Are huge jury verdicts straining Georgia’s economy? Not really, court data shows

Some say verdicts are increasing in size and frequency as people become more politically frustrated and distrustful of corporations. But more often than not, the largest verdicts are never paid.

In February, a federal jury in Columbus punished Ford Motor Co. with a record $2.5 billion verdict in a case brought by the family of a couple killed in a truck rollover. Ford already had the dubious honor of being hit with Georgia’s prior highest verdict, $1.7 billion awarded by a Gwinnett County jury in 2022 to the family of a separate couple killed in a similar crash.

Among Kemp’s proposed changes is the added ability of defense lawyers to show a jury whether a person injured in a vehicle wreck was properly wearing a seat belt, an issue Ford tackled in the Georgia litigation. Under current Georgia law, the failure of a vehicle occupant to wear a seat belt cannot be considered evidence of negligence or have any bearing on liability.

The rarity of large jury verdicts of $10 million or more shouldn’t be forgotten, say Atlanta plaintiff attorneys opposed to Kemp’s proposal.

As an attorney, Dax Lopez helped clients in wrongful death cases win verdicts of $31 million and $77 million in 2023 and 2022, respectively. As a judge on the DeKalb County State Court from 2010 to 2021, Lopez said he didn’t preside over a single verdict above $10 million.

He noted there were 30 verdicts of $10 million or more in Georgia in 2022 and 2023, according to TopVerdict.com, which publishes the largest verdicts in each state as reported by attorneys.

“Twelve verdicts in one year and 18 verdicts in the other is not a judicial crisis in a state that has 10 million-plus people, 159 counties with 159 different court systems and thousands of cases being filed every single year,” Lopez said. “This is a very infrequent occurrence.”

Nuclear verdicts and judicial hellholes

Defense attorneys, insurers, business organizations and other proponents of lawsuit rule changes known as “tort reform” define a verdict of $10 million or more as “nuclear.” Each year, the largest verdicts in each state help dictate the American Tort Reform Association list of “judicial hellholes” where defendants are deemed by the association to have a disadvantage in civil cases.

Georgia is currently fourth on the list.

Atlanta defense litigator Wayne Satterfield said Kemp’s plan is a fair and reasonable way to level the playing field in civil cases, which he says is currently tipped in the plaintiff’s favor. He said there’s been a noticeable increase in “excessive nuclear verdicts.”

“I think we have in the past not given juries the full picture when we are at trial, and so some of the things that he’s proposed allows us as defense attorneys to present the whole picture to a jury so that they can make a fair decision on liability and damages,” Satterfield said. “There’s not a large percentage of these cases going to trial, but when they do go to trial, we are seeing an increase across the board in the size of these verdicts.”

Some of the country’s largest verdicts have come out of Georgia in recent years, including the $1.7 billion verdict against Ford, which was wiped out on appeal in November. It was the third-largest verdict of 2022 nationwide, according to TopVerdict.com, which hasn’t yet published 2024 data.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform reported in July 2024 which states had the most nuclear verdicts in personal injury and wrongful death cases between 2013 and 2022. The institute said Georgia was tied with Illinois for fifth behind Texas, New York, Florida and California, with 64 verdicts totaling $6 billion.

“Georgia’s unique legal framework, which allows jurors to award damages for the ‘full value of life,’ has led to some of the most extraordinary verdicts in recent years,” the institute said.

TopVerdict shows Georgia’s verdicts in 2023 were eclipsed by those in other states. It reported that Georgia’s largest verdict of the year — $140 million to the family of a tenant who died in a southwest Atlanta apartment complex fire — was the 35th largest verdict nationwide.

There is no statewide court database showing how many civil verdicts are reached in Georgia each year and the amount of money awarded. The Georgia Administrative Office of the Courts collects and publishes some case data, including how many civil cases are filed and disposed of annually.

Georgia’s state and superior courts, where most civil cases are filed, received more than 30,000 “tort” or injury cases in each of 2022 and 2023, the state agency reported. Those courts resolved more than 31,000 such cases in 2022 and almost 29,000 in 2023.

Lopez said he presided over about 800 civil cases at a time as a judge, receiving more than 500 such cases a year. He said there were three verdicts over $1 million in his courtroom during his time on the bench, the highest of which was $6.5 million.

The public doesn’t see the hundreds of verdicts awarding little or no money to plaintiffs, because those don’t make headlines, Lopez said.

“I saw those day in and day out,” he said. “The system really does work. The defendants get defense verdicts and there are times where juries award less than what the plaintiff is requesting. Much less.”

What are jurors thinking?

An increasing amount of political frustration and distrust of institutions and corporations in society is driving up jury verdicts, says Texas-based jury consultant Jason Bloom, who for decades has studied juror behavior. He says jurors generally feel more vulnerable and are more inclined to hold someone accountable than five years ago.

“The average person just does not believe something coming out of the mouth of a corporate representative,” Bloom said.

He said in the past, jurors were generally satisfied with a company that had followed guidelines or federal regulations and defense attorneys could use that to shield corporate clients from liability. Now, jurors are trying to move the goalposts and judge institutions based on what they think the standards should be, Bloom said.

“The message that they’re sending through their verdicts is ‘You need to change your policies, you need to do better training, you need to go above and beyond the minimum guidelines,’” he said. “People are judging the conduct of corporations in an idealistic sense.”

Bloom said the largest verdicts are often in negligence cases and tend to involve damages to compensate plaintiffs for intangible or subjective losses, like suffering and mental anguish, as well as punish those held liable. He said the amount awarded as those types of damages can routinely be eight times the amount awarded to cover known costs such as medical or funeral expenses.

“In other words, if you’ve got medical bills for $1 million, in theory, you’re going to get about $8 million,” Bloom said. “The average juror will say a corporation should do X, Y and Z, even if the law says they don’t have to.”

The bulk of the billion-dollar verdicts against Ford in Georgia were awarded as punitive damages to penalize the company. The plaintiffs had argued that Ford sold millions of “Super Duty” trucks knowing they had weak roofs.

During one of Kemp’s roundtable discussions on litigation changes in October, Doug Lampe, an in-house Ford lawyer, said the $1.7 billion verdict against Ford was “outrageous.” He called for limits on jury awards.

Lopez said the notion that Georgia juries can’t be trusted to award reasonable verdicts and must be reined in is false. He said he only disagreed with a jury once in his time as a judge, finding that jurors can tell when someone is trying to game the system or exaggerate their injuries.

“Juries, in my opinion, have an incredible ability to detect BS,” Lopez said. “Juries are really, really good at sniffing that stuff out and punishing those folks.”

Large verdicts are generally awarded in the most extreme cases of wrongdoing and often after insurers have refused to settle within policy limits, said Lopez and Darren Penn, an Atlanta trial lawyer whose firm has recovered millions of dollars for plaintiffs.

Penn, a former president of the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, said most large verdicts never get paid, in part because of post-trial appeals and settlements. He said a jury verdict can be the beginning of serious settlement negotiations in a case.

Most civil cases are resolved before trial, often by settlement or court order, as shown in data published by the National Center for State Courts.

Lopez said many plaintiffs don’t want to go to trial, as it often involves reliving trauma. He said none of his clients would take the millions of dollars they were awarded if they could have their old lives back.

“The money is not bringing back their loved one,” he said. “The money is not bringing back their ability to walk.”