Premises Liability verdicts & settlements

Appointed by the court as Plaintiffs Liaison Counsel and Co-Lead Class Counsel, Stephen Herman of Herman Herman and Katz helped negotiate a $7.8 billion economic and property-damage class settlement with BP covering more than 100,000 Gulf Coast businesses and individuals harmed by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Anapol Weiss shareholder Kristen Gibbons Feden helped secure $1.6 billion in default verdicts for 104 women sexually abused as children by former Long Island pediatrician Stuart Copperman, one of the largest cumulative civil awards against a single individual in U.S. history.

Saltz Mongeluzzi and Bendesky joined the plaintiffs' leadership team that secured a $1.2 billion settlement for the families and survivors of 98 people killed when Champlain Towers South collapsed in Surfside, Florida on June 24, 2021 -- the largest construction-disaster settlement in U.S. history.

Hugh Lambert served on the Plaintiffs Steering Committee in MDL 2047, the sprawling federal litigation against Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin that produced a landmark settlement valued at up to $1 billion to remediate roughly 4,500 sulfur-contaminated homes across Florida, Louisiana, and dozens of other states.

Joseph Bruno and Bruno & Bruno served as lead plaintiffs' counsel in a landmark class action brought by more than 8,000 Gentilly residents exposed to a butadiene tank-car fire in 1987, securing a jury verdict that included $2.5 billion in punitive damages against CSX Transportation alone, later reduced to $850 million on appeal and affirmed by Louisiana's Fourth Circuit.

Kevin Boyle of the firm served as one of three plaintiffs' co-lead counsel in the $800 million settlement with MGM Resorts for victims of the 2017 Route 91 Harvest festival mass shooting at Mandalay Bay.

A Champaign County jury returned a $535 million verdict -- the largest known single-plaintiff verdict in Illinois history -- against a psychiatric facility that failed to prevent the rape of a 13-year-old female patient by another adolescent resident.

A 26-year class action brought by thousands of property owners near Colorado's Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant resulted in a $375 million settlement against Rockwell International and Dow Chemical in 2016, with Paul DeMarco of MSD serving as co-counsel from the litigation's earliest years.

A Richmond Circuit Court jury awarded $360 million to three former adolescent patients who were sexually abused by Dr. Daniel Davidow, the medical director of Cumberland Hospital for Children, during what he called routine femoral pulse exams.

Hugh Lambert served on the court-appointed Plaintiffs Steering Committee that secured a $330 million class action settlement for roughly 6,000 St. Bernard Parish homeowners whose properties were contaminated when Hurricane Katrina dislodged a crude oil storage tank at Murphy Oil's Meraux, Louisiana refinery.

A class action filed in 2002 on behalf of roughly 400,000 residents across six north Alabama counties ended in a court-approved $300 million cleanup settlement requiring 3M and co-defendants to remediate PFAS contamination throughout the Tennessee River watershed.

Hugh Lambert, a court-appointed member of the Plaintiffs Steering Committee in MDL 2047, helped negotiate a $248 million settlement against Taishan Gypsum and affiliated manufacturers, resolving the second major tranche of a decade-long federal litigation over sulfur-contaminated Chinese drywall installed in thousands of American homes.

Representing more clergy abuse survivors in the Archdiocese of New Orleans bankruptcy than any other firm, Herman, Katz, Gisleson and Cain helped push a five-year Chapter 11 proceeding to a $230 million settlement confirmed in December 2025, with additional recovery against Travelers Insurance still pending.

A Pennsylvania-record $227 million settlement resolved claims brought by 19 victims of the June 2013 Center City building collapse, in which an improperly braced wall fell during demolition and crushed the adjoining Salvation Army thrift store, killing seven people.

Joseph Bruno served on the eight-member Plaintiffs' Legal Committee in a federal class action covering more than 17,000 people harmed when a corrosion failure triggered a catastrophic pre-dawn explosion at Shell's Norco, Louisiana refinery in May 1988, ultimately settling for nearly $172 million.

A Las Vegas jury awarded hedge fund manager David Moradi $160.5 million after Cosmopolitan security personnel beat him at the Marquee nightclub and left him with a traumatic brain injury, and a confidential settlement followed during deliberations on punitive damages.

A Cook County jury awarded Tierney Darden $148 million after a 750-pound pedestrian shelter toppled onto her at O'Hare and severed her spine, a record the city later settled for $115 million.

McGee Lerer Ogrin represented 14 of the 124 survivors whose claims were resolved in a $122.5 million settlement with the City of Santa Monica over decades of child sexual abuse by a PAL volunteer the city failed to stop.

A Brooklyn jury found the NYC Transit Authority fully at fault after a track crew dropped a railroad tie onto cyclist Robert Liciaga, severing his spine, and returned $110,174,972.38.

The Louisiana Supreme Court reinstated a $92.7 million penalty judgment against the state's insurer of last resort after it failed to begin adjusting more than 18,000 homeowner claims within 30 days of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, with Stephen Herman of Herman Herman and Katz among the attorneys who won the class on behalf of policyholders.

After an unbraced brick wall toppled during a 2013 Center City demolition and crushed a Salvation Army store, Kline & Specter's Andrew J. Stern secured a $95.6 million award for survivor Mariya Plekan, the largest individual share of a record $227 million settlement.

