress—these are real, compensable damages in catastrophic injury cases.
Many catastrophic injury victims lose their sense of identity. They become isolated. Their relationships suffer. They struggle with the fact that their life has permanently changed.
I work with psychiatrists and psychologists who know how to document these injuries so courts and insurance companies can't ignore them. The emotional devastation of losing your independence, your career, your old life—that's real, and you deserve compensation for it.
Learn more about Emotional & Psychiatric injury claims →
Insurance companies will try to lowball your catastrophic injury claim. Don't let them. Call (312)-500-4500 now—I'm available 24/7 to fight for every dollar you deserve.
Chicago's got a unique landscape when it comes to catastrophic injuries. Our construction boom, industrial areas, traffic patterns—they all create specific risks. From high-rise construction accidents downtown to industrial injuries in the manufacturing corridors, I know the local defendants, insurance companies, and medical providers you're going to be dealing with.
I know which hospitals have the best expert witnesses. I know which employers have histories of safety violations. I know what Cook County juries typically award in catastrophic injury cases.
The Illinois Workers' Compensation system adds another layer of complexity. When you're hurt on the job, you might have both a workers' comp claim and a third-party personal injury claim against equipment manufacturers, subcontractors, or property owners. Coordinating these claims to maximize your recovery requires someone who knows Illinois law inside and out.
Chicago catastrophic injuries happen in specific contexts I know well: construction accidents on high-rises downtown, manufacturing injuries in industrial districts along the Dan Ryan, transportation accidents on the Kennedy and Eisenhower, premises liability accidents in commercial buildings all over the city. My familiarity with these environments, the defendants typically involved, and the safety regulations that apply gives my clients a real advantage.
When you're facing a life-altering injury, picking the right lawyer isn't just about credentials—it's about finding someone who understands what you're going through and will fight like hell on your behalf. Here's what sets my practice apart:
I've spent more than two decades representing catastrophic injury victims in Chicago and throughout Illinois. I'm not learning on your dime—I know the Cook County court system inside and out. I've got relationships with the medical experts you'll need. I understand how local insurance companies operate and what tricks they'll try to pull.
When your case goes to trial, I know what Cook County juries expect and how to present catastrophic injury evidence in ways that hit home with Chicago residents.
I know Chicago's neighborhoods. Whether you were hurt at a construction site in Bridgeport, in a traffic accident on Lake Shore Drive, on the job in one of our industrial corridors, or you suffered a catastrophic injury in Hyde Park, Lakeview, Wicker Park, River North, or West Town—I know the area, the hazards, and often the defendants involved.
Catastrophic injury cases require lawyers who aren't afraid of trial. Insurance companies know which lawyers settle cheap and which ones fight. My reputation in Chicago is built on getting maximum compensation for clients who've suffered life-changing injuries—and insurance adjusters know I won't take a lowball offer.
Medical Malpractice Results:
These cases often involve millions of dollars in damages. Calculating lifetime medical expenses, lost earning capacity for someone who may never work again, and the losses you can't put a price tag on—that requires sophisticated analysis and compelling presentation to juries. I work with economists, life care planners, and vocational rehab experts to build cases that account for every dollar you'll need for the rest of your life.
Results depend on your specific facts and circumstances. You cannot take these amounts as a promise or a representation that you will get this amount of money in your case.
I'm not one of those big personal injury mills that treat clients like case numbers. When you call, you'll talk to someone who knows your case and actually cares about what happens to you.
Catastrophic injury cases can take months or years to resolve properly—you deserve a lawyer who's available to answer questions, explain what's happening, and guide you through this nightmare.
When I say I'm available 24/7/365, I mean it. That's not marketing talk—that's how I run my practice. I know that worries about your case don't only pop up between 9 and 5. Whether you're lying awake at 2 a.m. worried about next month's bills or you got a confusing letter from an insurance company on Saturday afternoon, I'm here.
The last thing you should worry about when you're catastrophically injured is how you're going to afford a lawyer. My contingency fee arrangement means you pay nothing unless I win your case. No upfront costs. No hourly billing. No surprise invoices.
I advance all case expenses—expert witness fees, medical records, court costs, depositions, investigations—and I only get that back if I successfully resolve your case.
This isn't just about being fair. It's about leveling the playing field. The insurance companies and corporations you're up against have unlimited money to fight your claim. My contingency fee structure means you get the same quality representation regardless of your financial situation.
You shouldn't have to drain your savings to get justice when someone else's negligence already cost you everything.
I learned about catastrophic injuries the hard way. When I was 9 years old, my father—a truck driver and a Teamster—was severely hurt at work. He was still a young man. But that injury took everything from him. The injuries to his neck, back, and spine were permanent. They changed his life forever. He was never the same.
