Noneconomic Damage Amounts in Personal Injury Cases: Linking the Value to Injury Following Recent Decisions

Course Details
- smart_display Format
On-Demand
- signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level
Intermediate
- work Practice Area
Personal Injury and Med Mal
- event Date
Monday, August 26, 2024
- schedule Time
1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT
- timer Program Length
90 minutes
-
This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.
This CLE webinar will offer guidance on how plaintiffs can prove or defendants can challenge the amount of noneconomic damages. The panel will discuss new and clarified burdens of proof, plausible strategies for connecting amounts sought with the evidence, discovery strategies, and the types of arguments and techniques that get verdicts reversed on appeal.
Faculty

Prior to founding Randels Injury Law, Ms. Randels worked at two prominent Atlanta area injury firms for the better part of a decade. Since 2020, she has been recognized as a Super Lawyers Rising Star, an honor given to only 2.5% of the lawyers in Georgia. 2024 marks her fifth year being recognized. Ms. Randels has also been recognized as one of Georgia Trend's Legal Elite, named in Best Lawyers in America -- Ones to Watch, and is a member of the National Trial Lawyers Top 40 Under 40. Since 2020, Ms. Randels has been a member of the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association's Executive Committee, serving as chair of the New Lawyers Division, the Communications Committee, and the Women's Caucus.
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Mr. Offenhartz represents clients in a range of industries such as finance, medicine/healthcare, construction, real estate, and e-commerce. As a veteran litigator, he handles all phases of litigation, including preliminary investigations, drafting and responding to complaints, coordinating discovery, taking depositions & expert depositions, facilitating settlement negotiations at mediation, and first chairing matters at arbitration, trial, and on appeal. Mr. Offenhartz is also a business attorney who works alongside entrepreneurs and business owners to address his clients’ needs. This includes acting as outside counsel to businesses of all sizes and helping organizations navigate regulatory and administrative complexities to manage issues with local, state, and federal governments.
Description
Noneconomic damages such as mental anguish, pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, emotional distress, etc. are the main component in most "super" verdicts. Plaintiffs seek to maximize them; defendants try to rein them in. Recovering them is a two-step process: establishing the existence of noneconomic injuries and then giving them a value.
Regarding Step 1, courts have always required plaintiffs to offer credible evidence that noneconomic injuries exist: their nature, duration, severity, and their connection to the defendants' actions. Courts, however, until recently, have given Step 2 short shrift. Not anymore.
Now many courts are requiring plaintiffs to show a rational connection, based on the evidence, between the injury and the amount claimed. This will require new strategies and careful planning.
Listen as this experienced panel of litigators offers insights and strategies on how to develop the evidentiary basis for valuing what is by definition subjective how to demonstrate a connection between the injuries sustained and the amount of damages requested.
Outline
- Strategies for valuing noneconomic damages
- Types of evidence that may be used
- Discovery strategies
- Use of experts
- Recent cases
- Standards of review on appeal
Benefits
The panel will review these and other key issues:
- What are some methodologies that may be used to calculate the amount of pain and suffering damages?
- What types of arguments are prohibited?
- What is unsubstantiated anchoring and how is it detected?
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