Verdicts in the United States

Verdict, as defined by Black’s Law Dictionary, is “a jury’s finding or decisions on the factual issue of a case. Loosely, in a nonjury trial, a judge and resolution of the issue of a case.” (8th edition)

As trial decisions are not officially reported, a legal researcher cannot rely on the regular case reporters to find verdicts and settlements. This guide lists the major sources of verdicts and settlements.

Verdicts and Settlements Legal Materials

1. Major Print Publications

National Jury Verdict Review & AnalysisThis is a monthly nationwide review of state and federal civil jury verdicts with professional commentary and trial analysis.
Law Reporter The Association of Trial Lawyers of America reporter of personal injury and tort cases.
What’s it Worth? A Guide to Personal Injury Awards and Settlements This annual publication is a guide to current personal injury awards and settlements.
Stein on Personal Injury Damages (2nd ed.) 3rd edition available only on Weslaw . This treatise includes a digest of awards organized alphabetically by parts of the anatomy injured, practice aids, and a checklist for establishing damages.
California Jury Verdicts and Judgments. Contains summaries. Covers from 1991.
Personal Injury Jury Verdicts and Settlement Summaries. National scope. Contains summaries. Covers from 1987.
Jury Verdict and Settlement Summaries. National scope. Contains summaries. