Largest Washington Group Settlements and Injury Recovery Funds
The largest group recoveries in Washington on record here: class actions, global settlements, and pooled compensation funds, ranked by amount and clearly labeled. Each links to the full story and the record behind the number.
Browse personal injury lawyers in Washington →- $438 million (approximately, as reduced August 2024; further appeal pending; $857 million gross verdict)VerdictGroup recoveryOn appealProduct Liability
$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.
After trial: The trial judge reduced the award to roughly $438 million in August 2024. A further appeal is pending.
- $275 millionVerdictGroup recoveryProduct Liability
$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.
- $185 millionVerdictGroup recoveryProduct Liability
$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.
After trial: The Washington Court of Appeals reversed the verdict in 2024, and the Washington Supreme Court reinstated it in October 2025.
- $165 millionVerdictGroup recoveryProduct Liability
King County Jury Awards $165 Million to Eight Former Sky Valley School Employees Over PCB Exposure
A King County jury awarded $165 million to eight former Sky Valley Education Center employees, including the estate of one deceased plaintiff, after finding Pharmacia LLC liable for selling PCB-containing fluorescent light ballasts without adequate warning.
After trial: The award covers eight former Sky Valley employees. Pharmacia announced it would appeal, and the appeal was pending as of the last public reporting.
Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala (PCVA)2023 · King County Superior Court, WashingtonRead the full story → - $150 millionVerdictGroup recoveryWrongful Death
King County Jury Awards $150 Million to Families of South Lake Union Crane Collapse Victims
A King County jury returned a $150 million verdict against two crane subcontractors whose safety failures caused the April 2019 South Lake Union crane collapse, which killed four people and injured three others.
After trial: The award covered multiple families. It was affirmed on appeal.
- $123 millionVerdictGroup recoveryProduct Liability
$123 Million Verdict for Victims of Aurora Bridge Duck Boat Crash -- Largest Non-Punitive PI Trial Verdict in Washington History
A King County jury awarded $123 million to 40 plaintiffs after five international students were killed and dozens injured when a Ride the Ducks amphibious vehicle suffered a catastrophic axle fracture on Seattle's Aurora Bridge in 2015.
After trial: The award covered roughly 40 plaintiffs, with individual shares ranging from about $40,000 to $25 million.
- $100 millionVerdictGroup recoveryOn appealProduct Liability
$100 Million Verdict Against Pharmacia for PCB Exposure at Sky Valley Education Center
A King County jury awarded $100 million to four plaintiffs who suffered neurological, hormonal, and cancer-related illnesses after years of exposure to PCBs from defective fluorescent light fixtures at a Monroe, Washington school.
After trial: The award covers four plaintiffs. Pharmacia has appealed the Sky Valley verdicts as a group, and Bayer's August 2025 settlement of more than 200 Sky Valley claims expressly excluded the verdicts already on appeal.
- $72 millionVerdictGroup recoveryProduct Liability
$72 Million Verdict for Two Students Harmed by PCBs at Sky Valley Education Center
A King County jury awarded $72 million to two former Sky Valley Education Center students who developed chronic neurological injuries after years of PCB exposure from aging fluorescent light fixtures manufactured by Monsanto.
- $40 millionSettlementGroup recoveryPremises Liability
KOMO Helicopter Crash Near Seattle Space Needle Yields $40 Million Settlement
Two men who suffered severe blast, burn, and traumatic brain injuries when a KOMO news helicopter fell onto their vehicles during morning rush hour in March 2014 received a $40 million settlement five weeks into trial.
- $16.75 millionVerdictGroup recoveryWrongful Death
$16.75 Million Verdict in First Amtrak Cascades Derailment Trial
A federal jury in Tacoma awarded $16.75 million to three plaintiffs in the first trial to conclude from the December 2017 Amtrak Cascades derailment near DuPont, Washington, that killed three people and injured more than 60 others.
- $14.25 millionSettlementGroup recoveryPremises Liability
$14.25 Million Settlement for Women Secretly Recorded at DC Mikvah by Rabbi Barry Freundel
Chaikin, Sherman, Cammarata & Siegel filed the original class action and served as co-counsel alongside lead counsel Sanford Heisler in a $14.25 million settlement for women secretly recorded by a Washington, DC rabbi at a Jewish ritual bath over nearly a decade.
Chaikin, Sherman, Cammarata & Siegel, P.C.2018 · DC Superior Court, Washington DCRead the full story → - $10 millionSettlementGroup recoveryCivil Rights
$10 Million Settlement for 50 Protesters Injured by Seattle Police During 2020 George Floyd Demonstrations
Stritmatter Kessler Koehler Moore secured a $10 million settlement from the City of Seattle on behalf of more than 50 protesters who were struck by blast balls, tear gas, and other crowd-control weapons deployed by Seattle Police Department officers during the May and June 2020 George Floyd demonstrations.
- $8.25 millionSettlementGroup recoveryWrongful Death
Four Ride the Ducks Crash Victims Settle for $8.25 Million Mid-Trial
Lara Herrmann secured an $8.25 million mid-trial settlement for four victims of the 2015 Aurora Bridge duck-boat collision, including $7 million for the family of an 18-year-old student killed in the crash.
