Top Individual Personal Injury Verdicts and Settlements of 2016
The 20 largest individual personal injury results from 2016, nationwide on record here, ranked by amount: one client's, one family's, or one incident's recovery, never a pooled fund. Each links to the full story, the firm, and the record behind the number.
- $543 millionVerdictReduced from $1.04 billion
Dallas Jury Awards $1.04 Billion Against J&J Over Defective Pinnacle Hip Implants
A Dallas federal jury awarded $1.04 billion to six California patients harmed by Johnson and Johnson's metal-on-metal Pinnacle hip implants, with W. Mark Lanier leading an eight-week trial that produced one of the largest product-liability verdicts of 2016.
After trial: Reduced to about $543 million under punitive damages caps; the Pinnacle claims later resolved in a roughly $1 billion global settlement in 2019.
The Lanier Law Firm2016 · U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas, Dallas (MDL 2244)Read the full story → - $540 millionVerdictReduced from $1.04 billion
Dallas Federal Jury Awards More Than $1 Billion Over DePuy Pinnacle Hip Implants
Khaldoun Baghdadi was on the plaintiffs' trial team that won a federal jury verdict topping $1 billion for six California patients harmed by DePuy's metal-on-metal Pinnacle hip implants, an award the trial judge later cut to about $543 million.
After trial: The trial judge reduced the $1.04 billion verdict to roughly $540 million in January 2017, ruling the jury's punitive damages award was unconstitutionally excessive. In May 2019 Johnson & Johnson established a nationwide settlement program that resolved about 95 percent of the roughly 6,000 pending Pinnacle hip claims rather than litigate them individually, and this verdict was absorbed into that broader resolution.
Walkup Personal Injury Lawyers2016 · U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas (Dallas)Read the full story → - $85 millionVerdictReduced from $125.2 million
$125 Million Verdict, Reduced to About $85 Million, for a 21-Year-Old Left Quadriplegic When a Drunk, Sleepless Driver Ran a Red Light in Oxnard
Francisco Briones, 21, was turning left on a green light on his way to a 5 a.m. warehouse shift in Oxnard on March 23, 2013, when Christopher Zink, drunk at 0.14 percent, awake for 24 hours and asleep at the wheel, ran a red light at about 50 mph and hit him. Briones' C4-5 vertebrae ruptured and he was paralyzed from the neck down. Zink pleaded guilty to felony DUI causing injury and went to prison for seven years; his insurer, Nationwide, had refused a timely policy-limits demand. On January 22, 2016, a Ventura County jury found Zink 100 percent at fault, found malice, and awarded $125,168,202, half of it punitive damages. The court rejected Zink's Proposition 213 motion to strip the pain-and-suffering award but reduced the judgment post-trial to about $85 million.
After trial: The trial court denied Zink's Proposition 213 (Civil Code section 3333.4) motion to eliminate the $42.5 million in noneconomic damages, holding that Briones' $35,000 DMV financial-responsibility deposit and Zink's DUI conviction preserved his right to general damages. The court then reduced the $125,168,202 verdict post-trial to approximately $85 million, per the Daily Journal's 2016 Top Verdicts listing; we could not confirm from public sources which component was reduced (the arithmetic suggests the punitive award).
Dordick Law Corporation2016 · Ventura County Superior Court, Ventura, California (Case No. 56-2013-00435440-CU-PA-VTA)Read the full story → - $60.7 millionSettlement
$60.7 Million Settlement for Child Left with Brain Injury After Touching Downed FirstEnergy Power Line
A 12-year-old Cleveland girl suffered a profound brain injury and partial limb loss after touching an energized, downed Cleveland Electric Illuminating power line that had been left unrepaired for days following Hurricane Sandy; her family settled all claims for $60.7 million, the largest individual personal injury settlement in Ohio history.
- $55 millionVerdict
$55 Million Verdict for Fox Sports Broadcaster Secretly Filmed at Nashville Marriott
A Davidson County jury awarded Fox Sports reporter Erin Andrews $55 million after finding that the Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt negligently disclosed her room location to a stalker who altered a peephole to film her without consent.
Greene Broillet & Wheeler2016 · Davidson County Circuit Court, Nashville, TennesseeRead the full story → - $53 millionVerdict
A Record $53 Million Cook County Verdict for a Delayed Delivery
Geoffrey Fieger and Jack Beam won the largest birth-injury verdict in Cook County history against the University of Chicago Medical Center, after a mother in fetal distress was left without an obstetrician for hours before an emergency cesarean.
