When trying to figure out the settlement value of a personal injury case, trial attorneys pull from usually only one resource: their own experience. We pull from our own cases and from cases we have heard about from other lawyers. But how good are we at valuing cases? First, it…
Jury Verdict Research has some interesting statistics on verdicts on money damages awarded at trial in premises liability claims. Also included in the report is a look at median awards in different types of premises liability cases. So, at least theoretically, we have on average the same injuries but different…
Jury Verdict Research has some interesting data on which injures comprised the largest proportion of cases in which juries or courts awarded the victim over $1 million. Here is the category followed by its relative percentage of million-dollar verdicts: Death – 28% Brain Damage – 14% Leg Injuries – 6%…
The much-anticipated list of judicial hellholes is out. Baltimore made the list once again. The write up on Baltimore begins with the notion that for evidence that Baltimore is a judicial hellhole, well just ask Miller & Zois. Baltimore has been described as an up-and-coming Judicial Hellhole for years, but…
I have recently received a good bit of heated interest in my last two posts (here and here) on the Maryland Court of Appeals opinion in Tracey v. Solesky, in which the court held that in dog bite cases involving a pit bull or cross-bred pit bull mix, plaintiff no…
The Defense Line – a publication of the Maryland Defense Institute – publishes a quarterly newsletter that includes a few “Hey, look, Ma, we got a defense verdict” pieces. Here is a sample: Johnson, et al. v. Dr. Rosemarie Filart, M.D., et al. — Bonner Kiernan Obtains Defense Verdict in…
Car accidents can cause circulatory system injuries. My law firm has seen heart attacks, spleen injuries, liver and lung injuries, gallbladder injuries. Jury Verdict Research provides a study on median compensatory award for circulatory system injuries: Heart attacks: $443,750 Gallbladder injuries: 259,117 Liver injuries: $221,185 Spleen injuries: $40,342 Overall: $225,000…
Metro Verdicts Monthly’s cover graph is hip replacement settlements and verdicts in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia. The graph just says “hip replacements” so there is really no context. I will assume that these are primarily injury cases and not product liability claims because those claims – most notably against…
Click to enlarge Jury Verdict Research conducted a study of its database of verdicts and found that the average jury award in a bicycle accident case is $279,970. Underscoring how high jury verdicts distort the average verdict, the overall median money awarded in bike accident cases is $50,000. The plaintiffs…
There is a verdict in Metro Verdicts Monthly in Prince George’s County that I’m amazed has received no media coverage. The Plaintiff, a 17-year-old baseball pitcher, received a $52,703 verdict for the right arm fracture he suffered while throwing a pitch in a baseball game. Two questions come to mind:…