Unmarried
A complaint filed by the Illinois Administrator alleges that Respondent filed a wrongful death action based on a false claim.
Respondent drew up a will for Matthew Cacioppi that stated he had entered into a civil union with Jessica Wilson, who Respondent then represented in a probate matter
On April 11, 2016, Judge Lisa Fabiano held a hearing on the Petition, at which Wilson testified. Based upon Wilson’s testimony, Judge Fabiano found that Wilson and Cacioppi were never married, that Wilson was not the spouse of Cacioppi and therefore was not his heir. Respondent was not present at the hearing, but learned of the Court’s finding immediately after the April 11, 2016 hearing.
The suit at issue in the complaint
Two years after Cacioppi’s death, on January 12, 2018, Respondent signed and filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of Wilson regarding the death of Cacioppi against defendants OSF Healthcare System (OSF) and Lawrence P. Prabhakar, M.D.
Allegations
Respondent’s statements in the complaints in the wrongful death case described above that Wilson and Cacioppi were married were false because Wilson and Cacioppi were not and never had been married.
Respondent knew the statements were false at the time she made them because Respondent was aware that on April 11, 2016, in the probate case, Judge Fabiano found that Wilson was not the spouse of Cacioppi, and that Wilson and Cacioppi were never married.
On January 29, 2020, Wilson testified at her deposition in the wrongful death case that she knew she was never married to Cacioppi and never had a legally recognized marriage or civil union with him.
Respondent filed a pleading alleging that the parties were in a “civil union”
Respondent’s answers to interrogatories stating that Wilson and Cacioppi were in a civil union were false because Wilson never was in a legally recognized civil union with Cacioppi.
At a hearing on motion to dismiss the wrongful death complaint
At the conclusion of the Rule 137 hearing, Judge Fabiano found that Respondent and Wilson had knowingly filed multiple materially false pleadings and took the matter under advisement to consider the appropriate sanction.
On May 4, 2022, Judge Fabiano issued a Memorandum Opinion finding: “It is indisputable that attorney Koroll and Jessica Wilson knew before any pleadings were filed in either 16 P 83 or 18 L 16 that Jessica Wilson was never married to or in a civil union with Matthew Cacioppi.” The Court specifically found that Koroll violated Rule 137 in signing the Complaint, the Amended Complaint, the Second Amended Complaint, the Third Amended Complaint, and the answers to interrogatories, all of which falsely identified Wilson as the spouse of or in a civil union with Cacioppi.
The ensuing dismissal with prejudice was appealed
On October 12, 2023, the Illinois Appellate Court entered an order affirming the judgment of the trial court dismissing the wrongful death case with prejudice and awarding attorney’s fees as a sanction for the Rule 137 violations.
Bar News reported on a prior disciplinary matter
Ms. Koroll, who was licensed in 2001, was suspended for six months, with the suspension stayed after 60 days in favor of a one-year period of conditional probation. Over a period of approximately three weeks in 2015, she sent dozens of emails, text messages, and other communications to attorneys in Florida with whom she was then engaged in a dispute. Many of those messages were vulgar, profane, abusive, included anti-Semitic remarks, and served no purpose other than to harass or burden their recipients. Also, in 2013, she was disqualified from representing a party in a post-decree domestic relations case because her former law partner had been representing the man’s spouse while they were members of the same firm. The suspension is effective on October 14, 2021.
(Mike Frisch)