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Recent Cerebral Palsy and Birth Injury Verdicts: What 2024-2025 Tells Families
6/30/2026
Legally reviewed by: Chris Schroeder, Esq.
When a preventable mistake during labor and delivery causes a child's cerebral palsy, families face a lifetime of medical care, therapy, equipment, and lost income. Birth injury lawsuits exist to shift that financial burden back to the parties responsible — and in 2024 and 2025, juries returned some of the largest such verdicts in U.S. history.
While these results don't set a goal for each case, it's important that families understand what's at stake for their child. Also, we can learn what these cases had in common, what a verdict can and can't do for a family, and why the facts often matter as much as the dollar figure. Below we summarize several notable outcomes and the lessons families can take from them.
“No verdict can undo a preventable birth injury — but it can fund the lifetime of care a child will need.”
— Cerebral Palsy Center Editorial Team
Notable birth injury verdicts in 2024-2025
The following verdicts were widely reported in 2024 and 2025. Figures reflect what juries (or, in one case, a judge) awarded at trial — not necessarily what families ultimately receive (more on that below).
$951 million — Utah (2025). A Utah court awarded a reported $951 million in a case involving hypoxic-ischemic brain injury, said to be the largest medical malpractice award in the state's history. The child is described as requiring round-the-clock care for life.
$120 million — Michigan (2024). A Detroit jury returned a $120 million verdict for a young boy diagnosed with severe cerebral palsy following his delivery.
$48.1 million — Missouri (2025). A St. Louis County jury awarded $48.1 million after an obstetrician allowed labor to continue for roughly 12 hours instead of performing a cesarean section, in what was reported as the largest medical malpractice verdict in Missouri history.
$47 million — Tennessee (2024). A Nashville family received a $47 million verdict after their child suffered severe birth injuries, reported as the largest such judgment in Tennessee history.
$29 million — Minnesota (2025). A jury awarded $29 million after a nurse-midwife reportedly failed to contact the on-call OB/GYN in time once the baby showed signs of fetal distress.
$14 million — Illinois (2024). A verdict followed allegations that providers failed to diagnose and respond promptly to a placental abruption, resulting in extensive hypoxic-ischemic brain injury.
$10 million — Wisconsin (2025). A jury found that negligence — including a high dose of the labor-inducing drug Pitocin over an extended period — led to a child's cerebral palsy.
Not every case ends in a verdict. Many resolve through settlement, including an $18 million birth injury settlement reached with a Chicago-area hospital in 2025 after a three-week trial.
What these cases had in common
Read together, these cases point to a familiar set of preventable failures during labor and delivery — the same kinds of events that can deprive a baby's brain of oxygen and lead to cerebral palsy:
Failure to recognize or act on fetal distress shown on the fetal heart-rate monitor.
Delayed cesarean section when a faster delivery was needed.
Misuse of labor-induction drugs such as Pitocin, causing excessively strong or frequent contractions.
Failure to escalate — for example, a midwife or nurse not calling the supervising physician in time.
These mechanisms are closely tied to hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), one of the leading preventable causes of cerebral palsy. When the standard of care is not met and a lasting injury results, those failures can form the basis of a birth injury lawsuit.
Why birth injury awards are so large
To families unfamiliar with these cases, the numbers can seem staggering. But a severe birth injury creates costs that stretch across an entire lifetime, and courts award damages to cover them. Those damages typically fall into several categories:
Future medical care — surgeries, medications, hospitalizations, and specialist visits, often across 50, 60, or more years.
Therapy and equipment — physical, occupational, and speech therapy, wheelchairs, communication devices, and orthotics that must be replaced as a child grows.
Home and vehicle modifications — ramps, lifts, accessible bathrooms, and adapted transportation.
Lost earning capacity — compensation for income the child may never be able to earn, plus wages parents lose while providing care.
Pain, suffering, and loss of a normal life.
Economists and life-care planners routinely testify to these figures at trial. When decades of round-the-clock care are added up, the lifetime cost of severe cerebral palsy can reach several million dollars — which is why verdicts in clearly proven cases climb into the tens or even hundreds of millions.
What a verdict really means (and what it doesn't)
A large headline number is not the same as a check in a family's account. A few important realities:
Verdicts are often reduced. Many states cap certain damages, and defendants frequently file post-trial motions or appeals that lower the final amount or send a case back for a new trial.
Most cases settle — quietly. The majority of birth injury claims resolve in confidential settlements whose amounts are never made public, so verdicts are only the visible tip of the iceberg.
Every case is different. A verdict reflects one jury, one set of facts, and one state's laws. It is not a price tag for any other family's case.
What these outcomes do show is that when negligence is proven, the law recognizes the enormous lifetime cost of raising a child with a serious birth injury — and that those costs can be shifted to the responsible party.
If you are considering a claim
Two things matter most early on. First, the statute of limitations — the legal deadline to file — varies by state and can be shorter than families expect, though many states give extra time for injuries to a child. Second, these cases turn on detailed medical records and expert review, so an experienced birth injury attorney will want to evaluate the facts as early as possible. Our guides on cerebral palsy legal help, birth injury lawsuits, and settlements explain how the process works.
Sources
Childbirth Injuries — reporting on the Utah and Missouri verdicts. childbirthinjuries.com
The Expert Institute — The Biggest Medical Malpractice Verdicts of 2025. expertinstitute.com
Disclaimer. This article is general legal information, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Verdict amounts are based on news accounts and may be reduced on appeal or by statutory caps. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes; every case is decided on its own facts. If you believe your child's cerebral palsy may have been caused by a medical error, contact us for a free, confidential review.
Chris Schroeder is a multi-state licensed attorney with more than 20 years of experience in litigation, patient outreach, and birth-injury advocacy. He has helped thousands of families affected by medical mistakes and conditions such as cerebral palsy.
CPC
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Cerebral Palsy Center
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