On a sunny day in August 2016, our client, who resides in Iowa, was riding his motorcycle to visit his wife at work in Rock Island, Illinois, when his life changed. He was headed eastbound and a work truck headed southbound disobeyed a stop sign. This truck then turned right and began heading westbound in the eastbound lanes heading directly for our client. Our client took evasive action with his motorcycle and avoided a direct head-on collision with the truck. Unfortunately, he lost control of his motorcycle when he entered the median and his body was thrown into a third stopped vehicle.
He had to be flown by helicopter to the hospital due to the catastrophic nature of his injuries. He then spent over two months recovering in the hospital. He had multiple orthopedic and soft tissue injuries and had to have a feeding tube placed in his abdomen. During that time, he underwent multiple surgical procedures and began the long road to recovery. Once he was discharged, he immediately began seven months of intense physical therapy, as well as therapy to learn to swallow again. It was thought that he would need the feeding tube for the rest of his life. But after months of therapy and hard work, he was able to swallow, and the feeding tube was removed. Although many of his injuries are permanent, he is happy to have survived this accident.
While still hospitalized, his wife contacted Hupy and Abraham because she knew the firm from its charitable donations to the motorcycle community. Attorney Vito Manicioto immediately began helping them navigate through the difficult road to recovery. Over the next year and a half as he was recovering, Attorney Manicioto was building their case. Once all the doctors’ reports were in, Attorney Manicioto notified the at-fault insurance company he was filing a lawsuit. They requested that Hupy and Abraham please hold off on filing and mediate the case presuit.
Attorney Manicioto submitted a comprehensive mediation package, including many reports from the client’s doctors as to his future prognosis. At mediation, the defense tried submitting a liability defense stating that their driver’s brakes failed. This defense was immediately rejected by Attorney Manicioto and he pushed the negotiations forward with no regard to this defense. At the end of the day, Hupy and Abraham was able to force the defendant insurance company to agree to pay $4.25 million to settle the claim without filing a lawsuit.
