Looking for Settlement/Award Amounts? (July 8, 2009)
The Matthew Bender® reference guide, What’s It Worth? A Guide to Personal Injury Awards and Settlements provides summary coverage of personal injury damage awards in the U.S. for the past 3 years. The award notations include:
- amount of award
- court type/location
- description of plaintiff
- description of injury
- any other pertinent information (such as whether an appeal is pending or how the award was divided amongst the plaintiffs
This softbound book is updated annually and is divided according to the type of injury. It also includes whether the award was deemed adequate or excessive on appeal and whether the award was obtained through settlement or jury verdict.
What’s It Worth is also available on lexis.com®; and it is easy to search: For example, to find award amounts in excess of $1,000,000 for facial fractures take the following steps:
- Click the Search tab.
- Click the Legal source tab.
- Click the following links in the order listed to search What’s It Worth?
Jury Verdicts and Experts / What’s It Worth? A Guide to Personal Injury Awards and Settlements
- Enter: specific-injury(facial fractures) and amount > 1,000,000
- Click Search.
Jury Verdicts and Settlements, Combined on lexis.com is also a great source for settlement and award amounts.
Use the RESULT segment with a dollar operator to search settlement and award amounts. For example, take the following steps to find wrongful life verdicts or settlement amounts exceeding $500,000:
- Click the Search tab.
- Click the Legal source tab.
- Click the following links in the order listed to search the Jury Verdicts and Settlements, Combined:
Jury Verdicts & Experts / Jury Verdicts and Settlements, Combined
- Enter: result > 500,000 and (wrongful w/2 life or birth) in the search field.
- Click Search.
