2005’s Top Verdicts

Lawyers Weekly has posted the ten biggest verdicts of 2005.  As usual with such things, they should be taken with a recognition that many (most?) will not be recovered in the full verdict amount due to damage caps, high/low agreements, etc.  Notable, but not surprising to anyone who’s paid much attention, is the piece’s observation of how central e-mail has become, especially on the punitive damages side.

The WSJ law blog has a useful version of the list with links to stories on each one.

By my count, about six of the cases are what I would consider classic (if, in some cases, unusual) tort or products cases.  (I didn’t count the fraud case.)

Update: See this entry for a verdict that LW missed.