December 14, 2010
Recent Philadelphia
Verdict Statistics
Patricia S. Duffy, or
Kevin L. Connors
610.524.2100
or visit www.duffyconnors.com
Since not all of our faithful followers subscribe to the Legal Intelligencer in Philadelphia, the oldest law journal in the United States, it is worth reporting that the Legal Intelligencer published a very interesting article on September 30, 2010, in which it was reported that the number of jury verdicts in excess of $1,000,000 had tripled during the first six months of 2010, compared against the same time period in 2009.
This is a telling statistic, no matter which side of the aisle that you might fancy yourself on.
No less fascinating, to all that think Philadelphia is a jurisdiction where Plaintiffs routinely prevail, being awarded exorbitant sums bearing no seeming connection to facts, causes of action, evidence, and/or defenses, other than that the case was tried in Philly, but, there were 162 defense verdicts in Philadelphia during the first six months of this year, representing 48% of all jury verdicts and non-jury bench verdicts rendered in Philadelphia.
The lowest Plaintiff verdict reported in the first six months of this year was a $500 award.
No less interesting, the lowest Plaintiff verdict reported in the first six months of this year was a $500 award, with the highest award being $88,000,000, resulting in the average Plaintiff award being $498,277.10; these statistics are for jury verdicts, with non-jury bench verdicts averaging $95,475.32, ranging from a low of $48 to a high of $2.23 million.
However, verdicts of $1,000,000 or more made up 11.5% of the 183 verdicts rendered during the first six months of 2010, with there having been 21 verdicts where the Plaintiffs were awarded $1,000,000 or more; 7 of those $1,000,000+ verdicts involved asbestosis claims, with consequent deaths from exposure to asbestos-containing products.
Philadelphia would appear to be a coin toss on liability issues, and a slam dunk in damages, as almost 25% of the Plaintiff jury verdicts were $1,000,000 or more.
In jury trials, and this seems contrary to our general perception of Philadelphia as a Plaintiff-friendly and Defendant-unkind personal injury jurisdiction, there were 94 defense verdicts, against 89 Plaintiff verdicts, although in non-jury bench trials, Plaintiffs prevailed 86 times, against 68 defense findings; using this benchmark, Philadelphia would appear to be a coin toss on liability issues, and a slam dunk in damages, as almost 25% of the Plaintiff jury verdicts were $1,000,000 or more.
DuffyConnors
Our casualty litigation practice group routinely defends litigation for self-insureds, third-party administrators, and insurance carriers throughout Southeastern and Eastern Pennsylvania, appearing in state and federal civil courtrooms in Philadelphia, as well as in the surrounding counties of Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware, Chester, Lancaster, Berks, Lehigh, Northampton, and Schuylkill.