Juries Generous to California Personal Injury Claimants

If you're a California resident who has been hurt in an accident, statistics on California personal injury verdicts (amounts awarded to plaintiffs by courts or juries) would seem to say that you've got a better than average chance of receiving compensation for your injuries. While the most common accidental injuries - back strains - bring the lowest returns in California personal injury cases, at least one recent California article suggests that serious personal injuries, like brain traumas from auto accidents or medical malpractice, routinely result in multi-million dollar awards, while wrongful death cases garner even higher awards from juries in California.

In fact, according to a recent article by Ronald V. Miller, Jr., published in the Accident and Injury Lawyer Blog, the median wrongful death verdict in California exceeds $2.2 million, while the median award for a traumatic brain injury, which can result from such common calamities as auto accidents or falls, is nearly $1.6 million. Compared to the national median recovery for a brain injury, which hovers around $1.4 million, the article notes that California juries are generous in awarding compensation for these catastrophic losses.

According to Jury Verdict Research, a group that compiled the statistics cited in Miller's article, the median award in the sampled cases is believed to be more accurate than "average" numbers, as an indicator of what might commonly be expected from verdicts in California personal injury cases. The average figure can be influenced sharply by just a few very high or very low personal injury verdicts, so it may appear to be significantly higher or lower than the median figure, which is the middle figure when awards are listed from highest to lowest. For example, the average damages award in all 2010 California personal injury trials was a whopping $1.8 million, but the median verdict in California injury cases was more reasonable, hovering just over $114,000. These same statistics also show that California personal injury plaintiffs were awarded at least some compensation in 41% of court cases. These court verdict figures don't include amounts paid to personal injury claimants in the ninety-five percent of cases that settle out-of-court, without the need to file litigation. Taken together, the numbers seem to offer a bit of hope for anyone who's suffered lost wages, medical expenses, or pain and suffering from a California personal injury accident.

One note of caution: Filing and pursuing a court case that involves personal injury claims or wrongful death claims is no simple matter in California or in any other state. These cases can involve some of the most complex and burdensome litigation tactics around, and the likelihood of receiving adequate compensation without seeking assistance from an experienced California personal injury attorney is very low.

The good news? California boasts many personal injury attorneys with experience pursuing large personal injury verdicts, and most of them offer free consultations and contingency fee agreements, so utilizing the services of a good California personal injury attorney is not likely to involve up-front costs or out-of-pocket expenses for attorneys fees.

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Tags:  Los Angeles · San Francisco · Personal Injuries · Personal Injury Claims · Personal Injury Verdicts