His case went on for 17 years. Seventeen years of being run around by insurance companies and defense lawyers. At the end, his own lawyer sued him for more fees. We grew up poor once my father couldn't work anymore.
That's why I became a catastrophic injury lawyer. So what happened to my family never happens to you or your family.
Catastrophic injuries don't just affect the victim—they devastate entire families. I've sat with spouses trying to figure out how they'll manage caregiving while working to support the family. I've talked with parents worried about their kids' futures when the breadwinner can't work anymore. I've helped families navigate the maze of medical decisions, insurance claims, disability applications, and government benefits that suddenly becomes your reality.
This experience taught me that successful catastrophic injury work requires more than legal skills—it requires empathy, patience, and a genuine commitment to helping families rebuild. I'm not just chasing a settlement check. I'm fighting to secure the resources you need to move forward with dignity and security.
What My Clients Say
"Scott fought for us when we had nowhere else to turn." "After my husband's construction accident left him paralyzed, we didn't know how we'd survive. Scott DeSalvo not only got us a settlement that provides for our family's future, he treated us with compassion and respect the whole way through. He was available whenever we needed him and explained everything so we could understand it." — Maria G., Pilsen
"The best decision we made during the worst time of our lives." "Our son suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car accident. The insurance company offered us a fraction of what we needed for his lifetime care. Scott took our case to trial and won a verdict that changed our lives. He's not just an excellent lawyer—he genuinely cares." — Robert and Jennifer S., Lincoln Park
Find Out What YOUR Case Might Be Worth...for free.
Understanding how catastrophic injuries happen helps us identify who's liable and build stronger cases. I've represented catastrophic injury victims hurt in:
Construction Accidents: Falls from scaffolding or roofs, crane accidents, electrocution, struck-by accidents with falling objects or equipment, trench collapses, and the countless other hazards on Chicago's construction sites.
Motor Vehicle Accidents: High-speed collisions on Chicago expressways, semi-truck accidents, distracted driving crashes, drunk driving accidents, motorcycle collisions, pedestrian accidents that result in life-altering injuries.
Workplace Accidents: Industrial accidents in manufacturing facilities, forklift accidents in warehouses, machinery accidents, chemical exposure, repetitive trauma injuries, and other occupational hazards.
Medical Malpractice: Surgical errors, birth injuries causing cerebral palsy or brain damage, anesthesia mistakes, medication errors, delayed diagnosis of serious conditions, hospital negligence.
Premises Liability: Slip and fall accidents causing traumatic brain injury or spinal damage, inadequate security leading to violent attacks, negligent maintenance, unsafe property conditions.
Defective Products: Malfunctioning machinery, defective vehicles or vehicle parts, dangerous consumer products, industrial equipment failures.
Each scenario may involve multiple liable parties, complicated insurance issues, and overlapping claims that require smart legal strategy to maximize your compensation.
Catastrophic injury cases typically include both economic and non-economic damages:
Punitive Damages: In cases with gross negligence or willful misconduct, Illinois law allows punitive damages to punish the wrongdoer and deter similar conduct.
Illinois' statute of limitations for personal injury cases is generally two years from the date of injury. But there are important exceptions:
Don't wait. Evidence disappears. Witnesses forget. Your legal rights can expire. Call (312)-500-4500 today.
A catastrophic injury is any severe injury that results in permanent disability, long-term impairment, or makes it impossible to work. Common ones include traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries causing paralysis, severe burns, amputations, multiple fractures requiring extensive reconstruction, organ damage, and injuries causing chronic debilitating pain. These injuries typically require ongoing medical treatment, rehab, and may mean you need lifetime care or help with daily activities.
This is the most common question I get, but here's the honest truth: there's no way to tell you without a lot of information about your case. Even then, there's a range depending on you, your case, the facts of the injury, your doctor, and your medical outcome once you've recovered as much as you can.
Catastrophic injury cases often result in settlements or verdicts from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars. I can evaluate your specific situation and project the full value of your claim, including lifetime costs that aren't immediately obvious. But think twice before hiring someone who tells you that you have a million-dollar case before knowing any details.
In Illinois, the statute of limitations for most personal injury cases is two years from the date of injury. Medical malpractice claims have different timelines, and cases against government entities require filing administrative claims within one year or less. Some situations can extend or shorten these deadlines.
Because evidence preservation and early investigation are critical in catastrophic injury cases, you should talk to a lawyer immediately—not when the deadline is breathing down your neck.
Yes. And I'm not just saying that because I am one. Catastrophic injury cases are way more complex than typical personal injury claims. They involve sophisticated medical evidence, life care planning, complicated damage calculations, and they often go to trial instead of settling early.
