Top Individual Personal Injury Verdicts and Settlements of 2023
The 20 largest individual personal injury results from 2023, 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.
- $2.28 billionVerdictNot collectable
$2.28 Billion Verdict for Woman Raped by Her Stepfather From Age 5 to 14 in Lake Elsinore
A Riverside County jury awarded $2.28 billion on April 25, 2023, to a woman identified as Jane Doe who was sexually abused by her stepfather from age 5 until she was 14, at the family's Lake Elsinore home and at events and property of the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The stepfather, who had pleaded guilty in 1997 to lewd acts with a child under 14 and served three years in state prison, admitted the abuse at deposition, then skipped the first day of jury selection and withdrew his answer rather than face a bench warrant. The church settled for $1 million and the mother for $200,000 before trial. The verdict, $836 million in compensatory damages and $1.44 billion in punitive damages after three days of deliberation, is one of the largest ever returned for a single survivor of childhood sexual abuse.
After trial: The defendant withdrew his answer and did not defend the trial, and no appeal has been reported. The Los Angeles Times called the award largely symbolic and unlikely to be paid in full, since he was the only remaining defendant; a church and the mother settled before trial.
Dordick Law Corporation2023 · Riverside County Superior Court, Riverside, CaliforniaRead the full story → - $745 millionVerdict
$745 Million Verdict Against Nitrous Oxide Distributor and Head Shop After Crash Killed a 25-Year-Old
A St. Louis County jury returned a $745 million verdict against nitrous oxide distributor United Brands and local head shop Coughing Cardinal after finding the companies conspired to sell Whip-It! canisters as an inhalant to a driver who passed out behind the wheel and fatally struck 25-year-old Marissa Politte outside her workplace.
After trial: The verdict was not overturned. The companies settled after the verdict for $5 million, as reported by the St.
- $615 millionVerdictReduced from $787 millionNot collectable
$787 Million Verdict Against Absent Vietnamese Bunk Bed Maker After Toddler's Death
A federal jury in Columbus assessed $787 million in damages against Moash Enterprise Company Limited, the Vietnamese manufacturer of a bunk bed that killed a two-year-old boy, after the company was defaulted for never appearing in the case. The court later cut the award to $615 million under Ohio's punitive damages cap, and nothing in the record shows the judgment has been collected.
After trial: The jury returned $787 million but the judgment actually entered was $615 million, after the court cut punitive damages from $522 million to $350 million under Ohio's cap. The manufacturer never appeared and has no United States assets, so the judgment is effectively uncollectable; the American importers and retailer settled separately in July 2022 on undisclosed terms.
Law Offices of Daniel R. Mordarski LLC2023 · U.S. District Court, Southern District of OhioRead the full story → - $485 millionVerdict
$485 Million Verdict Against Acadia Healthcare in Foster Care Abuse Case
A Rio Arriba County jury held Acadia Healthcare and its New Mexico foster care subsidiaries responsible for placing an 8-year-old girl with a foster father who raped her repeatedly, returning one of the largest single-plaintiff sexual abuse verdicts in the country.
After trial: Acadia Healthcare appealed, then in October 2023 settled this case along with two related New Mexico abuse lawsuits for a combined $400 million. The plaintiffs in this case received $200 million rather than the $485 million verdict.
Claggett & Sykes Trial Lawyers and Fadduol, Cluff, Hardy & Conaway2023 · Rio Arriba County (First Judicial District Court), New MexicoRead the full story → - $360.01 millionVerdictReduced from $860.0 million
$860 Million Verdict in Dallas Crane Collapse Death, Entered as $360 Million Judgment After Exemplary Cap
A Dallas County jury found developer Greystar liable for the 2019 tower crane collapse that killed 29-year-old Kiersten Smith in her apartment, returning an $860 million verdict that Jason and Cory Itkin helped win for her family. The trial court cut the $500 million exemplary award under the Texas statutory cap before signing judgment in August 2023, entering $360,012,006 in compensatory damages jointly and severally against the three Greystar entities plus prejudgment interest, and Greystar's appeal, argued in February 2026, is undecided.
