Juries and Awards

MULTIMILLION DOLLAR awards for damages granted by juries have garnered sensationalist headlines in the past decades. Usually resulting from product liability, workplace injury, and medical malpractice suits launched by individuals against corporations, these cases have cast much negative light on harmful business practices in the United States.

Lobbyists for corporations and allied politicians claim that juries are systematically biased toward the plaintiffs and unfairly award huge monetary damages solely to penalize corporate America. They argue further that such legal restrictions have affected the competitiveness of American business.

The most exhaustive empirical research to date, however, has demonstrated that there is no evidence of systematic jury bias nor that monetary damages awarded to plaintiffs has decreased the profitability of American business. Indeed, there is a strong case [Page ...