Knight Hoppe Kurnik & Knight, LTD

In Wheeler v. Lawson, Matthew Clark as lead counsel and primary author with Elizabeth Knight successfully argued and affirmed the grant of summary judgment. The 7th Circuit that the detective defendant was entitled to qualified immunity in that his decision to arrest the Plaintiff was reasonable based on the explosion of a methamphetamine lab that burned down her garage which had cameras on it. The Wheeler decision has been cited almost 400 times and is one of the leading decisions for the qualified immunity defense in the 7th Circuit.

In Pioli v. North Chicago Comm. Unit Sch. Dist. No. 187, Matthew Clark and Amanda Zdarsky were successful in having the Second District Appellate Court affirm the trial court’s grant of summary judgment. The Court interpreted the provisions of the Illinois School Code which had been amended in 2012.  As such, the Appellate Code in a matter of first impression held that the school board did not violate the School Code by laying off tenured teachers.

In Moseley v. Village of Anitoch, the plaintiff alleged in his complaint that the defendant falsely arrested him, committed battery and assault, subjected him to malicious prosecution, and would be liable under other state law theories. After a review of the officer’s squad car video, Amanda Zdarsky under the supervision of Matthew Clark sent a Rule 11 letter with a copy of the video tape. Shortly thereafter, Plaintiff dismissed his complaint in the Northern District of Illinois court.

In Cooper v Shaw, the plaintiff alleged that a police officer pursued him at high speeds leading him to have a car accident resulting in the death of a passenger and serious injury to others. However, the Winnebago state court adopted the argument made by Amanda Zdarsky and Matthew Clark and held that Plaintiff failed to comply with the one year statute of limitations period under the Illinois Tort Immunity Act.

In Suarez v. Burns Harbor, et. al. Matthew Clark served as lead counsel and Elizabeth Knight second chaired obtaining a not guilty verdict related to an allegation of excessive force in the Northern District of Indiana. Counsels successfully argued to the jury that the use of pepper spray was a reasonable amount of force to effectuate of the arrest Plaintiff who attempted to flee and hide and then resisted when discovered.

In Aguirre v. TBMK, et. al, Byron Knight served as lead counsel and Matthew Clark was second chair in a successful trial based on diversity jurisdiction in the Northern District of Illinois Court. Plaintiff alleged construction negligence related to his fall off of a scaffold during the construction of the new Soldier Field. Plaintiff asked the jury to return a verdict for more than $10 million, but the jury rejected this request and found for the defendant.

In Stingley v. City of North Chicago, et. al, Matthew Clark and  Amanda Zdarsky were successful in having the Court grant the motion to dismissed filed. The Northern District of Illinois Court held that the School District defendant was absolutely immune under Section 4-102 of the Illinois Tort Immunity Act for alleged failure to provide police protective services at the school.

In Wish v.Baxa, the plaintiff made Monell allegations against the municipal entity contending that the entity failed to train officers on how to conduct a strip search. Amanda Zdarsky, Michael Atkus, and Matthew Clark argued on a motion to dismiss that the plaintiff failed to make sufficient allegations under the Iqbal standards. The Northern District of Illinois court agreed and granted the motion to dismiss, although the case remains pending against other defendants.