GWC Attorney, Taylor E. Shur, Obtained a Judgment of $7,000,000.00 on Behalf of a Union Plumber Who Suffered Neck and Back Injuries.
In May 2022, GWC’s client, a 60-year-old union plumber, was installing new pipes at a construction project in Cook County, Illinois. In order to access his work area, Plaintiff had to walk through an area that was dimly lit and had no warnings of any dangers ahead. As Plaintiff was cautiously walking through the jobsite to get to his work area, he unexpectedly struck a low-hanging overhead pipe with his forehead, causing his neck to snap backward and cause intense pain. The low-hanging pipe was neither able to be seen due to the poor lighting in the work space nor was there any warnings or briefings on the location of this dangerous obstacle. As a result of this unfortunate incident, Plaintiff suffered disabling cervical spinal stenosis, requiring an anterior cervical discectomy fusion. As a result of his injuries, Plaintiff was unable to rotate his head and neck upwards toward the ceiling or downward toward the floor; and he was never able to return to work as a union plumber which was a career that was quite financially lucrative, and in which he had spent his career excelling in.
GWC filed suit against the general contractor of the project alleging that it failed to properly identify hazardous conditions on the job site, provide adequate lighting in the inside portions of the project, failed to warn Plaintiff about the low-hanging pipes, and failed to provide Plaintiff with a safe place to work. GWC aggressively pursued the case against the defendant and eventually obtained a default judgment against the responsible party. Newly sworn in associate GWC lawyer, Taylor E. Shur, was quick to prepare her case for presentation of the evidence before the trial court. She offered extensive testimony concerning the impact that the injuries had on her client and his family. As it turned out, the client’s wife had been suffering from a malady of medical conditions prior to this work accident. GWC’s client had constructed multiple items for his wife’s benefit for transportation, transitioning in the house, and other matters of medical convenience. He was, when not working, a major contributor to his ailing wife’s day to day care. Once the work injury occurred, he was stripped of the ability to help his wife in so many ways, which was demoralizing, depressing and emotionally debilitating for him. In addition to the non-economic losses of pain and suffering and his loss of a normal life, Ms. Shur presented evidence to the court documenting the economic damages suffered by the Plaintiff consisting of the loss of his substantial union wages and benefits and his medical bills.
At the conclusion of the evidentiary hearing, the court entered judgment in favor of the Plaintiff. Recognizing the magnitude of his life altering injuries, the judge entered a verdict on Ms. Shur’s first trial as a practicing lawyer in the amount of $7,000,000.00. According to GWC Injury Lawyers LLC owner and managing partner, Louis C. Cairo, “Having had the benefit of watching Taylor develop as a law clerk over the two years she worked for us during law school, I knew that she had tremendous intellectual abilities and would develop litigation skills overtime. But this result, 3 months after being sworn in, is ridiculous. What an asset to my firm and our clients!”
Fighting for the Rights of Illinois Accident Victims
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