Largest verdicts in New Mexico
13 independently-sourced personal-injury results from New Mexico firms, largest first. Each links to the full story — the firm, the attorneys, and the record behind the number.
A Dallas jury awarded $860,012,006 to the family of Kiersten Smith, a 29-year-old woman killed when a construction crane collapsed onto her Old East Dallas apartment during a 2019 storm, finding developer Greystar fully liable for failing to allow the crane to weather vane.
An Ector County jury awarded $262.5 million to Isaac Sanchez, left quadriplegic when a drunk driver who had been served 19 drinks at Linx Bar and Grill rear-ended his motorcycle at a North Odessa intersection in June 2021.
A Santa Fe jury awarded $190 million to the families of two young people killed and three others seriously injured when an intoxicated View Homes Inc. executive crossed the center line on Highway 213 near Chaparral, New Mexico, on January 17, 2023.
Kevin Glasheen won a $60.5 million jury verdict in 1997, at the time the largest railroad accident verdict in Texas, after a Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight train killed a Friona family at a grade crossing in August 1993.
An Albuquerque jury awarded $52 million in punitive damages against Professional Underwriters Liability Insurance Company after finding the insurer deliberately concealed notice of patient deaths and then refused to defend the physician it had covered.
New Mexico's child welfare agency agreed to a $5.5 million federal civil rights settlement after caseworkers placed an eight-year-old girl with her father, who then beat her to death, despite a documented history of abuse allegations against him.
An Albuquerque federal jury awarded $5.4 million to the widow of Martin Leon, a California man who died after a sleep-deprived FedEx Ground contractor driver rear-ended a tractor-trailer on Interstate 40 near Grants, New Mexico.
New Mexico settled for $4.9 million after CYFD received multiple abuse referrals for a four-year-old boy, documented injuries consistent with serious harm at an urgent care visit, and still returned him to the home where he was beaten to death 52 days later.
A Bexar County jury returned a $1,985,430 verdict for Michelle Gibbons after a multi-vehicle collision involving a Danco Construction truck driven by Samuel Reyna Montalvo, though the Fourth Court of Appeals reversed and remanded in August 2025.
Davis Kelin Law Firm secured a $439,000 settlement for the widow of Scott Pierce, killed by serial killer Clifton Bloomfield in 2008 after Albuquerque police failed to arrest Bloomfield for two prior murders and multiple probation violations.
Denver settled for $350,000 after a police officer driving 75 mph against traffic without lights or sirens fractured delivery driver Christopher Cordova's leg in a 2021 head-on crash.
As co-counsel in a landmark 2020 federal class action, The Crecca Law Firm helped secure a court-supervised settlement requiring New Mexico to rebuild its foster care system around trauma-informed practices for roughly 4,700 children in state custody.
Kevin Glasheen secured a confidential settlement from Union Pacific for 26 of 43 plaintiffs injured when a freight train struck a Veterans Day parade float in Midland, Texas in 2012, killing four decorated veterans.