Top Personal Injury Recoveries Confirmed Paid of 2024
Personal injury results from 2024, nationwide where the record shows the money was paid, or the defendant is an insurer or institution that pays, ranked by amount.
- $30 millionSettlementPaid
Odessa Head-On Crash With a Hunt Oil Pickup Ends in a $30 Million Settlement
Barbara Dalby was in her car on State Highway 191 in Odessa, Texas, on a Friday night in November 2019 when a Ford F-150 owned by Hunt Oil Company crossed into her lane and hit her head on. Her lawyers said the driver, Hunt Oil employee Mikeal Crosson, had drugs and alcohol in his system, and court filings placed him at a bar a few blocks away shortly before the wreck. Dalby needed lumbar fusion surgery for a back injury her lawyers described as permanent, and she has not been able to return to work. She sued Hunt Oil and Crosson in Dallas County's 116th District Court, and an insurance company for Hunt Oil agreed to pay $30 million in late September 2024 with jury selection already underway.
After trial: The $30 million was paid by an insurance company for Hunt Oil rather than by Hunt Oil directly. The Midland Reporter-Telegram added an editor's note saying its first version had missed that point because the press release did not mention it.
Goudarzi & Young, L.L.P.2024 · 116th District Court, Dallas County, Texas (Case No. DC-21-11344)Read the full story → - $26.13 millionVerdictReduced from $35.8 millionPaid
Iowa Supreme Court Affirms $26.1 Million Judgment In Fog-Related Truck Underride Crash
On March 19, 2020, an eighteen-wheel semitrailer driven by Clifford Takes for West Side Transport made an unprotected left turn across fog-shrouded Highway 151 near Anamosa, Iowa, and Margaret McQuillen's southbound car slid under the trailer. McQuillen, then 18, lost her pulse before paramedics arrived and was later found to have suffered a traumatic brain injury and roughly 100 skull fractures. A Linn County jury found Takes and West Side Transport 73 percent at fault and McQuillen 27 percent at fault, and set her damages at $35,793,475 in June 2024; the district court entered judgment for $26,129,236.80 after the comparative-fault reduction. West Side Transport and Takes appealed over closing-argument and damages-argument rulings, and the Iowa Supreme Court affirmed the judgment on April 3, 2026.
After trial: The jury returned $35,793,475 in June 2024, and the district court reduced it under Iowa's comparative-fault statute to $26,129,236.80 after the jury found McQuillen 27 percent at fault. West Side Transport and Takes appealed, and the Iowa Supreme Court affirmed the judgment in full on April 3, 2026.
Pickens, Barnes & Abernathy2024 · Iowa District Court for Linn CountyRead the full story → - $18 millionSettlementPaid
Tour Photographer Crushed by a Runaway Forklift After a Green Day Concert Settles for $18 Million Seven Days Into Trial
Jake Chamseddine, a photographer working Green Day's Hella Mega Tour, was leaving Citizens Bank Park after the August 2021 Philadelphia show when a stagehand jumped off a moving forklift without setting the parking brake. The unmanned machine rolled down an exit ramp and crushed him against a concrete and metal post, lacerating his femoral artery and breaking his pelvis, femur, and lower back. He sued the Phillies, Live Nation, staging contractor Tri-State Stage Labor, and the forklift driver. After seven days of trial before Judge Caroline Turner, the defendants settled for $18 million on November 1, 2024, with Live Nation and Tri-State paying most of it.
After trial: Settled during trial on November 1, 2024. Live Nation and Tri-State Stage Labor are reported to be paying the majority, with the Phillies and other parties covering the remainder; the payers are institutions and insured contractors, which is why the row is tagged paid.
Stampone, O'Brien, Dilsheimer, Holloway2024 · Philadelphia County Court of Common PleasRead the full story → - $16 millionSettlementPaid
Seattle Public Schools Pays $16 Million Over Garfield Coach Abuse
Seattle Public Schools agreed to pay $16 million in October 2024 to settle a lawsuit from a former Garfield High School student who said two coaches sexually abused her over several years while the district failed to intervene. The suit named volunteer coach Walter Jones, who had been barred from district employment yet was allowed to coach anyway, and assistant coach Marvin Hall, who continued an abusive relationship with her into her college years. It is the largest tort settlement in the district's history, funded mostly through the district's insurance pool. Both coaches were separately prosecuted in King County Superior Court: Hall pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct with a minor in 2025, and Jones's child rape trial ended in a hung jury and a mistrial in December 2025. Paul Sewell and Tomas Gahan of Peterson Wampold Rosato Feldman Luna represented the former student.
