MDLinxFamily Awarded $951 Million in Utah’s Largest Malpractice Verdict Ever

A Utah judge awarded $951 million in August 2025 for a birth injury case—63 times the typical settlement range of $1-15 million for severe neurological harm. The unprecedented verdict against Jordan Valley Medical Center (owned by bankrupt Steward Health Care) establishes new liability precedent for labor management failures, inadequate supervision, and protocol lapses during high-risk deliveries.

⚖️ Professional Impact Points

• Liability Escalation: Award magnitude signals courts may dramatically exceed historical settlement ranges when multiple system failures converge, particularly in obstetric cases involving trainee supervision and medication management protocols.
• Sleep-While-On-Call Scrutiny: Judge highlighted physician sleeping during labor emergency, creating potential standard-of-care questions around on-call responsiveness expectations despite this being routine practice across specialties nationwide.
• Trainee Supervision Standards: Use of newly trained nurses administering high-risk medications without adequate oversight may trigger enhanced supervision requirements and documentation of competency verification for labor units.
• Pitocin Protocol Enforcement: Excessive dosing during prolonged labor establishes clear liability exposure for deviation from oxytocin administration guidelines, particularly when combined with delayed surgical intervention.
• Bankruptcy Protection Uncertainty: Steward’s bankruptcy complicates collection but attorneys suggest punitive damages (~$475 million) may be recoverable, creating precedent for pursuing individual physician and facility insurance beyond corporate shields.

🏥 Practice Management Considerations

• Documentation Strategy: Implement time-stamped escalation protocols documenting all communications with attending physicians, medication dosing decisions, and clinical assessment rationales—particularly for high-risk labor cases extending beyond standard timelines.
• Patient Communication Protocols: Develop transparent labor progress discussions addressing intervention timing, especially when delays occur, to establish informed consent documentation and manage patient expectations during prolonged deliveries.
• Legal Risk Assessment: Review professional liability coverage limits against new verdict benchmarks; consider excess coverage for obstetric practices given potential for awards exceeding standard $1-3 million policy limits by orders of magnitude.
• Staff Training Requirements: Mandate competency verification before independent high-risk medication administration; establish clear attending notification triggers for labor abnormalities, fever, or cases exceeding 18-24 hours without delivery progress.
• Quality Assurance Measures: Audit Pitocin protocols, trainee supervision structures, and C-section decision timelines quarterly; implement peer review for all deliveries exceeding 20 hours or requiring neonatal intensive care transfer.

HCN Medical Memo
Obstetric practices should immediately audit labor management protocols, supervision structures, and liability coverage adequacy. Professional societies may need to address on-call responsiveness standards given judicial scrutiny of routine sleep practices. Individual physicians should verify personal asset protection and consider reducing high-risk obstetric work if institutional support systems prove inadequate upon review.

More on Medical Malpractice