Recently, there was a large medical malpractice verdict in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a city that has seen more than its share of large verdicts. This one was in the amount of $108,000,000. While that is a lot of money, please always remember that the jury’s verdict is only the first step in a long process for the victim before any money actually changes hands. The defendants always file post-trial motions asking the court to order a retrial or to at least reduce the amount of the jury’s award. If those motions fail, the defendants always appeal the judgment. The injured victim rarely recovers all of the money awarded by the jury, although it does happen.
The case involved, as these very large verdicts often do, an obstetrical delivery gone bad. There was a problem during the delivery and the obstetrician used forceps to pull the baby out of the birth canal. Although the baby appeared to do well at first, he quickly began to display signs of neurological damage. While there is no question that the child has suffered severe neurological damage and will require life-long treatment, there is strong disagreement over the cause of his condition. The attorneys for the child and his family allege that the child suffered a catastrophic, traumatic brain injury as a result of errors made during the delivery, including the use of forceps. The hospital and doctors deny that they made mistakes in the delivery and say that the child’s condition is most consistent with a genetic defect or a problem in utero before birth. The defendants also complain that rulings by the trial judge kept out important information and that the jury therefore received an incomplete picture of the delivery process.
This is another one of those cases in which the usual elements of a large verdict are present.
Catastrophic Injury: Check. This child will grow into adulthood but will always have the mind of a toddler. He will never be able to work or enjoy life and will require life-long care, long after his parents are there to provide it. The child is predicted to live into his late 60’s. The sympathy factor for the child and parents is extreme.
Large Medical Bills: Check. Of the jury’s $108M award, $106M was for past and future medical bills and cost of care.
Large Wage Loss: Check. This child will never be able to work. $1M of the award was for future lost wages.
Good Trial Lawyer: Check. This was not an open and shut case of malpractice. It was a battle of expert witnesses with the medicine in dispute. The trial team in this case won a $182M verdict in a medical malpractice trial in 2023. That award was recently upheld on appeal. They clearly know what they are doing in preparing a case and presenting it to a jury.
X-Factor: Unclear. In the stories I was able to find on the trial, no specific X-Factor was mentioned. It may simply be a matter of a catastrophic injury and a hospital chain with deep pockets.
While almost all very large malpractice verdicts share these characteristics, a case with these characteristics is never a guaranteed winner. The medicine is always complex and juries like doctors and understand that sometimes bad things happen to good people through the fault of no one. These characteristics are necessary for a large verdict, however.
I hope you never find yourself in the position of this child’s parents. But if you do, you need a good trial lawyer with extensive medical malpractice experience to review the facts for you. There may or may not be a case there but your child deserves to have someone who knows what they are doing review the circumstances.
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