Top Personal Injury Verdicts and Settlements of 2000
The 10 largest personal injury recoveries from 2000, nationwide, ranked by amount, with 11 independently-sourced results to browse. Individual client results and group recoveries are both listed and labeled. Each links to the full story, the firm, and the record behind the number.
Every result on this list holds a ProvenVerdicts designation, the largest verified personal injury result of 2000 or one of the Top 10, which the firm can display with a badge from its results page. The ranking is live and moves as results are verified.
- $1.25 billionSettlementGroup recovery
$1.25 Billion Holocaust Survivors Settlement With Swiss Banks
Cohen & Malad attorneys Irwin Levin and Richard Shevitz served on the court-appointed plaintiffs executive committee that negotiated a $1.25 billion class action settlement with Credit Suisse, UBS, and Swiss Bank Corporation on behalf of Holocaust survivors and their heirs.
- $268.6 millionVerdict
Jury Awards $268 Million After Medical City Gave a 13-Year-Old Girl a Fatal Propofol Overdose
A Dallas County jury returned one of the largest medical-malpractice verdicts in the country after a teenager with cerebral palsy died at Medical City Dallas when hospital staff administered multiple times the appropriate dose of the anesthetic propofol following a routine airway procedure.
After trial: According to trial counsel Charla Aldous, the case settled confidentially while the jury was still deliberating punitive damages, so no final punitive-damages figure or appealable judgment was ever entered. As part of the resolution the hospital's CEO personally apologized to the family and propofol's manufacturer added a warning to the drug label.
- $105 millionVerdict
$105 Million Verdict After Firestone Truck Wheel Explodes, Shattering Worker's Face and Arm
A St. Louis jury awarded $105 million to tire technician Randy Dorman after a Bridgestone/Firestone RH5 multi-piece truck wheel explosively separated during inflation, fracturing his face, both arms, and wrist, while internal company documents showed Firestone engineers had tracked nearly 100 similar incidents for decades.
- $99.25 millionVerdict
Habush's $99.25 Million Miller Park Crane Collapse Verdict
Robert Habush won a $99.25 million Milwaukee County jury verdict for the widows of three ironworkers killed when the Big Blue crane collapsed at Miller Park, though the $94 million punitive portion was later vacated and the case settled for about $30 million.
- $55.4 millionVerdict
$55.4 Million Verdict for Woman Left With Locked-In Syndrome After Bronchoscopy
A 54-year-old woman underwent a routine bronchoscopy for a possible tuberculosis biopsy, but physicians ignored oximeter alarms and delayed intubation until she had suffered irreversible anoxic brain damage, leaving her with locked-in syndrome; the Cook County jury returned a $55.4 million verdict against the responsible physicians, then the largest medical malpractice award in Illinois history.
- $34.1 millionVerdict
$34.1 Million Verdict for Missouri Roofer Who Developed Mesothelioma at Shell Oil's Illinois Refinery
A Madison County jury awarded James Hutcheson $34.1 million after he developed mesothelioma from asbestos exposure during contract work at Shell Oil's Wood River, Illinois refinery in the 1950s and 1960s.
- $19 millionVerdictReduced from $47.4 million
$47.4 Million Verdict for Law Student Left Brain-Damaged in Thruway Road-Rage Crash
Ross Cellino and Stephen Barnes won a $47.4 million Erie County jury verdict for a 22-year-old law student who suffered a catastrophic brain injury when two drivers played high-speed road tag on the New York State Thruway.
After trial: Reduced on stipulation after appeal; $47.4 million gross verdict.
Cellino Law Injury Attorneys2000 · Erie County Supreme Court (Justice Christopher J. Burns); affirmed as modified, NY App. Div. 4th Dep't, Dec. 21, 2001Read the full story → - $16 millionVerdictReduced from $59.7 million
Passenger Loses Both Legs After Reclining Seat Lets Him Slide Under Seatbelt in Toyota Head-On Crash
A Baltimore jury returned a $59.7 million verdict against Toyota after a passenger riding with his seat fully reclined slid beneath his seatbelt in a head-on collision, losing both legs above the knee -- a result the court later reduced to $16 million, which Maryland's appellate court upheld in 2003.
