The US legal system doesn’t always require a trial and court proceedings. A lot of legal matters are settled out of court. These settlements in some cases amount to a lot of money being paid by one party to another to compensate for the losses that the receiving party faced in some aspect. Out of court settlements have been around for decades and are often done so that a large organization or a rich individual can save face instead of having a guilty verdict hanging over their heads for the rest of their lives. Here we look at some of the biggest settlements in US legal History.

1. Princeton University

Princeton University is an Ivy League university that is located in New Jersey and was founded in the year 1746. The university had taken donations from a family in the early 1960s but did not utilise the money as per the wishes of the family that donated the money. This leads to a lawsuit filed against the university; the courts then ordered the university to fork out $7 million and change its policies when it comes to using money that was donated to the university.

2. Rupert Murdoch

The television tycoon has had his fair share of legal troubles but none as incredible as the settlement he gave his estranged wife, Anna Tory during their divorce settlement. Anna was given control of assets worth $2 Billion and around $110 Million along with the assets. The settlement is said to be one of the most expensive divorce settlements in history.

3. Dimitry Rybolovlev

The divorce settlement that takes the crown is that of Russian billionaire Dimitry Rybolovlev and Elena Rybolovlev. The couple filed for divorce when Elena caught Dimitry having an affair. The affair is said to be one of the costliest in all of history as it cost Dimitry a massive sum of $4.5 Billion in settlements alone.

4. Enron scam

Enron at one point was a massive energy company that had a large number of shareholders and investors. But the company got into a financial scam and declared bankruptcy in 2001. The people who were affected filled a lawsuit against them and after six years of intense court battle; the federal court ordered the company to pay $7.2 Billion in compensation for all the losses.

5. Tobacco Companies

To this day the largest class action lawsuit was filed against tobacco companies in the US. The attorney generals in over 46 states filed individual cases against tobacco companies, resulting in the famous 1998 verdict that required the companies to fork out $206 billion over 25 years as compensation for the increased health care costs due to smoking addiction.