Top Individual Personal Injury Verdicts and Settlements of 2021

The $301.04 Billion Beer Belly's Dram-Shop Verdict, the Largest Jury Award Ever Recorded, Won Against a Bar That Had Already Closed by a Family That Said It Expected to Collect Nothing and Wanted the Number as a Statement Against Drunk Driving

On December 7, 2021, a Nueces County jury in Corpus Christi returned $1.04 billion in actual damages and $300 billion in exemplary damages, about $301.04 billion in total, against Beer Belly's Sports Bar and its owner for overserving a driver who killed Tamra Kay Kindred, 59, and her 16-year-old granddaughter in a 2017 crash. It was reported as the largest jury verdict ever recorded, and the honest frame is that it was built to be symbolic: the bar had closed in 2019, Texas does not require bars to carry liquor liability insurance, and the family and its lawyers said openly that they expected to recover nothing and sought the number as a public statement against drunk driving. John Flood of Flood Trial Lawyers was lead counsel, with Sico, Hoelscher & Harris LLP as co-counsel; Craig Sico delivered the closing argument that asked jurors to decide how loudly their voice would be heard.

After trial: Largely symbolic award. The bar closed in 2019 and the family said it expected to collect nothing; the verdict was sought as a public statement against drunk driving.

Nassau County Jury Returns $1 Billion in I-95 Crash That Killed UNF Freshman Connor Dzion

A Nassau County jury found two trucking companies responsible for the 2017 chain-reaction crash on I-95 near Yulee that killed 18-year-old Connor Dzion, returning a $1 billion verdict that Curry Pajcic won for the teen's parents.

After trial: Most of the award fell on a carrier that did not defend the case and carried a $1 million policy; the bulk of the verdict is uncollectable.

Titus County Jury Returns $730 Million Verdict for the Family of a Great-Grandmother Killed by a Submarine-Propeller Superload, After Landstar Settled for $50 Million on the Eve of Trial

A Titus County jury awarded $730 million to the family of Toni Combest, a 73-year-old great-grandmother killed when a Landstar Ranger truck hauling a 197,000-pound Navy submarine propeller struck her car on a narrow Highway 271 bridge, though the family's actual recovery came from pretrial settlements: $50 million from Landstar Ranger and $1 million from escort company S&M Pilot Service, with the verdict itself returned against the small front-escort company 2A Pilot Cars.

After trial: Landstar settled for $50M days before jury selection and S&M Pilot Service for $1M; the $730M verdict came against the remaining escort-vehicle company and no public record documents collection. The family's confirmed recovery is the $51M in settlements.

$120 Million Verdict for Man Paralyzed When Gainesville Utility Truck Ran a Stop Sign

A Morgan & Morgan trial team won a $120 million Alachua County verdict for Jacob Rodgers, paralyzed at 20 when a Gainesville Regional Utilities driver ran a stop sign and broadsided the pickup he was riding in. After appeals and remittitur cut the judgment to $18.3 million, the case settled for $11 million, most of it paid through a Florida legislative claims bill that became law in 2025.

After trial: Under Florida comparative fault rules the court entered an $18.3 million judgment, and in November 2023 an appeals court ordered a new trial. Recovery from the city above $200,000 also requires a legislative claims bill.

Boone County Jury Returns $74 Million Verdict Against Eaton Asphalt in a Mother's Death

A Boone County jury found that Eaton Asphalt's improper repaving of Richwood Road created the edge drop-off that sent a flatbed truck into Amy Skiba's car, and awarded her three children $74 million.

$49.8 Million Verdict for Brain-Injured Kingsburg Man After Paramedic Removed Breathing Tube During Transport

A Fresno County jury awarded $49.8 million to a Kingsburg mortgage broker left in a permanent vegetative state after an American Ambulance paramedic dislodged his breathing tube during transport and could not restore his airway.

Mason Falls Five Feet Through Scaffold Gap on Longfellow Bridge, Wins $26.6 Million Verdict

A Middlesex County jury awarded $26.6 million to union mason John Rooney, Jr. after he fell through a two-foot scaffold gap during the Longfellow Bridge rehabilitation and suffered seven spinal operations and permanent disability, with pre-judgment interest bringing the total compensatory judgment to roughly $45.5 million.

