I’ve pointed it out previously: big jury awards may make the front pages but when appealed are often reduced considerably.
Juries respond emotionally; appellate judges do not. A very good reason to settle your case rather than “winning” it before a jury. And see how long it took an appellate judge to review this 2007 case and reduce the damages to a woman severely injured in this explosion. Would she have done better by settling before trial?
Judge Reduces Damage Award in Steam Pipe Explosion Case
Ben Bedell, New York Law Journal
The judge presiding over about 90 cases arising out of the 2007 Lexington Avenue steam pipe explosion cut by two-thirds the nearly $12 million in damages awarded to a severely injured woman, finding it “deviate[s] materially from what would be reasonable compensation.”