Largest Idaho Personal Injury Settlements

In 1999, a federal jury in Boise found that Dr. Ian Ross Donald had punctured a fetal blood vessel during an amniocentesis on Sandy Kirkland, causing internal bleeding that went undetected for about sixteen hours and left her son with severe brain damage and spastic quadriplegia. The jury awarded $29,715,077, finding Donald 75 percent at fault and reckless and Wood River Medical Center 25 percent at fault and merely negligent, while clearing Sandy's other treating physician entirely. Because Idaho's noneconomic damages cap does not apply to a defendant a jury finds reckless, only the hospital's share of noneconomic damages was reduced, leaving roughly $26,538,077 of the award standing. The Idaho Supreme Court later upheld the cap's constitutionality on a certified question from the case. Paul Luvera, of the firm now known as Luvera Law Firm, represented the Kirkland family at trial.

An Ada County jury awarded $13.5 million to Carl Stiefel after an emergency physician misread his stroke symptoms as vertigo, delaying a correct diagnosis by nearly 14 hours and causing irreversible brain damage.

Shane Ackerschott hurt his back lifting freight in November 2014, then suffered a spinal cord injury and permanent paraplegia after an Idaho Falls urgent care clinic had him stand and walk for tests despite worsening neurological symptoms and never told him to restrict his movement. A Bonneville County jury awarded $7,958,113.67 in damages against Mountain View Hospital, LLC, doing business as RediCare. Idaho's cap on noneconomic damages cut the award by stipulation to $6,575,354.58. The Idaho Supreme Court affirmed the judgment in 2020, rejecting RediCare's comparative-fault defense and declining to reach the Ackerschotts' constitutional challenge to the cap on a timeliness ground.

BSR Ventures, doing business as Advanced Heating and Cooling, agreed to a $5 million judgment after its employee, who had seven prior DUI convictions including two felonies, crossed the center line on U.S. 93 and killed Cheryl Miller in a head-on crash.

A federal jury awarded Kevin Marchand $4.2 million after emergency room physicians at Mercy Medical Center removed his cervical collar following an industrial accident, missing a cervical spine fracture that left him permanently paralyzed.

Krystal Ballard, a 27-year-old Air Force staff sergeant, died of sepsis days after liposuction and a fat transfer at Silk Touch Laser, a medical spa in Eagle, Idaho. After a first trial ended in a mistrial, an Ada County jury in 2014 found the spa and its owner reckless and awarded her husband $3,790,436. The Idaho Supreme Court affirmed the judgment on 4 August 2016, apart from one fee award.

A nurse at St. Luke's Magic Valley Regional Medical Center in Twin Falls, Idaho, removed a central venous catheter from patient Joyce Herrett while she sat upright in a wheelchair in December 2013, letting air enter her bloodstream and causing a stroke. St. Luke's admitted before trial that the nurse breached the standard of care, so a nine-day jury trial in Twin Falls County focused on whether her conduct was reckless and what Herrett's injuries were worth. The jury found the conduct reckless, which kept Idaho's cap on noneconomic damages from applying, and returned a verdict of $3,850,004.83; the parties later stipulated to a reduction reflecting medical expense adjustments, and the court entered an amended judgment of $3,775,864.21. The Idaho Supreme Court affirmed the judgment on September 6, 2018, rejecting St. Luke's challenges to the jury instructions and the denial of a mistrial. Jarom A. Whitehead of Pedersen and Whitehead argued the case for the Herretts.

A 15-year-old boy died when a Blaine County School District driver-education car was struck during a three-point turn on U.S. Highway 20 near Carey in snow and fog. In 2013 a Blaine County jury found the instructor entirely at fault and reckless, and awarded the boy's parents about $3.51 million. The Idaho Supreme Court affirmed the verdict on 30 March 2015.

Delbert Hayward, 86, a mechanic, died in February 1995 after nearly a year at Valley Vista Care Center in St. Maries, Idaho, where his family said he was repeatedly given the antipsychotic drug Haldol to control him. After a three-week trial in May 2006, a Benewah County jury returned an $18 million punitive verdict. By November 2006 the case had resolved in a $3.5 million settlement, most of it paid by the home's insurers.

A Boise jury awarded more than $1.66 million to a commercial tenant who suffered permanent brain damage after falling on improperly installed stairs, a verdict affirmed on appeal by the Idaho Supreme Court.

Hepworth Holzer secured a $500,000 jury verdict for a former general counsel whose employer refused to honor an oral severance agreement, with the award trebled to $1,639,726.80 under Idaho wage-collection law and affirmed on appeal.

A federal jury in Boise awarded Darel Hardenbrook $1,476,367 in back pay and front pay after finding that UPS fired him in violation of Idaho public policy, a verdict the Ninth Circuit affirmed in 2012.