Virginia Lawyers Weekly has released its 2009 compilations for Virginia’s multimillion settlements and verdicts. Out of the 57 total, the lion’s share of the awards went to claims resulting from bodily injury or death. The breakdown between the sources of the awards was:
Million dollar settlements — 36.
Million dollar verdicts — 21.
Verdicts handed down by judges were not tallied.
Of the top 36 settlements in Virginia in 2009, a full 26 involved personal injury claims, and another 6 were for medical malpractice. Of the remaining 5 settlements, 2 were for products liability, eminent domain picked up another 2 (although both were in the top five by total), and the last was for a single contract claim. (And if you’re concerned about that math, note that there were 37 contenders, as two tied for the 36th place.) This means that, as far as settlements in 2009 go, a grand total of 34 of the the 37 biggest settlements were for claims arising from bodily injury or death.
Things were slightly more varied on the verdict side. Of the 21 $1 million+ jury verdicts, only 4 were for personal injury, although 7 were still for medical malpractice. However, the reported awards for 5 of those 7 med-mal verdicts are rather misleading. Under Virginia Code § 8.01-581.15, medical malpractice awards are subject to a cap — and the actual verdicts were reduced to a max of $1.85 million. With the cap, only a single medical malpractice case even makes it to the top 10.
Environmental damage, false advertising, assault, defamation, and premises liability also made appearances on to the top verdicts list. The false advertising claim resulted in the largest verdict, for $13.5 million, and involved a dispute over baby food — as it turns out, brand-name baby foods are not nutritionally superior than the store-brand variety, and Mead Johnson & Company could have saved itself some pocket money if it hadn’t claimed they were.
[...] When It Comes to Million Dollar Verdicts and Settlements In Virginia, Bodily Injury Is King [...]