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Chicago Aviation Accidents Lawyer
Overview
Matthew Sims is a shareholder with the firm and a trial lawyer who represents victims and their families in catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death cases. He has litigated cases in jurisdictions across the country and has tried cases to verdict in several states...
Matthew Sims is a shareholder with the firm and a trial lawyer who represents victims and their families in catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death cases. He has litigated cases in jurisdictions across the country and has tried cases to verdict in several states...
Matthew Sims is a shareholder with the firm and a trial lawyer who represents victims and their families in catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death cases. He has litigated cases in jurisdictions across the country and has tried cases to verdict in several states.
Matthew regularly handles high-profile and complex cases, including traumatic brain injury cases, explosions, commercial trucking accidents, defective product cases, construction injuries, medical malpractice, and commercial aviation crashes.
He is currently involved in numerous high profile aviation disasters, including the Boeing 737 Max 8 litigation arising out of the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, where he serves on the Plaintiffs' Executive Committee, the 2019 Ketchikan Alaska Midair Collision, and the 2020 Soldotna Alaska Midair Collision. Recently, he served as co-lead counsel in the crash of US Airways Flight 1702. Matthew is a published author and presenter on aviation crash litigation and also serves on the Executive Committee for the American Association of Justice's Aviation Section. He has been recognized by National Aviation Trial Lawyers "Top 10".
Some of Matthew's recent recoveries on behalf of his clients have included:
• $7,600,000 recovery for workers poisoned by lead in a shipyard
• $6,400,000 settlement in a product liability case involving bleeding complications from a defectively designed medical device
• $5,750,000 recovery for a passenger who walked away from a commercial airplane crash but later developed back problems
• $4,900,000 settlement in a slip and fall that resulted in a fractured leg and eventual death of a woman at work
• $3,000,000 first-of-its-kind jury verdict against a global pharmaceutical company for concealing the suicide risks of its drug after a man took his life while on a generic version of the drug
• $3,000,000 settlement in a product liability case where a factory worker was killed while operating a defectively designed machine
• $2,300,000 award in a case involving the malfunction of an airport service vehicle that pinned a worker against an aircraft.
• $2,250,000 record-setting highest personal injury recovery ever for any injury in that jurisdiction for a client who suffered a fractured femur and burns in a car accident.
• $2,000,000 record-setting recovery for an ankle injury in that jurisdiction. The original offer from the defendants before expert discovery commenced was 25 cents.
• $1,075,000 record-setting settlement for a 95-year-old woman knocked down by a grocery store clerk who suffered a broken hip. The recovery is the highest injury settlement ever for a nonagenarian in the state of Illinois.
• $939,000 record-setting settlement for a broken ankle in a trucking accident that also set a record as the highest ever in that jurisdiction.
Matthew has also handled numerous airplane and helicopter accidents that have resulted in substantial confidential recoveries on behalf of his clients.
Due to his experience in representing his clients, Matthew has been selected as an Illinois Super Lawyer Rising Star every year for eight years straight, from 2014 to 2021, a distinction limited to only the top 2.5% of lawyers under the age of 40 in the State of Illinois. He has been recognized by Best Lawyers in America "Ones to Watch." He has also been repeatedly selected by the National Trial Lawyers as a "Top 40 Under 40" attorney practicing in the field of plaintiff's personal injury, in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020.
In addition to representing the injured and their families in the trial court, Matthew has experience with appellate matters in the Illinois Appellate Court, the Illinois Supreme Court, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court of the United States.
Matthew originally hails from the western suburbs of Chicago where he grew up and attended high school. He received his bachelor's degree from Purdue University, earning a Certificate of Superior Achievement from the Department of History, before returning to Chicago to attend law school.
Matthew graduated from The John Marshall Law School with his Juris Doctorate, as well as a Certificate in Trial Advocacy, which was awarded to less than 3% of graduating students. At The John Marshall Law School, he won the school-wide Dean Herzog Moot Court Competition. In addition to winning the overall competition which included oral arguments, his legal brief was also recognized as the best written brief of the competition. Supplementing his formal education during law school with practical experience, he clerked for the Cook County Public Defender's Office, as well as the Presiding Judge of the Fifth District of Cook County.
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