Top Individual District of Columbia Personal Injury Verdicts and Settlements

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 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 DC Superior Court jury awarded $17.1 million to the three children of Tiffaney Dunbar, 33, who died in February 2017 after a nurse practitioner at MedStar Washington Hospital Center's Women's Wellness Clinic failed to diagnose and disclose an ectopic pregnancy.

DeAngelo Green, a 32-year-old maintenance technician, was killed shortly before noon on March 9, 2018 when a DC Fire and EMS engine on an emergency run reached about 54 miles an hour in a 30 mile an hour zone and went through a red light at 12th Street and Rhode Island Avenue NE, striking his car as he crossed on a green light. A first jury found the firefighter grossly negligent but also found Green contributorily negligent, so the verdict went to the District; the trial judge then held that instruction was wrong, entered judgment for the estate on liability, and ordered a new trial on damages alone. On February 22, 2024, the damages jury returned seven itemized awards to Green's widow and his six children totaling $13,574,680.95. The District appealed, and the DC Court of Appeals heard argument in December 2025 with the case still under advisement.

A D.C. Superior Court jury awarded $8.35 million after an orthopedic surgeon failed to recognize the loss of blood flow to an 82-year-old patient's leg following a knee replacement, leaving the limb to die and require an above-knee amputation.

A 40-year-old store manager was left permanently impaired after a radiologist dismissed signs of a carotid blockage on her MRI, and a D.C. jury awarded $5,774,156 for the malpractice that preceded her stroke.

A large tree fell onto a moving car on Beach Drive in Rock Creek Park and trapped the driver, Marcelino Cruz Leiva. He sued the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act, alleging the National Park Service should have found and removed the decayed tree. After a four-day bench trial in December 2023, Judge Amit Mehta entered judgment for Cruz Leiva on his negligence claim in the sum of $5 million on May 7, 2024.

In 2012 a McKesson Corporation employee rear-ended Roger Tovar's stopped car, leaving the information technology security professional with a traumatic brain injury that ended his career. A D.C. Superior Court jury awarded $500,000 for bodily injury and $3,297,573 in lost wages in June 2018. McKesson appealed and then settled for the full jury award.

A premature newborn suffered a permanent chemical burn and stunted growth in her right ankle after an IV line leaked caustic fluid into the surrounding tissue, and a District of Columbia jury awarded her $3.6 million.

Rosalee Blue was left with a paralyzed right foot, chronic leg pain and loss of bowel control after the anticoagulant Lovenox was given intravenously during hernia surgery at Sibley Hospital in Washington. The anesthesiologist settled for $2 million on the first day of trial and assigned his contribution claim against the surgeon to her side. The court then entered a $1 million contribution judgment against the surgeon, which the D.C. Court of Appeals affirmed in 2011. Her recovery came to $3 million.

Carol W. Scott, then 79, broke her femur on September 23, 2019 when an Orange Line train jerked forward after announcing that its doors were opening at McPherson Square. A federal jury in Washington found the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority negligent after a three-day trial in April 2025 and awarded $1.6 million. The judge refused to disturb the verdict, and the transit authority's appeal was dismissed by stipulation.

Patrick Malone won a $1.4 million wrongful-death verdict against a gynecologist who missed a patient's precancerous condition, then took an appeal that limited how much a nonsettling doctor may deduct for a codefendant's settlement.

The DC Court of Appeals affirmed temporary total disability benefits for a hospital coordinator who resigned after years of unaccommodated bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome, rejecting the employer's argument that her departure was a voluntary income limitation.

Price Benowitz brought a federal civil rights and wrongful death suit after Alonzo Smith, 27, died in 2015 while special police officers restrained him face down at a Southeast Washington apartment complex.

A federal judge held the United States could be sued under the Federal Tort Claims Act for a tree limb that fell on pedestrian Mary Lou Walen during Hurricane Sandy, rejecting the government's sovereign-immunity defense and later denying summary judgment.

A Washington, D.C. woman sued the Tenleytown Massage Envy franchise and its corporate parent for $25 million after a massage therapist with a documented history of prior complaints sexually assaulted her during a 2017 appointment.

Cohen & Cohen attorney Kim Brooks-Rodney represented Malbert Rich and other passengers injured in the January 2015 L'Enfant Plaza Metro smoke emergency, filing suit against WMATA for negligent maintenance and delayed evacuation.

The family of a construction superintendent fatally burned when an underground steam pipe ruptured in downtown Washington in 2004 settled their wrongful death case confidentially with the federal government, D.C. Water, and the contractors named in the suit.

Patrick Regan and Salvatore Zambri represented families of nine people killed when a Red Line Metro train struck a stopped train near Fort Totten station on June 22, 2009, ultimately obtaining confidential settlements from WMATA and three equipment manufacturers who admitted liability.

Patrick Regan co-represented widow Kathy Wone in a $20 million wrongful death suit against three defendants acquitted of obstruction charges in the 2006 murder of Washington attorney Robert Wone, reaching a confidential settlement in August 2011.

Patrick Regan represented the adult children of slain New York Times journalist David Rosenbaum in a $20 million lawsuit against Washington, DC for catastrophic emergency response failures, achieving a 2007 settlement that compelled a complete overhaul of the city's EMS system and a separate confidential settlement with Howard University Hospital.

Charles Herrmann represented families of KAL Flight 007 victims through a decade of litigation that produced a jury finding of willful misconduct and a $50 million punitive award and, after the punitive damages were vacated on appeal, individual recoveries the firm reports exceeded $26 million in total.