According to the Personal Injury Valuation Handbook study put out by Jury Verdict Research, the average wrongful death jury award for the loss of a woman is as follows:
Year | Award Median | Probability Range | Award Range | Award Mean |
2004 | $ 1,125,000 | $ 341,750 – $ 2,650,000 | $ 5,104 – $ 45,500,00 | $ 2,836,536 |
2005 | $ 1,168,744 | $ 387,500 – $ 3,387,936 | $ 3,620 – $ 30,000,000 | $ 3,215,919 |
2006 | $ 1,200,000 | $ 446,231 – $ 3,000,000 | $ 1,550 – $ 15,000,000 | $ 2,324,140 |
2007 | $ 881,739 | $ 331,541 – $ 2,180,343 | $ 12,000 – $ 65,000,000 | $ 3,378,401 |
2008 | $ 1,000,000 | $ 91,827 – $ 2,875,000 | $ 3,858 – $ 93,000,000 | $ 4,416,843 |
2009 | $ 1,167,145 | $ 317,689 – $ 3,132,750 | $ 49,672 – $ 16,577,118 | $ 2,170,622 |
2010 | $ 2,400,000 | $ 1,300,000 – $ 5,315,000 | $ 25,000 – $ 71,000,000 | $ 8,652,577 |
Overall | $ 1,172,500 | $ 350,000 – $ 3,000,000 | $ 1,550 – $ 93,000,000 | $ 3,301,389 |
You can find information as to how the victim’s age factors into average verdicts here.
How does this compare to adult men? Men have a higher average award; woman received a slightly higher median award. I’m not looking at the raw data but the differences appear to be statistically insignificant.
This data excludes, for some reason, loss of services. The median loss of services awarded to surviving spouses of women, 49 years old and younger, was $562,500. Spouses of women age 50 recovered a median loss of services award of $742,591. Minor children of women killed in tort cases received a median loss of services award of $1,000,000, and adult children received a surprising median award of $200,000.