Sam Branum Secures Defense Verdict in ADA Violation Claim Against Prison

Johnson & Bell shareholder Sam Branum recently secured a defense verdict in a two-plaintiff trial before the Hon. Sunil Harjani in the Northern District of Illinois. The plaintiffs, two detainees at a jail, claimed their rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) were violated when they were required to walk up and down ramps they claimed were too steep. Before trial, the two plaintiffs won partial summary judgment when Judge Harjani ruled that the ramps did not comply with the ADA, but he allowed the issue of whether the ramps caused their alleged injuries to be resolved at trial. Facing an uphill fight, Sam and his team successfully secured key evidentiary rulings. He then conducted very effective cross-examinations of the two plaintiffs and delivered a convincing closing argument. At the end of the three-day trial, the jury handed down a defense verdict on all counts in just over an hour.