Part 2 Follow-up From Our October 30, 2008 Post.
In our October 30, 2008 post, we provided highlights from a civil justice survey of state courts in 2005, which primarily focused on the nation’s 75 most populous counties. (The California counties surveyed were Alameda, Contra Costa, Fresno, Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, San Francisco, Santa Clara, and Ventura.)
We have obtained a copy of the report and can add some more interesting factual tidbits from the survey’s conclusions:
- Of the 7.4 million civil claims filed in state courts in 2005, only about 3% of all tort, contract, and real property dispositions were accomplished by way of a trial.
- Of the 26,950 civil cases disposed of by trial, a jury was the decision maker in almost 70% of those cases. About 61% of the general civil trials involved a tort claim and 33% involved contractual issues. Real property cases accounted for the 6% remainder.
- The most common types of civil cases disposed of by trial broke down this way: motor vehicle—35%; plaintiff seller suing for money owed for goods or services—11%; plaintiff buyer seeking refund for goods or services—10%; medical malpractice—9%; premises liability—7%; employment discrimination—1.2%; product liability—1.3%; fraud—4.1%; rental/lease—2.2%; real property—12.2%.
- Tort claims for personal injury or property damage were most often heard before a jury (90%) rather than a judge (10%), with medical malpractice (96%), asbestos (96%), other product liability cases (93%), premises liability (94%), and motor vehicle cases (92%) tried before a jury. Juries also heard the vast majority of employment discrimination cases (91%). Conversely, judges decided a greater percentage of business-related civil trials—contract (64%) and real property (74%) cases—than juries. Litigants waived their rights to a jury trial and had their cases decided by a judge in more than 80% of contract cases involving plaintiff seller, mortgage foreclosure, rental lease agreement, and subrogation issues.
- Bench trials (57%) had a higher percentage of business litigants than jury trials (39%) and were likely to be decided in less time than jury trials.
- The median damage awards in 2005 were statistically similar for both jury and bench trials overall. However, contract cases tried before a jury ($74,000) had significantly higher median final awards than contract cases decided by a judge ($25,000). In all civil cases, the median final award was $30,500 for a jury trial and $24,000 for a bench trial; in tort cases, $24,300 for a jury and $ 21,100 in a bench trial.
- In contract cases, plaintiffs won in the majority of trials for all case types except subrogation matters (28%). Mortgage foreclosure cases had the highest percentage of plaintiff winners (89%) of all tort and contract cases in 2005.
- 62% of all plaintiff award winners were awarded $50,000 or less.
- Even though the median overall punitive damage award was $64,000 and was only awarded in about 5% of civil trials, 27% of these were over $250,000 and 13% were $1 million or more. Tortious interference ($6.9 million) and medical malpractice $2.8 million) cases had among the highest median punitive damage awards for specific case types. Of the civil cases surveyed, $172 million ($57 million compensatory and $115 million punitive) was the largest damage award; venue was Alameda County and case involved wage/hour violations prosecuted by retail employees.
- In 2005, punitive damages exceeded compensatory awards in 37% of tort cases and 62% of contract trials. Punitive awards were at least four times greater than compensatory awards in 26% of all applicable trials. In 17% of applicable trials, punitive awards exceeded compensatory awards by a ratio of 10:1 or greater.
- Appeals were filed in 17% of general civil trials concluded in 2005.
- In 2005, jury trials for general civil cases lasted almost four days on average, compared to two days for bench trials. 13% of jury trials and 70% of bench trials were completed within one day. Contract cases lasted slightly longer on average than both tort and real property cases. Asbestos jury trials tended to take the most time, averaging 13 days in trial. The longest trial recorded in the 2005 sample was a 69-day premises liability trial.
- In the 2005 survey, 14 trials involved certified class actions (with 8 taking place in Philadelphia County, PA). The class action trials lasted 17 days on average, with the filing-to-disposition time averaging 3.5 years. Of the 14 class action trials, 10 took place before a jury. Nine of the 14 trials involved a product liability claim, one involved a nuisance claim, and four involved contract issues. The defendants in all 14 cases were businesses, with plaintiffs prevailing in 10 of the 14 trials. The median final award in the 10 trials was $1 million.
THE BOTTOM LINE: For you tort attorneys looking for the most lucrative practice area, turn to animal attack cases. 63.9% were disposed of through jury trials, and plaintiffs won 75.2% of the time–by far the biggest win margin for torts (51.6% plaintiff win rate for all torts combined and 65.5% plaintiff win rate for all contract cases combined). The verdicts for animal attack cases break down as 37.4% under $ 10,000, 32.7% in the $10,001-$50,000 category, 29% in the $50,001-$250,000 category (not bad), and .9% in the $250,001-1 million category. Alas, no verdicts over $1 million for animal attack cases. No wonder some of our fellow blawgers want to get into this area — woof!