I understand the devastation families suffer when medical care causes serious injury or loss instead of hope and healing. I am absolutely dedicated to digging deep in each case and uncovering what went wrong. I will not stop until I can find answers for the people I represent. Only then can I help my clients pursue the true measure of justice.
Brandon Thompson’s entire legal career has been dedicated to representing individuals and families who have suffered tragedy as a result of medical negligence. There is no greater professional honor for Brandon than being asked to help people when they are facing the darkest times of their lives.
Brandon is one of the foremost trial lawyers of his generation. He has won numerous multi-million jury trials – including the largest medical malpractice or personal injury jury verdict in Minnesota history – and has negotiated many millions of dollars of settlements for his clients. He is a member of a number of elite national and international trial organizations, and in 2018 was invited to be the youngest-ever Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers – recognized as one of the most prestigious organizations of trial lawyers in the world.
Brandon’s work ethic and compassion are a product of his blue-collar upbringing; his grandfather was a mechanic, his dad was an electrician at the Ford plant, and he was the first person in his family to go to college. The father of three children, including a young daughter with extraordinary medical needs, he empathizes with his clients in a way very few lawyers truly can.
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When people and their families come to us, they are usually looking for two things: they want answers, and they want justice. We have dedicated ourselves to providing both. Justice can mean different things to different people, of course; sometimes it means changing the law. Sometimes it means changing the way health care is practiced. Often, it means getting resources that will make the future a little bit brighter, either for the injured person or for those left behind. Some of our successes are listed below.
The largest jury verdict in Minnesota history for a medical malpractice or personal injury case of any kind. Brandon and Rachel Barrett represented Anuj Thapa, a young Nepalese immigrant who suffered a catastrophic injury to his leg as a result of a failure to diagnose and treat “compartment syndrome,” a feared complication of orthopedic injuries. A federal jury in Minneapolis awarded Brandon’s client more than $111 million for his injuries. Read more about the verdict here.
One of the largest jury verdicts in recent Minnesota history for a medical malpractice case. Brandon represented a 51-year-old mechanic who was paralyzed from the waist down following surgery for a perforated bowel. The man suffered a prolonged drop in blood pressure after receiving anesthesia, which caused a critical lack of blood flow to his spinal cord resulting in paraplegia. After a nine-day trial, the jury found that the anesthesiologist’s negligence caused the man’s injuries. The jury awarded $9.1 million, an amount that will allow him to live more independently and receive rehabilitation that may eventually allow him to walk again. Read more about the verdict here.
Proven track record at trial for people injured by medical malpractice. Malpractice cases are some of the most difficult cases for injured people to win, and doctors and insurance companies often take them to trial. Despite this, many lawyers who call themselves malpractice ‘trial lawyers’ hardly ever see the inside of a courtroom. In the past decade, however, Brandon has tried more than twenty malpractice cases to verdict across the Upper Midwest. In addition to the cases listed above, his remarkable record of success includes many other seven-figure verdicts; he has had the largest malpractice verdict in the state a half-dozen different times.
Many millions of dollars in confidential settlements. We treat every case as if it is going to be argued to a jury, but our success in the courtroom means we are able to settle most of our clients’ cases before there is ever a trial. Doctors and malpractice insurers almost always insist that those settlements are kept confidential, which means we can’t publicize many specific details about them. But Brandon and his team have recovered well over $100 million for injured people across the Upper Midwest and the country. This includes cases involving birth injuries, anesthesia mistakes, spinal cord and brain damage, amputations, burns, misdiagnosed strokes, nursing negligence, psychiatric malpractice, botched surgery, missed cancers, and just about every other medical error you could think of.
Changed the law for injured people across Minnesota at the Supreme Court. Up until 2019, Minnesota hospitals were able to shield themselves from malpractice liability through secret side agreements that made their doctors “independent contractors” instead of employees. In Popovich v. Allina, Brandon and his team took on this long-standing law – a law that ultimately prevented injured people from holding hospitals accountable for the negligence of many of the doctors who patrolled their halls. In a win that has been described as “ground breaking” and “earth shattering,” Brandon convinced the Minnesota Supreme Court to reverse decades of law and take a huge step towards protecting injured Minnesotans. Read more about Popovich here.
*Past results are reported to provide the reader with an indication of the type of litigation we practice. They do not and should not be construed to create an expectation of result in any other case, as all cases are dependent upon their own unique fact situation and applicable law.
Case results before 2019 were obtained while Brandon was at his former firm.
**Being named to the list or receiving the award is not intended and should not be viewed as comparative to other lawyers or to create an expectation about results that might be achieved in a future matter.
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