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Marathon Strategies releases a new study that says a recent spike in “nuclear” (at least $10M) and “thermonuclear” (greater than $100M) decisions in lawsuits against corporate clients is at least partly due to generational shifts and governmental policy.
According to Marathon’s “Corporate Verdicts Go Thermonuclear,” Millennial and Gen Z jurors are considerably less likely to take the side of corporations in lawsuits. That may reflect “the greater apathy toward and distrust of American institutions” that the study finds in younger jurors.
“The attitudes and experiences of jurors play crucial roles in predicting verdict outcomes,” the study notes, “and studies have shown that Millennials are generally more pro-plaintiff than the prior generation.”
There is also an overall shift in opinion when it comes to the validity of “juror activism” (i.e., the use of courtroom verdicts to punish what are seen as badly behaving corporations). Marathon cites a 2025 report from Swiss Re in which only 56 percent of respondents said that there is too much litigation in the U.S. That’s a far cry from the 90 percent who expressed that opinion in 2016.
The price that corporations are paying when they are found guilty of bad behavior is rapidly rising. While the $3.8B that Las Vegas-based Affinity Lifestyles had to pay out when it was determined that its Real Water was contaminated with hydrazine, a toxic chemical often used in rocket fuel, dwarfs the amount paid by most of the other defendants, every firm in the list of the top 10 biggest corporate verdicts had to fork over at least $639M.
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Another factor behind the rising price tag corporations are paying for guilty verdicts is an increased hesitancy on the part of the government to wield its regulatory powers. The study cites law firm Norton Rose Fulbright’s annual litigation trend survey of more than 400 U.S. general counsel and in-house litigation leaders, which found that the share of organizations involved in at least one regulatory proceeding declined overall to 56 percent in 2025 from from 70 percent in 2024.
“This has instigated a kind of redistribution of enforcement as private attorneys file more class action lawsuits, widening the window of cases in which private companies may face increasingly high-stakes jury trials,” Marathon notes. In addition, “class action lawsuits are costly to defend, consume time, and divert resources from core business practices.”
While some states are feeling the pinch more than others, the upward trend is affecting corporations nationwide. While Georgia was the source of 10 verdicts that totaled $4.8B in payouts, and the 29 verdicts in Texas resulted in an overall tab of $3.3B, these verdicts occurred in 97 courts across 28 states.
And the upward trend does not look likely to stop. The study says surveys of corporate counsels indicate that reaching pre-trial settlements has become more difficult due to increasing legal costs, regulatory changes, and high settlement demands. Also, the younger generation that is spurring changes will become a bigger part of the jury pool as time goes on.
Also, “forever chemicals,” generative AI liability, deepfake and synthetic media, extreme weather and climate attribution and algorithmic liability will likely form a growing portion of nuclear verdicts in the years to come.
The findings presented in Marathon’s report included data from LexisNexis’ Jury Verdicts & Settlements database, The National Law Review, legal journals, and media reports.
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