Personal Injury Verdicts

November 19, 2007

Jury Trial with State Farm

I had a jury trial in an auto accident case in Anne Arundel County against State Farm last week. It was a soft tissue injury case with over a year of treatment. It was a case we inherited from another lawyer who retired last year.

The biggest weakness of the Plaintiff’s case is that he had few doctor visits before complaining of the soft tissue injury related to the claim. The Defendant’s biggest weakness was their liability defense never made any sense. The Defendant was, however, elderly and very sympathetic. Because the jury is never told insurance will pay the claim, expect this to be a factor in the recovery’s amount even if they suspect there is insurance behind the Defendant.

The jury found for the plaintiff but awarded only a little over $16,000. This thrilled State Farm, and I became depressed for a few days. They won, and I lost. That is how we both saw it and marked our scorecards accordingly.

September 25, 2007

$4 Verdict in Anne Arundel County Drowning Case

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

The Maryland Daily Record yesterday reported on a $4 million verdict an Anne Arundel County jury awarded to the parents of a 5-year-old boy who drowned in the Crofton Country Club pool in 2006. The parents of Connor Freed sued D.R.D. Pool Service, Inc, who managed the pool for the country club. The boy was at the pool with some family friend, who found him floating in the pool after a trip to use the bathroom. The suit alleged that the pool was inadequately supervised by only one 16-year-old lifeguard who had 3 weeks’ experience. It further alleged that they incorrectly performed CPR and that they should have used a defibrillator. (D.R.D. filed a cross-claim against the family friend but the jury found him not liable.)

Interestingly, a pretrial ruling dismissed the parents’ claim for the child’s conscious pain and suffering. I do not know all the facts, but unless he was unconscious when he hit the water, I cannot imagine how there could not be a survival action for conscious pain and suffering. [This ruling later was reversed.]

The jury award was 2,000,706 for each of the child’s parents. The 706 represents the child’s birthday of July 6th. That gives me goosebumps. Regrettably, the real recovery will only be about $1,020,000 (plus economic damages) because that is the cap for non-economic damages in a wrongful death case with two or more beneficiaries.

July 14, 2007

Wrongful Death Settlements and Verdicts in Maryland, D.C. and Virginia

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Metro Verdicts Monthly’s graph this month is median settlements and verdicts in wrongful death claims in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. The median wrongful death settlement in Maryland is $850,000. In Virginia and the District of Columbia, the medians are $675,000 and $750,000, respectively.

Previous blog posts have discussed motor vehicle accident and medical malpractice wrongful death case numbers.

For attorneys handling these cases, I used to think this kind of information falls under the category of “fascinating information but I have no idea what to do with it.” But I have found presenting adjusters with objective information sometimes helps the adjuster better appreciate the value of a case, particularly in truck collision cases where the adjusters are typically in other jurisdictions and do not fully appreciate the value of a certain case in your jurisdiction.

May 23, 2007

The Value of Personal Injury Cases: A Jurisdictional Comparison

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

In the last couple of weeks, I have has put out a lot of data on compensation awards in medical malpractice cases and in auto and truck accident cases. In my research on these posts, I found some other data comparing different states’ verdicts. I thought it was interesting for lawyers in different jurisdictions to compare verdicts:

New York ……….. $275,000

South Dakota ….. $120,913

April 27, 2007

Medical Malpractice Study

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

A recent study found that juries are more likely to side with doctors in medical malpractice cases. The study showed that juries are skeptical of people and their lawyers who sue their doctors and that most medical malpractice trials result in a verdict for the medical doctors. (See yesterday’s Maryland Personal Injury Lawyer Blog post for one more reason they may be skeptical.)

The author of the study, Philip Peters Jr., of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law, concluded that juries treat doctors favorably, “perhaps unfairly so,” and are more likely than even fellow physicians to defer to a doctor’s opinion.

Peters found that most medical malpractice rulings are in favor of the health care provider and that the cases that go to trial are the weakest ones since those with sound evidence usually settle before trial. In an examination of win rates in New Jersey, North Carolina, Florida, and Michigan, Peters found that 27% to 30% of medical malpractice suits end in a plaintiff’s verdict, the lowest success rate of any tort litigation. In Maryland, the number is reportedly 8%.

November 3, 2006

Personal Injury Jury Awards in Minnesota and Maryland

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

A Jury Verdict Research study found that the median compensatory award for personal injury trials in Minnesota is $32,468. To the delight of Minnesota personal injury lawyers, the study also found that plaintiffs recovered damages in 67% of personal injury cases that go to trial. Both statistics are higher than those in Maryland. The median compensatory award in personal injury trials in Maryland is $12,813. Specifically, in auto accident cases in Maryland, the median verdict is $11,277. This data is arguably misleading. Many small claim type cases find their way to Maryland juries because defense lawyers in personal injury cases in Maryland can remove cases to Circuit Court if the plaintiff seeks more than $10,000 (but less than $25,000, which qualifies it for District Court), which they frequently do, primarily to increase the burden on Maryland personal injury lawyers.

May 27, 2006

Personal Injury Verdicts in New Hampshire

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Jury Verdict Research reports that the median compensation award in personal injury trials in New Hampshire is $45,000. This is much higher than the national median of $38,460. Also, New Hampshire personal injury victims are more likely to prevail at trial. New Hampshire plaintiffs get a recovery in 63% of cases that go to a verdict, as opposed to the nationwide recovery probability of 55%.

In Maryland, the median personal injury verdict is only $12,813. Why don’t our personal injury lawyers pack up and leave Maryland for New Hampshire?

Besides the frigid weather, Maryland’s jury verdicts are distorted by the defense lawyers from State Farm and Allstate, the two largest auto insurance providers in Maryland, who routinely “bump up” smaller claims to jury trials.