Top Individual Product Liability Verdicts and Settlements
The 20 largest individual personal injury results for product liability cases on record here, ranked by amount: one client's, one family's, or one incident's recovery, never a pooled fund. Each links to the full story, the firm, and the record behind the number.
- $9 billionVerdictLA
$9 Billion Punitive Verdict Against Takeda and Eli Lilly in First Federal Actos Bladder Cancer Trial
Paul Pennock, now head of mass torts at Morgan & Morgan, then co-lead counsel of the federal Actos MDL at Weitz & Luxenberg, helped try the bellwether case that produced a $9 billion punitive verdict against Takeda and Eli Lilly for hiding the diabetes drug's bladder cancer risk. The award was later cut to about $36.9 million, but the verdict drove Takeda to a $2.4 billion global settlement in 2015.
Morgan & Morgan2014 · U.S. District Court, Western District of Louisiana (Lafayette)Read the full story → - $8 billionVerdictPA
A $8 Billion Risperdal Verdict in Philadelphia, Then a Judge Cut It to $6.8 Million
A Philadelphia jury awarded $8 billion in punitive damages against Johnson & Johnson over Risperdal and male breast growth in a young patient, an award the trial judge later reduced to $6.8 million.
- $4.9 billionVerdictCA
$4.9 Billion Verdict Against GM for Defective Fuel Tank That Burned Six on Christmas Eve
A Los Angeles jury ordered General Motors to pay $4.9 billion after six people, including four children, were trapped and severely burned when the defectively placed fuel tank on a 1979 Chevy Malibu ruptured in a rear-end crash on Christmas Eve 1993.
After trial: The punitive award was cut to $1.09 billion after trial, about $1.2 billion in total, and the case settled confidentially while the appeal was pending.
- $3.8 billionVerdictNV
Real Water Poisoning: $3.8 Billion Verdict in Alkaline Water Liver Failure Cases
A Clark County jury awarded $3.8 billion against Real Water on March 21, 2025, after finding the Las Vegas alkaline water company liable for poisoning consumers with hydrazine-contaminated product that caused acute liver failure, autoimmune disease, and death.
- $2.25 billionVerdictPA
Kline & Specter Wins $2.25 Billion Roundup Cancer Verdict, Later Cut to $400 Million
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.
- $2.065 billionVerdictGA
Cobb County Jury Awards John Barnes $2.065 Billion in Roundup Cancer Trial
A Cobb County, Georgia jury found that Monsanto's Roundup caused John Barnes's non-Hodgkin lymphoma and awarded him $2.065 billion, with Arnold & Itkin's Kyle Findley serving as lead trial lawyer.
- $1.04 billionVerdictTX
Dallas Federal Jury Awards More Than $1 Billion Over DePuy Pinnacle Hip Implants
Khaldoun Baghdadi was on the plaintiffs' trial team that won a federal jury verdict topping $1 billion for six California patients harmed by DePuy's metal-on-metal Pinnacle hip implants, an award the trial judge later cut to about $543 million.
Walkup Personal Injury Lawyers2016 · U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas (Dallas)Read the full story → - $1.04 billion (reduced to ~$543 million)VerdictTX
Dallas Jury Awards $1.04 Billion Against J&J Over Defective Pinnacle Hip Implants
A Dallas federal jury awarded $1.04 billion to six California patients harmed by Johnson and Johnson's metal-on-metal Pinnacle hip implants, with W. Mark Lanier leading an eight-week trial that produced one of the largest product-liability verdicts of 2016.
After trial: Reduced to about $543 million under punitive damages caps; the Pinnacle claims later resolved in a roughly $1 billion global settlement in 2019.
The Lanier Law Firm2016 · U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas, Dallas (MDL 2244)Read the full story → - $857 millionVerdictWA
$857 Million Verdict for Sky Valley School Victims Poisoned by Monsanto PCBs
A King County jury awarded $857 million to seven former Sky Valley Education Center students and parent volunteers who developed brain damage, autoimmune disorders, and other serious illnesses after PCBs from Monsanto-made fluorescent light fixtures leaked throughout the Monroe, Washington school.
- $505 millionVerdictNV
$505 Million Verdict Against Teva and Baxter for Propofol Vials That Spread Hepatitis C Across Las Vegas
A Clark County jury awarded Henry and Lorraine Chanin $505 million against Teva Parenteral Medicines and Baxter Healthcare after finding that both companies supplied oversized propofol vials to Las Vegas endoscopy clinics, enabling the reuse that infected Henry Chanin with hepatitis C.
- $502 million (reduced to ~$151 million post-trial; vacated on appeal)VerdictTX
$502 Million Verdict Against J&J in Second DePuy Pinnacle Hip Bellwether Trial
In the second federal bellwether trial, a Dallas jury awarded five Texas plaintiffs $502 million against Johnson & Johnson and its DePuy unit over defective metal-on-metal Pinnacle hip implants, with W. Mark Lanier leading trial for the plaintiffs.
