Largest verdicts in South Carolina
16 independently-sourced personal-injury results from South Carolina firms, largest first. Each links to the full story — the firm, the attorneys, and the record behind the number.
A federal jury awarded $262.5 million after finding that a defective rear liftgate latch on a 1985 Dodge Caravan caused a six-year-old boy to be ejected and killed in a 1994 crash; the punitive damages were later reversed on appeal and the case settled confidentially in 2001.
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 federal jury awarded $17 million to the surviving relatives of a Canadian Army private, his wife, and their infant son killed when an XPO Express 18-wheeler plowed into slowed construction-zone traffic on Interstate 95 near Florence, South Carolina.
After multiple York County bars served alcohol to a teenager who then killed his 22-year-old passenger in a crash, Kenneth Berger secured an $8.35 million wrongful death settlement on behalf of the victim's family.
A 21-year-old driver who was overserved at two Spartanburg bars struck and killed two cousins at over 70 mph, leading to a $7.36 million wrongful death settlement paid by the bars and the driver.
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.
Joye Law Firm recovered $5 million for the estate of a Goodwill custodian killed when a terminal tractor with broken headlights made an illegal U-turn and struck her in a Joint Base Charleston parking lot.
A South Carolina man rear-ended by a drunk driver who fled the scene recovered $3.6 million after the driver's employer disputed vehicle ownership and scope of employment, with cervical fusion and knee surgery documented.
A St. Louis man who suffered permanent bilateral brain damage after an Audi SUV ran him over on a Charleston sidewalk in 2017 settled the resulting federal lawsuit for $3.5 million in July 2020.
A Dorchester County jury awarded $2.2 million to a Summerville plumber who suffered cervical disc herniation and spinal cord compression after being rear-ended at a traffic light, believed to be the largest automobile accident verdict in the county's history.
A plumber rear-ended at a Dorchester County stoplight won a $2.2 million jury verdict in 2018, then secured a $2.15 million global settlement the following year after Geico faced a bad-faith lawsuit for refusing to tender its $50,000 policy limits before trial.
A Lexington County jury awarded $2 million to Donna Roland, 60, after she tripped on a three-inch gap in a county sidewalk and broke her arm in two places while dropping off an absentee ballot during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A loaded dump truck whose brakes had been flagged for replacement the day before crossed into oncoming traffic and struck an active-duty Air Force servicemember head-on, fracturing his hip, leg, and arm; the case settled for $1.225 million in April 2023.
A Navy veteran who was sent home from the Charleston VA with back pain developed a spinal epidural abscess that went untreated for days, leaving him permanently paralyzed in both legs; the Law Office of Kenneth E. Berger recovered a $1 million federal settlement.
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 Richland County jury awarded $897,500 to a 28-year-old Army soldier, including $538,500 in punitive damages, after a chain-reaction rear-end crash on I-26 left him with shoulder and back injuries that forced a medical discharge.