What a Lawyer's Verdicts, Settlements and Reviews Tell You (and What They Don't)

You were hurt, you’re choosing a lawyer, and many billboards and websites lead with a number: “$10 million verdict!” Here’s the plain answer. A reported verdict or settlement tells you that a firm says it handled at least one case of that type and size, and that it chose to publish it. It doesn’t show what the client took home, whether a verdict survived an appeal, how many cases the firm lost, or what your case is worth. Online reviews show how clients felt they were treated, not whether their results were good. Both are reasons to ask questions, not proof.

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What’s the difference between a verdict, a settlement, an award and a judgment?

The first four definitions follow Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute (Cornell LII). If a firm doesn’t say which kind of result it’s reporting, ask.

Why isn’t a verdict the amount that gets paid?

A verdict isn’t always the final word on money. Four things can change what’s actually paid, and then the lawyer’s fee, case costs and liens (repayment claims, such as a health plan’s) come out of whatever is collected. See how personal injury lawyers get paid.

The judge can cut it or set it aside

The losing side can ask the judge for a new trial, or for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV), which sets the verdict aside and enters judgment in the losing side’s favor. If the amount is simply too high, the judge can give the winner a choice between a lower amount and a new trial, called remittitur (Cornell LII).

In a Bureau of Justice Statistics survey of 2005 state-court tort trials, judges granted relief to 30% of the defendants who asked to change a verdict for the plaintiff: about two-fifths of the time by reducing the award, and 44% of the time with a new trial or a JNOV (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2009). (A tort is a claim that someone’s careless or intentional act caused harm.)

Either side can appeal

In the same survey, one or both sides filed a notice of appeal in 13% of tort trials. When a large award is appealed, it’s often changed: in an earlier federal study of civil trials in 46 large counties, appeals courts reversed or modified the result in 48% of the appeals they decided from trials with damage awards over $1 million, not counting appeals that were withdrawn or dismissed (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2006). Both studies use data from 2001 to 2005, so treat the numbers as a rough guide.

Caps and the injured person’s own fault can reduce it

Some states cap certain damages, such as pain and suffering in medical malpractice cases, and the judge reduces a jury’s award that goes over the cap. Most states also reduce damages by the injured person’s own share of the fault (Cornell LII). A firm that reports “the verdict” may be reporting the number before these cuts.

It still has to be collected

A judgment isn’t money in the bank. Liability insurance generally pays up to the policy limit, and anything more has to come from the defendant’s own money or property. Take a made-up example: a $2 million verdict against a driver with $250,000 in coverage and few assets. The money collected could be a fraction of the headline, unless other coverage applies, such as the injured person’s own underinsured motorist coverage.

What’s the difference between a settlement amount and a “total payout”?

In a structured settlement, some of the money is paid in periodic payments over time (26 U.S.C. 5891(c)(1)), such as monthly checks for years. The payments may be funded by an annuity bought from an insurance company. Because later payments cost less to fund today, the checks can add up to much more than the annuity cost.

Here’s a made-up example. The defense pays $500,000 up front and $1.5 million for an annuity whose monthly checks are projected to total $3.5 million over the injured person’s life. The same case could be called a “$2 million settlement” or a “$4 million total payout.” Only the first tells you what the settlement was worth when it was made.

Reading Michigan firms’ results pages for our directory, we found total payouts shown next to settlement amounts. We record the settlement amount. When a number looks unusually large, check whether the page says “total payout,” “lifetime value” or “annuity.”

Why do you see only some of a firm’s results?

A results page is a highlight reel:

• Most cases end without a trial, and trials are where public verdicts come from. In the 2005 federal survey, trials resolved only about 4% of tort cases.
• Settlement terms are usually private. They “would typically not be made part of the public record,” federal researchers note (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2009).
• Client information is protected. In Michigan, for example, a lawyer generally may not reveal a client’s confidences or secrets without the client’s consent (Michigan Rule of Professional Conduct, or MRPC, 1.6).
• Firms choose. You won’t see the cases a firm lost or settled for little, or how many cases it handled to get the ones it shows.

So a firm that publishes nothing may still have a strong record.

Which numbers on a results page can mislead you?

Reading Michigan firms’ results pages for our directory, we set aside figures like these, which aren’t one client’s injury recovery:

These aren’t necessarily errors by the firm; several appeared right next to the real result. Three more things can make a record look bigger than it is:

• Two firms, one case. Firms sometimes work a case together and share the fee, which Michigan’s rules allow if the client is told about all the lawyers involved and doesn’t object, and the total fee is reasonable (MRPC 1.5(e)). Each firm may then list the same verdict.
• Many offices. A firm with offices in more than one state can use the same name in each (MRPC 7.5(b)), and its results page may mix cases from all of them.
• Group settlements. A class action is one lawsuit on behalf of a large group, and a federal judge can approve its settlement only after finding it “fair, reasonable, and adequate” (Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(e)(2)). A class settlement, or one deal settling many similar lawsuits, is one total shared by many people, and each person’s share can be a small fraction of it. See our guide to class actions and mass torts.

