In Franklin County and the surrounding 4 counties that include Delaware, Licking, Clark and Pickaway we have found that jury verdicts are extremely low and conservative. We believe that these low verdicts result from the work that our jury pool perform. They are typically in the insurance, financial and healthcare sectors. These sectors typically are conservative. As an example, in Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio we have Nationwide Insurance, State Auto Insurance, State Farm Insurance, Safe Auto Insurance, and Motorists/Encova Insurance that are headquartered or have main offices in Columbus and the surrounding counties. We also have headquartered in Columbus JP Morgan Chase Bank and Huntington Bank. From the healthcare industry, the Columbus area has major companies like OhioHealth, Mount Carmel Health and Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.
With many of our jurors that work for an insurance company or have a family member or know someone that works for the insurance company, this pool of jurors generally evaluates claims very conservatively.
As an example wanted to provide you with the average jury verdicts from 2012-2018 from Franklin County that is generally relative to the 4 surrounding counties.
In Franklin County, in 2012 there were 23 jury trials with an average verdict of $12,000. In 2013, there were 15 jury trials with an average verdict of $15,143. In 2014, there were 24 jury trials with an average verdict of $12,415. In 2015, there were 13 jury trials with an average verdict of $16,734. In 2016 there were 13 jury trials with an average verdict of $17,826.83. In 2017, there were 16 jury trials with an average verdict of $15,000. In 2018, there were 9 jury trials with an average verdict of $18,380.00.
Because of these typically low verdicts, we always recommend Mediation to our personal injury clients. Mediation is an alternative method of resolving cases. An experienced mediator who is usually a Judge or an experienced attorney facilitates negotiations between the parties in an effort to resolve claims. Generally, 90% of our cases in litigation get resolved at a Mediation. We have found that typically the last offer that we receive at a Mediation is generally better than the average verdicts that we see in Columbus or the surrounding Counties.
