a winning formula
The Stoddard Firm has no interest in settling cases for a corporate defendant’s or an insurance company’s initial meager offer. If the case settles at The Stoddard Firm, it’s because the client is satisfied with the amount offered, and the Stoddard Firm will not lean on a client to accept less than full compensation. We are comfortable in the courtroom and ready to take your case to trial.
Verdicts & Settlements Achieved by The Stoddard Firm / Matthew B. Stoddard
$24,500,000.00
Verdict for a woman who was badly burned at Medical Spa during a lipogenic massage. The Defendant made numerous arguments including that the burns were pre-existing. Mr. Stoddard obtained photographs from the plaintiff’s plastic surgeon taken days earlier as well as testimony of multiple medical witnesses showing that the Defendant caused the burns.
$15,950,000.00
Verdict for a young man who lost his eye from a defectively manufactured firework. Mr. Stoddard hired experts who hypothesized that the firework had a weak sidewall causing it to fire sideways instead of vertically. The Stoddard Firm also uncovered evidence of some suspect manufacturing practices. In the end, the firework manufacturer did not litigate by the rules, and Mr. Stoddard was able to show that the firework company was repeatedly dishonest about numerous critical facts.
$14,000,000.00
Verdict for a young man who was shot at an apartment complex during a robbery. Mr. Stoddard showed that the apartment was rife with crime and did nothing to protect guests of tenants from that crime. The verdict included four million dollars of attorney’s fees for the Defendant’s “bad faith.”
$8,000,000.00
Verdict for a former attorney who sustained serious head injuries after hitting a fire sprinkler pipe upon exiting her car in a parking garage. As co-counsel, Mr. Stoddard showed those overseeing the parking garage should have known that the over hanging fire sprinkler pipe was a hazard and should have been corrected or marked as a hazard.
$6,440,000.00
Verdict for a bar and grill patron who walked off the bar’s unguarded retaining wall at night, fell over twelve feet, and suffered a brain injury. The bar and grill argued the patron was a trespasser who was under the influence and therefore responsible for his own injuries. Mr. Stoddard found witnesses who testified that they had previously warned the bar that someone would get hurt and that a fence needed to be installed. The verdict included over million and a half dollars in attorney’s fees for the Defendant’s “bad faith.”
$6,250,000.00
Recovery for an elderly man crushed to death inside a complex machine with a defective switching unit. Mr. Stoddard showed the details of the defective unit and that this defect caused the death. At the direction of his client, Mr. Stoddard thereafter settled the matter.
$5,750,000.00
Verdict for a man who tripped on a stack of floor mats at the Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson Airport, broke his femur, and suffered serious complications. While the Defendants refused to admit ownership and control of the mats, Mr. Stoddard uncovered photographs of the Defendants placing the mats in the incident area months prior to the fall. Mr. Stoddard also found witnesses who testified that the mats were frequently causing customers to trip and fall.
$5,075,000.00
Recovery for a family who was badly burned when an apartment stove tipped forward spilling boiling water on them. The apartment denied responsibility until Mr. Stoddard showed that apartment maintenance had installed the stove a year earlier without installing the required anti-tip bracket to prevent this exact injury.
$4,000,000.00
Verdict for the family of a young man who was shot and killed in the street by gang members who lived at a nearby apartment. Mr. Stoddard showed the jury that the apartment complex knew the property was dangerous and that the gang members were living there. Mr. Stoddard argued it was foreseeable that something like this would happen.
$3,400,000.00
Recovery for a young man who was struck by a stray bullet at an apartment complex in DeKalb County that was rife with crime and violence. Mr. Stoddard showed that the complex had only the appearance of security and that the security hired did not report to work on the night in question.
$3,290,000.00
Recovery for a man who broke his femur and suffered complications after slipping on water from a leaking water fountain at a large commercial facility. Mr. Stoddard showed that the Defendant hid highly relevant evidence about the incident. The Court thereafter struck the Defendant’s answer resulting in a finding of automatic liability.
$3,000,000.00
Recovery after a young father was shot and killed at a Gwinnett apartment complex with some history of prior crime and without daytime security guards. The family wished to settle the matter, and so Mr. Stoddard honored their wishes.
