Progressive's $1.9M Offer. The Jury Said $101 Million.

Progressive Insurance reported $62 billion in revenue the year Hal Goldblatt lay in an ICU with a traumatic brain injury, his family borrowing money to cover the care the insurer was supposed to help fund. The jury that heard what happened next gave that number some context.

Struck in a Crosswalk

In 2022, Hal Goldblatt was crossing a street in Las Vegas when he was struck by a vehicle driven by Lamonte Cunningham. The impact left Goldblatt with major fractures throughout his body and a traumatic brain injury, requiring an extensive stay in intensive care and a lengthy recovery that demanded round-the-clock at-home assistance. His wife Shawn was a co-plaintiff throughout the proceedings.

The Letterhead That Changed Everything

The Goldblatts submitted their claim to Progressive - the at-fault driver's insurer - using a standard form letter rather than correspondence on attorney letterhead. According to plaintiff attorney Kimball Jones of Bighorn Law, that distinction determined which pile the claim landed in. Progressive allegedly processed claims submitted without legal representation more slowly, and the family's mounting medical bills went unanswered for months while, as Jones put it, Progressive made money "slow-rolling" the funds through market investments.

The Goldblatts eventually requested a $1.9 million settlement. Progressive rejected the offer and, despite Jones asking "on several occasions," never made a single counteroffer.

What the Jury Decided

The August 2024 trial in Clark County, Nevada ran in two phases. A jury first found driver Cunningham liable for roughly $7 million in damages. Then, in the bad-faith phase targeting Progressive directly, the same jury awarded $1 million in compensatory damages and $100 million in punitive damages - a total of $101 million.

Progressive's defence was that it had followed industry-standard practices for a complex claim. The jury disagreed at a ratio of 53 to 1 over the company's own settlement floor.

Why $100 Million

Punitive damages in bad-faith cases exist for a specific purpose: to punish conduct so egregious that a compensatory award alone would not deter it. With Progressive reporting $62 billion in annual revenue, the jury settled on a number they believed would actually sting. The Goldblatt verdict was named one of CVN's top ten most impressive plaintiff verdicts of 2024 and ranks among the largest bad-faith insurance awards in Nevada history.