Trucking companies across the U.S. faced US$165 million in nuclear verdicts — jury awards exceeding $10 million — in 2023, according to the latest Marathon Strategies report.
To address such challenges, Iowa became the first state in the U.S. to cap liability damages against trucking companies, helping companies affected by nuclear verdicts. The legislation limits such damages to $5 million (all figures USD). It does not include cases where a trucking company acted negligently, such as through hiring, training, supervising, or trusting an employee driver involved in a crash, according to the report.
Louisiana continues to be one of the hardest-hit states for trucking-related verdicts. Last year, the state accounted for 15 nuclear verdicts for the trucking, oil and gas, and pharmaceutical industries, ordering nearly $10 billion in payoffs. Meanwhile, Florida ordered companies in trucking, automobile, real estate and tobacco industries to pay more than $33.2 billion in 175 verdicts since between 2009 and 2023.
However, several states are stepping in to help industries affected by nuclear verdicts, including trucking and transportation companies. For example, Indiana passed a law requiring more transparency in how lawsuits are funded, while Texas introduced rules to limit liability claims against transportation providers.
Automobile manufacturers and trucking companies – both of which are frequent targets of these verdicts – combined for more than $1.3 billion in nuclear verdicts in 2023. Much of this total was driven by a $976.5 million verdict against Mitsubishi Motors ordered by a Philadelphia jury.
Overall, U.S. juries ordered companies in 47 different industries to pay a nuclear verdict last year. There were 89 cases with verdicts of more than $10 million in the U.S., the highest in 15 years and a 27% increase since 2022. Of those, 27 cases topped $100 million, eight topped over $500 million, and two were in excess of $1 billion. These are referred to as “thermonuclear verdicts”.
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