A San Diego Superior Court jury returned a $94.5 million verdict for Otay Mesa developer Roque de la Fuente II after finding the City of San Diego breached a development agreement and damaged his 312-acre Border Business Park through airport planning announcements and commercial truck routing that blocked access to the site.

A suburban Chicago man who lost both legs above the knee when a car jumped the curb and pinned him against a Bensenville 7-Eleven secured a $91 million settlement, the largest pretrial personal injury recovery in Illinois history, after Power Rogers LLP showed the company had documented thousands of similar storefront crashes and still refused to install protective bollards.

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 Philadelphia jury awarded $85 million to a University of Pennsylvania medical student left disabled after falling 18 feet into an open Trigen Energy manhole at 19th and Walnut Streets, the largest personal injury verdict in the United States for 2008.

A Dallas jury awarded $84.25 million in 2008 after a 26-foot U-Haul truck with a failed parking brake rolled over Talmadge Waldrip, leaving him bedridden and requiring round-the-clock care.

Thomas Crumplar and co-counsel secured a $77.425 million trust for 146 survivors of clergy sexual abuse as part of the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington's Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in 2011.

An Oakland County jury found Kroger solely liable and awarded HVAC technician Brian Mierendorf and his wife $76.7 million after a failed R-22 refrigerant line at a Bloomfield Township store burned and destroyed most of both his hands.

Thomas Demetrio of Corboy & Demetrio represented seven of the people killed and injured when a suspended work platform fell from the John Hancock Center in 2002, part of a $75 million global settlement reached on the eve of trial.

A Kent County jury awarded John Vai $63 million against defrocked priest Francis DeLuca and St. Elizabeth's Parish in Wilmington after finding both liable for childhood sexual abuse that began in the 1960s, producing what victim advocates called the largest compensatory verdict in U.S. clergy abuse history and the first time an individual parish was held accountable.

A 12-year-old Cleveland girl suffered a profound brain injury and partial limb loss after touching an energized, downed Cleveland Electric Illuminating power line that had been left unrepaired for days following Hurricane Sandy; her family settled all claims for $60.7 million, the largest individual personal injury settlement in Ohio history.

Joel Feller and Matt Casey of Ross Feller Casey represented seven of the 26 survivors who reached a global civil settlement with Penn State University totaling $59.7 million, the largest single-firm contingent in the proceedings.

A Davidson County jury awarded Fox Sports reporter Erin Andrews $55 million after finding that the Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt negligently disclosed her room location to a stalker who altered a peephole to film her without consent.

A Nashville jury awarded sportscaster Erin Andrews $55 million in March 2016 after finding that West End Hotel Partners bore 49 percent of liability for a stalker who secretly filmed her through a tampered peephole at the Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt University in 2008.

Maurice Graham of Gray, Ritter and Graham secured a $55 million class action settlement in Doyle v. Fluor for Herculaneum, Missouri homeowners whose properties were contaminated by lead emissions from the Doe Run smelter.

Hassan Murphy co-led the class action against Constellation Energy after fly ash from a coal plant fouled private drinking wells in a Gambrills neighborhood, producing a $54 million package that connected affected homes to public water and established a $9.5 million resident trust fund.

A Dallas County jury awarded $51 million in August 2024 to a South Dallas mother and her two young children after a corroded boiler exhaust pipe at their apartment complex channeled carbon monoxide into their home in 2015, leaving both children with irreversible brain injuries.

A Philadelphia jury awarded more than $51 million against SEPTA in December 1999, after a four-year-old boy's foot was severed in a subway escalator and the transit agency was caught mid-trial concealing maintenance records. Because Pennsylvania's sovereign immunity cap limited the tort damages and SEPTA moved to appeal, the family settled for $7.4 million in January 2000.

A 12-year-old's catastrophic injuries from a rotten campground tree produced a $47.5 million pretrial settlement against San Mateo County, PG&E, and their contractors, reportedly the largest single-plaintiff personal injury settlement in California history.

A Manhattan jury awarded $45.2 million to Marion Hedges, who suffered permanent brain damage after two boys threw a shopping cart from a fourth-floor walkway onto her head at East River Plaza mall in East Harlem on October 30, 2011.

A Philadelphia jury returned a $45 million verdict in favor of Tamara Breeden, a mentally disabled woman who was confined, abused, and robbed of her Social Security benefits for more than a decade by Linda Ann Weston and two associates.

William H. Murphy Jr. won a $44 million Baltimore jury verdict after a police officer threw handcuffed Albert Mosley headfirst into a concrete jail cell wall, rendering him a permanent quadriplegic; the city refused to pay and the case ultimately settled for $1 million.

A Floyd County jury awarded $43.5 million to the family of Morris Ellison, an 80-year-old man who suffered malnourishment, severe dehydration, and an untreated broken hip before dying at a Rome, Georgia nursing home whose operator had diverted Medicare and Medicaid funds from patient care.

Whitley Law Firm and co-counsel resolved negligence and nuisance claims over a fire for $42.44 million, among the larger personal-injury recoveries reported in the state that year.

