Despite representing only 1.5% of the U.S. population, Louisiana ranked fifth among the states in a new study that catalogs the increasing number of jury verdicts against corporations that exceed $10 million.
Louisiana racked up more than $9.5 billion in these so-called nuclear verdicts from 2009 to 2022, according to Marathon Strategies, a research, communications and crisis-management company. The Louisiana industries most affected by these jury awards were pharmaceuticals, trucking, and oil and gas, the report stated.
Louisiana’s rise to becoming one of the top five states for nuclear verdicts is largely due to two cases, according to the Marathon Strategies study. The Allen v. Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America Inc. lawsuit produced a verdict of more than $9 billion in the Western District of Louisiana in 2014, but that award was later cut to $38 million. And in Louisiana v. Janssen Pharmaceutical Inc., the company was ordered to pay $257 million in a consumer protection dispute tried in St. Landry Parish District Court.
Although Marathon CEO Phil Singer said the study is neutral on whether the increase in such large jury verdicts is good or bad, the report notes that Louisiana was pegged as a Judicial Hellhole by the American Tort Reform Foundation in 2021, largely as a result of judicial misconduct, and that Gov. John Bel Edwards had vetoed a bill to limit legal services advertising.
“Overall, Louisiana accounts for a disproportionate amount of the TV ads and spending by lawyers on the ads, considering the state makes up less than 1.5% of the nation’s population – 4% of all spending and 5.6% of ads in one quarter,” the report says.
Louisiana recorded 13 jury verdicts of $10 million or more from 2009 to 2022, according to the study. Such verdicts involving the trucking industry amounted to nearly $115 million over that time period, with the oil and gas industry accounting for $54.6 million.
Singer told the Louisiana Record that in the wake of the $9 billion Takeda Pharmaceuticals verdict, the company’s stock price fell to a six-month low and then continued to fall.
"One of the key takeaways from the report is the impact on reputation that these cases can have on companies,” he said, adding that companies need not only top-notch attorneys to deal with such issues but also reputation-management specialists who can restore the company’s image.
Nationwide, the median nuclear verdict against corporate defendants nearly doubled between 2020 and 2022, from $21.5 million to $41.1 million, the study said.