After trial: Reduced and on appeal. The $500,000,000 exemplary award was cut under the Texas cap before judgment in August 2023, leaving $360,012,006 in compensatory damages plus about $45,000,000 in prejudgment interest.
Arnold & Itkin, Glasheen, Valles & Inderman Injury Lawyers and Lyons & Simmons, LLP2023 · Dallas County District Court, TXRead the full story → - $325 millionVerdictNot collectable
$325 Million Verdict for Child Sexual Abuse Survivor in Bexar County
A San Antonio jury returned the largest sexual assault verdict in U.S. history against a sole assailant, awarding $325 million to a child sexually abused by her grandfather over multiple years.
After trial: The verdict is against an individual defendant and is largely uncollectable.
The Carlson Law Firm2023 · 285th District Court, Bexar County, TX (Judge Nadine Nieto)Read the full story → - $209.2 millionVerdict
Houston Jury Awards $209.2 Million in Terra Energy Hantavirus Death
A Harris County jury awarded Laura Schneider and her three children $209.2 million after finding that Terra Energy Partners hid a known hantavirus danger that killed her husband, Karl.
- $207.6 millionVerdict
$207.6 Million Verdict for Child Born With Cerebral Palsy After Penn Hospital Delayed C-Section
A Philadelphia jury returned a $182.7 million verdict, later reaching $207.6 million with interest and upheld through the Pennsylvania Superior Court in July 2025, against the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania for a 45-minute delay in performing a C-section on a mother with a known uterine infection, leaving her child with permanent cerebral palsy.
After trial: The Pennsylvania Superior Court unanimously affirmed the $207.6 million verdict in full on July 10, 2025, rejecting the hospital's arguments on vicarious liability and remittitur. Reargument was denied that September, and it remained unclear whether the hospital would seek further review from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
- $200 millionVerdict
$200 Million Verdict Against R.J. Reynolds for Boston Woman's Lung Cancer Death
A Suffolk County jury awarded $200 million in October 2023, the largest wrongful death award in Boston history, against R.J. Reynolds for the lung cancer death of Rita Jones, who first received free Newport cigarettes as a teenager in 1964.
- $175 millionVerdict
Kline & Specter Wins $175 Million Roundup Cancer Verdict Against Monsanto
A Philadelphia jury awarded Ernest Caranci $175 million after finding that decades of Roundup use caused his non-Hodgkin lymphoma and that Monsanto failed to warn of the risk. Kline & Specter tried the case, the first Roundup trial in Philadelphia, and the verdict was later upheld on appeal.
After trial: Affirmed in May 2025.
- $100 millionVerdictNot collectable
$100 Million CVA Verdict: Largest in New York History for Childhood Sexual Abuse
An Erie County jury awarded $100 million to a woman sexually abused over four years beginning at age 12, the largest Child Victims Act verdict in New York State history.
After trial: Awarded against an individual defendant and essentially uncollectable; the total includes $50 million in punitive damages.
- $96 millionVerdictOn appeal
Wayne County Jury Awards $96 Million to Family of Father and Son Killed by Truck on I-75
In April 2023 a Wayne County jury awarded $96 million to the widow and mother of Jude and Zachary Attianese, a New Jersey father and son killed when a Challenger Motor Freight tractor-trailer rear-ended their car in an I-75 construction zone in 2018. The company had acknowledged responsibility, so the trial addressed damages. The driver was taking medications for Parkinson's disease, and the company had known of his diagnosis since 2015.
After trial: The verdict is on appeal: Challenger Motor Freight's appeal, docket 371420, was set for the Michigan Court of Appeals' August 2026 session. We found no appellate decision, remittitur or post-verdict settlement, so the final amount is unconfirmed.
McKeen & Associates, PC and Kramer Dillof Livingston & Moore2023 · Wayne County Circuit Court, Detroit, MichiganRead the full story → - $95 millionVerdictNot collectable
$95 Million CVA Verdict Against Former Rochester Priest for 1979 Childhood Sexual Abuse
A Monroe County jury ordered former Rochester Catholic priest Foster Rogers to pay $95 million to a man he sexually assaulted in 1979, when the victim was 15 years old, in one of the largest Child Victims Act verdicts in New York history.
