Public settlements and verdicts
Everything on this page is a public record of someone else's case. None of it is a result of this firm, and none of it predicts what any other case will pay. The entries were chosen to show range, from an $87,000 settlement in Miami Beach to a $112 million jury verdict against Suffolk County, and each one names the amount, the kind of payment, the payer, the date and the source. For scale, the New York City Comptroller's average police action claim settled before litigation paid $17,609.
People ask what cases like theirs have paid. It is a fair question, and the honest answer is a list of public records with a warning attached. These are other people's cases. They were not handled by this firm. They were chosen to show how wide the range is, not to suggest where in it any case will land, and the large ones are on the list because large payments make the news and small ones do not.
Each entry carries its label. A settlement is an agreed payment, usually with no admission. A verdict is a jury's number, which is not money paid until post-trial motions and appeals are over. A class settlement is divided among many people. The payer and the date are stated, and the source is linked.
Run the dates through the deadline tool
Read this before the numbers
Every figure below is a public record of someone else's case. None is a result of this firm, and none is a prediction. What a case is worth depends on the injury, the evidence and the defenses, and nothing on this site estimates it. For scale: across fiscal 2019 to 2023 the New York City Comptroller's average personal injury police action claim settled before litigation paid $17,609, and the average resolved in litigation paid $68,702 (NYC Comptroller, Annual Claims Report, fiscal 2023). Those are averages, not medians, and not a prediction either.
New York
No cap on damages. The City of New York indemnifies its officers by statute and publishes what it pays. The New York recovery page has the rules.
Estate of Eric Garner
A chokehold death during an arrest on Staten Island in 2014. The Comptroller settled the claim before a lawsuit was filed, with no admission of liability.
Source: NYC Comptroller. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Family of Kalief Browder
Held about three years at Rikers Island from age 16, about two of them in solitary confinement, on a charge that was dropped. He died by suicide in 2015.
Source: Prison Legal News. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
The Central Park Five
Five wrongful convictions in a 1989 case, vacated in 2002.
Source: Innocence Project. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Sow v. City of New York, the 2020 protest class
Arrests and force at the 2020 racial justice protests. About 1,300 people were eligible. The City admitted nothing.
Source: Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Family of Layleen Polanco
A transgender woman with epilepsy died in a Rikers restrictive housing cell in June 2019 after going unmonitored.
Source: NBC News. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Grottano v. City of New York
Invasive strip searches of people visiting City jails, 2012 to 2019.
Source: Prison Legal News. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Eric Smokes and David Warren
Wrongful convictions for a 1987 Times Square killing, vacated in 2024. The two settlements were reported as $13 million and about $11.1 million.
Source: ABC7 New York. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
A stun gun injury
The lawsuit alleged a Taser strike to the eye.
Source: ABC7 New York. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Brigid Pierce
A traumatic brain injury at a Brooklyn protest. A federal jury found the City liable for assault and battery.
Source: The Legal Aid Society. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Castaneda v. County of Suffolk
A class of 674 people held past their release dates on ICE detainers. The verdict was reported as $75 million on the Fourth Amendment claim and $37 million on the due process claim. We have not confirmed the post-trial motions or any appeal, so this is a verdict, not money paid.
Source: Prison Legal News. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Onadia v. City of New York
More than 20,000 people held in City jails past their release on ICE detainers, 1997 to 2012. We have not confirmed final approval.
Source: ecbawm.com, class counsel. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
New Jersey
Two years, a Civil Rights Act with its own fee provision, and a 90-day notice for the tort claims. The New Jersey recovery page has the rules.
Xavier Ingram
Left quadriplegic after a 2014 arrest. The case settled after a jury could not reach a verdict, and the county denied wrongdoing.
Source: CBS News Philadelphia. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Family of Jerame Reid
A fatal shooting during a 2014 traffic stop.
Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Family of Stephen Dolceamore
He died in 2020 while restrained face down and handcuffed, with officers' knees on his back. The death was ruled a homicide and no one was charged.
Source: PBS. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Estate of Maurice Gordon
A fatal State Police shooting on the Garden State Parkway in 2020.
Source: News 12 New Jersey. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Cumberland County Jail suicides
Seven suicides in pretrial detention, 2014 to 2018. The individual settlements ran from $140,000 to $750,000.
Source: Prison Legal News. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Edna Mahan Correctional Facility
Sexual abuse of incarcerated women by corrections officers.
Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Pennsylvania
The city is immune under state law for intentional misconduct, so these cases run on the federal claim. The Pennsylvania recovery page has the rules.
