Top Individual Connecticut Personal Injury Verdicts and Settlements

Ben Crump, with Connecticut co-counsel Louis Rubano and R.J. Weber, secured a $45 million settlement from the City of New Haven for Richard "Randy" Cox, who was left paralyzed from the chest down after being thrown headfirst into the wall of a police transport van while handcuffed. At announcement it was described as the largest settlement ever reached in a U.S. police-misconduct case, surpassing the George Floyd settlement.

A Hartford jury returned a $7.25 million verdict for the estate of Daniel DiNardi, a Connecticut DOT supervisor fatally struck by a tractor-trailer while working on the shoulder of Route 8 northbound near Waterbury.

RisCassi and Davis attorneys secured a $6.5 million settlement for students hurt when a school bus plunged down a 20-foot I-84 embankment, killing a 16-year-old Rocky Hill boy on his way to a robotics competition.

A retired Connecticut school principal who developed invasive breast cancer while taking Wyeth's hormone drug Prempro won a $5.8 million failure-to-warn verdict that the trial judge refused to cut.

Michael Jainchill of RisCassi & Davis secured a $3.8 million settlement for the adult children of Janet Pulver, a 66-year-old Avon grandmother killed when a speeding driver crossed the center line and struck her car head-on in Farmington, Connecticut.

A Hartford Superior Court jury returned a $3,476,025 verdict in September 2014 for motorcyclist Matthew Karotkin, who suffered skull fractures and a lung injury when a UPS driver cut left across his path at a Windsor, Connecticut intersection.

A pavement-marking crew member fell from a moving trailer and struck his head on the road after a co-worker changed lanes abruptly, leaving him with no memory of the incident; Carter Mario resolved the combined workers' compensation and third-party auto claims for $3 million.

Keith V. Trantolo of Trantolo & Trantolo secured a $2.9 million wrongful death settlement in a Connecticut motor vehicle fatality case, compensating the decedent's estate and survivors for the loss the death caused.

A Waterbury jury returned a $2 million verdict in November 2024 for construction laborer Keven Shepard, who was electrocuted when an excavator struck an Eversource power line marked nearly eight feet from its actual underground position.

Carter Mario recovered $1.25 million for pedestrian Deborah Okolovitch after a driver exiting a parking lot struck her, with defense counsel contesting liability because she was not in a marked crosswalk.

A Connecticut motorcyclist suffered a skull fracture, traumatic brain injury, and other life-threatening injuries after a limousine driver crossed into his lane; attorney Blake Driscolli of Trantolo and Trantolo recovered the full available insurance limits, $1.25 million, in 2023.

Michael Lemieux was riding his motorcycle in Milford when a car driven by Weihua Niu hit him head-on, fracturing his left leg, injuring his right arm, and causing a hernia; Carter Mario Injury Lawyers demanded the full policy limit from the outset and obtained a $1.25 million settlement.

A Connecticut motor vehicle accident victim secured a $1.2 million settlement in 2024, handled by Trantolo and Trantolo attorney Adam Allegro, with a counterclaim remaining on the docket at the time of reporting.

A Connecticut motorcyclist ejected when an Amazon-branded delivery van driver cut a left turn without yielding recovered $1 million in a settlement handled by Albert Carocci of Trantolo and Trantolo.

A U.S. District Court jury in Connecticut returned an $850,000 verdict for a sole-proprietor owner-operator trucker who was struck while parked on an exit ramp when a second rig rolled backward into him, more than four times the defense's final offer.

Carter Mario attorney Jessica Ayala recovered $750,000 for Gary McGee, a Harley-Davidson rider who had the right of way when defendant Stephen Holbomb turned left across his path, overcoming a defense challenge rooted in the client's delay in seeking medical care.

A Hartford jury awarded a Farmington man $707,149 in September 2021 after a two-vehicle collision left him with chronic back injuries and a torn rotator cuff, exceeding the amount plaintiff's counsel had requested by $32,000.

Bridgeport resident Melina Pedraza was stopped in traffic on Fairfield Avenue when a driver rear-ended her vehicle, aggravating a neck injury she had sustained just three weeks earlier, and Carter Mario Injury Lawyers secured a $575,000 settlement on her behalf.

Scott Mumley, a South Windsor man rear-ended on the Berlin Turnpike while driving for work, settled an underinsured motorist claim against his own insurer for $480,000.

A federal jury awarded Hartford truck driver Michael Kennedy $436,900 after his employer fired him for refusing to haul loads that would have exceeded federal highway weight limits, in a Surface Transportation Assistance Act whistleblower case tried by Cicchiello & Cicchiello.

A 53-year-old Middletown man who suffered a torn rotator cuff, a torn meniscus requiring two knee surgeries, and a right hip tear after a Poolman Pools dump truck rear-ended his Saturn settled his case for $400,000 in 2019.

A Waterbury jury awarded $350,000 to Joanne Cunningham after Diane Turchiano blew through a stop sign at high speed and T-boned her vehicle at a Southbury intersection, leaving Cunningham with permanent spinal and nerve injuries.

Attorney Melissa Brescia obtained a $337,433 underinsured motorist settlement for Joshua Jeudy after a three-car Connecticut accident, successfully arguing that the recommended surgery was a matter of if, not when, even though Jeudy had declined the procedure.

A Connecticut judge awarded $235,070 to a woman whose neck, shoulder, and hand were injured when a wall-mounted television fell on her in a UConn Health Center waiting room, with the case later reaching the Connecticut Supreme Court over a state assistance setoff dispute.