Central DuPage Hospital in Illinois has agreed to a $5.3 million settlement with the husband of a woman who died of a stroke in 2006. The suit claimed to doctors “failed to properly evaluate and treat” the woman in December 2006, which lead to her death. Lawyers for the doctors said the doctors did nothing wrong, but that they settled to “avoid even the small risk of a runaway jury verdict.”

A Brownsville, Texas, woman has reached a $3.2 million settlement in a lawsuit she filed over the death of her husband in an explosion in 2006. The woman’s husband was filling up a tanker truck at a RTW Properties L.P. terminal when the truck exploded, killing him. The wife claimed RTW Properties was negligent in providing proper safety measures at the terminal which could have prevented her husband’s death.

The city of Atlanta, Georgia has agreed to a $4.9 million settlement with the family of a woman who was killed by police during an illegal raid of her home in 2006. Officers busted down the woman’s door after an informant said he had purchased drugs from her home. The woman fired one shot off before being gunned down by police, who then planted drugs in her home when none were found there, the suit alleged. Since the incident, five former police officers have been imprisoned for conspiring to violate the woman’s rights.

A $5.5 million settlement has been reached in a medical malpractice suit brought against Los Angeles County by the family of a girl who suffered head trauma during a cheerleading stunt. The woman was taken to County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center after falling from a human pyramid in August 2007. The lawsuit claims that during her stay, her subdural hematoma grew in size, but doctors failed to order a final CT scan before discharging her. The hematoma caused “massive brain damage, retardation and paralysis,” the suit says. According to the lawsuit, if doctors had performed the CT scan, they would have seen the growing hematoma and operated on it.

A stun-gun manufacturer has agreed to a $2.85 million settlement with a California man who suffered brain damage after being tased four years ago. The man was shocked by a Watsonvile, Calif., police officer in 2006 after refusing to exit a bus. The suit says the man went into cardiac arrest and stopped breathing for 18 minutes after being tased. He suffered severe brain damage, and now requires around-the-clock care, the suit claims. The settlement money will go toward the man’s past and future medical costs.

The family of a deceased University of North Florida professor will receive a $6.2 million settlement from a local hospital after the professor died during a CT scan. The man had gastric bypass surgery at Shands at the University of Florida hospital in 2002. Days after the surgery, he began having trouble breathing. The suit claims he was sent to have a CT scan of his lungs despite his troubles breathing while lying down.

The Washington Department of Corrections has agreed to settle a $4.25 million with a local woman who was hit by a car driven by a mentally ill felon. The woman suffered severe brain injuries from the accident, which occurred in June 2008. The lawsuit claimed that the department should have been keeping a closer watch on the felon, who lawyers called a “dangerous mentally ill offender.” At the time of the accident, the felon was on release and under the DOC’s supervision for committing a similar crime.

A settlement of $750,000 has been reached in a lawsuit against a Jefferson County, Illinois police officer who allegedly used a stun gun unnecessarily on three teenagers and assaulted another.  According to the suite the police officer used the stun gun on the teens two years ago and while Illinois state investigators found no wrongdoing and the officer is still employed with the department – the settlement was agreed to.

A sports bar in Austell, Ga., has agreed to pay $1 million to the widow of a man killed by a drunk driver who was allegedly over-served by the bar staff. The lawsuit claims that in October 2008, The Sports Grill served alcohol to a man when he was already drunk. The man then crashed his car into another vehicle, killing the car’s owner. The judge also sanctioned the bar after it was discovered that they destroyed video tapes and bar tabs that showed the man drinking.

GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C. has agreed to a $1 billion settlement that will cover 800 claims that the company’s drug Paxil causes birth defects. The company paid $2.5 million to a Pennsylvania boy who allegedly suffers from severe heart defects because of Paxil. Glaxo has set aside a total of $2.4 billion to settle various lawsuits involving Paxil and the company’s diabetes drug Avandia