Data the Stark County Academy of Trial Lawyers compiled over the last 11 years from 512 civil jury trials showed Wednesday that five verdicts exceeded $1 million in non-medical malpractice personal injury cases, and jurors awarded punitive damages on the average of one time a year.
House Judiciary Chairman Scott Oelslager (R-Canton) released the information that was supplied in response to his request for Ohio-specific facts about the nature of problems proponents have cited in seeking enactment of legislation (SB 80 http://www.gongwer-oh.com/programming/legislation_billdetail.cfm?code=SB%2080&billid=2003SB8002&locid=2 ) to overhaul the civil justice system. The data from the academy's "Verdict Reporter" is a detailed narrative of every civil trial that includes allegations of all the parties, length of trial, jury deliberations and the ultimate result.
During the eleven years there were 84 medical malpractice trials in eleven years, and the medical profession won 64 of them. "If all 84 verdicts are taken into account including the 64 cases won by the profession, the average medical malpractice verdict was $283,318.96," Rep. Oelslager said. One medical malpractice verdict was for $12 million, and involved birth injury, brain damage and cerebral palsy.