content: 8.5 million because a woman was paralyzed on the left side?  Lawyer gets his cut because Yellow Cab wasn't going to hand over the money without a fight. And it was surely on a contingency basis as the average Jane can't cover those costs out of pocket. Now that she is paralyzed on her left side, she won't be very employable, so lifetime lost earnings. Now she needs to cover health care costs both for the accident, and for the rest of her life, which are going to be expensive. And now she will need special mobility equipment to get around. And to retrofit her home to deal with mobility equipment.  Is 8.5 million too much? Too little? I don't know. But it is going to be expensive.