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Ala. inventor wins $192 million verdict 

By: Justin Rebello
Published: January 19, 2009

Tags: Top Ten Verdicts

A chemist who accused a global chemical corporation of stealing his hazardous waste recycling idea won a $192 million verdict in state court in Alabama – one of the largest individual verdicts in the state’s history.

Sven Peter Mannsfeld, 72, a German-born scientist who worked at Degussa Corp.
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Paralyzed steel mill worker wins $48 million 

By: Justin Rebello
Published: January 19, 2009

Tags: Top Ten Verdicts

A steelworker who was paralyzed from the waist down after falling from a ladder was awarded $48 million by an Indiana jury.

The plaintiff, 41-year-old Anthony Arciniega, worked for a steel mill where a contractor, Minteq International Inc., was hired to apply refractory, a bonding spray, to various metals.

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$54 million for fatal tractor-trailer crash 

By: Justin Rebello
Published: January 19, 2009

Tags: Top Ten Verdicts

A jury in Georgia found a trucking company liable for $54.4 million, including $44 million in punitive damages, for the death of a passenger killed when a tractor-trailer rear-ended the car in which she was riding.

One of the challenges the winning lawyer, Peter A. Law of Peter A.
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$55M for Marine families in helicopter case 

By: Justin Rebello
Published: January 19, 2009

Tags: Top Ten Verdicts

A California jury awarded $55 million to the families of four Marines killed in 2004 when the helicopter in which they were flying collided with a utility tower.

According to the complaint, San Diego Gas & Electric – which owned and operated the tower – was negligent in
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Nevada man wins $60M in bad faith retrial 

By: Justin Rebello
Published: January 19, 2009

Tags: Top Ten Verdicts

In a retrial that ended up increasing the punitive damages six-fold, a Nevada jury awarded $60 million to a man who claimed his disability insurance payments were unfairly terminated while he was suffering from Lyme disease.

Four years ago, a Nevada jury awarded $1.6 million to G. Clinton Merrick,
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Shell Oil to pay $66 million to royalty owners 

By: Justin Rebello
Published: January 19, 2009

Tags: Top Ten Verdicts

It took nearly four decades, but an Oklahoma jury ordered Shell Oil Co. to pay $66 million to five royalty owners (several of them deceased) for their share of a lucrative oil well dug in the early-1970s.

The payments will go to two families who owned the land where
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U-Haul rollover victim wins $84 million 

By: Justin Rebello
Published: January 19, 2009

Tags: Top Ten Verdicts

Ted B. Lyon, the attorney representing a 74-year-old man who was seriously injured after a parked U-Haul truck he rented rolled over him, thought the odds were against him when the jury was seated at trial.

“Of the six people on the jury, four were conservative Republicans,” known to
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Lawyers of the Year – Steven W. Williams 

By: Justin Rebello
Published: January 19, 2009

Tags: lawyer of the year

New York attorney Steven W. Williams won the biggest defamation verdict in U.S. history in January, working on behalf of a Mexican contractor who claimed the words of an American businessman severely damaged his reputation. Jose Ramiro Garza Cantu was awarded
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Lawyers of the Year – Theodore Olson 

By: Justin Rebello
Published: January 19, 2009

Tags: lawyer of the year

For veteran Supreme Court litigator Theodore Olson, 2008 has been a particularly good year.

In October, Olson argued his 50th case before the nation’s top court, a milestone only a handful of other attorneys have reached.

He was
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Lawyers of the Year – Barack Obama 

By: Justin Rebello
Published: January 19, 2009

Tags: lawyer of the year

Long before Barack Obama became the first black president-elect, he was racking up a number of legal accomplishments, some also historic in nature.

In 1990, he was chosen as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review.

After
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