A Riverside County jury awarded Carlos and Rosalia Fernandez $41.95 million in June 2023 after a mentally ill man grabbed an unsecured baseball bat from the sporting goods aisle of a San Jacinto Walmart and beat the couple, leaving both with traumatic brain injuries.

A Clark County jury returned $38,625,000 against the owner of a Las Vegas apartment complex after National Guard Specialist Dylan Salazar was shot to death in its parking lot, the second-largest wrongful death verdict in the country in 2020.

A San Bernardino jury awarded $36.1 million to a child who suffered a traumatic brain injury and multiple fractures after being struck by a car while crossing mid-block to reach her school bus stop, finding Durham School Services 80% liable for failing to prevent the dangerous crossing.

A Manhattan jury found building owner 271 Madison Co. 100% liable and awarded $35.15 million to Meghan Brown, a former JPMorgan analyst who suffered a traumatic brain injury when a glass lobby door at 271 Madison Avenue shattered on her in February 2015.

After a 13-week trial, a Baltimore City jury awarded $34.33 million to 20 Ruth's Chris Steakhouse workers and three of their spouses after the workers suffered permanent brain damage when carbon monoxide from Pier Five Hotel's boiler system flooded their workplace over several months in early 2008.

A Cook County jury awarded $33.4 million to the estates of three lawyers shot and killed at a downtown Chicago office tower after finding the building's security company failed to stop a known threat from reaching the 38th floor.

A federal jury awarded Kimberly Curtis $2 million in compensatory and $30 million in punitive damages after a sliding barn door fell on her at a Manhattan Hilton Garden Inn and defendants were found to have willfully destroyed evidence; a judge later cut the punitive award to $10 million.

A Denton County jury awarded $32 million in February 2019 to a woman who was sexually assaulted at age 14 after two Hebron High School football players spiked her drink at a 2012 party, neither of whom had ever faced criminal charges.

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.

Robert Mongeluzzi served as co-lead counsel in the $29.5 million global settlement resolving claims for three women who drowned and 40 patrons injured when the 91-year-old Pier 34 buckled beneath Club Heat nightclub and dropped into the Delaware River on May 18, 2000.

A Henry County jury awarded $29.4 million against PeachState Hospitality after one of its housekeepers, hired without a background check despite a prior statutory rape charge, used a master key to repeatedly assault a 13-year-old girl staying at the company's Residence Inn in McDonough, Georgia.

An 11-year-old with an IEP requiring door-to-door transport was abandoned at the school curb by district staff, struck by a car on a four-lane road, and left with permanent brain damage; the $28.5 million settlement against Victor Elementary School District was the largest pedestrian accident settlement in California in 2019.

A federal jury in Wyoming awarded Amber Lompe $28.2 million after carbon monoxide from a faulty furnace caused permanent brain injury at her Casper apartment, a verdict that stood as one of the largest personal-injury awards in Wyoming history before the Tenth Circuit reduced the punitive component on due-process grounds.

A Tulare County jury awarded $28,163,528 after finding Caltrans 90% liable for a 13-year-old's catastrophic injuries at a 60 mph, five-lane crosswalk the agency had known was dangerous for two decades.

C. Steven Yerrid, retained as Tampa's special counsel, secured a $27.4 million settlement from BP for economic damages the city sustained after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill -- the largest BP payout to any single U.S. municipality.

A San Diego Superior Court jury awarded $26.5 million to Anderprises Inc. after Caltrans used eminent domain to take a 2.8-acre strip for the Route 905 freeway, cutting off access to the remaining 55 acres of the Anderson family's Otay Mesa land.

Kenneth Berger secured a $26 million settlement for the family of a three-year-old who suffered severe chemical burns at Caribbean Resort and Villas in Myrtle Beach after a pool employee falsified chlorine records for years.

A Benton County judge awarded $25.4 million, including more than $19 million in punitive damages, against the owner of a Springdale motel after finding it knowingly facilitated the repeated sex trafficking of a girl beginning when she was 14 years old.

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.

A Fulton County jury awarded $25 million against MARTA after a 66-year-old paratransit rider fell descending an awkwardly angled bus step and suffered catastrophic brain damage that left her in a vegetative state.

Cohen and Malad, co-counsel in a class action on behalf of more than 2,000 Indiana homeowners, secured a $24 million settlement against builder Trinity Homes and parent Beazer Homes after faulty brick construction allowed widespread water intrusion and mold growth.

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 Baltimore City jury returned a $21.5 million verdict against two landlord companies whose failure to conduct any background check on a maintenance worker allowed a convicted sex offender to rape, slash, and set two tenants on fire.

David Long tripped on two inches of exposed trolley track left by construction grinding crews at the 12th and Imperial MTS station and suffered a spinal cord injury that left him quadriplegic; the case settled for $21.5 million.

Walkup attorney Matthew Davis represented the families of five Irish students killed and seven survivors injured when a Berkeley apartment balcony sheared off in 2015, reaching a partial settlement of more than $20 million on confidential terms.

A Charles City County jury returned a $20 million verdict for a ten-year-old boy who suffered catastrophic electrical burns after entering a neglected Virginia Power substation, and the Virginia Supreme Court affirmed the award in full.

A Charles City County jury returned a $20 million verdict for a ten-year-old boy who suffered third-degree burns across 25 percent of his body after contacting 13,200 volts inside an inadequately secured Virginia Power substation next to his Richmond apartment complex, and the Supreme Court of Virginia affirmed the award in full.

