Top Individual New Jersey Personal Injury Verdicts and Settlements

Verizon Pays $125 Million to Lawyer Paralyzed by a Rotted Utility Pole That Fell on Her at a Union City Bus Stop

A 43-year-old utility pole that Verizon had been told to remove in 1999 snapped and fell on attorney Maria Moser Meister at a Union City bus stop in 2017, leaving her with a severe brain injury and paralysis. In May 2020 a New Jersey judge approved a $125 million settlement, reported as the largest personal injury settlement in state history.

After trial: This was a pre-trial settlement, not a jury verdict. Verizon agreed to pay $125 million total, $118,275,000 to Maria Meister and $7 million to her husband, before the case went to trial, and an Essex County Superior Court judge approved it at a friendly hearing in May 2020.

Essex County Jury Awards $55 Million to a 22-Year-Old Who Lost Both Legs When a Jackknifing Tractor Trailer Crushed Her Against a Guardrail

An Essex County jury awarded $55 million to Angel May Rider, a young barista who lost both legs after a tractor trailer owned by Jersey City Transfer and Alert Motor Freight jackknifed on a rain-slicked stretch of I-95 and pinned her against a guardrail. Reported as the largest verdict in Essex County history, the award was affirmed in full by the New Jersey Appellate Division in May 2026.

After trial: Post-trial motions were denied in July 2024 and the New Jersey Appellate Division affirmed the judgment in full on May 18, 2026.

Jury Awards $45 Million After Emergency Room Missed a Fracture and a Chance to Report Abuse

A Gloucester County jury awarded $45 million after finding that emergency room physicians missed a two-month-old's femur fracture and never reported it as suspected abuse, three weeks before the same infant suffered a catastrophic brain injury at his father's hands.

After trial: No appellate opinion, settlement, or reduction has been found in the public record, so what was ultimately collected is not known.

$39 Million Verdict for Teenager Who Lost an Arm and a Leg to a Drag Racer at an Edison Industrial Park

A Middlesex County jury awarded $39 million on February 1, 2019 to Hussein Agiz, who was 18 when a drag racing car struck his motorcycle inside the Heller Industrial Parks complex in Edison, costing him his right arm and right leg. Jurors had earlier found Heller 40 percent at fault for tolerating years of documented drag racing on its property. The case later settled on appeal for an undisclosed amount.

After trial: The case settled on appeal for an undisclosed amount.

Atlantic County Jury Awards $37.5 Million to Teenager With Cerebral Palsy Over Pitocin Errors at His Birth

An Atlantic County jury awarded $37,548,096 to a 16-year-old with hemiplegic cerebral palsy, finding that an obstetrician and two labor and delivery nurses at Shore Memorial Hospital mismanaged Pitocin during his 2008 birth and caused a stroke that injured his brain.

After trial: No appellate decision reversing or reducing the award had been reported as of mid 2026.

$30.3 Million Take-Home Asbestos Verdict for Family of Mesothelioma Victim, Affirmed on Appeal

A Bergen County jury awarded $30,312,204 in February 2008 to the family of Mark Buttitta, who died of mesothelioma at 50 after breathing asbestos fibers his father carried home from GM parts warehouses and after his own college summers working there. Moshe Maimon of Levy Konigsberg tried the case, and the New Jersey Appellate Division affirmed the full award on April 5, 2010.

After trial: Affirmed in full by the New Jersey Appellate Division on April 5, 2010.

$30 Million Verdict Against Newark Public Schools and City of Newark for Decades of Silence on Student Abuse

An Essex County jury awarded $30 million against Newark Public Schools and the City of Newark after finding both institutions failed to stop a school aide who sexually abused a student repeatedly from 1991 to 1995, beginning when the child was ten years old.

Essex County Jury Finds Kessler Institute 96% at Fault, Awards $28.6 Million to Patient Paralyzed During a Wheelchair Transfer

An Essex County jury awarded Sandra Szell $28.6 million after Kessler Institute aides mishandled a toilet-to-wheelchair transfer that fractured her spine and left her paralyzed from the chest down, though a confidential high-low agreement capped her actual recovery.

After trial: A confidential high-low agreement signed during trial capped the amount actually recovered.

Electrician Burned Over 60 Percent of His Body in Newark Panel Explosion Settles With IDT Corp. and Co-Defendants for $28 Million

Carlos Gomez was burned over 60 percent of his body when an electrical panel exploded while he worked in a Newark office building in 2019. His suit against IDT Corp. and other defendants settled for $28 million, approved by the Essex County Superior Court in February 2023 and ranked by the New Jersey Law Journal as the largest reported New Jersey personal injury settlement of the court's 2022-2023 term.

After trial: A court-approved settlement, so there is no appeal and no post-trial reduction. The agreement was reached in 2022 and approved in Essex County in February 2023.

First Child Victims Act Trial Against New Jersey: $25 Million Verdict for Foster Care Survivor

A Middlesex County jury awarded $25 million (reduced by court cap to $12 million) in the first Child Victims Act case brought to trial against the State of New Jersey, finding the state 99% liable for failing to protect a girl from sexual abuse across three foster placements.

