This page looks at settlement payouts and jury awards in personal injury cases in California. We provide statistics on reported settlements and jury verdicts, as well as factual summaries of recent cases resulting in payouts.
We also provide an overview of the key personal injury laws in California, such as the statute of limitations for injury claims, medical malpractice rules, and limits on damages.
Our California mesothelioma and asbestos lawyers represent victims of asbestos exposure throughout California. We provide asbestos and mesothelioma victims the skills and resources to get maximum compensation. This page will look at mesothelioma lawsuits in California and their average settlement value.
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This page looks at the settlement and trial value of personal injury cases in California. This page was last updated on January 18, 2023.
One study found that the average money damage award for personal injury trials in California is $1,814,094. The median verdict, perhaps a better statistic, is $114,305.
Earlier this year in Winter v. Gardens Regional Hospital, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals revived a False Claims Act case filed by the Director of Care Management in a California hospital that claimed nearly $1.3 in Medicare claims that sought reimbursement for inpatient hospitalizations that were not medically necessary.
The U.S. District Court of Utah dismissed the case, without leave to amend, for failing to state a claim under the FCA. Specifically, the court believed that the qui tam plaintiff’s complaint failed to state a cause of action under the FCA because the allegations as a matter of law were “subjective medical opinions” that demonstrated a mere “difference of opinion” as to the medical necessity of inpatient hospital admissions.
Another day another Medicaid fraud settlement. In this one, Shield Healthcare, a California medical supplier, paid $5 million to settle a whistle-blower lawsuit that alleged that Shield submitting inflated bills to California’s Medicaid program. The suit claimed that the company submitted false claims and evaded the regulation’s upper billing limit. (I’d be curious how they did that. You have to admire the scope of the evil).
In a related story, California is going bankrupt.
A Jury Verdict Research study found that the average personal injury verdict in California is 1,635,327. The median, which takes out huge verdicts like one in the study for over $100 million, is California.
California juries are tougher on liability: plaintiffs receive damages in 45 percent of cases that go to trial.
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 cases 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. Why? Because exceedingly high verdicts really distort the average.
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