A West Virginia jury has awarded $2.69 million to the families of four people killed in a fatal drunken driving accident in 2008. The man responsible for the accident, who was sentenced to six to 26 years in prison, stole a truck from a local car dealership and drove it head on into another vehicle. The car dealership will be responsible for paying 20 percent of the damages, the jury ruled.

A Virginia jury awarded $212 million to a local man in a lawsuit against Allergan Inc., a maker of Botox. The lawsuit claimed after the man was injected with Botox in 2007 to treat hand tremors, he fell ill and eventually suffered severe brain damage. The suit claimed the company failed to warn consumers about the risks of off-label use of the product.

A Huntsville, Ala., family was awarded $37.5 million in a wrongful death lawsuit involving a member of their family, a slain Huntsville police officer. The officer was fatally shot in 2005 by a local restaurant employee while responding to a domestic violence call at the restaurant. The suit alleged the defendant was drunk at the time of the shooting.

A New Mexico jury has awarded a local woman $9 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit against three doctors who failed to diagnose her heart attack in November 2006. The jury ruled that the three physicians were negligent in their treatment of the woman, who will now likely need a heart transplant to survive. Despite the $9 million verdict, state law caps the damages she is able to collect from each doctor at $600,000.

A California jury awarded $3.2 million to a family whose children were “illegally” taken from them in 2005 by police. According to the lawsuit, San Jose police broke into the family’s home without a warrant and took their two young boys, placing them into protective custody, and then their 8-year-old daughter a day later. The department claimed it was acting on suspicion of sexual abuse of the young girl, but the suit stated no abuse was ever discovered, and the officers still should have procured a warrant to enter the home. It was a year before the children were returned to their parents.

A Maryland jury has awarded $3.3 million in a lawsuit filed over the death of a woman who was killed by a motorist while walking down Pennsylvania Avenue. The lawsuit claimed the state was liable because it failed to install proper safety features on the road, such as guard rails. The suit claimed the death could have been prevented had there been guardrails installed.

A California couple has been awarded $5.7 million after they were rear-ended by a Southern California Edison truck in a snow storm two years ago. The accident occurred while the plaintiffs were installing snow chains on their tires safely on the side of the road. The suit claimed the driver of the truck was not properly trained to drive in snow, lost control and rear-ended the couple. The damages will cover medical bills and past and future emotional pain.

A Montana woman and her four children have been awarded $1.7 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit over the death of her husband in 2005. The lawsuit alleged that a doctor at the Billings Clinic misdiagnosed Gerard Heidt’s heart valve condition and failed to refer him to a specialist. Heidt died one year after seeing the doctor, but the suit claims the death could have been avoided by a heart valve transplant.

A Mississippi jury has awarded $23 million in a lawsuit over the near-fatal shooting of a mentally ill man by an off-duty Jackson police officer in 2007 near a local Marriott. The suit claimed the officer used deadly, unnecessary force on an unarmed man for no reason. The jury assessed 70 percent blame on the hotel which had hired the officer for security when the shooting occurred, and 30 percent blame on the city.

An Alabama family has been awarded $3 million in a malpractice lawsuit filed against a local hospital for a man’s death following a surgery. According to the suit, the man bled to death a few days after receiving surgery for a duodenal ulcer. The suit cites “negligence and improper surgery and other flawed medical care” by doctors and hospital officials.