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How do lawyer advertising rules treat results?

The American Bar Association’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct, which serve as models for most states’ ethics rules, say a lawyer “shall not make a false or misleading communication about the lawyer or the lawyer’s services” (ABA Model Rule 7.1). Its comment says a truthful report of a lawyer’s wins “may be misleading if presented so as to lead a reasonable person to form an unjustified expectation that the same results could be obtained for other clients in similar matters without reference to the specific factual and legal circumstances of each client’s case” (ABA Model Rule 7.1, comment 3). In other words, a real result can mislead if it makes you think your case will turn out the same way.

That’s where the line “past results do not guarantee a similar outcome” comes in. The same comment says “an appropriate disclaimer or qualifying language” may keep a statement from being found misleading. A disclaimer is a warning label, not a fact check.

What can online reviews tell you, and what can’t they?

Reviews are good at showing how a firm treats people: whether calls get returned, whether the fee and next steps were explained, and how staff treated someone who was hurt and stressed. Look for patterns, such as the same praise or complaint again and again.

They can’t show whether a result was good, because a client can’t easily know what a case was worth or what another lawyer might have gotten. A few reviews can swing a rating, and confidentiality rules limit what a lawyer can say in reply.

Since October 21, 2024, a Federal Trade Commission rule has barred businesses from, among other things, writing, buying or selling fake reviews; paying for reviews that express a particular sentiment; using certain reviews or testimonials by their own managers or staff without disclosing the connection; passing off a review site they control as independent; and using groundless legal threats or intimidation to block or remove reviews (16 CFR Part 465). Courts can impose civil penalties for knowing violations. The rule doesn’t specifically ban asking only happy clients for reviews, though FTC staff say that could violate the FTC Act, and Google’s policy for Maps reviews prohibits it. Still, not every review you read is real.

In our directory, firms within each city are ordered by Google rating, weighted for the number of reviews, so a 4.9 from 300 reviews ranks above a 5.0 from three. Read the lowest reviews yourself.

How do you read the results in our Michigan directory?

Our Michigan directory records the verdicts and settlements of $1 million or more that firms publish on their own websites. Firms don’t write the entries; we do, from each firm’s own pages. The full method is on how we list and rank lawyers.

• Reported, not verified. Each result links to the firm’s page it came from. As of September 2026, every result is labeled “reported by the firm”: not independently verified. Results also reported by the press, or confirmed against a court record, get their own labels.
• One client’s result only. Group settlements aren’t counted, and we set aside figures like those in the table above.
• Any office, any state. Results may come from any of a firm’s offices, and a firm with several offices counts once. A case two firms report can appear on both profiles.
• Badges follow fixed rules. “Jury tested,” for example, means a firm reports at least three jury verdicts of $1 million or more. No firm pays for a badge or its position.
• The leaderboard ranks what firms publish. The Michigan leaderboard ranks firms by how many $1M+ results they report. It isn’t a grade: a firm that publishes more ranks higher, and many strong firms publish none.

Open the source of any result that matters to you, and if something is recorded wrong, tell us. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

What should you ask a firm about its results?

Pick the results that look most like your case, and ask:

1. Was it a jury verdict, a settlement or an arbitration award?
2. Is that what was paid, or was it reduced, appealed or settled for a different amount?
3. Was it paid at once or over time, and is the number the settlement’s value or a total payout?
4. Was it one client’s result? Did another firm lead the case?
5. Who handled it, and would that lawyer work on mine?
6. How was that case like mine, and how was it different?
7. How many cases like mine have you handled in the past few years, and how did they end?

Client confidentiality may limit some answers. A good lawyer will say so plainly and still answer what they can. For more, see questions to ask a personal injury attorney.

What to do next

1. Get medical care and keep every record. Your own injuries and losses drive what your case is worth, not someone else’s verdict.
2. Shortlist two or three lawyers who handle cases like yours, and check each one’s license and discipline record. See how to find the right lawyer for your case.
3. Read results and reviews with the questions above. In Michigan, compare injury firms in our directory.
4. Get the fee agreement in writing before you sign, and keep a copy.
5. Get a free case review. Tell us what happened in four quick questions, and a lawyer who handles cases like yours will contact you.

What waiting can cost

• Deadlines keep running while you compare lawyers. Every state sets a deadline to sue, and some claims have much shorter notice deadlines.
• Evidence fades. Video gets recorded over, and witnesses become harder to find.
• A rushed choice based on a headline can mean a lawyer who doesn’t handle cases like yours.

What a good outcome looks like

You picked a lawyer for relevant experience and straight answers, not the size of a billboard. You know what the firm’s results do and don’t show, who will handle your case and how the fee works. And your expectations come from the facts of your own case: your injuries, the evidence, the insurance available and the law where you live. See how to evaluate a personal injury case.

Updated September 25, 2026

This guide is general information, not legal advice, and laws change. For advice about your situation, talk to a lawyer licensed in your state. Reading this page or contacting us does not create an attorney-client relationship.