Clark County Jury Awards $38.8 Million Against Republic Services After Garbage Truck Kills 11-Year-Old in Crosswalk

A Clark County jury returned $38.8 million against Republic Services after one of its garbage trucks turned through a marked crosswalk and struck and killed an 11-year-old girl who was crossing with the walk signal.

$38.1 Million Verdict for a Restaurant Owner Whose Spine Was Fractured When He Went to His Sister's Aid in a West Hollywood Beating

Matthew Greene, a restaurant and bar owner, ran to help his sister when four men, twin brothers Maurice and Alberto Driz, Maurice's son Shawn Driz, and their friend William Joelson, knocked her unconscious outside the Nice Guy restaurant in West Hollywood at about 1:30 a.m. on April 17, 2015, after she tried to stop them beating a photographer. He was beaten and left with a fractured spine and post-traumatic stress disorder. After a three-week trial in July 2021 in which the four defendants represented themselves, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury awarded him $17.9 million in compensatory damages, found malice, and assessed about $20.2 million in punitive damages against the four men. The siblings' combined award was $72,645,492; a third victim won $8.9 million separately.

After trial: The judgment is final and, according to a public accounting maintained by the plaintiffs, entirely unpaid as of 2026, with post-judgment interest accruing at 10 percent. Shawn Driz filed Chapter 7 the night before trial; the stay was lifted and a judgment for willful and malicious injury is not dischargeable. See more

Paralyzed Navy Veteran Awarded $35 Million Over Broward Car Crash

Marc Laspes, a 26-year-old Navy veteran, was driving near Sheridan Street and North 35th Avenue in Broward County on August 2, 2017 when his vehicle collided with a car driven by Talena Castillo. He woke in a hospital bed three days later unable to feel his legs, paralyzed from the chest down by a burst fracture in one of his vertebrae. He sued Castillo for negligence in Broward County Circuit Court, case CACE-17-017741, and on July 13, 2021 the jury returned a verdict of $35 million. No appeal, remittitur or reduction of the verdict has surfaced in Florida's appellate record or in later coverage of the case.

$34.4 Million Verdict for a Woman Whose Skull and Jaw Were Fractured When She Stepped In to Stop Four Men Beating a Photographer Outside a West Hollywood Restaurant

Anne Greene, a model and actress, intervened at about 1:30 a.m. on April 17, 2015, when four men, twin brothers Maurice and Alberto Driz, Maurice's son Shawn Driz, and their friend William Joelson, were beating a photographer outside the Nice Guy restaurant on La Cienega Boulevard in West Hollywood. She was punched in the head from behind and left with a fractured skull and jaw, a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. After a three-week trial in July 2021 in which all four defendants represented themselves and claimed self-defense, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury awarded her $20.1 million in compensatory damages, found malice, and assessed a further $14.3 million in punitive damages against the four men. The siblings' combined award was $72,645,492; a third victim won $8.9 million separately.

After trial: The judgment is final and, according to a public accounting maintained by the plaintiffs, entirely unpaid as of 2026, with post-judgment interest accruing at 10 percent. Shawn Driz filed Chapter 7 the night before trial; the stay was lifted and a judgment for willful and malicious injury is not dischargeable. See more

$34.1 Million Verdict Against CoxHealth for a Birth Injury Tied to Excessive Pitocin at a Springfield Hospital

A Greene County jury awarded $34,107,628 to a boy who suffered permanent brain damage during his 2014 birth at Cox South hospital in Springfield, where escalating doses of the labor drug Pitocin deprived him of oxygen. It was the largest medical malpractice verdict in Missouri in 2021, and because the injury predated the state's 2015 damages cap statute, the noneconomic award stood without reduction.

After trial: Missouri's damages cap did not apply because the 2015 cap statute postdated the 2014 injury. No appeal was reported and the funds were paid into a special needs trust in 2022.

$33 Million Verdict for Mother of Engineer Killed by Driver Going 99 mph in a 35 mph Zone

Chad Hemmat and co-counsel secured a $33 million wrongful death verdict for the mother of a 30-year-old Aurora engineer killed when a driver traveling nearly three times the posted speed limit ran a red light and T-boned his car at an I-225 interchange.

