In this video, City of Chicago Injury Lawyer Scott D. DeSalvo shares his recent experience litigating a shoulder injury case against the City of Chicago.
Using this case as an example, Mr. DeSalvo explains how the City of Chicago defends personal injury cases and the games they play in delaying and denying fair compensation to injured people.
Hey, guys. Personal injury lawyer Scott DeSalvo here, and in this video, we're going to talk about personal injury cases against the City of Chicago.
I'm sorry I'm not shooting a live video today, but there are a couple of good reasons for it. One is, I really need a haircut. Second, I've had a very busy week this week, and I just don't feel like getting in front of the green screen and shooting video, but I started running out of topics, and I was going to shoot a Q&A video today, but there's a topic that comes up a lot.
I get a lot of phone calls in my office about people who fall down on a city sidewalk or are otherwise injured and as a result they have a case against the City.
Years and years ago, used to be pretty easy to settle those cases, but it hasn't been for at least 15 or 20 years. They fight the cases, so I wanted to tell you a little bit about one of the cases that I've got that I recently settled. I finally was able to settle it.
I'm not going to tell you the name of the guy who got hurt or exactly where he got hurt, but I'll show you some pictures of what happened.
Injury on the City Sidewalk
Basically, what happens is, our guy is a baker, and he's on his way to work. He takes the bus to work, and he's walking towards the bus stop, and he's looking down the road to see if the bus is coming, and he trips over road construction signs that are all scattered all over the sidewalk.
There's no road construction right in that area, but there's a bunch of road construction signs like laying flat on the ground, presumably from recent work or work that had been done in the area, but there was no work going on at the time, so the implication is that City of Chicago either did some road work or approved somebody to do some roadwork, and they left the signs there.
As our guy's walking towards the bus stop, he trips over one of the signs, and this gentleman didn't have very serious injuries. His medical bills were not that high, and thankfully, after a few months, his shoulder got back to normal, but it was really the principle of the thing. I couldn't get the City of Chicago to give me any information about who put the signs there or whose responsibility it was to clean up their mess, take the signs down and put them where they belong, because a road sign doesn't belong just sitting on the street there.
My guy was willing to say, "Hey, it's 50/50. I'm willing to take some responsibility," but it didn't matter to the City of Chicago.
So on this small case, as a matter of principle, I filed a lawsuit, and I've litigated the case for a year and a half. I've added six or seven or eight additional defendants into the case because the City of Chicago kept playing hide the ball.
Now, look, you know as well as I do that the City of Chicago has recorded as to who was working in the area and who probably left the street signs there, but they weren't helping me. They had no interest in providing me with the information, and finally, by digging and working hard on the case, I was able to find the construction company that sort of admitted that it was their responsibility, and we ended up settling the case for about three times the medical bills, and my client's happy, and I'm happy to have the case over with, because it's a teeny-tiny case that, as a matter of principle, I ended up spending a lot of time on.
What's the takeaway? If you're injured due to the City of Chicago, definitely consult with a lawyer right away, but you have to be ready to be in it for the long haul, because the City of Chicago does not play fair, and they possess all the records and all the information, and they try like hell not to give it to you.
They don't, it's a little ... I'm not going to call it dirty pool. I guess, depending on what your perspective is, if I hurt somebody and I knew I was responsible, I'd fess up to it, but I guess legally, under the state of the law, you can put on a defense which includes trying not to give your opponent evidence.
Anyway, if you've been injured due to the City of Chicago, please consider contacting a Chicago injury lawyer right away, because what we talk about in these videos isn't legal advice.
If I can be of help to you, please consider giving me a call at 312-500-4500.
Or if you're not ready to talk to an injury lawyer, you can get a copy of my "Injury Cheat Sheet" that explains how injury cases work, and you can get a copy of that for free by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.
Hope the information in this video helped you. Thanks for watching. Take care.
If you have a case or case against City of Chicago, please give Mr. DeSalvo a call on his toll-free, 24-hour telephone line at 312-500-4500.
