Illinois Jury Sides With Defendant in Rear-End Crash - Bozinis v. MacArthur

In rear-end accidents, juries tend to find in favor of the front car that was rear-ended. However in the personal injury lawsuit of Evange Bozinis v. Bree MacArthur, 10 AR-708 (Lake County), the jury found in favor of the second car that rear-ended the front car.

The car accident in question occurred in August 2005 at the intersection of Route 173 and Grimm Road in Antioch, Illinois. Evange Bozinis had been stopped at the intersection and had just begun to drive again when he was rear-ended by Bree MacArthur. The force of the impact caused Bozinis’s vehicle to be pushed forward eight feet. The 66 year-old Bozinis sustained neck, back, shoulder and abdomen injuries as a result of the crash.

Bozinis filed a personal injury lawsuit against MacArthur in which he accused her of causing the rear-end accident. Bozinis claimed that the car accident resulted in over $8,000 in medical bills. However, MacArthur contested the extent of Bozinis’s injuries. She pointed to the fact that Bozinis had not claimed any injuries at the scene of the accident. In addition, immediately following the car accident, Bozinis drove on to a family birthday party in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

MacArthur also contested Bozinis’s claim that she caused the rear-end accident. Immediately prior to the accident, both Bozinis and MacArthur had been waiting for a car to turn left onto Grimm Road. After that car turned, MacArthur testified that both she and Bozinis began to drive forward. MacArthur maintained that the accident was caused by the fact that Bozinis then suddenly slammed on his brakes after traveling about 10 feet. And while Bozinis maintained that she struck him at high speeds, MacArthur testified that she was only going two to three m.p.h. at the time of the accident.

There was additional conflicting testimony at the personal injury trial. Bozinis testified that after the car crash that MacArthur told him that her dad was going to kill her since it was her second accident in one week. However, MacArthur testified that she had not spoken to her dad for more than five years prior to the rear-ender. She then offered up that Bozinis was in fact very hostile after the accident, making comments about “stupid teenage drivers,” and had even threatened to hire a lawyer to teach MacArthur a lesson.

After considering all the evidence, the jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendant MacArthur. Prior to the trial, the defendant had made an offer of $3,500 to settle the case; however, the plaintiff’s demand was $16,000. Presumably the recent jury verdict is the end to the long legal history of this 2005 accident. In addition to the recent trial, Bozinis had participated in a non-binding arbitration hearing in which he secured a $16,000 award. Following the arbitration award, Bozinis hired another lawyer who non-suited the lawsuit in April 2009. Bozinis then refiled the case himself in 2010 before hiring his present attorney, who followed the case through to trial.

Kreisman Law Offices has been handling Illinois automobile accidents cases for more than 36 years in and around Chicago, Cook County, and surrounding areas, including Chicago’s Goose Island, Harwood Heights, Prospect Heights, Antioch, Peoria, Merrionette Park, Chicago’s Calumet Heights, and Forest Park.