Arbitration & Mediation

California personal injury plaintiffs are among the best compensated injury victims in the country but that California juries need convincing that the defendant is liable. California's median compensatory award in personal injury cases is 149,000, dwarfing the national median of $34,550. But California juries only award damages in 44 percent of personal injury case that go to verdict. Nationally, plaintiffs prevail in 52% of personal injury cases.

These California personal injury verdict numbers, not median or average settlements in personal injury cases. But settlement values largely reflect the median verdicts.

I don't know if anyone has yet studied the effect of the economic downturn on juries' willingness to compensate injured plaintiffs (Anne Reed?)  I'd suspect that actions against insurance carriers - particularly health insurance carriers - would "sell" to jurors and stimulate their empathy given everyone's fear of losing their jobs and the insurance that often goes along with employment.

I wonder, however, if today's jurors might not turn a cold eye on anyone they believe to be "gaming" the system or seeking compensation for injuries that they too are suffering but about which suffering they have no one individual or entity to "name, claim and blame."

I'd be interested in hearing from my litigation colleagues about the current atmosphere in jury deliberation rooms.  The best jury blog, hands down, by the way, is attorney and jury consultant Anne Reed's Deliberations.