After 1.5 hours of deliberation, a jury, following a three day trial before Honorable Elizabeth Budzinski, awarded a plaintiff who fractured his shoulder after falling off his bike that had struck a defect in a city street-$1,917,199.67. The plaintiff was represented by Regina P. Etherton of Regina P. Etherton & Associates, LLC. The case emanated from an accident that took place on July 1, 2007 at the intersection of Marcey and Cortland Streets, in Chicago, Illinois. On June 20, 2007, the surface of the road had been removed by a crew employed by the City of Chicago. In doing so, the Commonwealth Edison vaults and other uneven surfaces of the road had been exposed. Five days later, on June 25, 2007, a small grinder had come through the area for the purpose of smoothing the road surface in final preparation for the laying of the new layer of asphalt but, in doing so, had created several more uneven depressions within the road surface. The top layer of the road surface had not been repaved until July 10, 2007. In the interim, on July 1, 2007, the plaintiff, a former trialthlete, had entered the intersection in a designated bike route, when the front wheel of his bike hit a depression that had been left by the grinding crew, causing his bike to come to an abrupt stop as he went flying over the front of his bike. The plaintiff suffered a comminuted, dislocated, and displaced fracture to his shoulder that required surgical repair. The plaintiff’s medical expenses were approximately $140,000.

Regina Etherton requested that the jury award $2,500,000 in damages, which was comprised of 9 different damage line itemizations. The jury deliberated for 1.5 hours and awarded 6 of the 9 line items to the penny of what Regina Etherton requested and reduced the remaining 3 items for a verdict of $1,917,119.67. The defense argued that the Tort Immunity Act applied, the defect was open and obvious, and the plaintiff was comparatively negligent for riding his bike at an unsafe speed, failing to keep a proper lookout, riding a bike with narrow tires and failing to get off and walk his bike instead of entering an area that he knew was under construction. The jury signed Verdict Form A and found that the plaintiff was not comparatively negligent and further confirmed by special interrogatory that the area in question was not reasonably safe. The defendant had offered $100,000 to settle the matter. This offer was rejected. Regina Etherton had demanded $500,000 to settle the matter and in response, the City of Chicago withdrew its $100,000 offer. Thereafter, the defendant made no further attempts to settle this matter. The case was defended by Elizabeth Sichi and Mark Harrison of the City of Chicago’s Corporation Counsel. This matter was originally taken to trial in January of 2011, when a mistrial was granted and the matter rescheduled for trial.

Regina P. Etherton has a diverse and extensive personal injury litigation practice. She has prosecuted a broad variety of multi-million dollar complex tort, personal injury, medical malpractice and wrongful death claims. She has obtained record verdicts and settlements in Cook County and other counties throughout Illinois. Her noteworthy verdicts and settlements have been featured in the Cook County Jury Verdict Reporter; Illinois Jury Verdict Reporter; Verdicts, Settlements, & Tactics; Illinois Trial Lawyers Association Magazine, Mealey's Insurance Law Weekly; and the Justinian Society Magazine. She was selected to the Illinois Super Lawyer list by Law & Politics and serves on the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association’s Board of Managers. She is a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America. She was selected as one of The American Trial Lawyers Association’s Top 100 Trial Lawyers and one of the “500 Leading Plaintiffs’ Lawyers in America” by Lawdragon Magazine and Lawdragon.com. She is also a lifetime member of The Multi-Million Dollar Advocates forum and the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, the most prestigious groups of trial lawyers in the United States.