Chicago Trial Attorneys · Established 1994
When everything is on the line, experience decides the outcome.
Whitmore & Hale LLP represents individuals and families in catastrophic injury, medical negligence and wrongful death litigation. We have tried 190 cases to verdict and recovered more than $480 million — and we have never charged a client who did not recover.
No fee unless we win. Free case review, day or night — (312) 555-0184
About the Firm
Three decades of taking the cases other firms turn away.
Whitmore & Hale opened in 1994 above a print shop on West Adams with two lawyers, one paralegal and a rule that has not changed since: we do not accept a case we are not prepared to try. Insurance carriers know it, and it shows up in what they offer.
Today we are fourteen attorneys on the twenty-sixth floor of North Wacker, still trying cases and still answering our own phones. Every client meets the lawyer who will stand up in court for them at the very first appointment — never a screener, never a case manager.
Practice Areas
Where we do our best work
We keep a deliberately narrow practice. These are the matters we try, and the only ones we accept.
Our Attorneys
The lawyers who will try your case
Between them our partners have stood before juries in eleven Illinois counties and two federal districts.
Founding Partner — Trial Practice
Ninety-six civil jury trials to verdict across Illinois and Indiana, eight of them above $10 million. Past president of the Cook County Trial Lawyers Association.
Managing Partner — Medical Malpractice
Spent six years as risk-management counsel inside a hospital system, and now cross-examines the experts she once helped prepare. Board certified in civil trial advocacy.
Partner — Product Liability
A mechanical engineer before he was a lawyer. He rebuilds the machine, the crash or the failure himself before the first deposition is ever noticed up.
Senior Associate — Appellate Practice
Briefs and argues the firm's appeals in the Illinois Appellate Court and the Seventh Circuit, and has preserved four seven-figure verdicts on review.
Case Results
The numbers behind the reputation
Thirty-two years of verdicts and settlements for people who were told their case was not worth pursuing.
Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome. Every case is decided on its own facts and its own evidence.
Client Testimonials
In their own words
Frequently Asked
The questions clients ask us first
If yours is not here, call us. We answer these on the phone every day and there is no charge for the conversation.
Injury and malpractice cases are handled on contingency: one third of the recovery if the matter resolves before suit is filed, forty percent afterwards. We advance every cost of the litigation ourselves — experts, depositions, filing fees — and we are reimbursed only out of a recovery. If there is no recovery, you owe us nothing and you are not billed for the costs.
Most personal injury claims carry a two-year statute of limitations, and wrongful death claims run two years from the date of death. There are important exceptions: claims against a city, county or transit authority may require written notice within one year, minors and cases of delayed discovery are treated differently, and medical malpractice has its own four-year outer limit. Because a missed deadline ends a case permanently, call us as soon as you can rather than guessing.
Roughly nine in ten of our cases resolve before a jury is sworn. That is precisely because we prepare all of them as though they will not. Defense counsel and their carriers keep records of which firms try cases and which ones fold at the courthouse door, and that reputation is worth more at the negotiating table than any demand letter.
A case that settles pre-suit typically takes nine to eighteen months, largely because we will not value a claim until your treatment has stabilised. A case that is filed and tried in Cook County runs two to three years. We will give you an honest projection at the first meeting and update it in writing every quarter.
No. We meet clients at hospitals, rehabilitation facilities and kitchen tables across Cook, DuPage, Lake, Will and Kane counties, and by video whenever that is easier. There is no charge for the first consultation wherever it happens.
Bring whatever you already have, and do not delay the meeting to gather the rest:
- The police, incident or accident report
- Photographs of the scene, the vehicle or the injury
- Discharge paperwork and any medical bills received so far
- Every letter, email or voicemail from an insurance adjuster
- Recent pay stubs, if you have missed work
Do not give a recorded statement to any adjuster before we have spoken.
Free Case Review
Talk to a trial lawyer today, not a case manager.
Tell us what happened. We will tell you honestly whether you have a case, what it is likely to be worth and what the next ninety days look like. There is no charge, and nothing you say leaves this firm.
Request your free case review
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Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.