The 2020 protest cases
Tear gas on I-676 and in the 52nd Street neighborhood. About 350 plaintiffs shared the settlement, and the City added $500,000 for a counseling fund.
Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Family of Walter Wallace Jr.
Shot by officers during a mental health crisis in 2020.
Source: WHYY. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Anthony Wright
Imprisoned 25 years and exonerated by DNA. The lawsuit alleged a coerced confession. The City admitted nothing.
Source: City of Philadelphia. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Chester Hollman III
Imprisoned 28 years in a case built on coerced witnesses.
Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Walter Ogrod
Imprisoned 28 years.
Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Jimmy Dennis
Twenty-five years on death row in a case where exculpatory evidence was withheld. This is a verdict reported to be under appeal, not money paid, and we have not confirmed who pays it.
Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Estate of Jim Rogers
Repeatedly Tasered in 2021. He died the next day.
Source: WESA. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
People abused by former officer Patrick Heron
Sexual abuse by an officer the department had kept on despite sustained complaints.
Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Florida
State-law claims against the government are subject to statutory caps of $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident, and the excess is paid only by a legislative claim bill. The Dontrell Stephens entry shows what that does to a verdict. The Florida recovery page has the rules.
Family of Corey Jones
A stranded motorist shot by a plainclothes officer in 2015. The officer was convicted.
Source: CBS News. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Dontrell Stephens
Shot and paralyzed in 2013. A federal jury returned a verdict of about $22.4 million in 2016. What was actually paid, four years later and by an act of the Legislature, was $6 million.
Source: WPTV. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Family of Seth Adams
An unarmed man shot by a sergeant in 2012. The case settled after a jury deadlocked.
Source: CBS News Miami. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Family of Darren Rainey
A mentally ill man left in a scalding shower at Dade Correctional Institution in 2012.
Source: WLRN. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Robert DuBoise
Imprisoned 37 years on bite-mark evidence.
Source: WUSF. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
The Raymond Herisse shooting
Police fired 116 rounds on Memorial Day 2011. Bystanders who were hit settled with the City for $15,000 to $55,000 each.
Source: NBC Miami. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Family of Scott Whitley III
A jail detainee with schizophrenia was Tasered 27 times. The death was ruled a homicide. The county admitted nothing.
Source: Prison Legal News. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Police dog bites, Tampa Bay area
A television investigation of agency records also found settlements of $235,500 by the Hillsborough County Sheriff, $100,000 by St. Petersburg and $85,000 by Tampa.
Source: Tampa Bay 28. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
What is not on this page
Matters we could not verify to a public source, or whose outcome we could not confirm, were left off. So were payments by private contractors, because this site is about claims against government. We have no verified median or typical range for New Jersey, Florida or Pennsylvania, so none is published. If a criminal charge from your own incident is pending, talk to your defense lawyer before describing the arrest to anyone; the criminal case and civil case page explains why.
What a case is worth
The factors that move the number, the ones that do not, and why this site does not estimate.
The factors →Liens, taxes and fees
A gross figure is not what a person takes home. What comes out, and in what order.
What comes out →Recovery, all four states
The federal claim against the state claims, and the comparison table for the four states.
Recovery →Common questions
Are these your firm's results?
No. Every entry on this page is a public record of someone else's case, taken from a government announcement, a court record or a news report, and linked to its source. This site publishes no figure about the firm's own results.
Does a big settlement in a case like mine mean mine is worth the same?
No. A settlement or verdict reflects one person's injury, one set of evidence, one group of defendants and one court. Two cases with the same label, a false arrest or a shooting, can differ in every fact that moves the number. The what a case is worth page explains the factors, and we do not estimate a figure on this site or in a first conversation.
Why are some entries verdicts and not settlements?
Because that is what the public record shows. A jury verdict is not money paid. It can be reduced by the trial judge, reversed on appeal, or, in Florida, limited by the statutory caps on state-law claims. Where we have not confirmed what happened after a verdict, the entry says so.
What does a typical claim pay?
The only verified averages in our ledger are New York City's. For fiscal 2019 to 2023 the Comptroller reports an average of $17,609 for a personal injury police action claim settled before litigation and $68,702 for one resolved in litigation. Those are averages, not medians, for one city, and they are not a prediction.
Tell us what happened.
One conversation with an attorney, in your language. We tell you which claims the facts support, which deadline runs first for the agency involved, what evidence to preserve this week, and whether a pending criminal case changes the timing. If it is not a case we can take, we say so and tell you where to go.
(718) 484-7510If a criminal charge is still open, talk to your defense lawyer before you describe the arrest to anyone, including us. English, Russian and Spanish in-house; an interpreter for any other language. Contingency fee, confirmed in writing before we begin.