C&D Again Atop Chicago Lawyer Magazine Settlement Survey
Corboy & Demetrio again tops the Chicago Lawyer magazine's annual settlement survey of Illinois law firms, with 29 separate million-dollar settlements in the past year. The firm's settlements totaled $154 million and covered a full range of matters, including aviation disaster, medical malpractice, workplace injury and automobile collision cases.
This is the fifth straight year the firm has led one of the Chicago Lawyer's settlement surveys.
The magazine specifically singled out Tom Demetrio for two of his remarkable results: his commercial aviation record $25.2 million settlement for one of the families in the crash of US Air Flight #427 and his $35 million settlement in an automobile collision case, an Illinois personal injury record.
Other Corboy & Demetrio attorneys were cited for their million dollar settlements as well.
Excerpts from the Chicago Lawyer magazine (October 2000), appear below:
Corboy & Demetrio topped the chart for the firm with the overall highest number of settlements of at least $1 million: 29 cases totaling $154.725 million. The firm has 19 lawyers, according to counts in Sullivan's Law Directory.
"It's a tribute to everyone at the firm who works so hard throughout the year to provide the best possible representation for our clients," said Robert J. Bingle, managing partner of Corboy & Demetrio.
Included in the statewide survey were tort settlements of at least $1 million in state cases; the settlements had to have been published in Chicago Lawyer, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin or the Jury Verdict Reporter between July 1, 1999, and June 30, 2000. All are publications of Law Bulletin Publishing Co.
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Philip Harnett Corboy Jr. set a record for the largest settlement for an individual over the age of 60, with a $4.9 million accord in Summerly v. Pepperidge Farm. The lawsuit charged that defendant driver for Pepperidge Farm ignored a stop sign and hit and dragged a man 75 feet with his delivery truck. The man, 72, suffered a broken neck, collapsed lung and massive brain damage. He died 14 months later in a nursing home.
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Tom Demetrio also settled a $10-million medical malpractice case for a baby born with cerebral palsy.
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The firm settled a $12-million case in which the tread of a Uniroyal tire on the Zolo family's 1985 Ford Econoline van separated and the van rolled over on Interstate 75 in Georgia. Kenneth Zolo and his mother, Charlotte, died in the accident.
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Demetrio, with his partner and brother Michael K. Demetrio, settled a $6-million case stemming from the USAir crash.
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[The firm also negotiated] a $2-million settlement that marked the last of nearly 150 lawsuits emanating from the 1989 United Airlines plane crash in Sioux City, Iowa, in Joseph Trombello et al. v. United Airlines, et al..
Francis Patrick Murphy of Corboy & Demetrio represented John Hatch of Lake Geneva, Wis., who was president of Acme-Wiley, a billboard sign manufacturer headquartered in Elk Grove Village. Murphy said Hatch suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome after the crash and had difficulty riding planes since the crash.
Corboy & Demetrio handled 39 cases from the 1989 crash, winning $73.9 million in damages, according to Murphy.
© 2000, Chicago Lawyer: a publication of the Law Bulletin. Reprinted with permission.