A lawyer experienced in catastrophic injury law knows how to work with medical experts, economists, and life care planners to prove the full extent of your damages and get maximum compensation for your lifetime needs.
You can recover economic damages (medical expenses, lost wages, future medical care, rehab costs, home modifications, assistive equipment) and non-economic damages (pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, emotional distress, permanent disability, disfigurement).
In cases with gross negligence or willful misconduct, punitive damages may also be available. The goal is to get compensation that addresses both your immediate needs and your long-term care requirements for the rest of your life.
Catastrophic injury cases typically take longer than standard personal injury claims because of their complexity and high stakes. Cases may take 12 to 36 months or longer depending on injury severity, whether liability is disputed, how many defendants are involved, and whether the case goes to trial.
I know that seems like forever. But it's important not to rush into settlement before you understand the full extent of your injuries and future needs. My job is to make sure your case is resolved at the right time for maximum compensation—not just quickly.
Many catastrophic injury cases settle before trial, but I have to be fully prepared to try your case if necessary. Insurance companies make better settlement offers when they know your lawyer is willing and able to take the case to trial.
I prepare every catastrophic injury case as if it will go to trial. That often results in favorable settlements. But if the insurance company refuses to offer fair compensation, I'm ready to present your case to a Cook County jury. And I'm not afraid to do it.
Yes. I handle all catastrophic injury cases on a contingency fee basis—you pay no attorney fees unless I recover compensation for you. No upfront costs. I advance all case expenses including expert witness fees, medical records, court costs, and investigation expenses.
My fee is a percentage of your recovery, so you can afford the same quality representation as insurance companies and large corporations without any out-of-pocket expense. In fact, you never pay out of pocket. I only get paid if you get paid first.
If you or someone you love has suffered a catastrophic injury in Chicago, every day you wait is a day the insurance company uses to build their defense. Evidence disappears. Witnesses' memories fade. Insurance adjusters work to minimize your claim. You need an experienced catastrophic injury lawyer fighting for you right now.
I offer every potential client a completely free, no-obligation consultation. Here's how it works:
No pressure. No sales pitch. No cost. You'll leave the conversation with clarity about your situation and what you should do next.
Call (312)-500-4500 now. I answer 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
My catastrophic injury practice serves clients throughout the Chicago metro area, including:
Chicago Neighborhoods: Loop, Lincoln Park, Pilsen, Logan Square, Bridgeport, Hyde Park, Lakeview, Wicker Park, River North, West Town, Gold Coast, Old Town, Bucktown, Andersonville, Rogers Park, Edgewater, Uptown, Lincoln Square, Albany Park, North Center, Roscoe Village, Avondale, Irving Park, Portage Park, Jefferson Park, Forest Glen, Norwood Park, Edison Park, Dunning, Montclare, Belmont Cragin, Hermosa, Humboldt Park, Ukrainian Village, East Village, West Loop, Near West Side, University Village, Little Italy, Chinatown, Bronzeville, Kenwood, Woodlawn, South Shore, South Chicago, and all surrounding communities.
Surrounding Areas: Evanston, Oak Park, Cicero, Berwyn, Skokie, Wilmette, Winnetka, Northbrook, Glenview, Des Plaines, Park Ridge, Niles, Morton Grove, Lincolnwood, Arlington Heights, Mount Prospect, Schaumburg, Hoffman Estates, Elk Grove Village, Rosemont, Franklin Park, Melrose Park, Maywood, Bellwood, Hillside, Westchester, La Grange, Western Springs, Hinsdale, Downers Grove, Naperville, Aurora, Joliet, and throughout Cook County, DuPage County, Will County, Lake County, and Kane County.
No matter where in the Chicago area your catastrophic injury happened, I can help. If your injury makes it hard to travel, I'm happy to meet you at your home, at the hospital, or at a rehab facility. Your recovery is the priority—I'll come to you.
Take the First Step
You don't have to face this alone. While you focus on recovery and your family, I'll handle the legal battle—fighting to get you compensation for medical expenses, lost income, future care costs, home modifications, equipment, rehab, and the massive impact this injury has had on your life and your family's future.
Remember: No money out of pocket. No fee until we win. Free consultation available 24/7/365.
Call (312)-500-4500 now to talk to a Chicago catastrophic injury lawyer who will actually fight for you.
Don't let the insurance company take advantage of you when you're at your most vulnerable. Call me today. Let's start building your case for maximum compensation. Every day matters in preserving evidence, protecting your rights, and securing your family's future.
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Main Office:
1000 Jorie Blvd Ste 204
Oak Brook, IL 60523
New Cases: 312-500-4500
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