Thermonuclear Verdicts Intensify Legal Risks for Trucking

The trucking industry is facing heightened exposure to “nuclear” and “thermonuclear” jury verdicts, according to a new report by Marathon Strategies. The study found that trucking and automotive companies together saw $1.4 billion in jury awards last year, as verdicts exceeding $100 million surged nationwide.

Nuclear and Thermonuclear Verdicts on the Rise

The report, Corporate Verdicts Go Thermonuclear, outlined a sharp increase in high-dollar awards:

• 135 nuclear verdicts (awards over $10 million) were issued in 2024 — a 52% rise from 2023.
• 49 thermonuclear verdicts (awards of at least $100 million) were recorded, up 81% year over year.
• In total, these verdicts amounted to $31.3 billion in damages, more than doubling the 2023 figure.

Most of these cases were decided in state courts, which saw $20 billion in awards across 85 cases, compared with $11 billion across 50 cases in federal courts.

Impact on Trucking and Automotive Cases

Trucking was directly tied to two major thermonuclear verdicts last year:

• $450 million against Wabash: A jury awarded punitive damages over a 2019 crash involving one of its trailers. The judgment was later reduced by a St. Louis court to $108 million.
• $160 million against Daimler Truck North America: An Alabama jury awarded damages in a product liability case after a 2022 rollover left a driver quadriplegic. Daimler defended the safety of its products and said it would appeal.

Both cases shows how product liability and negligence claims are pushing verdicts into higher ranges that carry major financial implications for manufacturers and carriers.

State Trends and Florida’s Tort Reform Shift

Marathon’s analysis showed that 34 states issued nuclear or thermonuclear verdicts in 2024, compared with 27 the year before. The top five states by total awards were Nevada ($8.4 billion), California ($6.9 billion), Pennsylvania ($3.4 billion), Texas ($3 billion), and New York ($2.1 billion).

Florida, once ranked No. 2 in the nation for nuclear verdicts, has dropped to No. 10 following 2023 tort reform legislation. The Florida Trucking Association and state lawmakers backed reforms aimed at curbing what they called frivolous lawsuits and predatory legal practices. Anticipating the changes, attorneys filed more than 280,000 civil cases in the days before Governor Ron DeSantis signed the law.

Drivers Behind the Verdict Surge

The report cited several underlying causes for the rise in nuclear verdicts:

• Aggressive attorney advertising, with $2.4 billion spent annually.
• Corporate mistrust and social pessimism, shaping jury attitudes.
• Erosion of tort reform in certain states.
• Desensitization to large financial figures, reducing juror hesitation toward high awards.

Marathon noted that 55 industries were subject to nuclear verdicts in 2024, compared with 48 in 2023, with trucking continuing to stand out as a high-risk sector.

Source: Transport Topics