By Constitution State Services
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In just five years, the average verdict in the National Law Journal’s Top 100 Verdicts more than tripled from $64 million in 2015 to $214 million in 2019 1 . It’s not just the number of record verdicts. In fact, the same data shows there were 30% more cases in 2019 that pierced the $100 million threshold than there were in 2015 1 .
The trend is also notable within auto liability. A study from the American Transportation Research Institute showed a nearly 1,000% increase in large verdicts involving truck crashes. The average verdict size for a lawsuit above $1 million involving a truck crash increased from $2.3 million to $22.3 million over nine years 2 .
Changing cultural attitudes toward corporations combined with increasingly aggressive plaintiff attorneys are helping drive this unprecedented growth in liability verdicts.
Theories of negligence are now more expansive, so they can be harder to defend. Litigation may be filed sooner in the life of a claim, resulting in extensive discovery, motion practices and numerous issues litigated at trial. The appellate landscape has changed as well. It seems more common to see runaway verdicts affirmed on appeal.
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Logo, Constitution State Services, Taken for a Ride. The period after Retailer expands into a large white circle that contains contractor with a checkmark above it.
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A national retailer is expanding its footprint. A respectable general contractor is hired, ground is broken, and the site is secured.
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The white circle flattens, cracks into pieces and falls down. A black hole remains and a grid appears over it.
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One night a trespasser breaks in and joy rides on the equipment. He is seriously injured and sues. Who's responsible, the contractor? The retailer? Check your blind spot.
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A dollar sign inside a white circle rolls down a slope. The slope reverses and the dollar sign rolls down the other side. It rolls over a small crack, pauses at the edge of a crevasse, and falls into a deep dark pit.
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In the past, the retailer would likely not have faced a liability claim. However, incidents that might not have been financially significant in the past today may turn into financial nightmares.
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The dollar sign continues to fall down the pit. A target appears and centers itself on the dollar sign as it falls.
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Now more than ever before deep pockets are targets for lawsuits, why? Because societal standards for corporate responsibility are changing. A recent survey revealed that 88% of potential jurors believe that companies should take any and all precautions no matter how impractical or costly to ensure the safety of their products.
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The dollar sign draws a jagged line chart that goes up and down and up higher.
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This can translate into more claims with larger dollar settlements and verdicts.
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A white circle floats down and nestles behind blue mountains. It spins out and turns light blue. Interconnected white, gray, and blue C's and S's form the Constitution State Services logo.
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That's why in today's litigation friendly landscape it is especially important to choose the right third party administrator that has the deep expertise necessary to manage your claims and reduce your risk.
Constitution State Services has solutions to help protect you from your liability blind spots. Contact your broker and learn how.
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Logo, Constitution State Services. Text, Contact a broker to learn about solutions that are right for you. constitutionstateservices.com
In one case example, a national retailer hired a construction firm to build a new store, signed a contract and turned the project over. During excavation, a trespasser used a crowbar to access the worksite and suffered an injury while joyriding on equipment.
Just five years earlier plaintiff attorneys were likely to claim that the contractor was negligent for failing to adequately secure the site, while the retailer would not have faced liability. Attorneys now routinely expand their theories of negligence to include the entities with the biggest public profile and perceived financial resources. Today, that translates to allegations of liability on the retailer’s part based on its hiring, supervision and safety practices.
Three key societal trends are further impacting verdicts and jury awards:
1. Shifting jury attitudes – A DecisionQuest study from 2018 that interviewed potential jurors really drives home how society views large companies today:
Furthermore, negative feedback about brands increasingly goes viral on social media, further reinforcing newer cultural attitudes about corporate responsibility.
2. More attorney representation – When a plaintiff's attorney gets involved with a claim, it can quadruple 4 costs.
3. Increasingly aggressive plaintiff’s bar tactics – Plaintiff attorneys are more likely to leverage every available tool, including analytics, in an effort to drive up jury awards in both general liability and auto liability claims.
Plaintiff attorneys are increasingly leveraging the changing societal views on corporations, the value of money and personal responsibility when trying to take the focus away from the fundamental and necessary evaluation of liability in order to inflate the value of a claim in a given litigation.
One way they do that is by introducing much more robust, expansive and speculative medical plans. For cases with less significant medical costs, plaintiffs’ attorneys will often draw attention to pain and suffering to make an emotional appeal to the jury in order to capitalize on today’s shifting attitudes.
