The National Trial Lawyers
  • Home
    • Meet Our Team
    • Contact Us
    • Mission & Goals
    • FAQ
  • Webinars
  • News
  • Membership Directory
    • Top 100 Map – Civil Plaintiff
    • Top 100 Map – Criminal Defense
    • Top 40 Under 40 Map – Civil Plaintiff
    • Top 40 Under 40 Map – Criminal Defense
  • Top 100
    • Civil Plaintiff Officers / Executive Committee
    • Criminal Defense Officers / Executive Committee
    • Benefits
    • About
    • Top 100 President’s Message
    • Diplomat
    • Membership Renewal
    • Member Profile Updates
    • Top 100 Badge
    • Media
  • Top 40
    • Civil Plaintiff Officers / Executive Committee
    • Criminal Defense Officers / Executive Committee
    • Top 40 Under 40 Trial Academy Bootcamp
    • Benefits
    • About
    • Top 40 President’s Message
    • Membership Renewal
    • Member Profile Updates
    • Top 40 Badge
    • Media
  • Specialty Assoc
    • About
    • Shop
    • Officers
    • Membership Renewal
    • Member Profile Updates
    • Media
  • Nominate
    • Top 100
    • Top 40
    • Specialty Association
    • Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame
    • Trial Lawyer of the Year
    • Trial Team of the Year
    • America’s Most Influential Trial Lawyer
    • America’s Most Influential Law Firm
    • Lifetime Achievement Award
  • Shop
  • Magazine
    • A-List
  • Education and Networking Agenda
    • Trial Lawyers Summit
      • Summit Sponsors
    • Top 40 Under 40 Trial Academy Boot Camp
    • Mass Torts Made Perfect
    • The Lanier Master Class 5.0 Trial Academy 2021
    • Webinars
  • Hall of Fame
    • Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame

Four Theories on How Juries Award Damages

Posted on October 16, 2014 by Elise Jefferson

this way, that way decision

To encourage jurors to award a larger sum of money, plaintiff attorneys should isolate various types of potential damages.

An intriguing and complex aspect of civil litigation is the use of damage awards as a means of achieving justice. This remains an inexact science; no one can predict the amount of money that a jury is going to award the plaintiff if liability is found. However, a good deal that is worth knowing has been learned about what goes into that decision.

For example, studies have examined damage awards when jurors are asked to award a specific amount, as well as how jurors’ perceptions of the plaintiff’s motives for suing can affect damage awards. Although it can be difficult to predict how much money a jury may award, it is still important to consider the various theories that attempt to explain what influences jurors when determining damages.

Thank you to A2L Consulting, which generously provided permission to reprint this article by Elise Jefferson.

Following are four theories that reflect the current state of the art.

Horizontal Inequity

Horizontal inequity theory attempts to explain why there is a significant amount of variability among similar injury types. For example, if two plaintiffs lose their ring fingers, their damage awards may be significantly different if one of them is a professional guitar player and one is a triathlete.

This can make it difficult for attorneys or consultants to make an educated prediction. One way plaintiff’s attorneys can counteract this issue is by giving jurors examples of previous award amounts as reference points insofar as this is admissible. Plaintiff’s attorneys can suggest an appropriate amount during opening statements and justify that amount throughout the course of the trial via witness testimony.

In a bifurcated trial in which the defendant has already been found liable, defense attorneys can use this theory to counteract the amount suggested by the plaintiff, by giving examples of lower amounts awarded in similar trials.

Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristic

Another theory that addresses juries’ determination of damage awards is known as the anchoring and adjustment heuristic. This theory holds that, in making quantitative judgments, jurors are influenced by a numerical starting value, regardless of how arbitrary the starting value is. This supports previous psychological research and anecdotal evidence that the more money that plaintiffs attorneys seek in damages, the more money they typically receive.

For plaintiffs attorneys, this does not necessarily mean that they should suggest damage award amounts beyond what would be considered reasonable by the average juror. However, they should suggest awards that may be higher than the average amounts awarded for that injury type. For defense attorneys, this information would be helpful in making settlement offers, in order to counteract the plaintiff’s initial offer and ultimately lower the amount.

Fusion Theory

A third theory on how jurors award damages concerns the concept of fusion. While jurors are usually given instructions to select a damage award amount based on the defense’s conduct as opposed to the plaintiff’s injury, studies have shown that jurors are essentially unable to differentiate between the two. Under the fusion theory, jurors use relevant information from one legal decision to influence how they make other legal decisions.