After trial: Awarded against an individual defendant; collection prospects are limited.
- $91 millionSettlement
7-Eleven Pays $91 Million to Bensenville Man Who Lost Both Legs Outside Its Store
A suburban Chicago man who lost both legs above the knee when a car jumped the curb and pinned him against a Bensenville 7-Eleven secured a $91 million settlement, the largest pretrial personal injury recovery in Illinois history, after Power Rogers LLP showed the company had documented thousands of similar storefront crashes and still refused to install protective bollards.
- $75 millionVerdictNot collectable
St. Charles County Jury Awards $75 Million to the Parents of a 21-Year-Old Killed by a Driver Fleeing Police
A St. Charles County jury awarded $75 million, including $25 million in punitive damages, to the parents of Krystofer Batsell, a 21-year-old killed when a driver fleeing police at more than 100 mph crashed into his car. The defendant is serving a 15-year prison sentence for second-degree murder, and the judgment is effectively uncollectable.
After trial: The judgment is effectively uncollectable: Richardson is imprisoned, and no insurer or institutional defendant remains in the case.
- $70 millionVerdict
$70 Million Platte County Record for Family of Boy Killed in I-29 Construction Zone Crash
A Platte County jury returned a record $70 million verdict after an eight-year-old boy died and his six-year-old sister was seriously injured when a distracted driver rear-ended their grandparents' car in a highway construction zone.
- $65 millionVerdict
$65 Million Verdict for Child's Prenatal Brain Injury After UPS Truck Struck Pregnant Mother's Car
A Clay County, Missouri jury awarded $65 million to a child who suffered a permanent brain injury before birth when a UPS delivery truck struck his mother's car while she was 13 weeks pregnant. With prejudgment interest, the judgment came to roughly $75.3 million, and the Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed it in May 2025.
After trial: Affirmed in full by the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, on May 20, 2025. With prejudgment interest the judgment totals roughly $75.3 million.
- $56 millionSettlementPaid
Autoliv Settles $127 Million Seatbelt Defect Judgment for $56 Million After Abandoning Its Appeal
On April 12, 2013, Micah Andrews, 38, died on Interstate 575 north of Atlanta when he swerved to miss a snapping turtle in the road, ran off the shoulder into trees at about 35 miles an hour, and was killed inside a crash he should have survived: his airbag did not deploy and his Autoliv designed seatbelt spooled out about 20 inches of webbing, letting his face hit the steering wheel hub hard enough to fracture the base of his skull. His widow, Jamie Andrews, sued Autoliv and Mazda in 2014, Mazda settled its own part of the case confidentially in June 2016, and Jim Butler of Butler Prather LLP tried the case with co counsel to a bench verdict before U.S. District Judge Steve C. Jones, who found the seatbelt defectively designed and entered a $127,019,343.40 judgment at the end of December 2021, including $100 million in punitive damages. Autoliv appealed to the Eleventh Circuit, arguing the punitive award was excessive under Georgia law, then abandoned that appeal and paid $56 million to close the case on July 27, 2023, of which $42 million went to Jamie Andrews and $14 million went to the State of Georgia, which had claimed a share of the punitive award.
After trial: Settled and paid. Autoliv appealed to the Eleventh Circuit in November 2022 but abandoned its appeal on July 27, 2023 and paid $56 million to settle: $42 million to Jamie Andrews and $14 million to the State of Georgia.
Butler Prather LLP2023 · U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta DivisionRead the full story → - $55.5 millionVerdict
Cook County Jury Awards $55.5 Million Over Birth Injury at University of Illinois Hospital
A Cook County jury awarded Shamond Butler $55.5 million after finding that doctors at University of Illinois Hospital caused severe, permanent brain damage during his April 2003 birth. The suit centered on a delayed response to his mother's high-risk labor and the mismanagement of Pitocin, which cut off his oxygen supply. Butler, who was 20 at the time of trial, functions at the cognitive level of a toddler and requires round-the-clock care. The jury returned its verdict on October 11, 2023, and no appeal has surfaced in coverage since.
