Where the Million Dollar Verdicts Are
Jury Verdict Research has some interesting data on which injures comprised the largest proportion of cases in which the victim was awarded over $1 million. Here is the category followed by its relative percentage of million dollar verdicts: 
- Death - 28%
- Brain Damage - 14%
- Leg Injuries - 6%
- Spinal Nerve Injuries - 6%
- Disc Damage - 5%
- Emotional Distress - 5%
- Paralysis - 4%
- Arm Injuries - 2%
- Cancer - 2%
- Foot Injuries - 2%
- Sexual Assault - 2%
- Vertebra Injuries - 2%
- Other Injuries - 22%
Did you see any major surprises here? I didn't except for seeing leg injuries with 50% more million dollar verdicts than paralysis injuries. Thankfully, I think this might be most attributable to the fact that paralysis is, relatively speaking, a rare injury in a car accident.
Where are the million dollar verdicts geographically? The Southwest - comprised of Arizona, California (which I suspect did a lot of the heavy lifting to push these numbers), Colorado, Hawaii, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah - has the highest percentage of million dollar verdicts with 19%. The Northwest - with Alaska (which generally has high awards actually), Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming has the lowest percentage of million dollar verdicts at 7%.
Before you move to set up your practice in the Southwest, keep in mind that these numbers are a little bit tricky to interpret for lots of reasons, including the fact that some states have severity of injury thresholds and high small claims jurisdictional limits that make comparing apples to apples more difficult without Nate Silver around to analyze them.
- Average wrongful death verdicts in Maryland
- A look at Maryland's wrongful death and survival action statutes
- Our thoughts - and more statistics - on the valuation process of personal injury cases
