Date : Aug 31, 2026
Congratulations to Chicago-based Partner Joseph P. DiPino on securing an appellate victory before the Illinois Appellate Court, First District.
Joe represented our client on appeal following a wrongful death action arising from a series of collisions on Interstate 55 near Plainfield, Illinois. Following trial, a jury awarded $13.8 million to the plaintiff’s estate and found the commercial trucking defendants and their driver 99% at fault, while attributing just 1% fault to our client.
The plaintiff alleged that the trucking defendants failed to deploy federally required warning devices behind the disabled vehicle, creating a hazardous condition that led to the fatal collision. On appeal, the trucking defendants challenged numerous aspects of the case, including causation, evidentiary rulings, expert testimony, and damages, seeking to overturn the judgment and obtain a new trial. In a published 37-page opinion, the Illinois Appellate Court rejected each of the defendants’ arguments and affirmed the judgment in its entirety, preserving the jury’s verdict and fault allocation.