The lawyers who recently scored a $20.5 million verdict in a Houston County medical product liability case said the outcome illustrates a shortcoming in Food and Drug Administration procedures and bucks defense bar dogma that rural, conservative counties generally don’t deliver large verdicts.

The verdict—the largest in Houston County history according to the trial judge—includes $17.5 million in punitive damages, triggering a seldom-used Georgia law mandating that 75 percent of any punitive damage award in a product liability case must be turned over to the state.