After trial: The reduced award was vacated by the Fifth Circuit in 2018, and the claims folded into the 2019 global settlement.
The Lanier Law Firm2016 · U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas, Dallas (MDL 2244)Read the full story → - $495 millionVerdictMO
$495 Million Verdict Against Abbott for Failing to Warn That Similac Caused NEC in Premature Infant
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.
TorHoerman Law2024 · 22nd Judicial Circuit, St. Louis, Missouri (Case No. 2322-CC01251)Read the full story → - $462 millionVerdictMO
$462 Million Verdict Against Trailer Maker Wabash in a Fatal St. Louis Underride Crash
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.
Brown & Crouppen2024 · St. Louis City Circuit Court (22nd Judicial Circuit), MissouriRead the full story → - $417 million (vacated)VerdictCA
$417 Million Talc Verdict for Ovarian Cancer Plaintiff in California Bellwether Trial
An L.A. jury awarded Eva Echeverria $417 million after finding that decades of Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder use caused her ovarian cancer, though the trial judge later vacated the verdict and the Court of Appeal affirmed the vacatur.
- $275 millionVerdictWA
$275 Million Verdict for Students Poisoned by PCBs at Washington State School
A King County jury awarded $275 million to thirteen Sky Valley Education Center students and families who suffered neurological injuries from PCB-contaminated light fixtures manufactured by Monsanto.
- $262.5 millionVerdictSC
$262.5 Million Verdict Against Chrysler for Defective Minivan Liftgate Latch
A federal jury awarded $262.5 million after finding that a defective rear liftgate latch on a 1985 Dodge Caravan caused a six-year-old boy to be ejected and killed in a 1994 crash; the punitive damages were later reversed on appeal and the case settled confidentially in 2001.
- $253 million (reduced to ~$26 million)VerdictTX
$253 Million Verdict Against Merck in First U.S. Vioxx Trial
A Texas jury handed down the first U.S. verdict against Merck over its withdrawn painkiller Vioxx, awarding $253 million to the widow of Robert Ernst after W. Mark Lanier persuaded jurors the drug caused Ernst's fatal heart attack.
After trial: The reduced judgment did not survive appeal: in 2008 a Texas appeals court rendered a take-nothing judgment for Merck, and the family recovered nothing from the verdict.
- $247 millionVerdictTX
Dallas Jury Awards $247 Million to Six New York Patients Over J&J's Defective Pinnacle Hip Implants
A Dallas federal jury awarded six New York patients $247 million against Johnson and Johnson and its DePuy unit, finding that the metal-on-metal Pinnacle hip implant system was defectively designed and that the company concealed known risks from patients and surgeons.
After trial: The Pinnacle hip claims were later resolved in a global settlement of about $1 billion in 2019.
The Lanier Law Firm2017 · U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas, Dallas (MDL 2244)Read the full story → - $185 millionVerdictWA
$185 Million Verdict for Three Teachers Poisoned by Monsanto PCBs in School Lighting
A King County jury awarded three Monroe, Washington teachers $185 million after finding that PCBs manufactured by Monsanto leached from fluorescent light ballasts at their school and caused permanent neurological injuries.
- $182.6 millionVerdictNV
$182.6 Million Verdict Against Drug Companies in Las Vegas Hepatitis C Outbreak
A Clark County jury awarded five hepatitis C patients $182.6 million against Teva, Baxter Healthcare, and McKesson after finding the companies negligently distributed oversized propofol vials to Las Vegas endoscopy clinics without adequate warnings against multi-patient reuse.
All product liability verdicts and settlements
207 results, largest first
Sullivan Papain was among the firms representing New York State against Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, Brown & Williamson, and Lorillard, securing a $25 billion recovery through the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement.
David Casey Jr. of CaseyGerry was appointed by Judge Charles Breyer as the sole San Diego attorney on the 22-member Plaintiffs' Steering Committee overseeing MDL 2672, the consolidated clean-diesel emissions fraud litigation that produced a $14.7 billion settlement against Volkswagen.
C. Steven Yerrid, the youngest of Florida's 11-lawyer 'Dream Team,' added racketeering and conspiracy charges that tripled the damages ceiling, helping the state secure what was then the largest civil settlement in American history against the tobacco industry.
Michael C. Maher's firm, Maher, Gibson & Guiley, P.A., was one of eleven private law firms appointed to the state's Peoples' Trial Advocates in Florida's Medicaid cost-recovery lawsuit against the major cigarette manufacturers, which produced an $11.3 billion settlement, the largest tobacco recovery by a single state in U.S. history at the time.
Wayne Hogan served on the private-counsel team that secured a then-record $11.3 billion settlement from five major cigarette manufacturers, reimbursing Florida's Medicaid program for decades of smoking-related medical costs.
