Wrongful death cases can have values ranging from zero to hundreds of millions of dollars. Two recent recoveries in Texas were for more than $100,000,000, and it appears the values of these cases continue to rise. I’ve spent a great part of my career prosecuting, settling, and trying wrongful death cases. One thing I’ve learned is that every case is completely unique. You cannot tell the value of your case by analyzing the results of other cases. Nevertheless, there is value in knowing how other cases have resolved to understand the general ballpark of how juries have valued these cases in the past.
In a 100-case sample taken from jury verdict research across the State of Florida (Fig. 1), statistical analyses showed that, in the sample, wrongful death cases averaged a total case value of $1,924,028. However, this sample showed a wide array of case values between $0, or a defense verdict, to 30 million dollars.
