A plaintiffs lawyer’s decision to focus on “non-economic” damages has paid off in the form of a $10 million verdict against Segway in a suit over an injury during a test drive. A lawyer for Segway, which is attempting to get the verdict reduced or thrown out, called it an “almost never-seen-before strategy.”

After two weeks of trial in an infringement suit over patents for spinal implants used in back surgery, lawyers for Medtronic convinced a California jury to award a subsidiary nearly $102 million, but defendant NuVasive collected its own much smaller award and vowed to fight the verdict.

The 1st Circuit has reinstated a $675,000 damages award against grad student Joel Tenenbaum for illegal music downloading, but remanded the case for review of whether the verdict was excessive.

Out of 10 defendants in a patent infringement case brought by Spanish antenna company Fractus, only Samsung stuck it out to face the jury. The go-it-alone strategy failed, and the verdict could cost Samsung close to $80 million in treble damages.

A judge has thrown out the verdict in the first securities class action trial tied to the financial meltdown, finding the plaintiffs’ sole expert failed to show that shareholder losses had resulted from false statements BankAtlantic made about its loan portfolio.