Consumer Law

Number of tort trials decreases.

By Richard Alderman

by Richard Alderman

Tort reformers would have us believe that our judicial system is broken, clogged down with frivolous tort suits. In fact, a recent study shows that the number of state court tort suits that make it to trial declined steadily over a 10-year period ending in 2005, dropping to about 4 percent. The figures, collected from the 2005 Civil Justice Survey of State Courts and released this month, found that the number of state court tort trials declined by about a third between 1996 and 2005 in the country?s most populous counties.

Of the cases that went to trial in 2005 - the year for which the latest state-level data is available - 60 percent were automobile accident cases. About 15 percent involved medical malpractice claims. Plaintiffs were victorious about half the time. Of those wining plaintiffs, about half were awarded $24,000 or less in damages. Punitive damages were sought in about 9 percent of cases won by plaintiffs, and awarded in less than 3 percent of winning cases, the data shows. The highest percentage of punitive damages awards came in cases involving libel and slander. The medium punitive damage award was $55,000.

Full post as published by CL&P Blog on November 17, 2009 (boomark / email).