Largest verdicts in North Carolina

The Law Offices of James Scott Farrin served as lead driver for a coalition of more than 25 firms in the In re Black Farmers Discrimination Litigation, helping win a $1.25 billion settlement for African American farmers denied a fair shot at USDA loan programs.

A Henderson County jury awarded $101 million to two masonry workers and one worker's wife after a 12-foot retaining wall, rebuilt under Hajoca's direction without an engineer or a permit, collapsed onto their crew.

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 Franklin County jury returned $40 million against an intoxicated driver and the owner who let her drive, and the Court of Appeals affirmed every dollar in 2024 as the largest drunk driving verdict in state history.

Hoyt Tessener of Martin and Jones, joined by co-counsel Kent Emison, secured a $31 million settlement for a boy left paraplegic when a two-point rear lap belt in a 1999 Ford Escort jackknifed him during a crash, while other occupants of the same car came away with comparatively minor injuries.

North Carolina Lawyers Weekly reported that Meredith Hinton of Ricci Law Firm resolved a motor vehicle injury claim for $21 million in 2023, one of the larger auto settlements recorded in the state that year.

A federal jury awarded $15.1 million to a quadriplegic railroad worker and his wife after a CSX train struck his vehicle at a blind crossing in 1985, making it the largest personal injury verdict in North Carolina history at the time, though the Fourth Circuit later vacated the judgment and remanded for retrial.

Lanier Law Group secured a $12.5 million settlement for 65 UNC School of the Arts alumni who alleged sexual abuse by faculty spanning from the late 1960s through the early 2010s.

Behzad "Al" Abedi was killed when stacked marble slabs fell on him at a Charlotte stone warehouse in 2019, and DeMayo Law Offices resolved his family's premises- and products-liability claims for $12 million.

A South Carolina warehouse worker suffered permanent lumbar spinal injuries when a commercial trailer's improperly installed landing gear buckled during loading, sending a jury to award Anthony Avery $7.48 million in compensatory damages and $2.8 million in punitive damages against MG Logistics, Inc.

Ricci Law Firm and co-counsel recovered $9.5 million for the family of an 84-year-old woman killed when a driver fleeing police ran a stop sign, with the case built on the negligent entrustment of the car to a man whose license was suspended over repeat DWI charges.

Three people died and a child was seriously injured when a 20-year-old drove the wrong way on Interstate 85 after a night of underage drinking supplied by bars and a fraternity; Maginnis Howard's Shawn Howard helped secure an $8.62 million settlement against 18 of the 19 defendants one month before trial.

Farrin co-lead counsel Gary Jackson won an $8 million class settlement for roughly 6,500 residents forced from their homes by the 2022 ammonium nitrate fire at the Winston Weaver fertilizer plant, with a separate $4.5 million for affected businesses.

Rachel Fuerst of Henson Fuerst helped a North Carolina family reach a confidential $7.95 million settlement after a hospital's mismanaged labor and delayed delivery left their newborn with a permanent hypoxic brain injury.

E. Spencer Parris and G. Christopher Olson of Martin and Jones secured a $7.52 million settlement for Dwayne Allen Dail, who spent 18 years in a North Carolina prison before DNA evidence identified the actual perpetrator and cleared his name.

Forest Horne secured a $7.5 million jury verdict for a retired CSX railroad worker whose decades of on-the-job asbestos exposure caused malignant mesothelioma, a verdict the North Carolina Court of Appeals unanimously upheld in 2006.

A class of North Carolina apartment tenants who were charged eviction-related fees that state law prohibited reached a $7,029,000 settlement with Southwood Realty Company in April 2020, part of a broader $8 million resolution against three property managers.

A jury awarded $6.13 million to the family of a 53-year-old man who died of a heart attack hours after CMC-Northeast discharged him, finding the hospital's reckless disregard of his safety eliminated the NC statutory noneconomic damages cap.

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 federal jury in Raleigh awarded $5.2 million for three residents who died at the Blue Ridge Health Care Center after its operators cut staffing and supplies, an award later limited to about $3 million once North Carolina's punitive cap was applied.

A Johnston County jury awarded $5.1 million to the family of Joan Drake, killed when a driver going 98 mph struck her car as she turned into a Clayton Walmart, after Farrin attorneys Coleman Cowan and Donald Clack tried the case without putting on a single medical bill.

A North Carolina nursing home placed an 89-year-old man in a room with a resident it knew to be violent, and within three days the roommate beat him to death.

A driver in a 1980s sports car suffered a dozen fractures in a clear-day head-on collision with a truck on a 45-mph business road, and the case settled for $4.75 million.

A North Carolina woman died after a series of falls during a roughly two-month nursing home stay, and her family settled wrongful-death claims against the facility's corporate operators for $4.25 million.

A 73-year-old man admitted to a North Carolina nursing home for ankle-fracture rehabilitation developed untreated Stage 4 pressure ulcers within 27 days and died, and Henson Fuerst resolved the wrongful-death claim for $4 million.

A 41-year-old ironworker left paraplegic when an elevated walkway overhang collapsed under him during a Raleigh mall demolition reached a $4 million confidential settlement with the general contractor.

A Union County jury found general contractor Bonterra Builders grossly negligent after a 46-year-old construction worker was fatally crushed when a trench wall collapsed beneath him, returning a $3.85 million compensatory verdict for his widow.

