Top Personal Injury Verdicts and Settlements of 2020

PG&E Wildfire Bankruptcy: $13.5 Billion Settlement for Northern California Fire Victims

Frantz Law Group, representing roughly 5,000 victims, helped negotiate a $13.5 billion PG&E bankruptcy settlement covering tens of thousands of survivors and families from the 2015 Butte, 2017 North Bay, and 2018 Camp wildfires.

Weitz and Luxenberg Helps Win $10.9 Billion Roundup Settlement for 125,000 Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Claimants

As co-lead counsel in the federal Roundup multidistrict litigation and the first firm to sue Monsanto in 2015, Weitz and Luxenberg helped negotiate a $10.9 billion settlement resolving approximately 125,000 non-Hodgkin lymphoma claims against Bayer-owned Monsanto.

Chapecoense Soccer Team Crash: $844 Million in Judgments for 43 Families

Steven Marks and Kristina Infante of Podhurst Orseck secured a combined $844 million in wrongful-death judgments for 43 families of passengers killed when LaMia Flight 2933 crashed near Medellin, Colombia, in November 2016, killing 71 of the 77 people aboard.

After trial: Combined judgments and settlements for the families of 43 victims of a single crash, not one plaintiff's award.

Flint Water Crisis: $600 Million Settlement for Lead-Poisoned Residents

Hunter Shkolnik of Napoli Shkolnik served as court-appointed co-liaison counsel for individual plaintiffs in the consolidated federal Flint water litigation, which produced a $600 million settlement from the State of Michigan in 2020.

Russ Herman Secures $248 Million Settlement for 3,600 Homeowners in Decade-Long Chinese Drywall MDL

Serving as court-appointed Plaintiffs' Liaison Counsel, Russ Herman of Herman Herman and Katz spent more than a decade guiding the Chinese-manufactured drywall multidistrict litigation to a $248 million settlement with Taishan Gypsum that covered thousands of homeowners across the Gulf Coast and Southeast.

Verizon Pays $125 Million to Lawyer Paralyzed by a Rotted Utility Pole That Fell on Her at a Union City Bus Stop

A 43-year-old utility pole that Verizon had been told to remove in 1999 snapped and fell on attorney Maria Moser Meister at a Union City bus stop in 2017, leaving her with a severe brain injury and paralysis. In May 2020 a New Jersey judge approved a $125 million settlement, reported as the largest personal injury settlement in state history.

After trial: This was a pre-trial settlement, not a jury verdict. Verizon agreed to pay $125 million total, $118,275,000 to Maria Meister and $7 million to her husband, before the case went to trial, and an Essex County Superior Court judge approved it at a friendly hearing in May 2020.

$66.5 Million Settlement for 262 Patients Subjected to Unnecessary Cardiac Procedures by Northwest Indiana Cardiologist

CohenMalad recovered $66.5 million on behalf of 262 patients who alleged that Dr. Arvind Gandhi and Cardiology Associates of Northwest Indiana implanted pacemakers and defibrillators and performed open-heart surgeries that were never medically necessary.

Columbus Jury Hits DuPont With $50 Million in C-8 Cancer Case

A federal jury in Columbus found that DuPont's C-8 contamination caused Travis Abbott's testicular cancer and awarded him and his wife $50 million. After the trial court applied Ohio's cap on his wife's loss-of-consortium damages, the enforceable judgment came to about $40.3 million, which the Sixth Circuit later affirmed.

$46 Million Settlement for Family of Toddler Killed by IKEA MALM Dresser

Alan Feldman of Feldman Shepherd secured a $46 million settlement against IKEA on behalf of the family of a 2-year-old boy crushed by a MALM dresser in California, reported at the time as the largest child wrongful-death settlement in U.S. history.

Oakland Pays $32.7 Million to Settle Ghost Ship Warehouse Fire Lawsuits

Mary Alexander served as lead plaintiffs' counsel representing 13 of the victim families in litigation against the City of Oakland over the December 2016 Ghost Ship warehouse fire, which killed 36 people, securing a $32.7 million settlement covering 32 families and a survivor.

