Schuelke Law Discusses How Large Verdicts Demonstrate the Devastating Impact of Personal Injuries

Austin, Texas – According to a 2024 study, there are over 39 million personal injury cases that require some form of medical treatment. The Bureau of Justice Statistics also revealed that 3-4% of personal injury cases went to trial.

With the need for immediate and ongoing medical treatments after a serious accident, it’s no wonder why large verdicts are a big deal. The length of a case can vary, depending on the severity of injuries and how opposing parties cooperate. The US Bureau stated in a bulletin that from the time a case is filed to when it is settled and dismissed was about 19.3 months. The median time was 13.7 months.

While any type of personal injury or wrongful death case might result in a large verdict, most large-verdict cases cluster in three particular areas. Features that make medical malpractice, defective products, and car accident claims more likely to result in a large verdict include:

• Catastrophic injuries, such as paralysis, the loss of one or more limbs, brain damage, and other life-altering injuries and
• The risk of death resulting from one or more catastrophic injuries.

In some cases, punitive damages further increase the total award. Punitive damages are awarded when a party causes injury in a particularly callous, reckless, or careless way. These damages send a message that society won’t tolerate that behavior. Punitive damages are not available in all cases or in all states – but when they are, they may be several times higher than the award for damages.

Among personal injury cases, the largest verdicts are typically seen in product liability cases. In these cases, a hidden defect causes serious injuries or death. Product liability cases can be particularly dangerous because a product’s user may not know there is an issue until injury or death has already occurred. The user thus has no opportunity to protect themselves from the danger. It is thus the responsibility of product manufacturers, designers, and sellers to ensure the product is reasonably safe for its intended use or comes with warnings about risks that cannot be eliminated.

Insurance company publications on the topic tend to blame injured plaintiffs and their attorneys for the size of these awards.

The blame, however, doesn’t lie on an injured person or their family. This is just another example of insurance companies and wrongdoers failing to take responsibility for their actions. Instead, large jury verdicts tend to reflect the devastating and life-altering nature of the most severe and fatal injuries. These verdicts often contemplate the total cost of necessary compensation.

Future medical bills are a major factor in catastrophic injury cases. An infant who suffers brain damage from a birth injury, a young worker who loses limbs to a defective tool, or a teen pedestrian paralyzed by a drunk driver all face a lifetime of astronomical medical expenses. These costs may include daily assistance, specialized equipment, live-in medical care, or specialized hospital care.

For people who suffer serious injuries, these costs may persist for decades. Large verdicts reflect the fact that medical care is expensive and its costs continue to rise. These verdicts place responsibility for those costs where it belongs – on the party that caused the injury, not the person who could have done nothing to prevent it.

Filing a personal injury claim is crucial to securing the justice injured victims deserve. In some rare cases, punitive damages may be awarded by courts when a defendant’s behavior is particularly egregious, also increasing the size of the largest jury verdicts.