Elizabeth Kaveny

Elizabeth A. Kaveny is a Chicago trial attorney who has achieved great success in plaintiff’s personal injury and medical malpractice for the past 25 years. She is well-known and respected in the legal community for her hard work and the outstanding recoveries she obtains for her clients, both in settlements and jury verdicts.

Elizabeth was a principal in the law firms of Propes & Kaveny and Burke, Wise, Morrissey & Kaveny. Taking the best from great mentors and trial attorneys that came before her, Elizabeth established the law firm of Kaveny Sarmas in 2019, where she continues her high-quality representation of victims of medical negligence, motor vehicle and trucking accidents, workplace injuries, and general personal injury.

Elizabeth is proud to have been recognized as one of the 10 Best Personal Injury Attorneys in Illinois in 2020 and one of the top 5 Women Attorneys in her field for each of the past 5 years. Elizabeth has been accepted into one of the country’s most prestigious national organizations, the American College of Trial Lawyers, and last year became a barrister with the International Society of Barristers. In 2019, Elizabeth was named to the MOVE OVER
Task Force by John J. Cullerton, Senate President for the State of Illinois. In 2021, the Illinois State Bar Association appointed Elizabeth to serve as a member of the ISBA Tort Law Section Council.

Elizabeth is an often-requested teacher and lecturer on trial advocacy, having taught at Northwestern University’s School of Law, Loyola University School of Law, the National Institute of Trial Advocacy, and lectured for numerous bar associations and organizations in their continuing legal education programs throughout the country.

Elizabeth is now serving as Chicago’s Ambassador to The Patient Safety Movement. The Patient Safety Movement is an organization of hospitals, physicians, and other professionals who share the mission of focusing on eliminating preventable harm and death in healthcare across the world by creating a sense of urgency and unifying humanity.

Academics

• J.D., Case Western Reserve University Law School. 1992
• B.S., Lehigh University. 1988

Bar Admissions

• U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois
• U.S. Court of Appeals, 7th Circuit
• Illinois Bar. 1992

Elizabeth has recovered more than $100 million for her clients. Just some of her most recent accomplishments include:

• $32 Million Settlement for an 8 year old who lost all 4 limbs due to an infection
• $16 Million Settlement for medical malpractice – wrongful death of a husband and father of three due to undiagnosed brain aneurysm in emergency department 2 days earlier.
• $14 Million Verdict against an insurance company who refused to pay for its doctor’s negligence at a child’s birth (record verdict)
• $11 Million Settlement for a boy who suffered injuries at birth due to the delay in his delivery
• $11 Million Settlement for a man who suffered amputations following septic shock
• $10 Million Settlement for a state trooper severely burned following a trucking accident
• $10 Million Settlementfor the undiagnosed rupture of a brain malformation in a young husband/father
• $9 Million Verdict against hospital and doctors for death of a mother and her unborn child due to pneumonia
• $7.5 Million Verdictagainst an emergency department for failing to properly treat a patient’s asthma attack
• $7 Million Settlement for a woman who suffered an undiagnosed brain infection
• $6.2 million verdict for death of husband and father due to failure to supervise in a residential home
• $6 Million Verdict for a boy who suffered a brachial plexus injury at birth
• $5.5 Million Settlement for a young man injured during a police chase
• $5 Million Settlement for the death of a mother of three daughters left waiting in an emergency room while suffering a brain aneurysm
• $5 Million Verdict for the death of a husband from a pulmonary embolism
• $4 Million Verdict against school district for sex abuse of two minor children by gym teacher off school grounds
• $4 Million Verdict against a hospital for failing to keep a psychiatric patient safe from an inpatient suicide attempt (record verdict)