Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog

The latest edition of Metro Verdicts Monthly provides numbers on false arrest/imprisonment cases in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. The median legal false arrest/imprisonment verdict or settlement in Washington D.C. was $25,000.00. Virginia and Maryland have slightly higher median settlement/verdicts of $26,000.00 and $29,000.00, respectively.

Our law firm does not handle these cases. (On the rare occasion we get a false imprisonment/false arrest/police brutality case we refer the case to Larry Greenberg, a Baltimore lawyer, who does a really good job and aggressively works up those cases.) But I’m surprised the median verdict/settlement is this high because I would think the median case would be one with relatively insignificant injuries except for the inconvenience. There are awful exceptions to that rule to be sure but those awful exceptions would be reflected in the average – as opposed to the median.

While I obviously love these graphs, I wish Metro Verdicts Monthly would provide a little more information. I’m not sure if this number only involves police officer false imprisonment cases or also includes non-police cases where, for example, a department store detains someone they wrongfully accuse of shoplifting. If I were a juror, I would be more inclined to give a larger award against an overzealous Wal-Mart or Target employee than I would a police officer trying to do his/her job in good faith, albeit negligently.