$101 Million Bad-Faith Verdict Against Progressive After Crosswalk TBI

In 2022, Hal Goldblatt was struck by a vehicle while crossing a street in a marked crosswalk in the Las Vegas area. The impact left him with severe fractures throughout his body and a traumatic brain injury serious enough to require ICU care and an extended hospital stay. Once discharged, he needed ongoing at-home treatment that he and his wife Shawn could not afford without taking out loans.

The driver, Lamonte Cunningham, was insured by Progressive. In a first phase of trial, a Clark County jury found Cunningham liable and set compensatory damages at roughly $7 million. The second phase -- a bad-faith claim against Progressive directly -- turned on how the insurer handled the Goldblatts' requests for reimbursement in the months after the crash.

Attorney Kimball Jones of Bighorn Law argued that Progressive slow-rolled the claim for five to seven months because the Goldblatts initially submitted their payment request on a plain letter rather than attorney letterhead. Progressive used that procedural point to delay action, Jones told the jury, even as the couple fell deeper into debt. The insurer ultimately paid but only after the family had borrowed money to cover Hal's care costs. Progressive rejected a $1.9 million settlement demand from Jones and never made a single counteroffer.

Jones also put Progressive's financial scale before the jury. The insurer reported annual revenue of roughly $62 billion. Some jurors floated a punitive figure equal to 1 percent of that revenue -- around $620 million. Others proposed $10 million. They settled on $100 million.

On August 9, 2024, Judge Jacqueline Bluth entered the verdict: $1 million in compensatory damages and $100 million in punitive damages, totaling $101 million. CVN, which covered the trial, ranked it among the ten most impressive plaintiff verdicts of 2024. Jones was joined on the case by Bighorn Law partner Jacqueline Bretell, who had referred the matter.