Despite the large numbers of baby boomers in the U.S., we’vealways been known as a country that doesn’t respect old age. Andthat fact plays out in the number of times the elderly recover whenthey’re plaintiffs in certain cases—information that could helpinsurance companies as well as plaintiff’s attorneys weigh the prosand cons of settling versus going to trial.

In a prior study, VerdictSearch found that plaintiffs' winningpercentage rises from birth until about the age of 29, after whichit declines with each decade. Thus, elderly plaintiffs have theworst winning percentage of all.

This time VerdictSearch followed up by examining whether anelderly plaintiff is always a weak plaintiff. Overall, plaintiffsage 75 or older win about 49% of the time, as depicted by the redbar on the accompanying chart, which is based on cases reported toVerdictSearch. Elderly female plaintiffs (pink) fare marginallyworse than the baseline, while elderly men (blue) do a littlebetter.

The attention-getting moments came when VerdictSearch looked atcase type. Surprisingly, elderly people are able to minimize thebad-driver reputation and do well in motor-vehicle cases, but theyget little sympathy from juries in medical-malpractice cases.

To check another age group, use the search platform on VerdictSearch.com (subscription required).

Source: VerdictSearch

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