Large verdicts or "nuclear verdicts" are increasing dramatically in number and size of awards, a new study released by the American Transportation Research Institute found.
The research looked at 600 cases between 2006 and 2019.
“In the first five years of the data, there were 26 cases over $1 million, and in the last five years of the data, there were nearly 300 cases,” the association said.
From 2010 to 2018, the size of verdicts increased by 51.7% each year when inflation was only 1.7%, the study found.
“Many states still have a disconnect between negligence and liability,” Dan Murray, senior vice president of the institute, told the Florida Record. “In my own state of Minnesota, up until about four legislative sessions ago, you could be 16% negligent in a crash and be 100% liable for damages.”
Few states have a one-to-one relation between negligence and liability, Murray said.
In 1977, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the American Bar Association’s ban on attorney advertising, ushering in a new era for lawsuits against truckers, the study concluded.
“From that point on, lawsuits skyrocketed,” Murray said. “The plaintiff’s bar was able to say, 'If you have been in any sort of truck crash, call us up and we’ll sue somebody.'”
The report provided a state-by-state breakdown of cases that end in a win for the plaintiffs.
In Florida, juries ruled in favor of the plaintiffs 67.9% of the time. In California, it was 97.1%. Alabama juries, meanwhile, ruled in favor of the defendants 92.3% of the time.
The report also found that Florida is one of the most attractive states for “litigation financing” where a third party finances the costs of a lawsuit in return for a percentage of the jury award.
“If the litigation is unsuccessful, the lender is owed nothing,” the report said.