This has not been my experience at all. The majority of nursing home cases do not go to trial, but many of those that do result in staggering verdicts. The top five in the US (in recent years) resulted in jury awards of $200MM, 90MM, 45.5MM, 19.2MM and 11MM. If those are not big awards to you, then you're a high roller. To me those are huge awards.Maddy wrote: ↑Mon Apr 10, 2023 6:46 am
I could write volumes on the issue of tort litigation, but cutting to the chase, the idea of huge jury verdicts in nursing home cases is a myth. The one plaintiff's case in which I was involved led me to do a comprehensive review of past jury verdicts in care facilities, and the awards in even the most egregious cases are so low as to make a case hardly worth pursuing.
Look up a notorious firm called Wilkes & McHugh. They helped pave the way in this area, realizing that the voluminous amount of regulation involved in the nursing home industry could be used for litigation purposes (in the same way that environmental attorneys figured out they could use EPA and other regs for their purposes also). Wilkes reviewed the statutory landscape in each state, picked those states with the most favorable remedies, set up (I think) 10 or 12 offices, started buying copious TV commercial time, developed a boilerplate Complaint form, and went to town.
Several years ago, they flew all their attorneys to Las Vegas on private jets, booked out an entire floor at one of the hotels, and bought nearly all the ringside seats at a Floyd Mayweather fight.
Facilities and physicians used to use photos to document and track wound healing. Not any more. An attorney developed a technique of taking a wound photo out of the medical records, blowing it up to 6 ft big, and using it to scare the shit out of the jury. So industry practice became to create written documentation only so as to not arm lawyers with ammo.
With luck, a good lawyer can channel the embedded guilt a jury member might have over not having had the $4 million to provide their own loved one with private duty 24/7 care. Or harness the fear we all have of aging.
And as for the majority of cases that do not go to trial, there is usually quick settlement money from the facility's insurance carrier. I have direct knowledge of probably 30 cases, not one went to trial, but not one walked away empty handed either i.e. they received settlement money from the insurance carrier. Usually $100-$500K. Most were defensible claims, but the insurance company held the settlement consent rights and the plaintiff lawyers knew it. They usually made us produce the insurance policy before producing the medical records! In these contingency fee deals, the attorneys take anywhere between 40 and 60%.
If tort law is your area of expertise Maddy, and you really believe what you wrote above, I don't know what to say. You don't need to believe me, you can just google it for yourself for god's sake.