Burg Simpson secured a $19.48 million arbitration award for the homeowners' association of an 82-unit Aurora, Colorado townhome community after proving Century Communities built the development with widespread structural, drainage, and fire-code defects.

A Duval County jury returned an $18.74 million verdict after Joshua Mathews suffered a traumatic brain injury in a 2012 assault outside Pete's Bar in Neptune Beach.

A Cook County judge approved an $18.5 million settlement for Gabriela Cedillo, a 24-year-old extra who suffered catastrophic brain damage when a snapped tow cable tore through her windshield during filming of Transformers: Dark of the Moon in Hammond, Indiana.

Nine boys abused by a Colonial Heights church youth leader secured a $17.61 million global settlement in July 2025, wrapping up nearly nine years of civil litigation and paying out four times what the defendants' insurers claimed they owed.

A decayed tree from a neighbor's rental lot in Orange, Massachusetts fell on three women in August 2024, causing traumatic brain injuries and fractures; Franklin County Superior Court entered a $17.6 million judgment against the property owner in March 2026.

Washington State agreed to pay $16.95 million to 12 former residents of the J Bar D Boys Ranch who were sexually and physically abused as children while in state custody during the late 1970s and early 1980s, with the settlement reached mid-trial after four weeks of testimony.

After one of the deadliest building failures in Chicago history, Corboy & Demetrio's Francis Patrick Murphy led 14 of the victims and their families to a $16.6 million global settlement against the property owner and the porch builder.

Justin Shapiro of Leesfield and Partners secured a $16 million settlement for a 67-year-old woman who was beaten and sexually assaulted in the open hallway of a northwest Miami-Dade Rodeway Inn while hotel employees and the property's security guard stood by and did nothing.

A temporary electrical box exploded and electrocuted flooring installer Brian Warembourg, and a Boulder County jury returned a $16 million verdict against the electrical contractor, the largest premises liability award in Colorado history.

A Kauai judge found Hawaii totally at fault after a state-posted warning sign at the left trail entrance near Opaeka'a Falls left the right-hand path -- which ended at a sheer 300-foot cliff -- completely unmarked, sending two visiting women to their deaths.

A federal jury awarded $15 million to two families whose loved ones died at Canyon Creek Memory Care during a 2020 COVID-19 outbreak, finding the Billings facility and its parent company Koelsch Senior Communities liable for neglect through chronic understaffing.

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.

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.

Mary Alexander helped win a $13.3 million jury verdict in Fresno County for Mary Hall, a University of Arizona student left permanently quadriplegic after a Yosemite rental company re-rented a bicycle it knew had defective brakes.

Goldberg and Rosen secured a $13 million jury verdict on behalf of a man left near death after a nightclub bouncer's felony battery, but a Miami judge vacated the award in 2024 and ordered a new trial after finding the defendants were wrongly barred from presenting certain defenses.

A consolidated federal class action alleging that Advocate Aurora Health secretly shared sensitive patient data with Meta and Google through hidden tracking pixels settled for $12.225 million, with Terence Coates and Dylan Gould of Markovits Stock and DeMarco serving as co-lead class counsel.

A Cook County jury delivered Illinois's largest-ever nursing home verdict, $12.2 million, finding that chronic understaffing at Lakeview Rehabilitation and Nursing Center caused Shirley Adams to develop fatal pressure wounds during her stay.

A Harris County jury found the operator of Houston's Cosmic Jump trampoline park grossly negligent and awarded $11.485 million, including $6 million in punitive damages, to a teenager who suffered a traumatic brain injury after falling through a torn trampoline bed onto concrete.

A 38-year-old man paralyzed at a Waipio crosswalk in April 2015 settled for $11.4 million after attorney Woodruff Soldner proved the City of Honolulu repaved the road in 2014 without completing the safety checklist its own laws required.

A Maricopa County jury awarded $11 million to the widow of a brain-injured man who died after ingesting plastic bags, condiment packets, and other foreign objects while left unsupervised at a Phoenix assisted living facility.

A 15-year-old boarding student at the Miller School of Albemarle won a $10 million jury verdict and a combined $10.75 million total recovery after being catastrophically impaled by a cut bamboo stalk during a mandatory school service project on property leased by a local VFW post.

A 15-year-old Miller School of Albemarle boarding student suffered catastrophic internal injuries when he fell onto a cut bamboo stalk during a school-supervised service project, resulting in a $10 million jury verdict and total recoveries of $10.75 million.

Stuart Grossman secured a $10.75 million settlement for Bernard Barlow, a Massachusetts vacationer who broke his neck diving from the Galleon Resort's tiki bar deck in April 2015 after the tide receded and the resort posted no warnings.

A Sacramento County jury awarded $10.2 million to a couple riding a tandem bicycle on a shared trail in Folsom after a pedestrian stepped into their path and caused a collision that left the wife with a traumatic brain injury.

A Jefferson County jury awarded $10 million to Sheriff's Deputy Aimee Jo Brasher after Hueytown Police Officer David McIntosh allowed his narcotics dog, Rocco, to run uncontrolled and unmuzzled during a May 2021 training exercise, mauling her face and body.