One study surmised that, because jurors hear evidence about the defendant’s conduct and the plaintiff’s injuries simultaneously, the information from both is often fused together to help juries make a decision on the award. Both plaintiff and defense attorneys can use this concept to their advantage by lumping together or separating both components during opening and closing statements.

Distinct Award Conditions

A significant amount of research has been conducted to examine how instructions given to jurors affect damage awards in personal injury cases. A study conducted in 2011 examined lost enjoyment of life (LEL) and how jurors awarded damages when this factor was considered separately from pain and suffering (a common requirement in personal injury cases).

LEL is defined as damages that are awarded in order to compensate the plaintiff for the ways in which the plaintiff’s life is limited because of an injury caused by the defendant. These limitations typically focus on the inability to enjoy activities that the person once enjoyed. In some jurisdictions, jurors are able to consider LEL separately from pain and suffering in personal injury cases.

In this study, jurors were asked to render non-economic damage awards in one of three conditions:

  1. Overall pain and suffering only
  2. Two separate awards: mental pain and suffering and physical pain and suffering
  3. Four separate awards: mental anguish, LEL, physical disability/impairment, and disfigurement.

 

In keeping with previous research, the psychologists hypothesized that the more injury types the jurors were asked to consider, the higher the overall damage amount awarded. The researchers found that jurors did in fact tend to provide higher damage awards when considering the four-element condition, as opposed to the one-element condition. They also found that LEL played the most significant role in influencing award decisions..

Attorneys should consider these study results when requesting a specific amount of damages from the jury. In order to encourage jurors to award a larger sum of money, it may be beneficial for plaintiffs attorneys to isolate various types of potential damages. Instead of a lump sum only, breaking it into components may provide additional opportunities for jurors to fill in more blanks. However, it would be advantageous for defense attorneys to encourage jurors to consider a lump sum, in order to decrease the award amount.

In conclusion, damage award research has the potential to help litigators understand how to better achieve award amounts that will be most beneficial to their clients as plaintiffs and/or ways to defeat them when representing defendants.


elise jeffersonElise Jefferson is a graduate of Marymount University, where she earned her Masters in Forensic Psychology. She has a strong interest in trial consulting, civil litigation, and jury research. She is pursuing her doctorate in clinical and legal psychology, with a forensic focus.

Posted in Blog, Trial Practice

Comments are closed.

Recent Posts

Toyota Will Pay $180M to Settle Violations of the Clean-Air Act

Toyota Will Pay $180M to Settle Violations of the Clean-Air Act

January 15th, 2021

The U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that the United States has[Read More...]
Boeing's Insitu Will Pay $25M to Settle a Whistleblower Complaint About Used Drone Parts

Boeing's Insitu Will Pay $25M to Settle a Whistleblower Complaint About Used Drone Parts

January 13th, 2021

Bingen, Wash.-based Insitu, a Boeing subsidiary, has agreed to pay $25 million to settle allegations that it used recycl[Read More...]
Deutsche Bank Agrees to Settle Criminal and Civil Charges for $130M

Deutsche Bank Agrees to Settle Criminal and Civil Charges for $130M

January 11th, 2021

DEUTSCHE Bank AG agreed to pay US$130 million to settle criminal and civil charges that it bribed foreign officials and manip[Read More...]
Boeing Pays $2.5B to Settle Charges Tied to the 737 MAX Crashes

Boeing Pays $2.5B to Settle Charges Tied to the 737 MAX Crashes

January 8th, 2021

Boeing has agreed to pay just over $2.5 billion to resolve a federal charge of “criminal misconduct” for how its [Read More...]
Texas Attorney General Seeks $43M in Google Antitrust Lawsuit

Texas Attorney General Seeks $43M in Google Antitrust Lawsuit

January 6th, 2021

The mass exodus of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's top staff over accusations of bribery against their former boss has le[Read More...]

Contact Us | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy

Attorney information and content provided on this website is provided for the benefit of members of The National Trial Lawyers and as a public service by Legal Associations Management, Inc. The website and all data are the property of Legal Associations Management, Inc. Data, including without limitation attorney information and content, on the site may not be mined, sold, or used commercially for any purpose without the explicit written consent of Legal Associations Management, Inc. This site may not be accessed by any automated program for extracting data for any use. By accessing and using the site you agree that you will not develop, support or use software, devices, scripts, robots, or any other means or processes (including crawlers, browser plug-ins and add-ons, or any other technology) to scrape data or otherwise copy profiles and other data. Unauthorized use or attempted unauthorized use of this system may subject you to both civil and criminal penalties.