ABOUT TOM PLOUFF

I left the United States Attorneys Office in 1993. I knew I wanted to continue as a trial attorney, which in my mind left two options: defending criminals or personal injury work, as these are the areas where trials are most frequent. My wife having eliminated the former, I became a personal injury attorney in Chicago. It was the right decision. I have had the good fortune of being the lead trial attorney on jury verdicts that include a record $5.3 million jury verdict for a knee injury in a trip and fall case; $1.2 million jury verdict for an unoperated compression fracture at L5 in a construction case; and most recently, June 2007, $11.11 million medical malpractice jury verdict for failure to diagnose bacterial meningitis. 

I grew up in Indiana, where my dad was on the administration at the University of Notre Dame. After graduating from Notre Dame with a degree in business, I went to law school at Notre Dame and graduated
with distinction. After working six years in Washington, D.C. as an antitrust litigator at the Federal Trade Commission and as a trial attorney for the U.S. Dept. of Justice, I moved home to be near my family.

I then worked as an Assistant United States Attorney prosecuting tax and white-collar fraud cases while in the Northern District of Indiana. I left with the thrill of prosecuting a case with national media headlines in obtaining a health care fraud conviction of a defendant who sold as new what were used heart pacemakers. The case was the apparent basis for an episode on the TV series “Law and Order.” I have enjoyed teaching trial advocacy to law students since 1989, including students at Notre Dame Law School, 
Cumberland School of Law at Samford University, Birmingham, AL, and at the National Institute for Trial Advocacy. 

I am admitted to the state bars of Alabama, Illinois, and Indiana. In addition to my own cases I make myself available to law firms who need an experienced trial attorney to prosecute specific serious injury cases.

My wife, Anne Marie, is a board-certified physician in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and my two daughters bring joy to my life. 

In keeping with the theme of my practice, one of my record jury verdicts was reported in a Chicago Sun Times in an article headlined “Legal Prizefighters Take Off The Gloves,” which noted that “lawyers pull no
punches in civil trials in which millions of dollars are at stake.”

I want to fight for you. Please call me now at 1-800-913-1708 and I will speak with you for free and with no obligation on your part.