Nuclear verdicts jumped 41%. Check your liability limits.

Verdicts of $10 million or more, what the industry calls nuclear verdicts, rose 41% from 2024 to 2025 and reached their highest level since 2009, according to figures from Marathon Strategies cited by Insurance Journal. Plaintiff firms are getting there with better tools. Online mock juries of up to 1,200 people test arguments for under $60 a participant. Software reads potential jurors' social media, property records, and work history before trial starts. Litigation funding has reportedly surged around 70% in recent years and now tops $16 billion a year, per the Washington Legal Foundation.

None of that changes your premium this month. It changes what happens if you are the defendant. Florida's 2022 and 2023 litigation reforms pulled a lot of abusive property claim activity out of the system, but they did not change the math on a bad auto accident. If you carry state-minimum bodily injury limits and cause a serious crash, the gap between your limit and a modern award is money an attorney can pursue from you personally. Same arithmetic for a small business sitting on a $1 million general liability limit. Raising liability limits is usually one of the cheaper changes you can make to a policy for what it buys you, and an umbrella stacks above your auto and home at once.

An independent agent can price what it costs to move your liability limits up and tell you whether an umbrella makes sense for your household or business.