Erica Phillips

An Ada County jury awarded $13.5 million to Carl Stiefel after an emergency physician misread his stroke symptoms as vertigo, delaying a correct diagnosis by nearly 14 hours and causing irreversible brain damage.

A federal civil rights suit brought by adoptive parents William and Michelle Mueller, and the boy's adoptive grandfather, accused San Bernardino County and a Children and Family Services social worker of concealing a younger foster child's abuse by his older brother before the adoption. The county settled in August 2022 for $7.5 million plus attorney fees, with court approval, before trial. The county did not admit liability.

A federal jury in Boise awarded Darel Hardenbrook $1,476,367 in back pay and front pay after finding that UPS fired him in violation of Idaho public policy, a verdict the Ninth Circuit affirmed in 2012.

An Ada County jury found that a family doctor negligently and recklessly failed to diagnose a young girl's developmental hip dysplasia across five well-baby exams, despite her mother's repeated concerns. It awarded $1,039,000 and put 80 percent of the fault on him and 20 percent on an orthopedic specialist who had settled before trial. The doctor's share, $831,200, is the figure that ranks. The court entered a judgment of $847,974.46 against the doctor, Genesis Medical Center and Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, and the Idaho Supreme Court affirmed it in 2016.