Patrick Salvi Jr.

Eric Johnson, a 64-year-old Missouri courier, lost consciousness and later died after carbon dioxide from dry ice-packed strawberries filled his subcompact car in 2016. His widow sued Prairie Farms Dairy for failing to warn or train him. A Madison County jury awarded $49.5 million in compensatory and $191.5 million in punitive damages in February 2026. Prairie Farms later settled with the family after the verdict.

Kayla Neese, 33, was hurt in a March 2017 collision in Maywood, Illinois that left her with thoracic spine fractures and a spinal cord injury. The court found the other driver negligent before trial, so the jury decided damages only. On December 9, 2021, a Cook County jury awarded $21,059,014.

A Winnebago County jury awarded $11.25 million to the estate of Chamicwa Black, a 33-year-old mother killed in a February 2015 crash in Rockford when an Anderson Automotive employee swerved into her lane. The company admitted negligence about a year into the case, so the six-day trial decided damages only. The jury awarded $8 million for her young son's loss of society, $3 million for his grief and mental suffering, and $250,000 for future psychiatric care.