After trial: Reduced; $59.7 million gross verdict.
- $3.35 millionVerdict
Flight 1420 Survivors Win $3.35 Million PTSD Verdict Against American Airlines
A mother and her two toddler daughters, each diagnosed with PTSD after surviving the American Airlines Flight 1420 runway crash in Little Rock, won a $3.35 million jury verdict that the Eighth Circuit affirmed in full.
Slack Davis Sanger2000 · U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Arkansas (affirmed 8th Cir. 2003)Read the full story → - $2 millionVerdict
D.C. Jury Awards $2 Million to Hechinger Customer Assaulted by a Store Employee, Affirmed on Appeal
A District of Columbia jury awarded $2 million to a hardware store customer who suffered a subdural hematoma and emergency brain surgery after a Hechinger employee assaulted him, and the D.C. Court of Appeals affirmed the verdict in full.
Koonz McKenney Johnson & DePaolis LLP2000 · Washington, D.C. (Superior Court; aff'd D.C. Court of Appeals)Read the full story →
All 2000 verdicts and settlements
11 results, largest first
Cohen & Malad attorneys Irwin Levin and Richard Shevitz served on the court-appointed plaintiffs executive committee that negotiated a $1.25 billion class action settlement with Credit Suisse, UBS, and Swiss Bank Corporation on behalf of Holocaust survivors and their heirs.
A Dallas County jury returned one of the largest medical-malpractice verdicts in the country after a teenager with cerebral palsy died at Medical City Dallas when hospital staff administered multiple times the appropriate dose of the anesthetic propofol following a routine airway procedure.
A St. Louis jury awarded $105 million to tire technician Randy Dorman after a Bridgestone/Firestone RH5 multi-piece truck wheel explosively separated during inflation, fracturing his face, both arms, and wrist, while internal company documents showed Firestone engineers had tracked nearly 100 similar incidents for decades.
Robert Habush won a $99.25 million Milwaukee County jury verdict for the widows of three ironworkers killed when the Big Blue crane collapsed at Miller Park, though the $94 million punitive portion was later vacated and the case settled for about $30 million.
A 54-year-old woman underwent a routine bronchoscopy for a possible tuberculosis biopsy, but physicians ignored oximeter alarms and delayed intubation until she had suffered irreversible anoxic brain damage, leaving her with locked-in syndrome; the Cook County jury returned a $55.4 million verdict against the responsible physicians, then the largest medical malpractice award in Illinois history.
A Madison County jury awarded James Hutcheson $34.1 million after he developed mesothelioma from asbestos exposure during contract work at Shell Oil's Wood River, Illinois refinery in the 1950s and 1960s.
David Paris and Kathleen St. John won Ohio Supreme Court certification of a 1.4-million-member class and secured a $31 million court-approved settlement after proving State Farm concealed a 1994 high-court ruling that would have entitled policyholders to enhanced uninsured-motorist coverage.
Ross Cellino and Stephen Barnes won a $47.4 million Erie County jury verdict for a 22-year-old law student who suffered a catastrophic brain injury when two drivers played high-speed road tag on the New York State Thruway.
A Baltimore jury returned a $59.7 million verdict against Toyota after a passenger riding with his seat fully reclined slid beneath his seatbelt in a head-on collision, losing both legs above the knee -- a result the court later reduced to $16 million, which Maryland's appellate court upheld in 2003.
A mother and her two toddler daughters, each diagnosed with PTSD after surviving the American Airlines Flight 1420 runway crash in Little Rock, won a $3.35 million jury verdict that the Eighth Circuit affirmed in full.
A District of Columbia jury awarded $2 million to a hardware store customer who suffered a subdural hematoma and emergency brain surgery after a Hechinger employee assaulted him, and the D.C. Court of Appeals affirmed the verdict in full.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.