Civil Juries Award Punitive Damages

WASHINGTON, D.C. A 12-month study showsthat only 2 percent of some 762,000 state court civil cases decided in the nation's 75 most populous counties were decided by juries, the Department of Justice announced today. The plaintiffs won 52 percent of the 12,000 jury trials, of which 6 percent of the successful suits resulted in punitive damage awards--half of which were for $50,000 or less. Juries awarded about $2.7 billion in compensatory and punitive damages in the 6,200 successful cases, with a median award of $52,000 and an average award of $455,000.  Twenty-two percent of the awards exceeded $250,000, while 8 percent topped $1 million. Juries disposed of about 360 product liability cases during the study period.  Plaintiffs won 41 percent of them.  Of the 142 winning cases, three resulted in punitive damage awards. Punitive damages are awarded when a defendant is found to have been grossly negligent.  The study found that punitive damages were awarded in 30 percent of the successful cases involving slander and libel, 27 percent involving employment matters, 21 percent for fraud, 19 percent for intentional tort claims and 2 percent of motor vehicle suits.  Punitive damages were awarded in 6 percent of the cases involving toxic substances and in 13 of the 403 successful medical malpractice cases. 

In four of the 13 cases the award exceeded $250,000. The study estimated that 79.3 percent of the 12,000 civil jury trials were tort actions, 18.4 percent were contract cases and 2.3 percent were real property matters.  A tort case is one that  alleges personal injury or property damage caused by a defendant's negligence or intentional misconduct. Thirty-three percent of the jury trials involved motor vehicle torts, 17 percent were property liability matters, 11 percent involved medical malpractice claims, 5 percent were product liability or toxic substance cases and the balance
concerned other issues, such as contract suits, slander or libel and business fraud.  The average time from the filing of a civil complaint to the jury's verdict was 2. years.