In February, at Poppel v. Metra, John W. Patton, Jr. came away with an extremely favorable verdict. The case arose from the derailment of a commuter Metra train in Chicago on September 17, 2005. Among the injured was Renea Poppel, at the time a 25 year old single mother who worked as an admissions counselor for Kaplan University. Ms. Poppel was also pregnant at the time. As a result of the derailment, Ms. Poppel fractured her pelvis, right arm, skull and cervical spine.

