A Jackson County jury on Friday awarded five former State Farm Insurance agents $20 million after finding that the company wrongly terminated them for criticizing its treatment of policyholders.

The verdict, the second largest in Jackson County this year, came after a three-week trial. The jury deliberated about five hours before awarding the agents $9 million in actual damages and $11 million in punitive damages.

“At its heart, this case was about whether State Farm could terminate an agent in retaliation for speaking out publicly to protect policyholder interests,” said Kansas City attorney Norman Siegel, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers.

John Wiscaver, a spokesman for State Farm, said the company was “disappointed, obviously” with the verdict and was considering its options, including an appeal. He declined to comment further.

State Farm terminated the agents’ contracts in January 2000 after they criticized the company’s policies as unfair to policyholders and agents. In its defense, State Farm said the plaintiffs were disgruntled former agents looking out only for themselves.

State Farm agents serve as independent contractors and operate their own businesses. The plaintiffs testified that when they signed on with State Farm, they were told they could be terminated only for “good cause.”

The plaintiffs collectively worked as agents for State Farm for 115 years. One of them, Joseph J. Kelly, had operated an agency in Joplin, Mo., since 1957.

Kelly, now 82, testified that he often expressed concern about what he regarded as State Farm’s unfair treatment of policyholders and agents. In December 1999, he and the other plaintiffs allowed their names to be used in a letter charging the company with fraudulent attempts to lower payments to auto accident victims, deceptive use of after-market auto parts, misrepresenting life insurance policies as investment vehicles, overcharging for homeowner’s insurance and redlining. The letter was sent on behalf of about 40 State Farm agents to the Texas insurance commissioner.

Two months before that, two of the plaintiffs, Tana Glockner of California, Md., and Michael Lee Morgan of Centerville, Ohio, had signed a letter to the Senate Commerce Committee leveling many of the same charges. They also participated in a news conference in Washington that addressed what participants said was a companywide pattern of consumer abuse.

A 1999 Illinois class-action case over State Farm’s practice of specifying the use of nonoriginal auto parts resulted in a $1.18 billion verdict against the insurance giant. The case remains on appeal.

Siegel said State Farm acknowledged that the agents were fired for speaking out but claimed it was entitled to do so.

“Their position was that their obligations to management trumped their obligations to policyholders,” he said.

The case went to the jury — six men and six women — Thursday afternoon. The jury returned with its verdict at midmorning on Friday, finding in favor of the agents by a vote of 10-2. Unlike criminal verdicts, civil verdicts in state court do not have to be unanimous.

“Our clients felt vindicated,” said Siegel’s partner, George Hanson, who also represented the agents. “It was a long, tough process. There was some emotion. They felt justice was done.”

The verdict was the second largest in Jackson County this year, according to the Greater Kansas City Jury Verdict Service. It was exceeded only by a $20.5 million verdict against Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. in January. That case was brought by the family of deceased Lee’s Summit resident Barbara Smith, who smoked Kool cigarettes for nearly 50 years and died of a heart attack in 1990 at the age 73, 10 years after she quit smoking.

State Farm, based in Bloomington, Ill., is one of the nation’s biggest financial institutions, with about 17,000 agents and $58.8 billion in revenue in 2004.

■The agents were fired in 2000 after they criticized State Farm’s policies as unfair.

■State Farm said the plaintiffs were disgruntled former agents looking out for themselves.