Number of Reported Nuclear Verdicts, 2013-2022 or impossible for parties to negotiate a reasonable settlement.
Both have dramatically driven up insurance carrier costs, which in turn drives up the cost for insurance buyers. to the potential high severity exposure inherent in crane operations.
Crane owners need to understand how and why nuclear verdicts can arise, and what they can do to curb crane accident exposure in order to avoid growing claim litigation.
Drivers of Nuclear Verdicts
According to the U. S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform, nuclear verdicts are fueled by many direct and indirect factors.
In the courtroom, plaintiffs’ lawyers often use tactics that manipulate jurors to arbitrarily inflate damages.
For example, they resort to“ Reptile Theory” tactics to make jurors feel fear or danger so that they will lash out at their perceived attackers( the defendants) by awarding a plaintiff inflated damages.
Additionally, in the courtroom, plaintiffs’ attorneys often suggest that the jury award an exorbitant amount of damages, which those attorneys present as being carefully calculated, but which are totally arbitrary.
Outside the courtroom, plaintiffs’ lawyers have recently adopted“ lead generating” tactics that flood local airwaves with lawsuit advertising that touts extraordinary verdicts.
Its goal is to shape potential jurors’ opinions of appropriate compensation levels.
In recent years, plaintiffs’ attorneys have been encouraged and enabled to pursue those despicably manipulative tactics TPLF organizations.
The TPLF arrangement pays funders a return for investing
to drive the cost of a lawsuit settlement as high as possible.
The higher the settlement award, the more money the plaintiff, their lawyers and the investors pocket.
Reptilian theory tactics and TPLF are driving the nuclear verdicts that are making it difficult
A Perfect Storm The combination of traditional crane insurance claims handling, plaintiff counsel’ s reptilian theory tactics and TPLF has created a perfect storm for today’ s crane insurance buyers.
We should admit that, for the most part, today’ s crane insurance market is fundamentally broken.
Traditional insurers continuously attempt to cut their operating costs by discounting claims / legal handling expenses, one of their of their highest operating expenses.
That seems to represent prudent business management.
However, the plaintiffs’ attorneys know that those discounted legal and claimhandling resources are no match for them.
The highly skilled, highly
Percentage of Nuclear Verdicts Including a Punitive Damage Award, 2013-2022
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