Big jury awards jumped 40%, and Texas and Florida led

A report from research firm Marathon Strategies, covered by Insurance Journal, counted nearly 200 verdicts of at least $10 million against corporate defendants in 2025. That is a 40.7% increase over 2024, and the awards add up to roughly $25.6 billion. Forty of them crossed $100 million and four topped $1 billion. Texas, California, Florida, and Maryland ranked highest, with Florida cases accounting for about $2.5 billion of the total.

Most of these verdicts hit large companies, but the trend is what should get your attention, because the same juries hear ordinary auto and premises cases. Your protection against a judgment is your liability limit, and that is where a lot of Florida and Texas policies are thin. Florida's minimum auto requirement does not include bodily injury liability at all, so a driver carrying only the state minimum has nothing standing between a serious injury claim and their own assets. A personal umbrella policy typically adds $1 million of coverage above your auto and home limits, and it usually costs a few hundred dollars a year. Business owners should look at their general liability limit and whether a commercial umbrella sits above it.

An independent agent can total up your current liability limits, price an umbrella, and tell you where the gap actually is.