Fieger, Fieger, Kenney & Harrington, P.C.2016 · Cook County Circuit Court, Chicago, ILRead the full story → - $52.05 millionReduced from $53 million
$52 Million Judgment After 11-Hour Delay Before Emergency Cesarean Leaves Newborn With Cerebral Palsy
A Cook County jury found that staff at University of Chicago Medical Center let a newborn boy go without an emergency cesarean section for roughly 11 hours despite a non-reassuring fetal heart tracing, leaving him with severe hypoxic brain damage and cerebral palsy. On June 29, 2016, after nearly a month of trial, the jury awarded the family $53 million, broken down across past and future medical costs, lifelong caretaking, lost earning capacity, and pain and suffering. The hospital sought a mistrial over alleged misconduct by plaintiff's counsel; a Cook County judge denied that motion in December 2016 and instead trimmed the award by $950,000, entering judgment at $52,050,000. The hospital said it would appeal further, and no independent source confirms what became of that appeal.
After trial: The trial court denied University of Chicago Medical Center's motion for a mistrial in December 2016 and reduced the jury's $53 million verdict by $950,000, entering judgment at $52,050,000 in early January 2017. The hospital said at that time it intended to appeal further.
- $45 millionVerdict
$45 Million for Four Children Who Lost Their Mother in a Drunk-Driver Crash at a Boyle Heights Taco Truck
A Los Angeles jury awarded $45 million to the four children of Claudia Fernandez after a drunk driver, whose vehicle owner negligently handed over her keys, struck and killed her at a Boyle Heights taco truck in 2012.
- $41.9 millionVerdict
Hernando County Jury Awards $41.9 Million After Applebee's Serves Underage Drinkers Whose Passenger Is Left Quadriplegic
A Hernando County jury awarded $41.9 million to Patrick Osmond, who was rendered quadriplegic when a pickup truck crashed after Applebee's served him and his companions a pitcher of beer despite none of them being 21.
- $38 millionVerdict
Jury Awards $38 Million to Seattle Commuter Cyclist Disabled by Valet Driver Taking Illegal Shortcut
A King County jury awarded $38 million to Thyce Colyn, a commuter cyclist who suffered permanent brain damage and a shattered pelvis after a Standard Parking valet driver struck him while cutting illegally across 8th Avenue in downtown Seattle.
- $37.5 millionVerdict
$37.5 Million Jury Verdict for Man Paralyzed When Semi Struck His Car on I-435
A Jackson County jury awarded $37.5 million to Steven Holdeman, who was left a paraplegic after a semi-truck rear-ended his car on Interstate 435, finding Philip Stratman 99 percent at fault for stalling his vehicle in the center lane.
- $30.5 millionVerdict
A Hospital's Delayed C-Section Left an Infant With Permanent Brain Damage. A Gwinnett County Jury Returned $30.5 Million.
A Gwinnett County jury awarded $30.5 million in November 2016 after finding that Gwinnett Medical Center and an attending physician failed to act on an ultrasound showing abnormal fetal blood flow at 35 weeks, delaying an emergency C-section long enough to deprive a newborn of oxygen and cause permanent spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy.
- $30 millionSettlement
$30 Million Settlement After Surgeon Performed 25 Experimental Procedures on an Infant
Romanucci and Blandin recovered $30 million for a family whose infant son suffered permanent brain damage and cerebral palsy after a pediatric surgeon at Rush University Medical Center performed 25 experimental surgeries, severing the child's pulmonary artery during the final operation.
- $29 millionVerdict
Los Angeles Jury Awards $29 Million to Pedestrian Hit in Crosswalk
A Los Angeles jury awarded $29,062,351 to Javier Perez, who was 16 when a doctor's car struck him in a crosswalk and left him with a brain injury, finding the driver entirely at fault despite no witnesses or video.
The Dominguez Firm2016 · Los Angeles County Superior Court (Stanley Mosk Courthouse)Read the full story → - $24 millionSettlement
$24 Million Settlement for Woman Paralyzed in I-680 Crash Triggered by Good Samaritan Pursuit
A 27-year-old Bay Area woman suffered permanent paralysis after an Acura dealership employee, acting as a self-appointed Good Samaritan, forced her vehicle off I-680 and into a catastrophic rollover; the case settled for $24 million, the largest personal-injury settlement in Northern California for 2016.