All Washington verdicts and settlements
61 results, largest first
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.
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.
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.
A King County jury awarded $165 million to eight former Sky Valley Education Center employees, including the estate of one deceased plaintiff, after finding Pharmacia LLC liable for selling PCB-containing fluorescent light ballasts without adequate warning.
A King County jury returned a $150 million verdict against two crane subcontractors whose safety failures caused the April 2019 South Lake Union crane collapse, which killed four people and injured three others.
Lambert Zainey represented three former Hanford nuclear site managers who blew the whistle on contractors Bechtel and URS for charging the federal government for deficient nuclear-quality materials and funding illegal lobbying, securing a $125 million False Claims Act settlement in 2016.
A King County jury awarded $123 million to 40 plaintiffs after five international students were killed and dozens injured when a Ride the Ducks amphibious vehicle suffered a catastrophic axle fracture on Seattle's Aurora Bridge in 2015.
A King County jury awarded $100 million to four plaintiffs who suffered neurological, hormonal, and cancer-related illnesses after years of exposure to PCBs from defective fluorescent light fixtures at a Monroe, Washington school.
A Pierce County jury awarded William Tisdale $91 million after he was beaten with an aluminum baseball bat outside an APRO-owned Union 76 convenience store in Parkland, Washington, leaving him with multiple skull fractures and permanent cognitive damage.
A King County jury returned an $82 million verdict against Monsanto in December 2022 for a family exposed to PCBs at the Sky Valley Education Center in Monroe, Washington, awarding $20.5 million in compensatory damages and $61.5 million in punitive damages to one member of the family. The firm described it as the largest verdict against Monsanto for an individual plaintiff in any PCB case.
A King County jury awarded $72 million to two former Sky Valley Education Center students who developed chronic neurological injuries after years of PCB exposure from aging fluorescent light fixtures manufactured by Monsanto.
A King County jury awarded $72 million to two former students of Sky Valley Education Center in Monroe, Washington, finding Monsanto liable for chronic neurological injuries caused by PCB-containing fluorescent light ballasts installed in the school decades earlier.
The City of Seattle and its five insurers paid $65.75 million to Brooke Taylor, a 38-year-old Susman Godfrey partner who suffered a catastrophic traumatic brain injury when a Seattle Fire Department aid unit went through a red light at Fourth Avenue and Seneca Street in April 2016 and struck her Porsche, spinning it into a signal box and a tree. Todd Gardner of Swanson Gardner Meyers negotiated the settlement, approved in King County Superior Court in late December 2018 and reported as the largest personal injury settlement in city history and likely the largest in Washington state.
A Thurston County jury awarded $57 million to roughly 22,000 live-in home-care providers after finding that Washington's Department of Social and Health Services unlawfully cut their pay through an automatic 15 percent reduction in authorized care hours.
A King County jury awarded $50 million to Rhea and Brock Wuth after Valley Medical Center failed to send LabCorp the family genetic report needed to screen for a known chromosome translocation and LabCorp ran only a routine karyotype without asking for it, leaving the couple's son to be born with the unbalanced translocation the testing was meant to detect. The verdict was affirmed on appeal in 2015.
A Pierce County jury awarded $44.7 million to an EMT and volunteer firefighter left with permanent injuries after an SUV driver turned left through an uncontrolled intersection and into his path -- a verdict Washington courts later upheld in full.
A Snohomish County jury awarded Paramjit Singh and his family $40.1 million after an Edwards Lifesciences cardiac monitoring device overheated during bypass surgery and destroyed his heart, forcing a transplant, because the manufacturer had concealed a known software defect for years.
Two men who suffered severe blast, burn, and traumatic brain injuries when a KOMO news helicopter fell onto their vehicles during morning rush hour in March 2014 received a $40 million settlement five weeks into trial.
A King County jury awarded $38 million to Thyce Colyn, a commuter cyclist who suffered permanent brain damage and a shattered pelvis after a Standard Parking valet driver struck him while cutting illegally across 8th Avenue in downtown Seattle.
Washington state paid $28 million to a young woman left quadriplegic after her car struck an unguarded overpass pillar on I-5 near DuPont, where WSDOT had funding and a plan to install a protective barrier but never completed the work.
A Kitsap County jury returned a $23.9 million verdict on December 20, 2019 against Jefferson County Public Hospital District, doing business as Jefferson Healthcare, after staff monitored the mother's heartbeat instead of the baby's for roughly three hours before delivery. The Court of Appeals affirmed on January 4, 2022, and the judgment was paid.
King County paid its largest personal injury settlement on record after a 38-year-old mother of two was mauled by two dogs the county had repeatedly been warned about but failed to remove.
A King County jury awarded $21 million to Dr. Benjamin Danielson, the Black former medical director of Odessa Brown Children's Clinic, after finding Seattle Children's Hospital liable for systemic racial discrimination and a hostile work environment.
A Pierce County jury awarded Cristina Anderson $21 million in August 2023 after she was struck in a downtown Sumner crosswalk and suffered a traumatic brain injury. The driver carried $25,000 in liability coverage and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy after the verdict, and the fight over who pays the rest is still in the courts.