A 69-year-old North Carolina nursing home resident who needed two staff members for all care suffered a broken femur when an understaffed facility sent one aide to move her alone, and her claim settled for $3.5 million in June 2025.

A Johnston County jury awarded $3.41 million to the estate of Clinton Massengill, a 23-year-old from Four Oaks who died nine days after being struck without warning at Club Riptide in Selma, falling and hitting his head on the concrete floor.

A commercial garbage truck driver ran a red light and struck a Charlotte resident's vehicle on November 30, 2022, causing fatal blunt force trauma; the estate recovered $3 million at the combined policy limits of the driver and waste company.

A Johnston County jury awarded $3 million to commercial truck driver Keave Bayes after a log fell on him at a logging deck, and John Paul Godwin of Hardison and Cochran, with co-counsel Sanford Thompson, secured the full verdict.

A commercial truck driver ran a stop sign on a North Carolina country road and killed a 60-year-old man, and his family settled their confidential wrongful-death claim for $3 million, a result that tied for 25th among the state's top verdicts and settlements of 2019.

DeMayo Law attorneys Elizabeth G. Grimes and Michael A. DeMayo won a $3 million settlement for an elderly North Carolina man who was run over by another vehicle while standing beside his disabled car on a West Virginia roadside.

Chase Cayton, 23, suffered a severe brain injury and a fractured right leg when a pickup turned left across his path, and his suit in Pitt County Superior Court settled for $2,988,396.

A federal jury awarded $2.95 million to the estate of David Allan Woods, a 50-year-old South Carolina detainee who died of gastrointestinal bleeding in 2010 after jail officers repeatedly ignored his deteriorating condition.

Maginnis Howard secured a $2.5 million settlement for 6,858 North Carolina patients after proving that medical-records processor MRO Corporation systematically charged copying fees that exceeded the state statutory cap, entitling each class member to a full refund of unlawful charges plus a penalty of roughly $205 per violation.

A 53-year-old pedestrian hit from behind by a box truck at about 35 mph and thrown more than 34 feet, leaving him with a traumatic brain injury and multiple fractures, settled his claim for $2.5 million.

A 35-year-old bicyclist left with a traumatic brain injury after a driver ran a stop sign recovered $2.3 million, approved within months and routed through a special needs trust so his care could continue.

A North Carolina motorist who needed multiple surgeries for femur fractures, a torn bowel, and a pulmonary embolism after a 2022 vehicle collision settled his case for $2.25 million.

A commercial truck driver who suffered a traumatic brain injury when a double stack of unsecured pallets spilled onto her settled her North Carolina claim for $2.2 million.

A Mecklenburg County jury awarded $1.1 million each to two women who proved Dr. Fidelis Edosomwan sexually assaulted them during routine medical exams at his Charlotte clinic.

Law Offices of James Scott Farrin attorney Preston Lesley secured a $2 million settlement for an 8-year-old whose left foot was degloved and partially amputated after a dump truck ran over it at a North Carolina truck stop.

A 60-year-old woman stopped for a red light on Glenwood Avenue in Raleigh died three days after a speeding driver rear-ended her, and her family resolved the wrongful-death claim for $2 million.

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.

Whitley Law Firm recovered $1,847,000 for a cyclist who was struck and run over by a dump truck turning right across a marked bike lane, after injuries that took nine surgeries and five weeks of intensive care.

A 30-year-old passenger was left tetraplegic after a speeding driver hit his stalled car on a South Carolina road, and Michael A. DeMayo stacked two liability policies and an umbrella policy to reach a $1.6 million settlement.

The estate of an Army paratrooper killed when a pickup truck turned left into his motorcycle near Fayetteville settled its wrongful-death claim for $1.5 million.

A $1.25 million settlement resolved a wrongful-death claim against the City of Winston-Salem after a probationary city landfill operator, distracted by personal phone calls, backed a bulldozer into Waste Management driver Thomas Thompson and killed him.

A woman walking home from her job was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer; Auger and Auger attorneys secured a $1.25 million settlement after mediation failed and the parties disputed the extent of her suffering before death.

A woman asleep in her bed died when an intoxicated driver crashed through her home wall; Maginnis Howard secured a $975,000 settlement through dram shop claims against two bars that served the driver while he was visibly impaired.

A licensed practical nurse who suffered a mild traumatic brain injury and six separate fractures in a Moore County crash recovered $879,000 through Joseph Tunstall of O'Malley Tunstall PC after the defense challenged whether her near-full return to work diminished the case value.

A rear-end impact shoved a Greenville driver into oncoming traffic, and after an L5-S1 disc herniation left her facing recommended spinal surgery, Kristin Oakley of Ricci Law Firm settled the case for $850,000.

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 jury awarded $760,035 to a news reporter who suffered a fractured tibia after a municipal truck driver struck and then backed over his leg in a Huntersville parking lot, and the NC Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed the verdict over a contributory-negligence challenge.

Margaret Linville, 58, suffered bilateral distal femur fractures, fractured ribs, and a traumatic brain injury when her Charlotte taxi struck a telephone pole after another cab cut it off and fled the scene; dashcam footage identified the fleeing driver, and the case settled for $500,000.

A 4-3 North Carolina Supreme Court decision held that state employees cannot invoke sovereign immunity to block individual-capacity wrongful death claims, arising from the death of an NCSU maintenance worker killed by a pressurized refrigerant flange.