- $20 millionVerdict
$20 Million Verdict for Immigrant Left with Catastrophic Brain Injury After Truck Ran Red Light
A Cobb County jury awarded $20 million after a tractor-trailer ran a red light in Kennesaw and left a 57-year-old Pakistani immigrant with permanent, catastrophic brain damage.
- $20 millionSettlement
Xbox Designer Paralyzed After Overlake Hospital Missed Spinal Fracture Four Times: $20 Million Settlement
August de los Reyes, head of design for Microsoft's Xbox, was left permanently paralyzed from the chest down after Overlake Hospital staff failed to diagnose his spinal fracture across four emergency visits, and Luvera Law Firm secured a $20 million settlement that also required the hospital to partner with him on patient-safety reform.
- $18.74 millionVerdict
Jury Awards $18.74 Million for Brain Injury in Pete's Bar Assault
A Duval County jury returned an $18.74 million verdict after Joshua Mathews suffered a traumatic brain injury in a 2012 assault outside Pete's Bar in Neptune Beach.
- $18.5 millionSettlement
$18.5 Million Settlement for Motorcyclist Left in Coma After I-5 Construction Zone Crash
Scott Bliss suffered catastrophic brain injury when a Scarsella Bros. dump truck made an illegal U-turn on an I-5 WSDOT construction ramp in Centralia, yielding what is believed to be the largest WSDOT settlement in Lewis County history.
- $16 millionVerdict
$16 Million Verdict After a Hospital's Natural Birth Advertising Did Not Match the Restrained Delivery a Mother Actually Received
A Jefferson County jury awarded Caroline and J.T. Malatesta $16 million, finding that Brookwood Medical Center committed medical negligence and reckless fraud when the natural-birth experience its advertising promised gave way to a delivery in which Caroline was physically restrained, leaving her with permanent nerve damage.
After trial: No appeal of the verdict was found in public reporting.
All 2016 verdicts and settlements
68 results, largest first
A Dallas federal jury awarded $1.04 billion to six California patients harmed by Johnson and Johnson's metal-on-metal Pinnacle hip implants, with W. Mark Lanier leading an eight-week trial that produced one of the largest product-liability verdicts of 2016.
Khaldoun Baghdadi was on the plaintiffs' trial team that won a federal jury verdict topping $1 billion for six California patients harmed by DePuy's metal-on-metal Pinnacle hip implants, an award the trial judge later cut to about $543 million.
A 26-year class action brought by thousands of property owners near Colorado's Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant resulted in a $375 million settlement against Rockwell International and Dow Chemical in 2016, with Paul DeMarco of MSD serving as co-counsel from the litigation's earliest years.
Thornton Law Firm served as liaison counsel on a multi-firm team that secured a $300 million class settlement from State Street Bank on behalf of pension funds and other institutional custodial clients who were secretly overcharged on foreign currency exchange trades for more than a decade.
Robert Mongeluzzi helped secure a $265 million federal settlement on behalf of more than 125 claimants injured or killed when Amtrak Train 188 derailed at 106 mph on a Philadelphia curve in May 2015.
After Amtrak Train 188 derailed in Philadelphia in May 2015, killing eight and injuring more than 200, Kline & Specter's Thomas R. Kline led the plaintiffs' negotiations that produced a $265 million settlement fund for the victims.
Lambert Zainey represented three former Hanford nuclear site managers who blew the whistle on contractors Bechtel and URS for charging the federal government for deficient nuclear-quality materials and funding illegal lobbying, securing a $125 million False Claims Act settlement in 2016.
Francisco Briones, 21, was turning left on a green light on his way to a 5 a.m. warehouse shift in Oxnard on March 23, 2013, when Christopher Zink, drunk at 0.14 percent, awake for 24 hours and asleep at the wheel, ran a red light at about 50 mph and hit him. Briones' C4-5 vertebrae ruptured and he was paralyzed from the neck down. Zink pleaded guilty to felony DUI causing injury and went to prison for seven years; his insurer, Nationwide, had refused a timely policy-limits demand. On January 22, 2016, a Ventura County jury found Zink 100 percent at fault, found malice, and awarded $125,168,202, half of it punitive damages. The court rejected Zink's Proposition 213 motion to strip the pain-and-suffering award but reduced the judgment post-trial to about $85 million.