After trial: This is a negotiated settlement, not a court judgment, so no appeal applies to the civil claim. Seattle Public Schools pays $500,000 of the $16 million directly, with the remainder covered by the Washington Schools Risk Management Pool, the district's insurer.
Peterson Wampold Rosato Feldman Luna2024 · King County Superior Court, Seattle, WARead the full story → - $6 millionSettlementPaid
Family Reaches $6 Million Settlement After Pretrial Detainee Dies of Malnutrition in Arkansas Jail
Larry Price Jr. spent just over a year in the Sebastian County, Arkansas jail awaiting trial on a terroristic threatening charge he could not make $1,000 bail on, and was found dead in his cell on August 29, 2021. He weighed 185 pounds when he was booked, and paramedics who responded to his death estimated his weight at about 90 pounds; the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory listed the cause of death as acute dehydration and malnutrition. His family's federal lawsuit alleged that Sebastian County and its jail medical contractor, Turn Key Health Clinics, LLC, ignored his deteriorating mental and physical condition, including discontinuing his psychiatric medication and failing to intervene as he ate and drank less over months in custody. Represented by Erik Heipt and Edwin Budge of Budge & Heipt, the family settled with both defendants in 2024 for $6 million, split evenly between the county and Turn Key. The county prosecutor filed no criminal charges over the death, and the case settled before trial with no ruling on liability.
After trial: The case settled before trial, so there was no jury verdict, judgment, or appeal to track. Sebastian County's $3 million share was paid through a public appropriation from its Justice Facilities Capital Fund, with $350,000 contributed by the county's risk management carrier, after the Quorum Court approved the settlement on August 20, 2024.
Budge & Heipt, PLLC2024 · U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas, Case No. 2:23-cv-02008Read the full story → - $4.05 millionSettlementPaid
$4.05 Million From Maricopa County After a Man in Mental Health Crisis Was Restrained Face-Down and Left Unattended in a Jail Cell
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors approved a $4,050,000 settlement with the family of Akeem Terrell, a 31-year-old man who died in a county jail cell on New Year's Day 2021 after Phoenix police and sheriff's detention officers restrained him face-down and then left him motionless on the floor without checking on him.
After trial: This settlement resolves the claims against Maricopa County only. The City of Phoenix separately settled its own portion of the case for $800,000; the two payments involved different defendants and different conduct and should not be combined into a single figure.
- $1.25 millionSettlementPaid
Kansas Driver Settles Stop Sign Failure to Yield Crash for $1.25 Million
A 16-year-old driver stopped at a stop sign on Eisenhower Road in Leavenworth County, Kansas, then pulled into the path of a woman driving 55 mph on the right-of-way road, causing a July 2022 collision. She suffered a concussion, and daily headaches, dizziness, balance deficits and diminished concentration persisted for months despite a negative scan taken the day of the crash, which also exacerbated orthopedic injuries from a prior accident. The suit named the teen driver for failing to yield and the driver's mother for negligent supervision and training. A demand for the defendant's policy limits was made during litigation and accepted, and the case settled in September 2024 for $1.25 million without reaching trial.
After trial: The $1.25 million settlement, reached in September 2024, was a policy-limits recovery: a demand for the defendant's automobile policy limits was made during litigation and accepted, so the payment matched what was available under that coverage rather than a jury's assessment of the claim's full value. The case resolved by settlement before trial, so no appeal occurred.
- $1.22 millionSettlementPaid
$1.2 Million Dram Shop Settlement for the Parents of a 17-Year-Old Killed by a Drunk Driver Doing 105 mph
A 17-year-old Old Bridge High School student was riding in a friend's pickup on Englishtown Road in Old Bridge at about 3:50 a.m. on July 6, 2019 when an Acura traveling an estimated 105 mph hit the truck from behind. She was thrown from the pickup and died at the scene; the Acura's passenger also died, and its driver later blew a 0.193 and was sentenced to 17 years for aggravated manslaughter. Her parents' estate suit claimed two Old Bridge bars served him while visibly intoxicated, and on January 10, 2024 the bars' insurers agreed to pay $1.1 million on top of $115,000 already paid by the two drivers' auto carriers, for a total of $1,215,000.