As co-lead counsel in the federal Roundup multidistrict litigation and the first firm to sue Monsanto in 2015, Weitz and Luxenberg helped negotiate a $10.9 billion settlement resolving approximately 125,000 non-Hodgkin lymphoma claims against Bayer-owned Monsanto.
As court-appointed co-lead plaintiffs counsel in the federal Actos MDL, Paul Pennock of Weitz and Luxenberg helped the plaintiffs' team win a $9 billion punitive damages verdict against Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly on behalf of a New York man whose bladder cancer was linked to years of taking the diabetes drug pioglitazone.
Paul Pennock, now head of mass torts at Morgan & Morgan, then co-lead counsel of the federal Actos MDL at Weitz & Luxenberg, helped try the bellwether case that produced a $9 billion punitive verdict against Takeda and Eli Lilly for hiding the diabetes drug's bladder cancer risk. The award was later cut to about $36.9 million, but the verdict drove Takeda to a $2.4 billion global settlement in 2015.
A Louisiana federal jury awarded Terrence Allen $9 billion in punitive damages against Takeda and Eli Lilly after finding they hid Actos's bladder cancer risk for years, with W. Mark Lanier serving as lead trial counsel in the first federal bellwether trial of the massive MDL.
A Philadelphia jury awarded $8 billion in punitive damages against Johnson & Johnson over Risperdal and male breast growth in a young patient, an award the trial judge later reduced to $6.8 million.
After fifteen years of litigation and three failed bankruptcy maneuvers by Johnson and Johnson subsidiaries, Ashcraft and Gerel attorneys R. Bryant McCulley and Michelle Parfitt helped negotiate a global, uncapped settlement of at least $5.5 billion covering approximately 76,000 ovarian-cancer claims.
A Los Angeles jury ordered General Motors to pay $4.9 billion after six people, including four children, were trapped and severely burned when the defectively placed fuel tank on a 1979 Chevy Malibu ruptured in a rear-end crash on Christmas Eve 1993.
A Los Angeles jury ordered General Motors to pay $4.9 billion after a 1979 Chevrolet Malibu's rear-mounted fuel tank ruptured and burned six occupants in a rear-end crash, the largest US personal-injury verdict at the time.
Merck agreed in November 2007 to pay $4.85 billion to resolve more than 47,000 personal injury claims tied to Vioxx, the painkiller the company pulled from the market in 2004 after studies linked it to heart attacks and strokes, with Beasley Allen serving as one of the lead plaintiffs firms in the litigation.
The Cartwright Law Firm was among the first California filers against Merck over the painkiller Vioxx, and Robert Cartwright Jr. served on the California JCCP Plaintiffs' Steering Committee through the 2007 global resolution that distributed $4.85 billion across more than 45,000 claimants.
As chair of the plaintiffs' negotiating committee and Liaison Counsel in the Vioxx multidistrict litigation, Russ Herman directed the negotiations that produced a $4.85 billion settlement with Merck resolving approximately 45,000 to 50,000 personal-injury claims.
A St. Louis jury in July 2018 awarded 22 women and their families $4.69 billion, the largest U.S. verdict of that year, finding that asbestos in Johnson & Johnson's talcum powder products caused ovarian cancer; a Missouri appellate court upheld $2.11 billion in 2020.
A St. Louis jury returned a $4.69 billion verdict against Johnson and Johnson on behalf of 22 women who developed ovarian cancer after years of using the company's talcum powder products, with Thomas K. Neill of Gray, Ritter and Graham, P.C. serving on the plaintiff trial team.
A Clark County jury awarded $3.8 billion against Real Water on March 21, 2025, after finding the Las Vegas alkaline water company liable for poisoning consumers with hydrazine-contaminated product that caused acute liver failure, autoimmune disease, and death.
Acting as outside trial counsel for Los Angeles County, the firm then known as Greene, Broillet, Taylor, Wheeler and Panish helped recover approximately $3.3 billion for the county through the 1998 nationwide Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement.
Ellen Relkin served as court-appointed co-lead plaintiffs counsel in the DePuy ASR hip implant MDL, helping negotiate a $2.5 billion settlement for roughly 8,000 patients who required revision surgery after the metal-on-metal device failed.
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 Cobb County, Georgia jury found that Monsanto's Roundup caused John Barnes's non-Hodgkin lymphoma and awarded him $2.065 billion, with Arnold & Itkin's Kyle Findley serving as lead trial lawyer.
Frantz Law Group, led by attorneys James Frantz and William Shinoff, represented nearly 1,000 public school districts across 38 states in multidistrict litigation against JUUL Labs, reaching a $1.7 billion settlement in 2023 that covered approximately 1,600 school districts, local governments, tribal entities, and individual consumers.