Two former Jackson County Courthouse employees sued U.S. Engineering Co. and Jackson County over asbestos dust that spread through the courthouse during a mid-1980s renovation, after a co-worker died of mesothelioma. A trial judge refused to certify a class, and in March 2015 the Missouri Court of Appeals reversed that ruling and reinstated the case. A jury had been selected for an October 2016 trial in Jackson County Circuit Court when the parties settled for $80 million, funded by U.S. Engineering's insurers rather than county tax dollars. The settlement set aside $25 million for attorneys' fees and litigation costs and put the remainder into a medical monitoring fund covering diagnostic testing for up to 7,500 people who worked in or spent significant time in the courthouse. Louis C. Accurso represented the plaintiffs.
A 12-year-old Cleveland girl suffered a profound brain injury and partial limb loss after touching an energized, downed Cleveland Electric Illuminating power line that had been left unrepaired for days following Hurricane Sandy; her family settled all claims for $60.7 million, the largest individual personal injury settlement in Ohio history.
A Nashville jury awarded sportscaster Erin Andrews $55 million in March 2016 after finding that West End Hotel Partners bore 49 percent of liability for a stalker who secretly filmed her through a tampered peephole at the Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt University in 2008.
A Davidson County jury awarded Fox Sports reporter Erin Andrews $55 million after finding that the Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt negligently disclosed her room location to a stalker who altered a peephole to film her without consent.
Wagner Jones Kopfman & Artenian secured a $54.6 million federal jury verdict on behalf of roughly 840 California Walmart truck drivers who went unpaid for mandatory pre- and post-trip vehicle inspections, controlled layovers, and rest breaks spanning more than a decade.
Geoffrey Fieger and Jack Beam won the largest birth-injury verdict in Cook County history against the University of Chicago Medical Center, after a mother in fetal distress was left without an obstetrician for hours before an emergency cesarean.
A Cook County jury found that staff at University of Chicago Medical Center let a newborn boy go without an emergency cesarean section for roughly 11 hours despite a non-reassuring fetal heart tracing, leaving him with severe hypoxic brain damage and cerebral palsy. On June 29, 2016, after nearly a month of trial, the jury awarded the family $53 million, broken down across past and future medical costs, lifelong caretaking, lost earning capacity, and pain and suffering. The hospital sought a mistrial over alleged misconduct by plaintiff's counsel; a Cook County judge denied that motion in December 2016 and instead trimmed the award by $950,000, entering judgment at $52,050,000. The hospital said it would appeal further, and no independent source confirms what became of that appeal.
Feldman Shepherd secured a combined $50 million settlement from IKEA on behalf of three families whose toddler sons were fatally crushed by MALM dressers, a result that preceded a nationwide recall of approximately 29 million chests and dressers.
A St. Louis jury found Monsanto liable for polychlorinated biphenyl contamination that caused non-Hodgkin lymphoma in three plaintiffs, awarding $46.5 million in the first PCB cancer case of its kind tried to verdict in St. Louis.
A St. Louis jury awarded $46.5 million to three plaintiffs who developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma after PCB exposure, delivering the first plaintiff verdict of its kind against Monsanto in the city.
A Los Angeles jury awarded $45 million to the four children of Claudia Fernandez after a drunk driver, whose vehicle owner negligently handed over her keys, struck and killed her at a Boyle Heights taco truck in 2012.
A Hernando County jury awarded $41.9 million to Patrick Osmond, who was rendered quadriplegic when a pickup truck crashed after Applebee's served him and his companions a pitcher of beer despite none of them being 21.
A King County jury awarded $38 million to Thyce Colyn, a commuter cyclist who suffered permanent brain damage and a shattered pelvis after a Standard Parking valet driver struck him while cutting illegally across 8th Avenue in downtown Seattle.
A Jackson County jury awarded $37.5 million to Steven Holdeman, who was left a paraplegic after a semi-truck rear-ended his car on Interstate 435, finding Philip Stratman 99 percent at fault for stalling his vehicle in the center lane.
A Gwinnett County jury awarded $30.5 million in November 2016 after finding that Gwinnett Medical Center and an attending physician failed to act on an ultrasound showing abnormal fetal blood flow at 35 weeks, delaying an emergency C-section long enough to deprive a newborn of oxygen and cause permanent spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy.
Romanucci and Blandin recovered $30 million for a family whose infant son suffered permanent brain damage and cerebral palsy after a pediatric surgeon at Rush University Medical Center performed 25 experimental surgeries, severing the child's pulmonary artery during the final operation.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.