Tractor Wrecks Pull Largest Claims $$
NU Online News Service, Jan. 16, 2:46 p.m. EST? Juries awarded more money to people hurt by tractor malfunctions or farm equipment breakdowns than persons with asbestos illness claims, according to a report issued yesterday.[@@]
The findings, by Jury Verdict Research of Horsham, Pa., were for the average over a ten-year period, which compared farm injury product liability claims against the ill effects of working with asbestos-related products.
According to the report, "Products Liability: Verdicts, Settlements and Statistical Analysis," the median compensatory jury award for farm products was $1.6 million from 1993-2002, while asbestos-containing industrial, construction and commercial products brought $1 million compensatory awards, on average. Asbestos-containing transportation products netted $654,000.
The overall median compensatory award for all products liability cases was $700,000, with individual product categories varying widely?from a $9,000 average for cases involving restaurant food to $2 billion for those involving drugs and vaccines.
Included in the 67-page report are award ranges for 50 separate product categories. The farm products range of verdicts, for example, is much narrower than asbestos products, with farm products having a range of compensatory awards extending from a low of $5,576 to a high of $7.5 million.
The comparable range for asbestos-containing industrial, commercial and construction products has a similar low–$5,000?but a high end award of $40.5 million.
Besides compensatory award medians and ranges, the report includes plaintiff recovery probabilities, with asbestos-containing products exhibiting the highest recovery percentage (ratio of plaintiff verdicts to defense verdicts) at 74 percent.
At the opposite end of the scale, plaintiff recovery percentages for cases involving ladders, ski equipment, disposable lighters and auto steering parts fell in the mid-teens.
The Jury Verdict Research report is based on an analysis of compensatory awards for both plaintiff and defense verdicts derived from a nationwide database of verdicts from personal injury claims.
While the statistics presented throughout the report relate to compensatory damage awards only, punitive damage and other components are set forth in a sampling of product cases that are individually described in detail. Cases described include small ones, like a $100,000 verdict in a case of foreign matter found in a fast-food restaurant sandwich, to huge ones that include a $150 million tobacco verdict.
The report records distributions of compensatory damage awards by size for the ten-year period. Such distributions give the percentage of awards that fall within different dollar ranges. For example, the study shows that 13 percent of compensation awards in product liability cases were in the $1 million to $2 million range, while 4 percent exceeded $20 million.
Copies of the report are available from Jury Verdict Research for $32.50 with $5.50 for shipping. To order or for more information, call 1-800-341-7874, e-mail custserve@lrp.com or visit www.juryverdictresearch.com.
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