$27 Million Minneapolis Settlement for the Family of George Floyd, the Largest Pretrial Civil Rights Wrongful-Death Settlement in U.S. History

Ben Crump, with co-counsel Antonio Romanucci and L. Chris Stewart, negotiated a $27 million settlement between the family of George Floyd and the City of Minneapolis, announced by the family's lawyers as the largest pretrial settlement of a civil rights wrongful-death claim in American history. The city council approved the payment unanimously in March 2021, while jury selection in Derek Chauvin's murder trial was underway blocks away.

A Tilt Wand Would Have Cost the Manufacturer Nothing Instead of the Cord. A 3-Year-Old Got Tangled in It, and a Salt Lake Jury Awarded $25 Million.

A 3-year-old girl was found with a window blind cord wrapped around her neck at her family's home in Lehi. She died a week later of brain damage from oxygen deprivation. The jury found Century Blinds had made corded blinds for years without fitting a tilt wand that cost nothing extra, and without supplying the cleats that let a parent wind cords out of reach.

After trial: The $24,000,000 to the family is compensatory rather than punitive, which matters in Utah: Utah Code 78B-8-201(3)(a) sends half of any punitive award above $50,000 to the state, and it does not reach a compensatory award. Utah does not cap ordinary tort damages, and this is not a medical malpractice case, so the 78B-3-410 cap has no application. See more

Paralyzed Electrical Apprentice Reaches $21 Million Settlement Over Newark Arena Fall

Nicholas Dephillips, a 21-year-old apprentice electrician, fell about 15 feet through a drop ceiling while installing wiring for a helipad atop Newark's Prudential Center in January 2019, fracturing his cervical spine and leaving him paralyzed from the chest down. He sued his employer, Mehl Electric, general contractor Phelps Construction Group, and the arena in Superior Court of New Jersey, Essex County. In September 2021, before trial, he settled with Mehl Electric and its insurance carriers for $21 million, a figure his attorney called the largest construction site accident settlement in New Jersey at the time. His claims against Phelps went to trial in 2025, where a jury apportioned Phelps 36 percent of the liability, adding to his overall recovery from the incident.

After trial: The $21 million reported here is the September 2021 settlement with Mehl Electric only and is final; it was not subject to appeal. The claims against Phelps Construction Group that were still pending as of that settlement were later tried: on March 14, 2025, an Essex County jury found total damages of $20,080,976, apportioned 56 percent to Mehl Electric, 36 percent to Phelps, and 8 percent to Dephillips, resulting in a further recovery of $7,229,151 from Phelps and a combined total recovery across both outcomes of about $28.3 million. See more

King County's Largest Asbestos Verdict: $16.67 Million for Camas Paper Mill Worker's Family

A King County jury awarded Sherrie Holdsworth $16,674,097 against Scapa Waycross after her husband Kevan, a Camas paper mill worker, died of mesothelioma caused by the company's asbestos-containing dryer felts, the largest asbestos verdict in King County history.

$10.8 Million Verdict for Child With Cerebral Palsy After Oxygen Deprivation at Birth

A federal jury in West Virginia awarded $10.8 million to a child and her parents after finding that hospital staff failed to prevent oxygen deprivation during delivery, causing permanent cerebral palsy.

$10 Million Settlement From the City of Columbus for the Family of Andre Hill, an Unarmed Man Shot by Police While Holding His Cellphone

A legal team led by Ben Crump negotiated a $10 million settlement between the City of Columbus and the family of Andre Hill, an unarmed 47-year-old Black man fatally shot by officer Adam Coy while walking out of a garage holding his cellphone. The city council's May 2021 approval made it the largest settlement in Columbus history.

$10 Million Settlement for Family of Anesthesiologist Killed in Kakaako HPD Pursuit

The City and County of Honolulu agreed in October 2021 to pay $10 million to settle a wrongful-death claim brought by the family of cardiothoracic anesthesiologist William Travis Lau, who was struck and killed on a Kakaako sidewalk when a drunk driver fleeing an HPD high-speed pursuit veered off Ala Moana Boulevard in January 2019.