A Newport News jury awarded $10 million to first-grade teacher Abby Zwerner after finding that the school's assistant principal acted with gross negligence by ignoring repeated staff warnings that a 6-year-old student had brought a gun to Richneck Elementary School on January 6, 2023.

A Newport News jury found the assistant principal of Richneck Elementary School grossly negligent and awarded $10 million to teacher Abby Zwerner, who was shot in her classroom by a 6-year-old student on January 6, 2023.

Davis Law Group won a $10 million settlement for Carl Schwartz, a retired hospital administrator left paralyzed when his bicycle struck an unmarked metal post on King County's Green River Trail.

Lucia Mar Unified School District agreed to pay $10 million in May 2022 to settle negligence claims brought on behalf of a nine-year-old special-needs girl who was repeatedly sexually abused by a school bus driver in 2017, a driver the district had hired despite a prior peeping conviction he concealed on his application.

Chicago agreed to pay $9.5 million to Catalin Dumitrescu, who suffered catastrophic injuries in 2014 when his bicycle wheel lodged in exposed streetcar rails that had been buried in an East Hyde Park street and then re-designated as a bike route without removing the decades-old hazard.

A Bergen County jury awarded $9.5 million to sisters Gina and Jamie Franzino after a 31-foot Boston Whaler collided with their small skiff in the Manasquan Inlet on Memorial Day weekend 2009, killing a third passenger and leaving both women with severe injuries.

Windle Turley filed a $400 million federal lawsuit in Dallas on behalf of former Hare Krishna boarding-school students who suffered rape, physical torture, and emotional abuse as children; the litigation resolved in 2005 through a California bankruptcy court settlement paying $9.5 million to hundreds of victims.

A Marion County jury awarded $9.4 million after a Cracker Barrel waitress refilled a customer's glass with a mix of water and commercial bleach instead of ice water.

A Dallas County jury found Episcopal School of Dallas grossly negligent and awarded $9.3 million after the school forced out a 16-year-old student who had been sexually abused by her history teacher, rather than protecting her.

A heavy retail display toppled onto a 7-year-old, fracturing the child's skull and forcing emergency brain surgery, and Marks & Harrison resolved the premises liability case for $9 million.

Heenan and Cook secured a $9 million settlement from Custer County District High School on behalf of 32 former student athletes who were sexually abused over decades by longtime school athletic trainer James 'Doc' Jensen.

A Nassau County jury held Starbucks fully responsible for the layout of its Fernandina Beach store and awarded Sherry Gold $8.97 million after a vehicle leaving the drive-thru struck her in the parking lot.

A Duval County jury awarded $8,183,993 to a Jacksonville family after their one-year-old son choked on an apple slice at Primrose School of Glen Kernan, went into cardiac arrest, and sustained permanent brain damage from oxygen deprivation.

Shamieh Law and co-counsel secured an $8 million settlement for two former New Mexico State University basketball players who were sexually assaulted by teammates while coaches and administrators failed to act.

A Pierce County jury awarded $7.5 million to a man who was sexually abused by two counselors at YMCA Camp Seymour in Gig Harbor beginning when he was eight years old, nearly 50 years after the abuse occurred.

A Harris County jury found Red Bluff LLC, owner of the Courtyards of Pasadena nursing home, liable for $7.1 million after a certified nursing assistant suffered a serious spinal injury when a wheelchair with faulty brakes gave way during a bariatric patient transfer.

A 23-year-old mother suffered burns to 36% of her body after a corroded natural gas pipe fed an undetected leak into an apartment complex's outdoor grill enclosure, triggering an explosion when she attempted to light it.

A Jackson County jury returned a $6.7 million verdict, including $3.5 million in punitive damages, against Kansas City Power and Light after Frederick Trotman's aluminum ladder contacted an uninsulated 7,000-volt line 17 inches from his home, sending him into cardiac arrest.

A Hillsborough County jury awarded $6.7 million to Angel Martinez and his wife after contaminated oysters served at a Tampa seafood restaurant triggered Guillain-Barre syndrome that left him paralyzed from the waist down for months.

A San Diego federal jury awarded the Deruyver family nearly $6.5 million after their 9-month-old daughter suffered third-degree burns from hot coffee at the Omni La Costa Resort and Spa.

A Marion County jury awarded $6 million to the estate of Michael Rex Fergerson, who died after an IndyGo bus driver pulled away from a stop too early and ran over him; the Indiana Supreme Court reinstated the verdict in 2025 after the Court of Appeals had reversed it.

A Winnebago County jury awarded $6 million, including $2 million in punitive damages, after finding Timely Mission Nursing Home negligent and reckless in the fall death of 83-year-old resident Darlene Weaver.

A Berkeley County apartment complex that failed to equip its pool gates with code-required latching hardware settled the wrongful death claim of a three-year-old boy's family for six million dollars.

An 8-year-old girl was left paraplegic by a spinal cord infarction after a recreation center failed to spot her backbend and waited about two hours to get her emergency care; the claim settled for $6 million, the largest personal injury settlement in North Carolina that year.

A Hennepin County jury awarded $6 million after a drop-in daycare at Grand Casino Mille Lacs left a three-year-old boy unsupervised for roughly 90 minutes while an older child physically and sexually assaulted him.

