Legal Memorandum: Jury Verdicts in Wrongful Death Lawsuits

Issue: What are recent jury verdicts or settlements in the Akron and Cleveland, Ohio, areas in wrongful death lawsuits, especially for those involving a male in his fifties?

A.      Summary

An online search through jury verdict and settlement files in several databases and a review of published materials for cases involving wrongful death actions in the Akron and Cleveland, Ohio, areas yielded nine verdicts and settlements reports that dealt with wrongful death cases.^[1]  These reports are synopsized below. 

Research failed to reveal any defense verdicts for wrongful death actions in the Akron and Cleveland areas.  The nine settlements and plaintiffs’ verdicts ranged from $250,000 to $3,350,000, with an average of $959,750.  Dropping the highest verdict and lowest figure, a settlement, the average becomes $719,678.  Note that the verdict information available did not separate the verdicts and/or settlement amounts into specific types of damages.

Case valuation information in the Personal Injury Valuation Handbooks coincides with these results.  The Valuation Handbooks indicate that nationwide in 1998 verdicts in wrongful death cases for plaintiffs in their fifties ranged from $1921 to $25,000,000.  The median verdict was $900,000 and the average verdict was $1,970,740.^[2]  The settlement range was from $20,000 to $5,250,000, with a median settlement of $480,000 and an average of $848,452.  The Valuation Handbooks also state that the median settlement award for all wrongful death cases in products liability causes of action was $1,000,000.  The settlement range for these cases was between $346,000 and $2,557,500.  For all of these figures, medical expenses, if any, must also be factored in.

B.        Case Verdicts and Settlements

A 23-year-old male foundry worker was killed in […]