Earlier this year, a New York state jury awarded Elizabeth and John Reden $112 million in a medical-malpractice case filed on behalf of their brain-damaged daughter.

But the Redens didn't get $112 million. They got $6 million...

...Many plaintiffs settle for less than a jury's verdict, to eliminate delays and the uncertainty of appeal. Sometimes, even before a jury rules, a plaintiff has signed an agreement that limits how much money actually changes hands...

In 2000, Pennsylvania reported three of the largest medical-malpractice verdicts in its history, all of them rendered in Philadelphia: one for $100 million, another for $55 million and a third for $49.6 million...

But each of the three biggest Philadelphia verdicts was settled for much smaller sums, according to plaintiffs lawyers and court records. The $55 million case settled for $7.5 million, according to the lawyer for the plaintiff. The $49.6 million case settled for $8.4 million, according to court documents. And the $100 million case settled for an undisclosed sum. Andrew J. Stern, the lawyer representing the plaintiff in that case, says the amount of the settlement was significantly less than $100 million...

Last month, the Coalition for Affordable and Reliable Health Care, a Washington-based group that advocates for tort reform on behalf of hospitals, doctors and others, cited in a news release a $269 million verdict in Texas.

Although the release didn't say so, the case involved Rachael Martin...she was allegedly given 10 times the recommended dose of the sedative propofol. Her muscle cells began disintegrating, and the content of those cells was secreted through her kidneys. Her urine changed color and eventually turned black. A short while later, Rachael went into cardiac arrest and died...

In 2000, a jury awarded the Martins nearly $269 million...

The Martins got a fraction of that amount. The jury assigned 25% of the liability in the case -- or $67 million -- to the doctors. But before the trial had even begun the doctors and their professional group had agreed with the Martins to settle the case for just $3 million, says Charla Aldous, the Martins' attorney. That sum was just under the total policy limits of the three physicians involved and their practice group, each of which was insured for $1 million.