A Gadsden County jury awarded James Simmons $5,459,008 after a grinding wheel shattered and left him permanently blind, finding the tool's owner liable for concealing a prior blade failure and removing the grinder's safety guard.

A Boulder jury awarded $5.3 million to a man who fractured his spine after falling from an unsteady ladder when the homeowner walked away without warning.

A drywall installer who fell through a hole cut in a home's subfloor, suffering a thoracic burst fracture and incomplete paraplegia, settled with the project developer and a drywall delivery company for $5 million.

Donati Law served as class counsel in a federal class action that secured a $4.9 million settlement for Shelby County Jail inmates who were held beyond their lawful release dates after a botched 2016 rollout of Tyler Technologies' Odyssey court management software.

An eight-member federal jury in Maine awarded $4.5 million to Julia Russell, finding Philip Chenevert liable for sexually abusing her beginning when she was six years old in 1992.

Sacramento County paid $4 million to a teenager who had been imprisoned, starved, and beaten for seven years while CPS social workers repeatedly failed to act on at least ten documented abuse reports.

A Travis County jury found Texas Regional Landfill Co. 100% negligent after a visitor fell from a horizontal post at the landfill scale, suffering a traumatic brain injury and a torn elbow ligament, and awarded $3,962,887.

A Clark County jury returned a $3,445,000 verdict for Jesse Lozano, who suffered serious cervical spine injuries after slipping on a wet marble floor inside Paris Las Vegas in 2018, though his collectible share was reduced to roughly $1.7 million after the jury split fault equally between him and the casino.

Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Dana Middleton awarded $3,250,479 to four plaintiffs, including a toddler with severe burns to her face and hands, after a temple founder added gasoline to a wind-whipped bonfire during a 2024 harvest festival in South Baltimore.

Abels & Annes, co-counseling with Hilfman & Martin, secured a settlement of nearly $3.2 million against the Archdiocese of Chicago and Cardinal Francis George on behalf of a man abused by Fr. Daniel McCormack throughout his middle and high school years.

Abels & Annes co-counseled a $3.2 million settlement for a childhood sexual abuse survivor against the Archdiocese of Chicago and Cardinal Francis George after the archdiocese kept defrocked priest Daniel McCormack in ministry despite warnings from its own review board.

A Philadelphia jury found AMC 100 percent at fault after a woman in her late 70s fractured her hip tripping in a darkened movie auditorium in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, awarding $3,146,500 following a five-day trial.

The Rowan County Board of Education agreed to a $3 million settlement in February 2026 after a coach repeatedly abused a student while administrators ignored at least eight separate reports of the conduct, in what attorneys described as the largest single-victim school sexual abuse settlement in Kentucky history.

In a first-of-its-kind nationwide class action, Kiefer & Kiefer attorney Megan Kiefer secured a $3 million federal settlement for nearly 1,000 tenants of the Willows Apartments in New Orleans East who paid rent during years of deteriorating, hazardous conditions.

Minner Vines secured a $3 million settlement for a survivor who was repeatedly sexually abused by Rowan County teacher and coach Andrew Zaheri beginning at age 14, in a case believed to be the largest single-victim school sexual-abuse settlement in Kentucky history.

A Hamilton County jury found JACK Cincinnati Casino 100% liable after a 69-year-old patron tripped over a collapsed wet-floor sign that a casino employee had walked past seconds before the fall, fracturing her kneecap and requiring surgery.

A Santa Monica jury awarded security guard Reina Castro $2,534,613 after a heavy car wash gate, missing its safety stopper, rolled off its track and crushed her knee on a film set.

Brad Vinson of Smith and Vinson secured a $2.5 million settlement after Williamson County sheriff's deputies orchestrated a military-style SWAT raid on Gary Watsky's Cedar Park home in 2019 so the arrest of his son could be filmed for the A&E reality series 'Live PD.'

A Duval County jury returned a $2.5 million verdict for the family of Anne Fiorito, an elderly dementia patient who lost sight in one eye after a Vitas Healthcare hospice aide struck her during a bathing routine at Cypress Village Retirement Community.

A Denver jury awarded $2.45 million to an 81-year-old nursing home resident who suffered serious leg fractures after an ambulance driver failed to properly secure her wheelchair restraints during transport, causing her to slam into a metal barrier.

A Delaware federal jury awarded Brian Elliott $2.4 million in November 2013 after finding Marist Brother Damian Galligan liable for repeated sexual abuse that began when Elliott was eight years old.

An 80-year-old woman attending a funeral reception fell down non-uniform exterior stairs at a private club, sustaining a traumatic brain injury, skull and facial fractures, and a shoulder fracture, and settled for $2.3 million in July 2024.

A Lee County jury awarded $2,180,044 to John Kenneth Anderson after The Bottom Line nightclub in Fort Myers served alcohol to a 19-year-old patron who then attacked Anderson in the parking lot, causing a traumatic brain injury with permanent memory loss and partial hearing loss.

A falling dead limb left a person with a concussion and a shoulder injury on private property, and Marks & Harrison settled the premises-liability claim for $2 million after mediation ended an eight-day trial before it began.