After trial: The $1,215,000 total is the sum of four insurer payments reported by plaintiffs' counsel: $650,000 (Cap Specialty, for Antini's Bar), $450,000 (Arch, for Club 516), $100,000 (GEICO, the drunk driver's policy limit), and $15,000 (Progressive, the pickup driver's policy limit). Club 516's and both auto carriers' payments had been received by late January 2024; Antini's payment was pending when reported on February 9, 2024 and we did not confirm its receipt.
- $1 millionSettlementPaid
A Caller Reported a Man Walking Beside Interstate 81. Troopers Tased Him Repeatedly, and He Died. West Virginia Paid $1 Million.
Edmond Exline, 45, a paranoid schizophrenic apparently in the middle of a mental-health episode, was walking beside Interstate 81 near Martinsburg when three State Police troopers detained him. Tasers were deployed multiple times. He became unresponsive and was pronounced dead. The State Police settled for $1 million.
After trial: Settled and approved by the Circuit Court of Kanawha County in 2024; final. The court separately allocated the proceeds among the decedent's son and four brothers, which is distribution of one estate's recovery and not multiple claimants.
- $517,350VerdictReduced from $4.5 millionPaid
Essex County Jury Values a Passenger's Five Herniated Discs at $4.5 Million After Her Insurer Offered $25,000, Though the Underinsured-Motorist Policy Capped Her Recovery
Jennifer Burden was a passenger in her sister's car when it was struck by another driver on November 19, 2017, leaving her with herniated discs at five levels of her neck and lower back, foot drop, and headaches. After the at-fault driver's policy was exhausted by settlement, her own carrier, Mid-Century Insurance (Farmers), refused a $300,000 arbitration award and offered $25,000 on her $400,000 underinsured-motorist claim. An Essex County jury in April 2024 found her damages were $4,500,000. The court molded the verdict to $517,350.44, the policy limit plus fees, costs and interest, and the Appellate Division in March 2026 affirmed the dismissal of her bad-faith claim against the insurer.
After trial: The jury verdict was molded to $517,350.44 because the only defendant at trial was the plaintiffs' own underinsured-motorist carrier and the policy limit was $400,000; the judgment is insurer-paid by its nature. The plaintiffs' appeal concerned only the dismissed bad-faith and Insurance Fair Conduct Act claims, which the Appellate Division affirmed on March 13, 2026 (A-0440-24).
Blume Forte Fried Zerres & Molinari, P.C.2024 · Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division, Essex County, NewarkRead the full story →
All 2024 verdicts and settlements
163 results, largest first
Leavitt, Yamane and Soldner represented Maui wildfire survivors and victims' families in the $4.037 billion global settlement resolving approximately 450 lawsuits arising from the August 2023 Lahaina fire.
A federal court in Washington, D.C. awarded $1.956 billion to 114 survivors and Gold Star family members in Carlson Law Firm's second successful default-judgment lawsuit holding Iran liable for the October 2000 USS Cole bombing.
A Philadelphia jury awarded $725.5 million to former Mobil service station mechanic Paul Gill, who developed acute myeloid leukemia after years of cleaning car parts with benzene-containing gasoline and solvents, in what was reported as the largest benzene verdict in U.S. history; the court later added over $90 million in delay damages while ExxonMobil's appeal remains pending.
A Clark County jury awarded $550 million -- $50 million compensatory and $500 million punitive -- to Nimfa Escobia after her husband Marcial was killed by a driver traveling 107 mph while impaired by alcohol, methamphetamine, ecstasy, and marijuana.
A St. Louis jury awarded $495 million against Abbott Laboratories after finding the company failed to warn that its Similac cow's milk formula could cause necrotizing enterocolitis in premature infants.
A Philadelphia jury found that Monsanto failed to warn that Roundup could cause cancer and awarded John McKivison $2.25 billion. The trial judge later reduced the award to $400 million.
A St. Charles County judge entered a $300 million bench-trial judgment for a child, identified only as G.T., who was physically and sexually abused between the ages of three and five while in the care of Susan and James McLaurie, though one defendant died before the suit was filed and the only known insurance was a $303,000 policy.
