Suffering from a mild traumatic brain injury due to someone else’s negligence is emotionally and financially draining. To recover funds from the negligent party, you must often go through a legal process that is lengthy and thorough, and sometimes requires your appearance in front of a jury to prove your injuries and damages. Luckily, however, there is a good chance that your case will prevail in front of a jury in the State of Florida, as well as the Orlando area, which is comprised of Seminole County, Orange County, and Osceola County. To determine the average case value in these areas, along with a short comparison of the Tallahassee area, we randomly selected 100 cases from Florida to statistically analyze. This analysis allows us to create many sample statistics that are of great importance when determining the value of a case involving a mild traumatic brain injury. From this 100-case sample, 37% came from the Orlando area, 4% came from Leon County, and 59% came from the rest of the State, to create a representative sample of the population of interest.
First off, it is important to note that this sample had five high value outliers; for this study, any value over $2,499,999 was considered a high-value outlier. High-value or low-value outliers can greatly skew the averages and other measures of central tendency because they do not fit in with the “normal” values, thus they can either pull the averages unrepresentatively high, such as in the case of high-value outliers, or unrepresentatively low in the case of low-value outliers. So, when we’re discussing any averages or measures of central tendency, I will clearly note whether the average includes the outliers or does not include the outliers. With this, we will also be including defense verdicts with the outliers, so where there are no outliers, there are also no defense verdicts, and where there are outliers, defense verdicts will have been factored into the averages.
In total, including the outliers and defense verdicts, the average case value among all 100 cases was $502,980.01, with a median value of $197,500, a most-often (or “mode”) value of $0, or a defense verdict, and a range between $0 and $4,800,000. The total of all 100 cases was $50,298,000 and with this, we found a standard deviation of 883,813.91, meaning the spread of the data about the average value is extremely far. When we excluded the outliers and the defense verdicts, we found an average case value of $416,015.81 with a median value of $250,000, a mode of $250,000 and a range between $1,286 and $2,106,000. The total sum of cases when we exclude the defense verdicts and outliers then becomes $31,617,201.56. As you can see, the amounts awarded in many of the cases are extremely high in comparison to other types of cases. This can be attributed to the fact that mild traumatic brain injury cases are just that, brain injuries. The side effects of this kind of injury can affect mood and behavior, the ability to speak or hear clearly, and can cause a drop in IQ. In some cases where a plaintiff breaks a bone, that can heal, but an injury to the brain effects all cognitive aspects of a person’s life.
When we look at the Orlando, Florida area the averages and measures of central tendency are somewhat different to that of the whole sample. Including defense verdicts and outliers, the average case value of an Orlando, Florida case was $403,440.68 with a median of $150,000, a mode of $0, or a defense verdict, and a range of $0 to $4.8 million dollars. In total, the monetary value of awards from Orlando cases was $14, 120,423.77. Throwing out the defense verdicts and outliers, the average becomes $332,347.46 with a median of $189,793.50, a mode of $250,000, and a range between $1,286 and $1,500,000. From this, the total of all Orlando cases becomes $9,970,423.50. Clearly, these averages are somewhat lower than the averages of all 100 cases, but the highest outlier of $4.8 million dollars came from the Orlando area.
Moving on to the cases from the rest of the State, we see averages that are a little bit higher than those of the whole sample. Including defense verdicts and outliers, the average case value was $560,969.46 with a median of $242,782, a mode of $0, and a range from $0 to $4,548,213. The sum of these cases amounted to $34,219,136.79. Following this further, when we get rid of the defense verdicts and outliers, the average becomes $449,529.08 with a median of $284,962. 50, a mode of $250,000, and a range between $8,000 to $2,106,000. In total, the sum of awards comes to $20,578,337.79. These values are somewhat higher than the sample averages.
Finally, of the four Tallahassee cases, none of them involved high outliers or defense verdicts, so the averages about to be presented are not changed by those variables. The average value of a mild traumatic brain injury case in Tallahassee was $489,610 with a median of $479,642.50, no mode, and a range between $24,155 and $975,000. In comparing this to the Orlando cases without defense verdicts or outliers, we see that in all measures of central tendency, Tallahassee verdicts are higher, on average, than verdicts given in the Orlando area. Although this sample is so small, it may be representative of the population, but with a large margin of error.
If we break down the settlements even more, we can determine the average amount of past medical bills, future medical bills, pain and suffering, and lost wages awarded to a plaintiff. Out of the 100-case sample, thirty-six received funds for past medical bills averaging to $31,291.89; twenty-eight plaintiffs were awarded money allocated to future medical bills averaging at $86,274.07. Pain and suffering was awarded to twenty-seven plaintiffs at an average of $164,566.85. Finally, lost wages was awarded to twenty-three plaintiffs at an average amount of $129,853.43.
When weighing your options of going in front of a jury, it’s also important to look at the historical verdict percentages to answer the questions of, “Well, will I even win? Is going to trial worth my time?”. In terms of the whole 100-case sample, you can tell that over two-thirds of the time, the answer is a resounding “yes”. From the sample, we found that 52% of verdicts were true plaintiff-favored verdicts, 19% were defense-favored verdicts where the plaintiff took home nothing for his or her injuries, 18% were settlements either pre-trial or post-trial, and 11% were comparative negligence verdicts ranging from 15% negligence on the side of the plaintiff to 60%. In Orlando, the plaintiff-favored verdict percentage is even higher at 59.46%, 18.92% defense verdicts, 13.51% settlements, and 2.70% comparative negligence verdicts. The statistics for the rest of the State are a bit lower than the sample average, at 45.76% plaintiff’s verdicts, 20.34% defense verdicts, 20.34% settlements, and 16.95% comparative negligence verdicts. Finally, in the Tallahassee sample, we saw 75% plaintiff’s verdicts and 25% settlements.
In the mild traumatic brain injury cases, next to none received surgery as a direct result of the main brain injury, as most of the time, mild injuries cannot be operated on to fix, it just takes time for symptoms to dissipate and wounds to heal. It is impossible to calculate surgical case values versus non-surgical case values since surgery, or lack thereof, was not a main variable in determining the value of mild traumatic brain injury cases.
Conclusively, one can see the average case value of a mild traumatic brain injury case in Orlando, Florida has a huge award amount at $403,440.68 without excluding large values and defense values. This being said, I can say that it is most likely worth your time to proceed with a trial for a mild traumatic brain injury in Orlando given the exemplary performance with juries in that area in terms of finding the plaintiff worth of monetary awards. In cases of a mild traumatic brain injury, always consult an adept attorney to go over the specifics of your case to determine the value of it.
