Minnesota Personal Injury Verdicts
A Jury Verdict Research study found that the median award in Minnesota in personal injury cases is an even $30,000. Minnesota personal injury plaintiffs receive an award in 67 percent of cases that go to trial.
The median compensation in Minnesota is somewhat below the national median of $38,179 and I suspect Minneapolis, St. Paul and Rochester verdicts inflate that average a bit. But because Minnesota has no fault coverage (or PIP) in car accident cases up to $40,000 ($20,000 for medical bills and $20,000 for economic loss) that is subject to the collateral source rule, Minnesota personal injury lawyers tend to few small cases in Minnesota. In other words, Minnesota law provides that personal injury awards are offset by collateral source payments (if the source of reimbursement does not have a subrogation right). So the gap between the Minnesota median verdict and the national median verdict is probably wider than the numbers reflect. Not surprisingly, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce found Minnesota juries to be the "15th best" which means the 15th worst for personal injury victims.
Interestingly, Minnesota personal injury recovery probability is 67% compared to the national average of 53%. I would think that the fewer amount of smaller claims would lead to a lower recovery probability because Minnesota personal injury lawyers bring less smaller cases which typically do not involve a liability dispute which you would think would actually lower the recovery probability. Accordingly, it is fair to infer from the data that Minnesota juries are inclined to believe Minnesota plaintiff's claims as to how/why the accident/medical malpractice/injury occurred.
Although Minnesota juries are rather conservative, the big complaint that defendants' lawyers and drug and device companies have about Minnesota is that its laws are favorable to personal injury victims. Last year, there was an ABA Journal article, Lawsuits Travel Up North: Land of Ten Thousand Lakes Is Flooded With Thousands of Out-of-State Filings, that discussed the benefits of filing products liability claims in Minnesota, including Minnesota reasonable six-year statute of limitations in products liability cases. While lawyers rarely have seriously injured clients in a car accident that come to them years after the cause of action arose, this is a far more common occurrance in products liability cases because it sometimes takes a while for people to understand the connection between the negligence and their injuries, even if that information is available under the "know or have reason to know standard."
