On Jan. 11, 2010, Vinayak Dravid was driving eastbound on Golf Road in Skokie, Ill., when the defendant Anila Amin pulled out from a parking lot at 3337 W. Golf Road. Amin was attempting to turn left and go westbound, causing the crash with a plaintiff’s car. The impact resulted in both cars spinning and then making a second contact with each other. Both of the vehicles were a total loss.
Dravid, 46, and a professor at Northwestern University, maintained that the crash caused him aggravation to his previously diagnosed herniated discs at L4-5 and L5-S1. Dravid said the impact and force of the crash reawakened his symptoms and increased the intensity of his pain. Surgery was recommended prior to the crash, but Dravid elected to deal with the pain and claimed his back had been largely without symptoms in the months just before the crash.
After the collision, Dravid underwent additional physical therapy and an injection. Surgery was again recommended by his doctor, but this time by a different neurosurgeon.
Amin was not present at the trial. The defense for Amin admitted that Amin was negligent but contested the nature and extent of the plaintiff’s injuries. On cross examination, Dravid’s treating doctor conceded pre-accident and post-accident MRI films were identical and that the accident caused no anatomical change in his condition.
In furtherance of that argument, it was found that there were no objective findings and Dravid’s complaints were subjective.
The attorneys for Dravid, Stephen Schlegel and Eryk Folmer, did not ask the jury for a specific amount in closing argument, but instead requested a “substantial award.”
The attorney for the defendant Amin suggested to the jury that a verdict of $20,256 representing double the medical expenses be the jury’s verdict. However, the jury’s verdict was just the medical expenses for Dravid. The jury deliberated for 30 minutes.
Before trial, the demand to settle the case was the policy limit of $40,000. The offer to settle was $20,322.
The jury’s verdict was made up of the following damages:
- $10,128 for medical expenses;
- $0 for pain and suffering;
- $0 for loss of normal life.
Vinayak Dravid v. Anila Amin, No. 11 L 8315 (Cook County).
Kreisman Law Offices has been handling automobile accidents, car crashes and nursing home abuse cases for individuals and families who have been harmed, injured or died as a result of the carelessness or negligence of another for more than 37 years in and around Chicago, Cook County and its surrounding areas, including Palatine, Elmwood Park, Hickory Hills, Clarendon Hills, Park Forest, Oak Forest, Chicago (Wicker Park, Logan Square, Lincoln Square, Roscoe Village), Libertyville and Lansing, Ill.
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