$3,000,000.00
Recovery from a Decatur apartment complex that allowed a shooting to occur that lead to the death of a teenage boy and serious injury for a man.
$2,850,000.00
Recovery for a military veteran who lost a portion of his right arm cleaning a defectively designed factory machine. After multiple other attorneys refused the case, the veteran found his way to Mr. Stoddard. Mr. Stoddard proved that a component part manufacturer had failed to failed to follow its own design criteria and industry standards.
$2,350,000.00
Recovery for a land developer who suffered serious burn injuries while using a defectively designed multimeter. Mr. Stoddard forced the meter designer to turn over its computer servers and email severs to be searched for relevant documents. Mr. Stoddard also rented commercial electrical equipment and re-created the arc blast. The documents uncovered and the incident re-creation proved the land developer’s case.
$2,100,000.00
Recovery for a man who broke his femur and suffered a brain injury after being shocked by electricity at a frozen food processing plant. After years of litigation, and multiple cross country flights to interview witnesses under oath, Mr. Stoddard showed that a mis-wired light installed by the Defendants had delivered the electric shock and caused the injury.
$1,510,000.00
Recovery for family of a teenager killed in a vehicle wreck near Peachtree City. Mr. Stoddard first investigated whether a case could be brought against General Motors for a poorly designed vehicle, but ultimately determined that the only “at fault” party was the driver of the GM vehicle. The recovery represents every available insurance dollar that could have been recovered for the loss.
$1,500,000.00
Recovery for a man shot by in a retail store parking lot by robbers. Mr. Stoddard found evidence that the store had a history of customer injuries from similar robberies, but that the store had done little, if anything, prevent this incident from occurring or to warn the man about the area’s dangers.
$1,500,000.00
Recovery for an honorably discharged infantry soldier who suffered serious burn injuries from her apartment’s shower water. The victim’s landlord, an apartment management company, initially blamed the victim. Mr. Stoddard thereafter showed that during a recent renovation, the apartment management company had violated code by failing to install a safety valve and position stop that would have prevented the injury.
$1,275,000.00
Recovery for a young girl who was sexually assaulted at hotels in the Jonesboro area. Mr. Stoddard showed that the hotels were hotbeds of prostitution and that they had created an environment where such acts were likely to occur.
$1,250,000.00
Recovery for a renter who fell down an out-of-code staircase at his rental home. Mr. Stoddard determined that the home was purchased in foreclosure by a real estate investment trust (a REIT), that the REIT renovated the home before rental, and that when the renovation occurred, the REIT did not get a building permit and mandatory post-renovation inspection from the county.
$1,200,000.00
Recovery for a woman sexually assaulted in an apartment complex parking lot. Mr. Stoddard uncovered a pattern of similar dangerous and violent crime at the apartment – crimes not shared with the apartment’s residents and their guests.
$1,200,000.00
Recovery for a woman sexually assaulted by a man who broke through her apartment window. Mr. Stoddard found evidence that the apartment complex’s security guard had not showed up for work on the night of the incident – leaving the apartment complex without its nightly security patrol.
$1,000,000.00
Verdict for a girl who fainted and fell off an exam table when receiving a shot. The girl ultimately suffered a back injury in the fall requiring surgery. The primary care facility refused to acknowledge that they had a duty to secure the patient and protect her from the known risk of fainting.
$1,000,000.00
Recovery for a man who crashed into a tractor-trailer that had previously negligently merged from the right shoulder. The police believed that the injured Plaintiff caused the wreck, but facts uncovered by Mr. Stoddard strongly suggested that the police got it wrong.
$1,000,000.00
Recovery for a fourteen-year-old boy who was shot in the stomach during a basketball game at a local apartment. Mr. Stoddard showed that the complex was rife with violent crime, that the Defendants were attempting to hide the crime from the residents, and that during the lawsuit, the Defendants were attempting to hide what they knew about prior crime the crime from the Court and the Plaintiff. Based on the Defendants’ litigation conduct, Mr. Stoddard asked the Court for finding of automatic liability. While that motion was pending before the Court, the case resolved with the Defendants insurer agreeing to pay its full policy limits.
