LawyersUSA

The nation's largest verdicts just keep getting smaller.

After climbing towards the stratosphere from 1997 to 2002, the largest verdicts to individual plaintiffs have been in a steady decline ever since.

The total Top Ten awards for 2007 dropped 25 percent from 2006 - which was 72 percent lower than in 2005.

To put this trend in perspective, the total of the Top Ten verdicts in 2002 was 41 times larger than the amount awarded in 2007.

But, despite the relatively low awards (can anyone really call $109 million to an individual plaintiff low?), last year's Top Ten includes several significant verdicts.

2007's #2 verdict was the largest negligent security award in the nation's history - $102.7 million to a man shot and paralyzed in the parking lot of a Miami strip club. The trial included an interesting battle over damages, with the defense arguing medical costs should be calculated based on care in Tunisia, where the plaintiff was from, while the plaintiff's attorneys argued he could not get adequate care in his native country.

The #3 verdict may well have longstanding implications, since it was the first large punitive damages award following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Philip Morris USA v. Williams, 127 S.Ct. 1057, to place new limits on punitives. The Los Angeles jury ordered DaimlerChrysler to pay $5.2 million in compensatory damages and $50 million in punitives to a man run over by his own truck when a faulty transmission caused it to slip from park to reverse.

Last year's Top Ten also included two pharmaceutical cases. For the third year in a row, Merck was held liable for its widely-used painkiller Vioxx. In a significant breakthrough for plaintiffs' lawyers, a New Jersey jury awarded $47.5 million to a man who had suffered a heart attack after using the medication for just two months. The plaintiff's first trial had ended in a defense verdict, but he was granted a retrial based on new evidence reported in the New England Journal of Medicine showing that short-term Vioxx use could increase cardiac risk.

In another pharmaceutical case, a Nevada jury awarded $134 million, including $99 million in punitive damages, to three women who developed cancer after using hormone replacement medication produced by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. The 5,000 pending cases are based largely on a 2002 study concluding that women who use Prempro for five years have a 26 percent greater risk of developing breast cancer, a 29 percent greater risk of suffering a heart attack, a 41 percent greater chance of having a stroke and a 113 percent greater chance of having blood clots.

In the #1 verdict of 2007, a New York jury awarded $109 million in a medical malpractice case where the plaintiff's lawyer asked for just $18 million. The 34-year-old plaintiff suffered massive memory loss from a seizure caused by a botched diagnosis. The verdict, which was comprised entirely of compensatory damages, included $67 million for the wife's past and present loss of services.

That verdict marked New York's return to the Top Ten list after a two-year hiatus, and propelled the state into a first place tie with Texas for the most Top Ten verdicts (22) since 1995. California trails in a close third with 20.

Meanwhile, Florida is coming on strong with four Top Ten verdicts last year - the only state with more than one - putting it in fourth place, with 17 Top Ten verdicts since 1995.

Not only are the total Top Ten awards for 2007 the smallest in 14 years, they are the smallest group of verdicts by a variety of other measures as well. For example:

* The #1 verdict for 2007 was the smallest #1 verdict since 1993. It was less than half the size of the top verdict the previous year - which, prior to 2007, had been the smallest #1 verdict since 1993.

* Three years ago, all 10 of the top verdicts were for more than $100 million. Two years ago only five verdicts cleared that mark, and in 2006 only three verdicts topped $100 million. In 2007, only two verdicts had that distinction.

* The #1 verdict in 2007 would have place #9 three years earlier.

* The #3 verdict in 2007 would not have even have made the list three years ago.

* The #10 verdict in 2004 would have been #2 last year.

* Punitive damages have also experienced a dramatic decline. The total punitive damages among the Top Ten verdicts in 2007 dropped 36 percent from 2006 - and this occurred after the total punitive awards had dropped 83 percent from 2005 to 2006.

* Punitive damages made up only 33 percent of total Top Ten awards in 2007, compared to 66 percent over the last 11 years

* In all, 2007 had the smallest punitive damage total for the Top Ten verdicts in the last 10 years.

-BILL IBELLE

#1

$109 million verdict for brain-injured man A New York jury awarded a brain-injured man and his wife $109 million after his lawyer asked for just $18 million.