Heather A. Snider-Levinsky

Practice Highlights

Representative Matters

• Served as second chair in a Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, medical malpractice and long-term care wrongful death case. The plaintiff refused to reduce the policy limits demand and requested in excess of $5 million from the jury; however, the jury awarded $380,000.
• Successfully negotiated a nominal settlement in a medical malpractice and long-term-care negligence case pending in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, following the deposition of the plaintiff and his wife.
• Successfully negotiated a favorable settlement in a premises liability case pending in Madison County, Illinois, following completion of written discovery.
• Secured favorable settlement following the depositions of plaintiff’s experts in a premises liability case in Indianapolis arising out of a slip and fall rendering the plaintiff a quadriplegic. The plaintiff’s demand was in excess of $65 million.
• Defended a products liability case rendering plaintiff a paraplegic in Cook County, Illinois. Retained by the excess carrier shortly before expert disclosures were due and ultimately the case settled following aggressive motion in limine practice, with the excess carrier’s contribution being the cost of defense.
• Secured a favorable settlement prior to trial with the client’s contribution limited to the cost of defense in a personal injury case in Hennepin County, Minnesota. The case involved a plaintiff who was injured in an airport transport van due to road construction, resulting in claims for permanent neck injury and inability to return to work, as well as a demand for more than $10 million dollars in damages.
• Secured an early favorable settlement in a premises liability and security case in Cook County, Illinois, involving a shooting at an apartment complex by a third-party individual rendering the plaintiff a quadriplegic. Retained early in the case by the excess carrier to aggressively defend the case and combat a multimillion-dollar demand.
• Secured a nominal settlement amount, including recovery of a multimillion-dollar workers compensation lien, for the client in a construction accident case in Cook County, Illinois, rendering the plaintiff a paraplegic. The plaintiff asked for more than $30 million in damages.
• Settled for a fraction of a $30 million demand after undermining the plaintiff’s causation claims against an insured in an alleged medical malpractice case in San Diego. The matter involved a plaintiff presenting after suffering a suspected seizure who was transferred to another hospital for continued care and ultimately diagnosed with suffering a bilateral vertebral artery and cervical artery dissection.
• Settled a matter for a fraction of the demand early in the oral discovery process due to aggressive witness preparation in an alleged medical malpractice and negligence case in Clark County, Nevada. The matter involved discharge of a newborn to a home with an unknown CPS alert for the mother’s abuse of another child. The newborn suffered injuries due to shaken-baby syndrome one week later, resulting in catastrophic injuries. The plaintiff’s initial demand was for more than $175 million dollars.