Largest verdicts in Alabama
13 independently-sourced personal-injury results from Alabama firms, largest first. Each links to the full story — the firm, the attorneys, and the record behind the number.
A Jefferson County bench trial ended in a $2.88 billion judgment against former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy for orchestrating an accounting fraud that inflated the company's reported earnings by $2.6 billion over six years.
Scott Powell of Hare Wynn Newell and Newton served as one of four co-lead class counsel in the $1.51 billion nationwide settlement against Syngenta, recovering losses for hundreds of thousands of U.S. corn growers, grain handlers, and ethanol producers whose market access to China was cut off after the company prematurely commercialized an unapproved GMO corn trait.
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.
Scott Powell of Hare Wynn Newell and Newton served as co-lead class counsel when a Kansas federal jury returned a $217.7 million compensatory verdict against Syngenta, finding the seed company negligent for commercializing its MIR162 GMO corn trait in the United States before China approved it for import, triggering a market collapse that cut off American farmers from one of their largest export buyers.
Hare Wynn secured a $100 million cash settlement from UBS on behalf of HealthSouth derivative stockholder plaintiffs, resolving claims that the investment bank aided and abetted one of the largest accounting frauds in American corporate history.
A federal jury in Montgomery awarded $64.1 million to Lucky Palace LLC and 15 Macon County charities after finding VictoryLand owner Milton McGregor conspired to freeze out a competing electronic bingo operation.
Hare Wynn attorneys Scott Powell and Bruce McKee won a roughly $48 million trial verdict for 11 Arkansas rice-farming families after Bayer CropScience's unapproved genetically modified rice contaminated the national supply and shut down European export markets. The verdict was one of the bellwether outcomes that pushed Bayer toward a $750 million global settlement.
An Arkansas jury awarded $5.9 million in compensatory damages and $42 million in punitive damages to Lonoke County rice farming families after Bayer CropScience's unapproved genetically modified LibertyLink rice contaminated the conventional U.S. rice supply.
A Bessemer jury returned a $15 million verdict against the owners of a BP convenience store that sold beer to an underage driver whose vehicle struck a tree, killing a 13-year-old passenger and injuring three others in May 2007.
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.
Farris, Riley & Pitt secured a confidential settlement for the mother of Jamea Harris, a 23-year-old woman killed in a January 2023 shooting on the Tuscaloosa Strip, with proceeds placed in trust for her young son.
Heninger Garrison Davis served as class counsel for spouses and family members of problem gamblers in a multidistrict litigation against DraftKings and FanDuel, winning separate settlements in 2021 and 2022 that directed $700,000 in charitable donations to responsible-gaming organizations and forced both platforms to overhaul how they handle family exclusion requests.
Stephen D. Heninger of Heninger Garrison Davis represented sports artist Daniel Moore to final victory after the University of Alabama spent eight years trying to force him to license every painting that showed a Crimson Tide uniform.