A Richmond Circuit Court jury awarded $360 million to three former adolescent patients who were sexually abused by Dr. Daniel Davidow, the medical director of Cumberland Hospital for Children, during what he called routine femoral pulse exams.
Beasley Allen, representing Alabama on contingency, secured $220 million from opioid distributors Cardinal Health and Cencora after roughly 18 months of litigation, with every dollar directed to statewide opioid abatement programs.
A Bexar County civil jury awarded $210 million to the family of Andreen McDonald, killed by her husband in 2019, in what is reported to be the largest personal injury verdict in county history.
A Champaign County jury returned a $535 million verdict -- the largest known single-plaintiff verdict in Illinois history -- against a psychiatric facility that failed to prevent the rape of a 13-year-old female patient by another adolescent resident.
John Foy & Associates was one of about a dozen co-counsel firms in the $162 million settlement for victims of a 2021 I-85 van rollover and fire in Gwinnett County that killed seven women from a sober living home.
A Nassau County jury awarded $141.5 million, including $125 million in punitive damages, against K&N Logging after an unvetted driver's 80,000-pound log truck plowed into stopped school-zone traffic and left a young child with permanent brain damage.
A Wayne County jury found Henry Ford Hospital negligent for a delay of over two hours in executing an ordered emergency C-section, awarding $120.9 million to a Detroit mother and her son, who was left with severe cerebral palsy and requires full-time care.
A St. Louis jury found trailer manufacturer Wabash National 65 percent at fault and awarded $462 million, most of it punitive, after a defective rear underride guard let a car slide beneath a trailer and kill two young fathers; a judge later cut the total to about $119.5 million.
A St. Louis jury awarded $462 million against trailer maker Wabash National after its defective rear-impact guard failed and allowed a car to slide beneath a trailer on I-55, killing Taron Tailor, 30, and Nicholas Perkins, 23, in 2019.
A Clark County jury awarded $101 million against Progressive -- $1 million compensatory and $100 million punitive -- after the insurer delayed paying Hal Goldblatt's medical bills for months following a 2022 crosswalk collision that caused a traumatic brain injury.
A Palm Beach County jury awarded $100 million against former OB/GYN Berto Lopez, who performed a catastrophic circumcision on a 10-day-old boy ten days after the Florida Board of Medicine revoked his license, though the unlicensed doctor skipped the trial and collection remains doubtful.
A federal jury awarded $98.65 million to the family and estate of Botham Jean after finding that former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger used excessive force and violated his constitutional rights when she entered his apartment and shot him in 2018.
On June 17, 2024, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury unanimously awarded $900 million, $100 million compensatory and $800 million punitive, to a former employee of Alkiviades "Alki" David's companies who was sexually harassed and raped by him between 2016 and 2019. Liability had already been established before trial, so the jury sat only on damages, and the defense table was empty. In September 2024 the trial judge ruled that the award shocked the conscience and conditionally granted a new trial unless the plaintiff accepted $90 million, $10 million compensatory plus $80 million punitive. David filed a notice of appeal at the end of September 2024 and has said publicly that none of the women who have won verdicts against him will ever be paid.
A Philadelphia jury awarded William Melissen $78 million, including $75 million in punitive damages, after finding that Monsanto's Roundup weed killer was a cause of his non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Kline & Specter, with co-counsel Arnold & Itkin, tried the case, the sixth Roundup trial heard by a Philadelphia jury and the fourth to go against the company.
A Cook County jury awarded $75,859,000 to a baby girl left with permanent brain damage and physical injuries after doctors needlessly turned her during a twin delivery at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
A Wayne County jury awarded $75 million against Nicholas Remington, who gave 21-year-old Denis Preka a fatal dose of MDMA disguised as Adderall, in what reporters described as Michigan's largest verdict for a single death.
A Manhattan jury awarded $72.5 million on February 22, 2024 to Aurora Beauchamp, a stage 4 cancer patient who was struck in a Lower East Side crosswalk by an MTA bus and dragged roughly 20 feet before it came to rest on her legs, crushing her pelvis and paralyzing her left leg, in what was widely reported as potentially the largest pedestrian knockdown verdict against the MTA. The money has not been paid: the transit defendants appealed after judgment was entered in May 2025, the Appellate Division denied the Beauchamps' bid to fast-track the briefing in December 2025, and the appeal remains pending.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.