$1,000,000.00
Recovery for a gas station cashier who was shot during a robbery at the gas station. Mr. Stoddard showed that the gas station cashier protection cage was defectively constructed, that the gas station knew about the subpar construction methods, and that if the cage had been properly built, the robbers would not have been able to rip open the cage door and shoot the clerk.
$1,000,000.00
Recovery for an immigrant factory worker who suffered serious burn injuries when his hand was caught in a defectively designed machine. Mr. Stoddard created a 3D virtual reality rendering of the machine and used it to prove that a simple safeguard would have prevented the injury. Mr. Stoddard also uncovered a similar incident in eastern Europe, and when the case resolved, he was preparing to fly there and interview the witness on video to be played to the jury.
$995,435.49
Recovery for a woman who suffered serious back injuries after a side swipe event by a tractor trailer. The woman had a number of medical problems which the insurance company argued were not directly related to the incident at issue. In the end, and after involving Mr. Stoddard, the insurance company paid every remaining dollar of insurance left on the policy to the injured woman.
$950,000.00
Recovery for a young mother who was sideswiped on the highway by a large commercial vehicle. The other driver denied leaving his lane of travel and blamed the young mother for the wreck. Under a well prepared cross examination, the other driver admitted that his story was not feasible and that the young mother did nothing wrong.
$929,225.24
Recovery for a man who suffered a concussion and ultimately experienced post-concussion syndrome after a vehicle wreck while a passenger in an Uber. The Defendant originally denied that the post-concussive symptoms were attributable to the wreck, but after Mr. Stoddard flew out of state and interviewed multiple brain doctors under oath, the Defendant agreed to pay.
$900,000.00
Recovery for a man who went through multiple eye surgeries after a glass beverage bottle exploded sending glass shards into his eye. Mr. Stoddard was able to show that just prior to the incident, the Defendant had altered its beverage recipe creating over-pressurization of the bottle. Mr. Stoddard also uncovered other consumer reports of similar incidents with this “bad batch” of beverage.
$850,000.00
Recovery for a hotel hospitality shuttle driver who was struck from behind in the hotel’s shuttle at a stop light. The striking driver fled the scene, but Mr. Stoddard determined that the shuttle driver could sue the hotel’s insurance company for the injury. The insurer argued that the shuttle driver was faking his injury. Mr. Stoddard proved otherwise.
$850,000.00
Recovery for a passenger in a non-emergency transport vehicle who broke her leg during a vehicle wreck. Mr. Stoddard uncovered evidence that the transport van driver failed to properly secure the injured Plaintiff’s wheelchair to the transport van, and that this failure to secure caused the injury.
$727,000.00
Recovery for a woman shot in an apartment complex parking lot. Despite initial denials, Mr. Stoddard uncovered evidence that the complex’s access gates were broken, the video cameras were not operational, and multiple outdoor security lights were burned out. Mr. Stoddard also uncovered a history of similar incidents which, in violation of the apartment complex’s policy, were not shared with the residents.
$700,000.00
Recovery for a man who suffered a concussion and permanent corneal scarring after an 18-wheeler drove into his parked limousine. The trucking company initial doubted the Plaintiff’s injuries, but Mr. Stoddard employed multiple physician expert witnesses to explain the injury severity.
$651,300.00
Recovery for a family who suffered injuries after a rear end collision. The property damage on both vehicles was minimal, but after over a year of litigation, and with the help of an accident re-constructionist expert witness, Mr. Stoddard was able to show that the injuries were caused by the wreck.
$600,000.00
Recovery for a woman who sustained serious back injuries after a low impact rear end collision. The Defendant (a large corporation) initially denied responsibility — arguing its employee was not “on the clock” at the time of the wreck and the company was not, therefore, responsible for the employee’s actions. Mr. Stoddard obtained cell phone data, text messaging records, emails, and other electronic data to prove that the employee was, in fact, working when the incident occurred.
$500,000.00
Recovery for a man who suffered serious back injuries after being rear-ended by a physician. The case was initially handled by another lawyer during which time the physician denied responsibility and his insurer refused to pay the claim, but once Mr. Stoddard was associated, things changed. Mr. Stoddard quickly showed that the physician caused the wreck; the insurer thereafter paid its policy limits.
$500,000.00
Recovery for a man who suffered a brain injury after falling down a staircase. Using an expert architect, Mr. Stoddard showed that the staircase was a dangerous trip hazard and that it did not meet code.
