Yarborough Applegate again earned a number of South Carolina’s highest-dollar jury verdicts and settlements for the year, as reported by South Carolina Lawyers Weekly. Each spring, South Carolina Lawyers Weekly publishes a list of the top verdicts and settlements in the state for the previous year. For the second year in a row, one of our cases claimed the top spot on the list: a $13.1 million jury verdict that was awarded to a young man hurt by a road defect.
Jury Awards $13.1 Million To Man Hurt By Defective Repaving Project (#1)
A group of five students—all attending Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina—were traveling southbound I-77 in Richland County when a negligent road defect caused the driver to oversteer, resulting in a loss of control over the vehicle. Our client was the lone survivor of the tragic wreck. The hard-earned verdict was the culmination of years of work and followed a nearly two-week trial. Read more about the case on our blog.
$7.5 Million Settlement Reached In Dram Shop Case (#5)
Our client was the surviving parent of a woman who was killed when a drunk driver—who was traveling at more than 100 miles per hour—crashed into her while she was pulling into her driveway. On the eve of trial in an exceedingly difficult and hard-fought case, we secured this $7.5 million settlement from the national chain restaurant and gas station that each sold alcohol to the drunk driver.
Worker Crushed By Rail Car Settles Claim For $6 Million (#6)
After a railroad worker was crushed by a rail car on the job, suffering catastrophic injuries, we helped him settle a pre-lawsuit claim against the railway owner for $6 million. Our client was performing work underneath a cargo-loaded railcar—which was on a jack, but not a jack stand—when the car shifted and pinned him to the ground. Unfortunately, workers had previously expressed concern about the dangers of working on loaded railcars, but those concerns went unacknowledged.
Charleston-Area Bars Pay $5.5 Million In Dram Shop Settlements (#8)
We secured $5.5 million for our clients who were injured when their car was hit head-on by a drunk driver on I-26. The impaired driver had been celebrating her 29th birthday at two bars, one in downtown Charleston, in advance of the 3 a.m. crash. At a height of 4’9” and weighing less than 100 pounds, the driver’s blood alcohol level was still two and half times the legal limit when it was measured over an hour after the crash.
Jury Awards $3.1 Million After Gas Station Sells Alcohol To Minor (#18)
While driving to work, a 24-year-old man was seriously injured when an underage drunk driver crashed head-on into his car in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. The driver admitted to being drunk from beer his underage friend had purchased from a Sunoco convenience store. Sunoco denied that the sale occurred for four years and, during trial, argued they had no liability for selling to a minor who shared it with another minor who then harmed our client. But despite their failure to accept any responsibility, our attorneys ultimately proved Sunoco was jointly at fault in this tragedy.
Injured Cyclist Settles Dram Shop Suit For $1.1 Million (tied for #36)
We earned this dram shop settlement on behalf of a bicyclist who was hit and injured in Hanahan, South Carolina, by a suspected drunk driver. The driver was working as a bartender and drinking while on the job. When she left work, she struck our client and fled the scene.
Motorcycling Couple Settles Dram Shop Claim For $1.1 Million (tied for #36)
A husband and wife were severely injured when a drunk driver hit their motorcycles and fled the scene. The driver had consumed about 24 drinks at a nearby bar before getting into his car, darting into incoming traffic, and crashing into our clients.
Disclaimer: Every case is unique, and prior results do not guarantee future outcomes.
David Lail of Yarborough Applegate settled a dram shop lawsuit for the family of a 24-year-old man killed by a drunk driver while riding his moped in August, 2017. The dram shop lawsuit brought by Lail against the drunk driver and the bar that served him resulted in a $1.85 million settlement for the victim’s […]
In a dram shop case stemming from a deadly July 4, 2019, hit-and-run in which a drunk driver hit a cyclist, Yarborough Applegate attorneys Liam Duffy and David Yarborough recently obtained a key court ruling on behalf of the cyclist’s family.
Yarborough Applegate has once again claimed a number of South Carolina’s highest-dollar verdicts and settlements for the year, including the top spot for an $8 million settlement over an insurance bad faith claim.
Every year, South Carolina Lawyers Weekly compiles a list of the top million-dollar settlements in the state reported in its newspaper. Since 2011, Yarborough Applegate has appeared on this list every year, always securing at least 3 spots. In 2016, Yarborough Applegate earned 8 of the 18 spots on the list totaling $18.15 million in […]
Our co-founding partner, David Yarborough, was interviewed by Mark Bringardner of Joye Law Firm on his podcast, The Sidebar, this month, where he shared his experience on dram shop litigation and trial strategy, as well as offered invaluable advice on how to develop skills as a trial lawyer.
Every year, South Carolina Lawyers Weekly presents a list of the top verdicts and settlements of the previous year—and this year, Yarborough Applegate was recognized in four out of the 30 top recoveries of 2019.