NCJ Number
141810
Journal
Law and Policy Volume: 14 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1992) Pages: 77-106
Date Published
1992
Length
30 pages
Annotation
This study examined all tort cases reaching either a bench or a jury trial verdict during a sample period in 1989 in 27 U.S. general jurisdiction trial courts.
Abstract
The research focused on the characteristics of torts; whether or not particular types of plaintiffs/defendants gain a higher percentage of favorable verdicts; and the importance of litigant status, while controlling for other factors, in influencing the size of the awards. The article begins by describing the landscape of torts, which encompasses the typical configurations of the contending litigants, the composition of torts by area of law, the types of trials, verdict patterns, and the average size of awards. The basic pattern is that individuals generally are plaintiffs, corporations, insurance companies, and governments are defendants. A model is outlined and tested to determine how strongly various possible determinants shape the size of tort awards in the 27 State trial courts. The findings indicate that the group of variables that represent the various pairing of litigants accounts for most of the explained variation in award size. These findings support the notion that the status of the litigants is an important factor in influencing awards. Because the variables that represent some of the individual States are also significant, the evidence also indicates no single, uniform pattern applies across all the courts. Instead, the State context shapes the basic parameters of plaintiff and defendant success. 6 tables, 31 notes, 34 references, and appended data-collection form