Homewood attorney Samuel Briones of the law firm Briones, Harvey & Trevino helped broker an $18.5 million out-of-court mediated settlement on behalf of his client who was seriously injured after being pinned under a car.
Filiberto Perez Jr. was 7 when he and his sisters were standing on a street corner in Blue Island in 2008. All three children were injured when the driver of a car clipped the fender of a pick-up truck causing her to lose control and strike the three children.
Gilberto had the most serious injuries, including a fractured skull. Doctors removed bone fragments from his brain and rebuilt his skull with plates and screws. Now 15, he is in special education classes.
The driver said her view was blocked by construction barriers set at a work site at an intersection that was being widened.
Briones, with attorney Joseph Power Jr. of Power Rogers & Smith LLP and Peter V. Bustamante of the Law Office of Peter V. Bustamante, represented the Perez children in their lawsuit against John Burns Construction Co., Dominic Fiordirosa Construction Co., Highway Safety Corp. and Construction by Camco. They alleged that the construction barricades were set too close to moving traffic and didn’t follow specifications set by the Illinois Department of Transportation’s traffic control plans.
Briones said in discovery it was learned that Burns Construction had falsified traffic control reports.
(Information for this story came from The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin’s Dec. 27, 2016 issue and was provided by Briones.)