$135 Million Dram Shop Verdict Against Giants Stadium Beer Vendor for Child Paralyzed by Drunk Fan, Later Reversed and Settled for $25 Million

A Bergen County jury ordered stadium concessionaire Aramark and drunk driver Daniel Lanzaro to pay roughly $135 million after Lanzaro, served beer at Giants Stadium despite visible intoxication, crashed into the Verni family's car and left their two-year-old daughter paralyzed from the neck down. The verdict was reversed on appeal in 2006, and the case settled in 2008 for $25 million in cash and annuities.

After trial: The New Jersey Appellate Division reversed the verdict in August 2006. On remand the case settled in 2008 for $25 million in cash and annuities.

Essex County Jury Returns $20.9 Million for a Truck Driver Who Lost Both Legs After a Missed Spinal Diagnosis

Wyatt Sapp collapsed twice in the summer of 2014 and was sent home both times; by the time surgeons relieved the pressure on his spinal cord he was immobile, developed clots in both legs, and lost them above the knee. After a 10-day trial against the last remaining defendant, an Essex County jury awarded $20.9 million on March 8, 2023.

After trial: The jury placed 70 percent of the fault on physicians who had already settled and 10 percent on a preexisting condition, leaving a net verdict of about $4.18 million against the remaining defendant.

New Jersey Court Awards Fire Ball Ride Survivor Keziah Lewis $20 Million

A New Jersey court entered a $20 million judgment for Keziah Lewis, half of it punitive, against ride maker KMG for the 2017 Ohio State Fair Fire Ball failure that left her with catastrophic injuries.

Union County Jury Awards $20 Million Over a Four-Day Delay in Delivering a Growth-Restricted Twin

A maternal fetal medicine specialist read ultrasound films four days late, and the Tapias' daughter was delivered four days after she should have been, with permanent brain damage from oxygen deprivation. A Union County jury returned $20 million on October 24, 2018, and the Appellate Division affirmed the judgment in 2020.

After trial: Judgment of $6,599,625.34 was entered against the remaining defendant in January 2019 after the jury reapportioned fault, and the Appellate Division affirmed in September 2020.

Essex County Jury Awards $18.5 Million for a Delayed C-Section at Newark Beth Israel That Left a Boy With Cerebral Palsy

A boy born at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center in 1998 developed cerebral palsy after doctors waited too long to perform a cesarean section despite clear signs of fetal distress. In April 2010, an Essex County jury awarded $18.5 million, and the family recovered $16.75 million under a high-low agreement reached during deliberations.

After trial: A high-low agreement placed during deliberations capped the recovery at $16.75 million, which the family received; the agreement foreclosed any appeal.

$17.65 Million Verdict Against Trucking Company Whose Impaired Driver Caused Fatal Route 440 Pileup

A Monmouth County jury awarded John Fiore $6.5 million in compensatory damages and $11.15 million in punitive damages after a drug-impaired Highlight Motor Freight driver caused a multivehicle crash on Route 440 in Perth Amboy that killed another motorist and left Fiore unable to work.

After trial: No appeal or reduction had been publicly reported as of 2026.

New Jersey Birth Injury Settlement Funded at $17 Million, Structured to Pay Out $26.95 Million to $37.15 Million

Daryl L. Zaslow of Eichen Crutchlow Zaslow settled a hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy birth injury case for $17,000,000, a portion of which purchased annuities that carry guaranteed payments of $18,502,301 and anticipated payments of $28,700,273. Judge James Den Uyl approved the terms on January 3, 2025.

After trial: A court-approved structured settlement, so there is no appeal. It was funded at $17 million; the annuities guarantee $18,502,301 and are anticipated to pay $28,700,273, putting the total value between roughly $27 million and $37 million.

$17 Million Verdict for a Wall Township Girl Left Brain Injured After She Was Taken Off a Ventilator Too Soon

A Monmouth County jury awarded $17 million in October 2017 to a Wall Township family whose seven-year-old daughter suffered permanent brain damage in 2008 after a pediatric pulmonologist removed her from a ventilator before she was weaned off sedation and no one confirmed she was breathing on her own. The case was tried by Paul A. Lauricella of McLaughlin & Lauricella, P.C., the firm whose lawyers joined Feldman Shepherd in 2024.

After trial: The hospital said it would appeal, and the New Jersey Supreme Court denied leave to appeal in September 2018. Nothing in the public record shows the award reduced, reversed, or retried.

Girl Loses Two Toes in Macy's Escalator Trap, Family Recovers $15 Million from Macy's and ThyssenKrupp

A 10-year-old girl lost two toes and underwent 22 surgeries after her foot was pulled into a decades-old, poorly maintained Macy's escalator at Garden State Plaza in Paramus; three years later, Macy's and ThyssenKrupp Elevator settled for $15 million.

$11 Million Camden County Verdict Over Postoperative Treatment of a Perforated Esophagus

A Camden County jury awarded $11 million to a 66-year-old teaching assistant whose reported neck and shoulder pain after esophageal surgery went undocumented, allowing a microperforation of her esophagus to seed a bacterial infection in her cervical spine that required a disc excision and a fusion at C6 and C7. The award was $10 million in compensatory damages plus $1 million to her husband for loss of consortium.

After trial: The jury found the medical practice negligent but the surgeon herself not negligent. No post-trial motions, appeal, or settlement are reachable in the public record.