Articles Posted in States

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emergency room malpractice Many states are trying to carve out malpractice caps and different standards of care for emergency room doctors in medical malpractice cases.  

The thinking starts out okay.  Emergency department doctors should be given the benefit of the doubt because things are happening so quickly. But ER doctors are always getting the benefit of the doubt from jurors.  There is statistical evidence of this.  

More importantly, the standard of care already bakes in the fact that things are sometimes happening at the speed of light in the ER.  That is why reasonableness is always based on all the facts and circumstances. Continue reading

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florida disc injury cases

Value of Injury Cases: Disc Injuries

I think it is useful to write about jury verdicts and give thoughts as to why I think the jury found as they did and the issues that arose in the case.  Why?  Because people are looking online for information about the value of their cases. So we summarize one case, Mayrink v. Luchsinger, the long way and then give sample settlements and verdicts in more Florida disc injury cases.

On our website, we provide a ton of verdict information for victims, many of which suffered a herniated disc.  This helps give some lens to the value of a case.  But it hardly tells the real story of the claim and why a jury may have valued it how they did.  So hopefully posts like this help educate those looking for answers.

  • Average back injury settlement
  • Steroid injection settlements – how epidural injections impact settlement compensation payouts in herniated disc injury cases

Facts of Mayrink v. Luchsinger

This is a herniated disc case.  Plaintiff, a painter by trade, crashed into a median strip after being pushed off the road by the defendant who must have changed lanes without looking.   Usually, in these lane change cases, you almost invariably have a liability fight on your hands.  Defense counsel in this case, probably wisely, admitted responsibility.  Why is this wise?  Defense counsel often admits liability because they know if they fight and lose there is real credibility lost on the scope of the injuries battle.   By admitting fault, the defendant seems more credible and honest than if they fight on liability and lose.  Continue reading

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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 September 2, 2021.

What Is a California Personal Injury Case Worth?

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.

CA-Verdicts-Graphs

What is the median verdict in a California wrongful death case?

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A Jury Verdict Research study finds that the compensatory median award for personal injury trials in New York is $287,628, dwarfing the nationwide median is $34,550.

Why Are New York Personal Injury Verdicts Are So High?

New York has favorable juries, particularly in its urban areas. But the reality is that this number is distorted by the lack of smaller and mid-sized car accident lawsuits. Under New York’s no-fault law, an insurance company is required to pay drivers, passengers, and pedestrians up to $50,000.00 for their legitimate economic and medical losses but does not provide for pain and suffering.

Only permanent injury cases can recover more than $50,000. This leads to fewer lawsuits in smaller cases – of which there are many – which increases the overall award in New York. Keep in mind the typical settlement or verdict tells you very little about the expected settlement compensation payout in your claim.

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The average jury verdict in car, truck, and motorcycle accident cases in Colorado is $207,687 according to a recent Jury Verdict Research study. This report also found that only 50% of vehicle accident cases in Colorado lead to plaintiff verdicts and the median verdict when the plaintiff does prevail is $44,050.  These Colorado accident payout statistics are older but they are still insightful in 2022.

Not surprisingly, half of the vehicle accident cases in the study were either rear-end car crashes or intersection collisions.

Colorado accident verdicts
In a completely unrelated story, there was a $15 million verdict in favor of a truck driver in a slip and fall lawsuit against Wal-Mart in Colorado earlier this month.

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If you have a personal injury case in Wisconsin it is only natural to speculate on how much money you might get out of it. Looking at average settlement and verdict data can be very misleading because each individual case is unique. The best way to get an idea of what type of payout you can possibly expect in your case is to look at compensation awarded in prior cases with similar facts.

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Below are summaries of verdicts and reported settlements in recent personal injury cases from Wisconsin. There is no guarantee that you will get a comparable payout from your case, but these verdicts and settlements will give you an idea of what to possibly expect.

Wisconsin Personal Injury Verdicts and Settlements

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A Jury Verdict Research study found that the average motor vehicle accident case jury verdict in Oregon is $36,721.  Car and other motor vehicle accident plaintiffs received money damages in 75% of these Oregon personal injury accident cases, a much higher percentage than the national average.

If you have been injured in a car accident in Portland, Eugene, Salem, Gresham, Beaverton, Hillsboro, Medford, Springfield, Bend, or Corvallis and need a car accident lawyer, call 1-800-553-8082.

Oregon Auto Accident Verdicts and Settlements

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Last week, in Siebert v. Okun, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled that the state’s damages cap in medical malpractice cases was constitutional, concluding the law did not violate the right to a trial by jury. This ruling struck down the Bernalillo County District Court’s 2018 ruling on Siebert v. Okun.

New Mexico’s Medical Malpractice Act

The New Mexico legislature passed the Medical Malpractice Act in 1976. The law caps damages in medical malpractice cases at $600,000. It applies to lost wages and pain and suffering. The cap excludes punitive damages and compensation for medical and rehabilitative treatments.

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The average personal injury verdict at trial in Connecticut is $2,519,637, according to Jury Verdict Research.

This is great ammo if you are a personal injury lawyer trying to trump up the value of your case or if you are a tort reform advocate trying to show that juries are going wild. But this is unbelievably misleading.

The median personal injury verdict in Connecticut is $22,499, less than 10% of the average. Only 4% of verdicts exceed $1 million and I would love to see how many of these verdicts are actually collected. My guess? Less than half. Someone got a $326 million verdict in this study. I didn’t look up the verdict, but somehow I doubt someone wrote a $326 million check.

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Let’s take a look at hospital malpractice verdicts and settlements in Massachusetts in recent years.  I’m writing this on March 31, 2021 so we do not have a ton in recent years.  

Why?  Hospitals in Massachusetts — or anywhere — are usually not racing to the courthouse steps to try cases.  They have too much in PR and goodwill to risk a loss so they settle the good cases they could lose. 

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