A shopper struck in the right calf by a heavy detergent bottle at a store checkout developed fatal wound complications, and Geoff McDonald & Associates resolved the premises-liability claim for $2 million.

A pharmacist who wore a COVID face covering into a Columbia store was repeatedly tased, handcuffed and locked in a back room by a security guard, and a Baltimore City jury awarded him $2 million.

Disparti Law Group and co-counsel reached a $2 million settlement with Chicago Public Schools on behalf of three elementary-school boys who were sexually abused by their gym teacher over several years at Federico Garcia Lorca Elementary on Chicago's Northwest Side.

A Cumberland County jury awarded $2 million to John Cain, a 73-year-old shopper whose neck was permanently destabilized when multiple 50-pound bags of dog food toppled from a seven-foot-high Walmart display in Hope Mills, North Carolina.

Tia Fitzpatrick-Young's $2 million wrongful-death suit accused Nashville's housing agency of letting crime build at the Edgehill complex, where a stray bullet from a dice-game dispute killed her husband, Glen Young Jr.; the outcome was not publicly reported.

Hillsborough County schools paid a then-record $2 million after a 16-year-old Wharton High linebacker struck his head on a field-lining machine left on the practice area, suffering a fractured skull and traumatic brain injury that put him in a coma for nine days.

A Tulsa County jury awarded $2 million to the family of a toddler injured at a church daycare after a second church hired the same worker without disclosing she was under investigation for abusing another child.

Simcha Berman, left quadriplegic after falling 29 feet from Newport's Cliff Walk in August 2000, settled with the City of Newport for $2 million at policy limits before a jury found the State of Rhode Island not liable.

A District of Columbia jury awarded $2 million to a hardware store customer who suffered a subdural hematoma and emergency brain surgery after a Hechinger employee assaulted him, and the D.C. Court of Appeals affirmed the verdict in full.

A Fulton County jury awarded $1,718,367 in total damages after finding a southwest Atlanta convenience store 66% responsible for a shooting that left a sleeping passenger with an abdominal gunshot wound.

Christopher DiGirolamo secured a $1.62 million settlement for Carol Olsen, a 59-year-old Midland Park woman whose right thumb was bitten off by a fostered pit bull in Mahwah, in the case Olsen v. Eleventh Hour Rescue.

A New York City woman secured a $1.5 million settlement after falling when a Thyssen Dover-maintained elevator misleveled by nearly two feet, trapping her mid-step between the car floor and the landing.

Marks & Harrison recovered $1.4 million for a homebuilding worker bitten without provocation by a dog its owners knew had bitten before, who then dislocated his kneecap on a kitchen island while trying to get away.

A federal RICO class action filed on behalf of hundreds of Ohio and Kentucky real estate investors who lost tens of thousands of dollars each in a deceptive house-flipping scheme run by Blue Ash-based Build Realty settled for $1.3 million in 2023.

Victor Bergman won a $1.215 million jury verdict for sprint car driver Doug Wolfgang, who suffered severe burns after track operators at Lakeside Speedway left him trapped in a burning cockpit for eight to ten minutes with only two undertrained firefighters on site.

Shamieh Law secured a $1.2 million settlement for Bomani Barton, who suffered seven facial surgeries after an Austin police officer fired three beanbag rounds at him during May 2020 racial-justice protests.

A federal jury awarded $1.1 million to a pretrial detainee who was sexually assaulted three times by a corrections officer at Pennington County Jail.

A three-year-old boy was found unconscious and hanging from a jump rope at a Lancaster, South Carolina daycare in September 2013, suffering a traumatic brain injury from oxygen deprivation; his family recovered a $1 million settlement in 2016.

A Philadelphia jury awarded $995,200 after finding Sesame Place 68 percent liable for a visitor's severe ankle fracture-dislocation caused by rubber aquatic shoes the park actively sold and never banned from its waterslide.

A Fresno County jury returned an $800,000 verdict for Veronica Ordaz Gonzalez and her boyfriend after sheriff's deputies entered their home without a warrant and shot and killed their dog, Scooby; the Fifth District Court of Appeal later upheld the award.

A federal judge in Charlotte awarded two women a combined $800,000 in compensatory and punitive damages after a former Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officer sexually assaulted them during traffic stops while on duty.

A Becker County jury awarded $750,000 against WE Fest organizers and their security contractor after finding both negligent for hiring a campground attendant with a prior felony sex-offense conviction who assaulted a female camper in 2006.

Rosenbaum & Rosenbaum secured a $650,000 settlement for a plaintiff who suffered burn injuries and a partial amputation after a dangerous condition on city-controlled property went uncorrected.

After a night-shift janitor stepped into an unmarked, uncovered trench left by electrical workers at a Baltimore County school, a Baltimore City jury awarded her $537,365 for a severe ankle fracture that kept her off her feet for three years.

The City of Fresno paid $500,000 to resolve a civil rights lawsuit after bodycam footage and an independent police auditor confirmed that an officer's repeated punches to a 17-year-old bystander exceeded department policy.

Jeb Butler won a $500,000 jury verdict in Muscogee County Superior Court for a woman who was sexually abused by her Columbus pastor beginning when she was 15 years old.

A Louisville jury found House of Boom 60% liable after a patron broke his back striking an all-black punching bag during a lights-out event, resulting in damages of roughly $495,000 after comparative fault.

