The U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform late last month released a new report on so-called “nuclear” verdicts—those with damages awards of more than $10 million. The report pulled together data from 1,288 verdicts from Jan. 1, 2013, and Dec. 31, 2022, in wrongful death and personal injury cases.
The overall trend lines are pretty much what regular readers of the Litigation Daily would expect. Aside from a dip during the early days of the pandemic, the Chamber sees a rise in both the number and size of these verdicts. The median nuclear verdict in product liability cases, in particular, hit a new high of $36 million in 2022—a 50% rise from the first year in the study. The study found 2022 also set a new record for the number of “mega” nuclear verdicts—those with more than $100 million—with more than 20. Although the 2023 numbers have yet to be finalized, the report indicates that the record for “mega” verdicts appears to have broken again last year.