Beam Legal Team LLC2023 · Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois (Daley Center), ChicagoRead the full story → - $53.5 millionVerdict
Brooklyn Jury Awards $53.5 Million to Construction Worker Paralyzed in Rooftop Fall
A Brooklyn jury found general contractor Mecca Contracting failed to protect Alan Moonsammy from a fall that left him paralyzed and awarded him $53.5 million.
All 2023 verdicts and settlements
193 results, largest first
As court-appointed co-lead plaintiffs' counsel in AFFF MDL 2873, Paul J. Napoli of Napoli Shkolnik negotiated a settlement requiring 3M Company to pay up to $12.5 billion to public water systems contaminated by PFAS compounds in firefighting foam, the largest drinking-water settlement in American legal history.
A Riverside County jury awarded $2.28 billion on April 25, 2023, to a woman identified as Jane Doe who was sexually abused by her stepfather from age 5 until she was 14, at the family's Lake Elsinore home and at events and property of the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The stepfather, who had pleaded guilty in 1997 to lewd acts with a child under 14 and served three years in state prison, admitted the abuse at deposition, then skipped the first day of jury selection and withdrew his answer rather than face a bench warrant. The church settled for $1 million and the mother for $200,000 before trial. The verdict, $836 million in compensatory damages and $1.44 billion in punitive damages after three days of deliberation, is one of the largest ever returned for a single survivor of childhood sexual abuse.
Frantz Law Group, led by attorneys James Frantz and William Shinoff, represented nearly 1,000 public school districts across 38 states in multidistrict litigation against JUUL Labs, reaching a $1.7 billion settlement in 2023 that covered approximately 1,600 school districts, local governments, tribal entities, and individual consumers.
As court-appointed co-lead counsel in AFFF MDL 2873, Paul J. Napoli of Napoli Shkolnik helped negotiate a $1.185 billion class settlement with DuPont, Chemours, and Corteva to compensate public water systems across the United States for PFAS contamination tied to firefighting foam.
Retained as outside counsel to the Nevada Attorney General, Eglet Adams drove more than $1.1 billion in opioid settlements across 12 agreements with over 40 defendants, including Walgreens, McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and Johnson & Johnson.
A Philadelphia jury awarded roughly $976.5 million, including $800 million in punitive damages, after the rip-stitch seat belt in Francis Amagasu's 1992 Mitsubishi 3000GT tore during a rollover and left him quadriplegic. Daniel Sherry Jr., Nancy Winkler, and Jessica Colliver tried the case for the firm then known as Eisenberg, Rothweiler, Winkler, Eisenberg & Jeck, with co-counsel Kyle Farrar and Wes Ball of Houston's Kaster Lynch Farrar & Ball. On December 22, 2025 the Pennsylvania Superior Court vacated the judgment, which had grown to over $1 billion with delay damages, and ordered a new trial over the jury instructions. The retrial had not yet taken place as of this writing.
A federal court in Washington, D.C. awarded $807 million to 58 USS Cole bombing survivors and immediate family members after finding that Iran provided material support to the al-Qaeda operatives who carried out the 2000 attack.
A St. Louis County jury returned a $745 million verdict against nitrous oxide distributor United Brands and local head shop Coughing Cardinal after finding the companies conspired to sell Whip-It! canisters as an inhalant to a driver who passed out behind the wheel and fatally struck 25-year-old Marissa Politte outside her workplace.
A federal jury in Columbus assessed $787 million in damages against Moash Enterprise Company Limited, the Vietnamese manufacturer of a bunk bed that killed a two-year-old boy, after the company was defaulted for never appearing in the case. The court later cut the award to $615 million under Ohio's punitive damages cap, and nothing in the record shows the judgment has been collected.
A Cole County jury returned $1.56 billion in November 2023 across four plaintiffs whose claims were consolidated for one trial: three Roundup users who developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma and the wife of one of them on a loss of consortium claim. The trial court later cut the punitive awards to roughly nine times each plaintiff's compensatory damages, bringing the judgment down to about $611 million, and the Missouri appellate courts left that judgment standing.
A Harris County jury awarded Mary Johnson $557 million against Union Pacific for a 2016 Houston train strike that cost her a leg, several fingers, and left her with a brain injury, a figure the trial court later cut and an appeals court reversed for a new trial.
