Seattle and its insurers have agreed to pay $65.75 million to the family of Brooke Taylor, an amount representing the largest individual personal injury settlement in the city’s history, likely the largest in Washington state and among the largest ever in the country. The sum covers ongoing care for Taylor, as well as lost future income, after she suffered a traumatic brain injury in a crash with a Seattle Fire Department ambulance in April 2016.
The enormous sum is the result of a confluence of circumstances. Taylor was 38 at the time of the crash and in the early part of what was an already decorated career with the law firm Susman Godfrey as an intellectual property litigation attorney. When she was still working, she was being showered with praise, and several industry publications had counted her among the country’s best lawyers.
But Taylor’s injury was serious enough that she is no longer able to practice law. As is standard in personal injury claims, Taylor’s family — she has a husband and three children — pursued reimbursement for lost future income, which includes future raises and promotions. In Taylor’s case, the potential was near-limitless — it is understood that lawyers in her field and of her caliber routinely go on to earn well over $1 million a year.