Frank J. DiBella
Frank J. DiBella
Frank was born and raised in the City of Chicago where he attended Lakeview high school.
In 1963, Frank embarked on a serious legal career. His first appearance in a courtroom was at age 17 while working as a clerk for a prestigious Chicago- based personal injury firm. He worked full time managing the trial call and assisting attorneys with investigations, document preparation and client interviews. Frank did all of this while attending DePaul University College of Liberal Arts at night.
After Frank obtained his college degree, he enrolled in DePaul University’s College of Law where he again was on the Dean’s List and graduated with Honors. While going to law school evenings, Frank was employed as a school teacher for the City of Chicago, case worker for Cook County, and claims representative for Travelers Insurance Company.
As part of his employment at Travelers, Frank attended a rigorous training program for claims representatives in Hartford, Connecticut. He finished number one in the nation and was assigned the company’s most high-end insureds. Such insureds were the Wrigley Family, Arlington Park Race Track, and the elite north shore from Evanston to Lake Forest. He was honored with the most claims settled year-after-year.
Frank’s first-hand experience as a claims adjuster provides him with inside knowledge of how insurance companies evaluate and process personal injury claims. This experience gives him the upper hand during settlement negotiations and trial preparation.
After Frank became an attorney in 1973, insurance companies that did not agree with his keen sense of fairness felt his wrath. In the case of Oliveri v. Coronet Insurance Company, he pursued a bad faith claim against the insurance company, which took thirteen years of hard work to win. As a result of two Appellate Court Decisions, Coronet Insurance Company was ordered to pay the bad faith claim along with interest. He was recognized by the Chicago Law Bulletin for the novel manner in which insurance companies could be sued for bad faith. Frank attached the company's assets and froze all checking and savings accounts held by the Coronet Insurance Company.
During his 30 years of practice, Frank has prosecuted and won cases against cities, villages, corporations, and individuals both in Federal and State Court. He has settled and gone to verdict on numerous personal injury cases that resulted in excess of a million dollars on behalf of injured people. The most recent of which are cases that he prosecuted against the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA). In 2003 alone, one case resulted in a verdict of $4.3 million dollars and the other resulted in a settlement of $1.1 million dollars.
As a result of his competitive spirit, sense of fairness, and tenacious work-ethic, thousands of people have put their trust in Frank to represent them in their most critical time of need. Collectively, he has been involved in the practice of personal injury litigation since 1963 either as a law clerk, paralegal, claims adjuster or attorney. Over these 40 years, Frank has developed a keen insight as to the value of a case, often developing a theory of liability which was either novel or overlooked by others. Armed with the assistance of his children, all of whom followed his footsteps, Frank will fight vigorously for you!
The Law Offices of DiBella & DiBella, P.C.
221 N. LaSalle St., Suite 1100
Chicago, IL 60601
221 N. LaSalle St., Suite 1100
Chicago, IL 60601