Be Specific About Your Client and His Injuries
According to studies, 66% of the people support having caps on non-economic damages when no other information is provided. However, 55% of the people opposed putting an artificial cap on non-economic damages. And when discussing children, senior citizens or stay at-home moms who the caps would have the most effect on.
So there is wide support for changing the system or ‘tort reform’, but it’s a shallow support that doesn’t run deep. So the moral of the story? Tell the jury about your client. Tell them about his injuries and how it affects his life.
Make sure that the jury understands the human aspects and that the injury happened to a person and we’re not talking about a back surgery.
I agree. Actually tort "reform" is soft on both sides. The American people have not spent much time on it and probably never will.
You are right that juries do not give money because someone had a L4-L5 lumbar herniation but they do give damages because Sally hurt her back so bad she can no longer play with her 17 month-old daughter.
The extreme way to learn this lesson is articulated in David Ball's book on damages where he suggests actually living for a time with the Plaintiff to understand what he/she is going through. It is a great idea but if I did that before every trial, I'd be spending time away from my family that I won't give up. But I think there are different ways to get to the same point. One thing I do is ask the same question again over and over: how did/does this injury impact your life? You would be amazed at the answers you get the fifth time around versus the first few times. Clients feel uncomfortable letting you in when you first ask the question.
Ron Miller
www.marylandinjurylawyerblog.com
Ron,
It's funny you should mention David Ball's book on damages. I was reviewing some notes from a Damages seminar I went to that David put together and wrote this post.
You probably can't live with the client for a period of time (plus, I don't know many clients that would *want* their lawyer to live with them).
Don Keenan out of Atlanta is a big fan of spending at least a night with them. Going to the clients house, having them go about their normal routine, eating dinner with them and sleeeping at their house.
If the child that has been injured (Don specializes in injured children cases) has a bunkbed, Don will sleep in the top bunk (or whichever the child is not using). Sometimes laying there waiting to go to sleep, the child will tell them seomething about their hopes, their dreams, their fears, their pains that would never come out in an an office conference, or even in a sit down in the living room with the parents.
Sometimes the parents will have a ritual or a way that they deal with the loss of a child that they can't express.
Visiting the client's is crucially important on larger cases, but I agree there has to be a limit on the amount of time you can spend and the size of the case.