$500,000.00
Recovery for a woman who was sexually assaulted during a massage. In addition to denying the the assault occurred, the massage company claimed that its masseuse were “independent contractors” and that the company was not, therefore, responsible for any masseuse’s actions. After Mr. Stoddard proved the facility was aware of a pattern of prior assaults by different masseuses at its facility, the massage company chose to resolve the case and compensate the victim.
$485,000.00
Recovery for a woman who was injured in a low speed rear end collision. The woman had a long history of back problems, but Mr. Stoddard was able to prove that Defendant’s actions contributed to her symptoms / increased her pain.
$475,000.00
Recovery for an elderly man who lost three fingers while riding an improperly maintained escalator. The Stoddard Firm showed that the escalator cleaning company’s method of cleaning the sheet metal which housed the escalator was to blame. Specifically, the cleaning company’s buffing of the sheet metal caused it to separate at the seams, and this separation exposed a sharp edge which sliced off the victim’s fingers.
$450,000.00
Recovery for a woman who broke her wrist after tripping on a speedbump in a retail store parking lot. The retailer painted the speedbump in the weeks following the incident and then claimed it was not hidden / hard to see at the time the fall. After multiple fights over the retailer’s refusal to produce evidence, Mr. Stoddard showed that the retailer’s policy required speedbumps to be painted, that the policy existed to prevent customers from tripping, and that the speedbump at issue was not painted when the incident occurred.
$427,600.00
Recovery for a woman who broke her leg after tripping on a torn floor mat in her apartment complex lobby. The apartment denied knowledge of floor-mat problems, but Mr. Stoddard showed that multiple other persons had complained about the mat’s dangers, and that the apartment’s employees were present when other persons previously fell on the mat. Because of the mis-behavior in hiding evidence, Mr. Stoddard convinced the Court to preclude the apartment from making certain arguments at trial.
$425,000.00
Recovery for a man who broke bones in his arm from a defectively designed split rim tire which, due to the inexpensive metal used in construction, caused the tire rim to blow apart like a bomb while the injured victim was attempting to pump the tire up. Mr. Stoddard showed that the weak metal caused incident. Both the Defendant manufacturer, and the Defendant retailer thereafter contributed to a recovery.
$350,000.00
Recovery for a man who fell off a ladder while aiding in the construction of a small fast food restaurant. Mr. Stoddard proved that the project foreman initially held the ladder, but as the man started to come down off the roof, the foreman walked away and stopped holding it — causing the ladder to kick-out and fall. Mr. Stoddard also found that another subcontractor’s employee had been hurt on a separate ladder incident on the same job site. The case then resolved.
$340,000.00
Recovery for a woman who herniated a disc in her spine when she slipped on an oil spill that a shopping center management company did not remove for hours.
$325,000.00
Recovery for a woman who fell on a broken sidewalk and fractured her hip. The City claimed it had no knowledge of the broken sidewalk, but after repeated fights over evidence disclosures, Mr. Stoddard obtained documentation showing that multiple City employees had performed sanitation work on this very sidewalk.
$300,000.00
Recovery for a woman who suffered facial scarring after a springer spaniel dog bit her in the face. Mr. Stoddard uncovered animal control and veterinary records showing that the dog was dangerous and that the dog’s owners knew it.
$300,000.00
Recovery for a wheelchair bound man who fell off an out of code handicap ramp while trying to enter a fast food restaurant. The Defendant restaurant claimed the the code section at issue did not apply because of the age of the structure, but by subpoenaing franchisor records, building permits, and other relevant materials, Mr. Stoddard was able to prove that the restaurant had made significant changes to the original structure over the years such that the code section at issue did apply.
$300,000.00
Recovery for a woman who slipped on water in a grocery store’s frozen food section. The woman tore her meniscus, tore her labrum, and ruptured a disc in her neck. Mr. Stoddard was able to prove that employee violation of the grocer’s fall safety policies led to the injury.
$300,000.00
Recovery for a woman who herniated a disc in a tractor-trailer collision. After aggressive representation by Mr. Stoddard, the Defendant’s fired their first lawyer, and then followed the advice of their second lawyer – pay the Plaintiff the full amount sought.