Nuclear Verdicts Against Companies Hit Record High in 2025, Topping $25.6 Billion

Nuclear verdicts against corporate defendants surged to their highest annual total since 2009, with 190 lawsuits resulting in awards of at least $10 million in 2025, according to Marathon Strategies.

The combined value of those verdicts topped $25.6 billion, the communications and research firm found in its latest annual report on the trend. “Thermonuclear” verdicts, defined by Marathon as those exceeding $100 million, topped 40 cases for the second consecutive year, with four surpassing $1 billion.

The firm found that 68 industries were hit with a nuclear verdict in 2025, up from 55 in 2024 and 48 in 2023. Since 2020, nuclear verdicts have grown 476% in number, 422% in total sum and 51% in median value, the report said.

Geography And Industry Shift

Georgia led all states with $4.9 billion in verdicts across 10 cases, propelled by two products liability awards exceeding $2 billion each against Ford Motor Co. and Bayer AG, according to the report. Nevada ranked second with $4.3 billion across three cases, a figure Marathon attributed largely to litigation against the now-defunct bottled water maker AffinityLifestyles, whose Real Water brand was found contaminated with a chemical used in rocket fuel. Texas ($3.4 billion), California ($2.6 billion), Florida ($2.5 billion) and Maryland ($1.7 billion) rounded out the top tier.

Pennsylvania saw the sharpest decline, falling to just two verdicts totaling $29.3 million in 2025 from 12 verdicts worth $3.4 billion in 2024, which Marathon attributed to an outsized prior year, a reduction in trials and an increase in defendants choosing to settle.

Florida’s rebound drew particular attention in the report. After Gov. Ron DeSantis signed tort reform in early 2023, the state fell from the second-ranked jurisdiction to 10th in 2024. In 2025, it climbed back to fifth with 20 cases spanning breach of fiduciary duty, wrongful death, products liability and other claims, including an $833 million verdict against Wells Fargo and a $779 million wrongful death verdict against an internet café accused of running an illegal gambling operation. Marathon said these developments suggest that while a state can change rules in the courtroom, “the court of public opinion is another matter entirely.”

Products liability remained the dominant case category, generating nearly $12 billion across 29 cases, the report found. Trade secrets disputes, which Marathon had projected would grow, doubled to more than $1.4 billion in 10 cases. Worker and workplace negligence claims and intellectual property matters each totaled roughly $1.4 billion across 14 cases apiece. Premises liability verdicts reached their largest total ever, $602 million across 20 cases, up from $134 million in five cases in 2024.

Juror Attitudes And Legislative Response

Marathon’s research pointed to corporate mistrust, social pessimism, erosion of tort reform and public desensitization to large numbers as key drivers, along with shifting jury pool demographics. Studies cited in the report show Millennial jurors tend to be more pro-plaintiff, less trusting of the average U.S. company and more focused on ethical matters when considering which brands to trust, compared with the prior generation.

A 2025 survey by Orrick cited in the report pointed to a shift toward “juror activism” and a “distinct lack of trust” in institutions, while separate survey research cited in the report found 72% of Americans believe it is a juror’s job to “send a message to corporations to improve their behavior,” a double-digit increase over 2022 results.

Eight states — Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma and South Carolina — enacted major tort reform laws in 2025, addressing litigation funding disclosure, damages caps and attorney fee limits, which Marathon called one of the most active years for state-level lawsuit reform regulation in the past two decades. Texas considered a major tort reform bill, but its House and Senate could not reconcile versions before the legislative session ended.

Attorney advertising spending, meanwhile, now exceeds $2.5 billion annually, up 39% since 2020, with firms increasingly turning to platforms like Barstool Sports and podcaster Theo Von as part of their outreach, the report said. More than 1,700 class-action lawsuits settled for a total of $79 billion in 2025, up from $42 billion in 2024, according to data cited in the report.

Obtain the full report here. &