Report cites increase in jury awards in personal injury cases.

A report issued by Pennsylvania-based LRP Publications claiming to prove a sharp rise in jury awards has gained some notice in the national press. The report, issued as part of the Jury Verdict Research series, cited dramatic statistics about trends in jury verdicts.

While noting that median awards in premises liability and personal negligence cases declined slightly in 1999, the report stated that jury awards for products liability suits rose 44 percent in 1999 and 261 percent since 1993. In business negligence cases--in which plaintiffs were injured as a result of employee, company, or company-agent negligence--jury awards increased 37 percent in 1999 and 126 percent since 1993, the report said.

The median compensatory damages award in both 1998 and 1999 was the same as in 1993--$50,000--according to the report. The median punitive damages award--rendered in about 4 percent of jury trials--nearly tripled from 1993 to 1999, from $71,500 to $200,000.

ATLA President Fred Baron said flaws in the study's data collection and analysis practices led to inflation of these numbers. The report's authors, who gather data from self-reporting sources, obtain abstracts of cases supplied by court clerks, plaintiff and defense attorneys, legal reporters, and media sources. The database contains a fraction of the personal injury verdicts rendered nationwide.

In addition, "the report's authors don't count verdicts in which the plaintiff loses or receives no compensation at all--which account for about half of cases brought to trial," said Baron. "This means the median award numbers are significantly overstated. And the authors do not adjust award amounts to account for inflation, thus allowing reported verdicts to appear as if they are rising much more than they actually are."

The report, Current Award Trends in Personal Injury, 2000 Edition, is available for $39.95, plus a $4.50 shipping and handling charge, from LRP Publications, [phone].

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