About Southeast Verdicts
A running record of what juries across the Southeast award against property owners, and what each case means for liability limits.
Publisher
Published by Dan Wentz
Commercial insurance producer in Birmingham, Alabama, specializing in coverage for commercial real estate owners.
Dan Wentz is a commercial insurance producer in Birmingham, Alabama, who specializes in commercial real estate: apartment owners, hotels, self-storage, retail centers, coastal condominiums and homeowners associations.
Southeast Verdicts is its own publication, separate from any agency. New cases also run as a recurring section of The Rate Read, Dan Wentz's newsletter on commercial real estate insurance. This site is that section's archive.
Methodology
What we track
Jury verdicts and settlements in premises liability and related claims against owners and managers of commercial real estate in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi and Tennessee. Georgia, Florida, Mississippi and Tennessee will follow. Cases are chosen and written by hand, a few each week. The site is not a complete record of every verdict in the state.
Sources
Every case cites its source: the court, case number and date of the verdict or settlement, or the news outlet, headline and date that reported it. A case without a source is not published.
Anonymity
Parties are described by property type and county only, such as "a Mobile County apartment complex." We do not publish the names of plaintiffs or defendants or the addresses of properties, and the site's publishing system rejects cases that contain them.
Amounts
Amounts are as awarded by the jury, or as reported for a settlement, at the time of the verdict. When the jury split fault and the source reports the property side's share, that share is the amount shown, and the case page gives the full figure and the split. Amounts are not adjusted for later caps, reductions, appeals or what was actually collected; each case page says what we know happened afterward. Short forms such as $11.4M round down, never up. Each case page gives the exact figure, or says so when the source reports only a rounded one.
The running total
The running total adds up the jury verdicts on this site dated in the calendar year shown. Settlements are left out because nothing is awarded in a settlement, and so are cases decided by a judge without a jury. The total counts only cases published here.
The county map
Counties are shaded by the number of tracked cases, not by dollars. Each county's page gives its total.
The coverage tool
"Am I Covered?" compares verdicts on this site with a combined per-occurrence limit: general liability plus umbrella or excess. It does not account for aggregate limits, defense costs, exclusions, sublimits, deductibles or other policy terms.
Corrections
If a case is wrong or a later ruling changed the outcome, contact the publisher below and we will correct or update it.
Disclaimers
Not legal or insurance advice. Southeast Verdicts is an independent publication. Nothing here is an offer of insurance or a statement about any policy.
Not legal advice. Southeast Verdicts reports public court outcomes and news coverage. Parties are anonymized. Amounts are as reported at the time of the verdict or settlement and may have been reduced, appealed or not collected.
Illustrative only. This is not a coverage determination. Your policy terms, exclusions, sublimits and defense-cost provisions decide what is covered. Comparable cases are drawn from this site and do not predict the outcome of any claim. Talk to a licensed agent about your own policy.
Contacting the publisher does not create an agent or advisory relationship, and no coverage is bound or changed until confirmed in writing.
Contact
Questions about a case, a correction, or your own limits:
Or call (205) 999-4884.
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