A Rio Arriba County jury held Acadia Healthcare and its New Mexico foster care subsidiaries responsible for placing an 8-year-old girl with a foster father who raped her repeatedly, returning one of the largest single-plaintiff sexual abuse verdicts in the country.
A King County jury awarded $857 million in December 2023 to seven people, five former students and two parent volunteers, who said they were sickened by PCBs leaking from light fixtures at the Sky Valley Education Center in Monroe, Washington. The verdict included $73 million in compensatory damages and $784 million in punitive damages against Monsanto and its successor Pharmacia. In April 2024 a King County judge cut the punitive award to $365 million under Missouri's statutory cap on punitive damages, reducing the total to $438 million. Monsanto appealed, and Bayer said in February 2026 that Monsanto had settled the remaining Sky Valley jury verdicts on confidential terms, so what was ultimately paid is not public.
Acadia Healthcare agreed to pay $400 million to resolve three civil cases arising from its Desert Hills and Familyworks foster care program in New Mexico, where licensed foster parent Clarence Garcia sexually abused multiple children in his care.
A Dallas County jury found developer Greystar liable for the 2019 tower crane collapse that killed 29-year-old Kiersten Smith in her apartment, returning an $860 million verdict that Jason and Cory Itkin helped win for her family. The trial court cut the $500 million exemplary award under the Texas statutory cap before signing judgment in August 2023, entering $360,012,006 in compensatory damages jointly and severally against the three Greystar entities plus prejudgment interest, and Greystar's appeal, argued in February 2026, is undecided.
A San Antonio jury returned the largest sexual assault verdict in U.S. history against a sole assailant, awarding $325 million to a child sexually abused by her grandfather over multiple years.
On November 9, 2023, a Sarasota County jury awarded the Kowalski family more than $261 million against Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital: about $211.5 million in compensatory damages plus $50 million in punitive damages, in the case behind the Netflix documentary Take Care of Maya. None of that judgment stands today. The trial judge cut $47.5 million from the award in January 2024, and on October 29, 2025 Florida's Second District Court of Appeal reversed the judgment entirely, holding that the trial court misapplied the statutory immunity for good-faith child-abuse reporting, directing judgment for the hospital on several claims and ordering a new trial on the rest. In August 2026 the Florida Supreme Court declined to review that ruling, so the surviving claims head back to Sarasota County for a narrower retrial. AndersonGlenn tried the original case for the family, and this page documents the full arc, verdict and reversal alike.
A St. Charles County jury awarded $247.3 million to six women sexually assaulted by an unlicensed massage therapist at Oasis Foot Spa & Massage in St. Peters, finding the spa and its owner liable for hiring him without any background check and ignoring an early complaint. The Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment in full in 2024.
San Francisco Unified School District's case was the first JUUL bellwether trial against Altria; after the plaintiffs rested, Altria agreed to pay $235 million to resolve roughly 6,000 pending e-vapor claims nationwide.
A Harris County jury awarded Laura Schneider and her three children $209.2 million after finding that Terra Energy Partners hid a known hantavirus danger that killed her husband, Karl.
A Philadelphia jury returned a $182.7 million verdict, later reaching $207.6 million with interest and upheld through the Pennsylvania Superior Court in July 2025, against the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania for a 45-minute delay in performing a C-section on a mother with a known uterine infection, leaving her child with permanent cerebral palsy.
A Suffolk County jury awarded $200 million in October 2023, the largest wrongful death award in Boston history, against R.J. Reynolds for the lung cancer death of Rita Jones, who first received free Newport cigarettes as a teenager in 1964.
A Philadelphia jury awarded Ernest Caranci $175 million after finding that decades of Roundup use caused his non-Hodgkin lymphoma and that Monsanto failed to warn of the risk. Kline & Specter tried the case, the first Roundup trial in Philadelphia, and the verdict was later upheld on appeal.
A King County jury awarded $165 million to eight former Sky Valley Education Center employees, including the estate of one deceased plaintiff, after finding Pharmacia LLC liable for selling PCB-containing fluorescent light ballasts without adequate warning.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.