I obtained more information on Tuesday’s million dollar plus verdict in federal court in Gulf port in an 18-wheeler case. According to my reports the plaintiff claimed $155,000 in medical expenses. That means that the jury awarded less than the actual bills in medical expenses. The medicals included $50,000 for a surgery for a blood clot caused by a bad needle stick.
Plaintiff claimed lost wages of $2.1 million. Defendants’ economist said the number was $579,000. The parties disagreed on plaintiff’s work life expectancy. They compromised this disagreement by agreeing to reduce the lost earnings verdict by 26%. That is why the judgment is smaller than the verdict minus the 1% apportionment.
Defendants hoped for a higher fault apportionment to the unknown driver who caused plaintiff’s driver to slam on the brakes. The jury rejected the argument and found that the 18-wheeler should have stayed far enough behind the car to avoid the accident.
The jury was all white and very conservative.
I do not know what the defendants were hoping to keep the verdict to. But based on this information, my estimate is that they wanted to keep it under $500,000. A grand slam home run for the plaintiff would have been a verdict over $2.5 million. Of course, that size verdict is real hard to get in that conservative of a venue.
All in all it looks like a victory for the plaintiff. As is often the case in clear liability auto collision cases, the verdict was well between the two sides’ positions.