Nuclear verdicts sound like something out of a movie, but for construction businesses, they are very real and very dangerous. They can shut down projects, drain years of profits, and even force a company to close its doors for good.
One accident can turn into a courtroom battle where a jury decides a company should pay hundreds of millions of dollars. When that happens, insurance becomes the difference between surviving and disappearing. If you run a company, you need to understand what these verdicts are and why they keep getting bigger. You also need a plan for keeping your business standing when disaster strikes.
What is a Nuclear Verdict in Construction?
A nuclear verdict is a jury award so large that it feels explosive to the business that has to pay it. Most of these jury awards or settlements are over $10 million. These verdicts used to be rare, but it’s becoming more common.
A 2024 study from communications firm Marathon Strategies found that 135 corporate lawsuits across 55 industries produced nuclear verdicts that year, adding up to $31.3 billion, which is the highest recorded since 2009.
Why is this happening all of a sudden? Public trust in big companies has been sliding for years. When someone sits on a jury, they often assume a business can easily absorb a massive payout. That assumption makes jurors far less hesitant to award huge sums. Juries today also feel frustrated with companies they think cut corners on safety.
The $860 Million Dallas Crane Collapse Nuclear Verdict
Here’s an example from Dallas, TX that shows exactly how a nuclear verdict plays out.
In June 2019, a woman was sitting on her couch in her apartment when a tower crane from a nearby construction project crashed through the building during a severe thunderstorm and killed her. The investigation turned up a string of failures. The crane operator had already logged more than 80 hours that week and never moved the crane into a safe “weathervane” position ahead of the storm. Investigators also found an unauthorized sign bolted to the crane, along with rusted bolts that had gone unaddressed for far too long. All of these were major safety and OSHA concerns.
Her family sued multiple parties, including the developer, the contractors, the crane company, and the crane operator, claiming gross negligence. In 2023, a Dallas County jury held the real estate developer, Greystar, solely liable and awarded $360 million in actual damages plus $500 million in exemplary damages, for a total of $860 million.
This case matters for every construction business because it shows how safety failures, fatigue, poor maintenance, and unclear contracts can combine into a verdict big enough to threaten the entire company.
How Nuclear Verdicts are Driving Up Construction Insurance Costs
A verdict like the one in Dallas sends ripples far beyond the company that got sued. Insurance carriers respond to cases like this by raising premiums across the entire construction industry, not just for businesses with a claims history. They also grow more cautious about how much general liability coverage they’re willing to extend for higher-risk work like crane operations.
For your business specifically, the impact is more direct. If your policy limits fall short of a nuclear verdict, your company covers the difference out of pocket, and that can mean company assets, or even personal assets, get pulled into satisfying a judgment.
Nuclear verdicts affect future insurance costs. After a large loss, insurers may:
- Raise premiums significantly.
- Tighten contract and safety requirements.
- Reduce limits or refuse to cover certain types of work.
Are Your Liability Limits Enough to Survive a Nuclear Verdict?
Many construction businesses carry liability limits that might have looked fine 10 or 15 years ago. In today’s nuclear verdict environment, those same limits can be dangerously low.
General liability, umbrella liability, excess liability, and contractors’ insurance are the main layers that respond to large injury or property damage claims. In a nuclear verdict situation, all of those layers may be tested. If the total amount of coverage is far below the size of the verdict, the gap becomes the company’s problem.
Here are questions every construction owner should be asking:
- If a jury awarded $100 million against my company or my project, how much of that would my current insurance cover?
- Do my umbrella and excess policies stack to the level of risk I am taking on with cranes, high-rise work, multifamily projects, or heavy civil work?
- Have I reviewed my limits recently with an advisor who understands nuclear verdict trends?
POWERS Insurance & Risk Management can help construction businesses model “worst-case” scenarios like the Dallas crane collapse and compare them with current limits so owners are not guessing.
Five Risk Management Strategies to Reduce Your Nuclear Verdict Exposure
Insurance is only half the equation. The other half is lowering your risk before an accident ever happens, and that work starts long before anyone steps onto a job site. To avoid similar losses, businesses should follow these risk management tactics.
Build a safety culture. Give your crew ongoing, hands-on training on the hazards they’ll face, and make sure each person understands their specific part in keeping the site safe. Employees also need to feel comfortable speaking up the moment they spot a dangerous condition, instead of staying quiet and hoping someone else notices. Write your safety procedures down, and keep updating them as your projects and equipment change.
Keep equipment inspected and maintained. Heavy machinery needs a set inspection schedule that follows the manufacturer’s recommendations. The moment something looks worn or damaged, pull it from service and get it repaired by someone qualified, or replace it if it’s beyond saving. Keep records of every inspection. In the Dallas case, rusted bolts that should have been caught months earlier turned out to be one of the contributing factors in the nuclear verdict.
Plan for severe weather. A written weather response plan should spell out exactly when work slows down and when it stops altogether. It should be built around clear thresholds like wind speed or the presence of lightning. Get in the habit of practicing these plans with drills.
Manage fatigue on your crews. Long hours catch up with people, especially equipment operators making split-second decisions under pressure. Give employees consistent schedules with recovery time between shifts. Short breaks throughout the day help too.
Stay on top of compliance. OSHA standards and other regulations shift over time, and your policies need to keep pace. Loop in legal counsel to review your procedures regularly so you’re not caught off guard by a rule that changed without your notice.
None of these steps replace insurance, but they shrink the odds you’ll ever need to test your policy limits in the first place. Pair solid risk management with the right coverage, and you’ve built a good defense against the kind of verdicts that can end a business overnight.
What Should Construction Owners Do Next
Sit down with your insurance advisor and compare your current liability limits against the size of your projects today. Ask directly whether your program would hold up against a verdict in the tens of millions, and whether your contracts are being reviewed with construction liability in mind.
POWERS Insurance & Risk Management focuses on helping businesses understand modern risks like nuclear verdicts. We help build insurance programs and risk management practices that match today’s reality. The Dallas crane collapse case study is an example of the kind of detailed analysis POWERS Insurance provides to help clients see how small gaps in safety and contracts can become huge problems in court. Contact our team to get the POWER Process started.
