Boston ? Large jury verdict awards to individual plaintiffs lagged in the year after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but the lull vanished in the last months of 2002 with some record-breaking verdicts, according to the newspaper Lawyers Weekly USA.

Only one of the top 10 jury verdict awards in 2001 was granted after the attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. But seven of 2002’s top 10 were awarded after September, said Paul Martinek, editor-in-chief of the Boston-based publication that compiles the annual Top Ten Jury Awards list.

“There was an obvious change in U.S. courtrooms following Sept. 11 — big-money cases were either settled or their trials were delayed,” Martinek said. He said juries could feel plaintiffs’ injuries or complaints paled in comparison to the deaths of thousands on Sept. 11.

The lull continued into the next year, as only four of the year’s top 10 verdicts — which had 11 listings because of a 10th-place tie — were awarded before September 2002. However, 2002 ended with record-breaking jury awards.

At the top of the list, published today, is a $28 billion award to a smoker in California in October 2002 — more than nine times the previous record award of $3 billion against a tobacco company.

The largest personal injury award against an auto manufacturer — a $225 million verdict against Ford Motor Co. awarded to a plaintiff from San Diego, Tex. — was also given at the end of last year.

But plaintiffs in these high-award cases rarely receive the full amount, Martinek said. A judge reduced the jury award to $28 million for the smoker who claimed that Philip Morris was responsible for her lung cancer that spread to her liver.