Here are some jury awards that reinforce the need for asset protection.  I have chosen some extreme examples but these are the kinds of awards that come down against your private party clients.*

1. A New Mexico lady was awarded $2.7 million when she was burned by McDonald’s coffee that she claimed was too hot.
2. A New Hampshire jury ordered the owners of an apartment building to pay $2.1 million to a woman who was bitten on the arms and legs by a friend’s pit bulldog – the plaintiff claiming that the apartment building’s owner, rather than her friend, was responsible.
3. A Virginia construction worker who refused to let doctors reattach his severed hand after he intentionally cut it off with a power saw later sued the hospital for $3.3 million.
4. A New York jury awarded a secretary $5.3 million on her claim against the Digital Equipment Corporation that her computer keyboard was responsible for her developing a case of carpel-tunnel, a repetitive stress injury.
5. Pedro Duran of Pensacola, FL, got incredibly drunk one night while out partying with his friends.  Staggering home alone in the wee hours of the morning, Pedro passed out on the railroad tracks he was crossing.  A train came by later and cut off his arm.  Pedro sued the railroad and won $900,000!  The jury concluded that the railroad was negligent.
6. Client suffered brain damage and was awarded $216 million when a licensed ER attendant misdiagnosed a stroke as a sinus infection.
7. A nursing home resident was beat up by their roommate (two patient room); the home was sued and the patient was awarded $160 million.
8. An employee sued their employer for ethnic discrimination and harassment at a private company.  The employee was awarded $61 million.
9. An award for $46 million resulting from an auto accident where the car blew up when it was hit by a private trucking company driver.  Please be aware that this was not against the auto manufacturer, it was against the private trucking company that hit them.
10. Florida real estate developer was awarded $44 million dollars for interference with contract when he was muscled out of the deal.
11. An 82 year old cancer patient’s family was awarded $606 million dollars after he died from an overdose of chemotherapy medicine.
12.  A mother was awarded $164 million when she sued the barricade company that set up barriers between the construction and traffic.  Her claim was that the barricades forced her child to walk in traffic and her child would not have been hit had the barriers not forced him to walk in the street.