I read this over at the South Carolina Nursing Home Blog. Look at how small the amount is for the median damage award. It’s only $28,000. The vast majority of people do not win millions of dollars.
Major findings from the 2005 Civil Justice Survey of State Courts include—
• A jury decided almost 70% of the approximately 26,950 general civil trials disposed of in 2005.
• About 60% of the general civil trials included in the survey involved a tort claim and about a third involved contractual issues. Most of the tort cases involved motor vehicle accidents.
• Plaintiffs won in almost 60% of trials overall.
• The median damage award for plaintiffs who won monetary damages in general civil trials was $28,000.
• Punitive damages were awarded to only 5% of plaintiff winners in general civil trials in 2005.
• In the nation’s 75 most populous counties, the number of general civil cases disposed of by jury or bench trial declined by about 50% from 1992 to 2005.Almost two-thirds (62%) of all plaintiff award winners were awarded $50,000 or less. A small percentage (about 4%) of all plaintiff award winners were awarded $1 million or more.
There were only 2,449 trials involving medical malpractice which amounts to 9.1%. This is interesting since we know there are 100,000 deaths caused every year from medical malpractice.
Thanks to the South Carolina Nursing Home Blog for finding this.
