Nuclear verdicts are jury decisions that award a civil plaintiff at least $10 million. Formerly rare enough to attract significant attention, and skepticism, nuclear verdicts are becoming more common and more significant.
As a result, some have more recently used the newer term “thermonuclear verdict” to describe jury awards of at least $100 million. Even awards in the hundreds of millions of dollars are no longer a once in a blue moon occurrence largely limited mass torts, class actions and other nationwide litigation.
While inflation and long-term cultural attitudes play a role in the rise of nuclear verdicts, there are some definite short-term trends that open the door to more of these mammoth awards.
For example, in personal injury cases, including truck accidents and medical malpractice lawsuits, the plaintiff’s bar has mastered how to persuade juries to award compensations far beyond a victim’s lost income and medical bills.
Also, the practice of individuals and companies financing or taking an investment interest in a lawsuit has made funding to cover the costs and expenses of tenaciously pursuing a legal case widely available.
Plaintiffs have both the resources to pursue a case to its conclusion and, since they must consider their investors, the incentive to do so.
A business may need to rely on a skilled court defense to avoid a nuclear verdict
The first step in preventing a nuclear verdict is for a Maryland business to have a business plan that includes taking the law and the safety and well-being of the public seriously.
However, even Baltimore-area businesses that make the public’s health and safety a priority will on occasion face negligence or other personal injury cases. Some of these cases will ultimately go to trial, meaning there is always some risk of a financially debilitating nuclear verdict.
In these situations, businesses or the insurance companies that back that business will need to rely on the skill of their defense team to head off the plaintiff’s attorney’s effort to secure a disproportionately large jury award.