Investigate THIS !

The Bureau of Justice Statistics released its updated report on the rate of civil filings. Not surprisingly, the conclusions don't comport with the current Bush administration claim of too many frivolous lawsuits.

Some of the current statistics reflect dramatic changes from the prior survey.

BJS describes the content of the report:

Examines general civil cases (torts, contracts, and real property) disposed of by bench or jury trial in the Nation’s 75 most populous counties in 2001.
Information reported includes the type of case, types of plaintiffs and defendants, trial winners, amount of total damages awarded, amount of punitive damages awarded, and case processing time. Link to full report

The abstract highlights the findings:

* During 2001 a jury decided almost 75% of the 12,000 tort, contract, and real property trials in the Nation's 75 largest counties. Judges adjudicated the remaining 24%. Tort cases (93%) were more likely than contract cases (43%) to be disposed of by jury trial.

* The 11,908 civil trials disposed of in 2001 represents a 47% decline from the 22,451 civil trials in these counties in 1992.

* In jury trials, the median award decreased from $65,000 in 1992 to $37,000 in 2001 in these counties.

* Two-thirds of disposed trials in 2001 involved tort claims, and about a third involved contractual issues.

* Overall, plaintiffs won in 55% of trials. Plaintiffs won more often in bench trials (65%) than in jury trials (53%), and in contract trials (65%) more than in tort (52%) or real property trials (38%).

* An estimated $4 billion in compensatory and punitive damages were awarded to plaintiff winners in civil trials. Juries awarded $3.9 billion to plaintiff winners while judges awarded $368 million. The median total award for plaintiff winners in tort trials was $27,000 and in contract trials $45,000.

* Punitive damages, estimated at $1.2 billion, were awarded to 6% of plaintiff winners in trials. The median punitive damage award was $50,000.

* Plaintiffs prevailed in about a fourth (27%) of medical malpractice trials. Half of the 311 plaintiffs who successfully litigated a medical malpractice claim won at least $422,000, and in nearly a third of these cases, the award was $1 million or more. Link to text version of full report