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February 25, 2006
JURY AWARDS REPORTED DOWN IN LARGE CASES
The National Law Journal has reported that the total amount awarded by juries last year in the nation's largest cases declined for the third consecutive year. Based on analysis of the VerdictSearch(R) Top 100, a ranking of the largest jury verdicts in 2005, the NLJ reveals that juries awarded just $8.2 billion in compensatory and punitive damages in these cases last year, the lowest total since the newspaper began tracking these verdicts in 2001 and a decline of 28 percent from last year's total.
“Punitive damages also continued to decline significantly, in part due to caps that have now been implemented in more than half of the nation's states… Punitive awards continued to decrease at a much faster rate than compensatory awards--which, by comparison, have remained relatively constant.”
The types of cases that made the Top 100 Verdicts of 2005 varied greatly. Thirteen trials involved motor vehicle cases, 11 involved medical malpractice, nine were breach of contract actions and seven were intellectual property cases.
Posted by MVHAP at February 25, 2006 04:31 PM