A Pulaski County jury ordered the owners of the America's Best Value Inn in west Little Rock to pay a sex-trafficking survivor $477,000 after finding they ignored clear signs of ongoing trafficking on their property from August through December 2019.

A Travis County jury found The Carpenter Hotel 95% at fault after a guest stepped into an unmaintained area and fell three to four feet, awarding $201,467.69 in compensatory damages plus $200,000 in exemplary damages for gross negligence, for a total of $401,467.69.

An Orleans Parish jury awarded $332,300 to the owners of Fat River Farm after an Orkin employee mistakenly fogged their Lower 9th Ward organic operation with a broad-spectrum pesticide in 2022, costing the farm its organic certification for three years and disrupting its ecosystem.

A Los Angeles jury found Candid Camera and host Peter Funt liable for negligence, false imprisonment, and intentional misrepresentation after a prank at a small Arizona airport left Philip Zelnick with leg injuries, awarding $300,000 in punitive damages.

A nine-person jury awarded $250,000 to a teenage girl who was sexually assaulted in a Fargo home after finding the homeowners 40% liable for failing to supervise the gathering of minors in their basement.

A Connecticut judge awarded $235,070 to a woman whose neck, shoulder, and hand were injured when a wall-mounted television fell on her in a UConn Health Center waiting room, with the case later reaching the Connecticut Supreme Court over a state assistance setoff dispute.

Jesse Fretwell secured a $212,500 settlement from the City of Fresno for Ella Burton, a cyclist who suffered a severely broken leg after slipping on mud and algae built up at an intersection where a faulty city drainage system had gone unrepaired for years.

Diesel fuel leaked from a Felton Oil underground storage tank in Hampton, Arkansas, migrated onto the adjacent Gee property, and a jury awarded $205,000 for restoration costs and disruption, affirmed in full by the Arkansas Supreme Court.

Brown & Crouppen recovered $200,000 for Joshua Klenke, a cyclist who fractured his collarbone after hitting a road depression left by underground plumbing work, with the payment coming from the plumbing contractor's insurer rather than the city.

A Baltimore jury found that a plainclothes detective punched Jerriel Lyles in the face without justification at a neighborhood carryout, awarding $500,000 in damages later reduced to $200,000 under Maryland's statutory cap on municipal liability.

A Los Angeles jury awarded $117,969 to an electric company worker whose neighbor's German Shepherd jumped on his back, causing cervical spine injuries and PTSD.

A Queens County jury returned a $100,000 verdict for a plaintiff who sustained a traumatic brain injury and cervical spine injuries when ice fell from The Plaza Condominium's exterior and struck her at a building exit in February 2017.

The Nebraska Supreme Court reversed a post-verdict judgment for the defense and reinstated a $25,000 jury award for a patron beaten at an after-hours Ranch Bowl dance, holding that a venue with three fights per night cannot call a restroom attack unforeseeable.

William Mattar, P.C. won a landmark ruling for a postal carrier bitten by a dog, convincing New York's highest court to abolish the 2006 'Bard v. Jahnke' precedent that had barred negligence claims against domestic animal owners for 19 years.

The Tennessee Supreme Court held that an intrusion-upon-seclusion claim does not abate upon the plaintiff's death, allowing the family of a cognitively impaired nursing home resident to pursue her privacy lawsuit after she passed away.

In a landmark April 2023 ruling, California's Second District Court of Appeal reversed dismissal of a pedestrian trip-and-fall lawsuit, holding that Bird Rides owes a general duty of ordinary care over its dock-less scooters and can be sued when improperly parked scooters injure members of the public.

Michael Maggiano filed a $50 million suit on behalf of a Korean-American family whose 93-year-old mother's body was swapped into the wrong casket, with the error discovered as her casket was being lowered into a grave in November 2021.

A King County Metro bus driver cut a corner short near the Renton Transit Center on March 10, 2021, rolled the rear tires over Jessica Chapel as she lay on the sidewalk, then canceled her own emergency call and left the scene, costing Chapel her leg.

Jim and Michael Fitzgerald secured a Wyoming Supreme Court ruling that the state's governmental-immunity waiver covers ordinary negligence claims against state healthcare facilities, allowing a family's civil suit to proceed after their daughter was sexually assaulted by a hospital employee.

Beck, Amsden and Stalpes co-counseled 98 Opportunity, Montana landowners through 13 years of litigation against ARCO over arsenic deposited by Anaconda's copper smelter, ultimately settling the case in 2021 after it twice reached the Montana Supreme Court and once reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

A federal judge held the United States could be sued under the Federal Tort Claims Act for a tree limb that fell on pedestrian Mary Lou Walen during Hurricane Sandy, rejecting the government's sovereign-immunity defense and later denying summary judgment.

A Washington, D.C. woman sued the Tenleytown Massage Envy franchise and its corporate parent for $25 million after a massage therapist with a documented history of prior complaints sexually assaulted her during a 2017 appointment.

Cohen & Cohen attorney Kim Brooks-Rodney represented Malbert Rich and other passengers injured in the January 2015 L'Enfant Plaza Metro smoke emergency, filing suit against WMATA for negligent maintenance and delayed evacuation.