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How Huge Litigation Verdicts Impact Wealth Management
Wealthy individuals and business owners need to confront the risk of juries going against them with big awards. By Kenneth Golsan and Craig Cartmill
IN 2024, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL PUBLISHED AN ARTICLE called“ Nuclear Jury Verdicts Rise Alongside American Anger.” The article highlighted the rising trend in which juries award plaintiffs extremely large awards of $ 10 million or more against corporations, wealthy individuals or families holding closely owned businesses when they’ re sued by workers or contractors for injuries or wrongful death. The article was inspired by U. S. Chamber of Commerce research into the issue. The chamber’ s Institute for Legal Reform found that such awards have steadily increased over the past decade( and these don’ t include temporary pandemic-related disruptions). Such verdicts touch every industry, and they’ re not limited to mass tort litigation.
In the past two years alone, juries gave massive awards to plain- tiffs in their lawsuits against closely held, non-public companies: a $ 5.2 billion verdict against Nevada’ s Real Water for toxic exposure in its water and a $ 640 million verdict against TNT Crane & Rigging for a Texas workplace fatality. Although awards sometimes remain subject to appeal, settlement, or post-trial modification, these two cases reflect a continuing trend of juries imposing extraordinary compensatory and punitive damages where plaintiffs successfully frame corporate conduct as placing profits, safety, or risk management ahead of public welfare.
While much of the attention has focused on corporations, the research made clear that wealthy individuals and families increasingly find themselves in the crosshairs as well. That makes nuclear verdicts a problem for wealth managers and family of-
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