Farm Laborer Paralyzed at Railroad Crossing Wins $21.5 Million Verdict in Madera County

A Madera County jury deliberated for one hour before awarding $21,513,000 to an 18-year-old farm laborer left partially paralyzed after the van he was riding in was rear-ended at a railroad crossing.

$21 Million Verdict Against Biomet Over Defective Metal-on-Metal Hip Implant

A Missouri federal jury awarded Mary Bayes $21 million after her Biomet M2a-Magnum metal-on-metal hip implant failed catastrophically, requiring seven revision surgeries and leaving her with permanently constrained hip function.

$18 Million Verdict After Driver Struck Mother and Daughter in Calabasas Crosswalk and Staged the Scene

A Los Angeles jury awarded $18 million after finding malice when a driver struck two pedestrians in a Calabasas crosswalk, killing the mother, and then moved the victims and gave misleading statements to police to alter the appearance of the scene.

$13.5 Million Settlement for Family of Slain Student-Athlete Lauren McCluskey

Parker and McConkie secured a $13.5 million settlement for the family of Lauren McCluskey, a University of Utah track athlete murdered on campus after police failed to act on her repeated stalking reports.

$13.5 Million Verdict for Portland Pedestrian Who Lost His Leg to a Garbage Truck

Scott Busch was crossing a Portland crosswalk with the right-of-way when a McInnis Waste Systems garbage truck struck him and severed his leg; a jury awarded $13.5 million, and the Oregon Supreme Court struck down the state's $500,000 noneconomic damages cap as applied to his case.

San Diego Court Awards $13 Million to 22 Women Defrauded by GirlsDoPorn

After a 99-day bench trial, San Diego Superior Court Judge Kevin A. Enright awarded approximately $12.775 million in compensatory and punitive damages to 22 women who were deceived into appearing in online pornographic videos produced by GirlsDoPorn, with the court also ordering payment of $8 million in attorneys' fees.

After trial: Plus $8 million in attorneys' fees.

$12 Million Settlement and Sweeping Police Reforms for the Family of Breonna Taylor, Killed in a Botched Louisville Raid

Ben Crump, alongside Louisville co-counsel Sam Aguiar and Lonita Baker, settled the wrongful-death lawsuit brought by Breonna Taylor's mother against the City of Louisville for $12 million, the largest police-misconduct payout in the city's history, paired with a package of policing reforms the family made a non-negotiable condition of the deal.

$10 Million Federal Jury Verdict for Donnell Linton, Ejected in 2017 Amtrak Cascades Derailment

A federal jury in Tacoma awarded more than $10 million to Donnell Linton, a Renton man who was physically ejected from Amtrak Cascades Train 501 when it derailed near DuPont on December 18, 2017, while he was traveling with his minor son.

$8 Million Verdict After 15-Year-Old Dies of Cardiac Arrest at Football Practice Without a Defibrillator on Campus

A jury awarded $8 million to the family of Giovani Pulido, a 15-year-old Encinal High School freshman who died of sudden cardiac arrest during spring football practice in May 2016, finding Alameda Unified School District negligent for failing to have an automated external defibrillator on campus.

Missed Appendicitis Diagnosis at Albuquerque Clinic Leads to $6.8 Million Federal Settlement

In December 2015, a physician at First Choice Community Healthcare in Albuquerque examined a 14-year-old boy for stomach pain and fever but ordered no laboratory or imaging tests. His appendix ruptured two days later, and the septic shock that followed caused a hypoxic brain injury and acute kidney injury that left him permanently disabled after eight months in the hospital. Because the federally funded clinic's staff are treated as federal employees, the family sued the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico. The case settled for $6.8 million in 2020, with most of the money placed in a fund for the boy's future medical care. Robert C. Gutierrez of Will Ferguson & Associates signed the complaint as an attorney of record for the family, alongside Kathryn L. Eaton of Eaton & Eaton Law PC.

After trial: This was an FTCA claim against the United States, paid from federal funds rather than a private insurance policy or the clinic's own assets, so collectability is not in question. Most of the $6.8 million was structured into a fund for the boy's future medical care rather than disbursed as a lump sum. See more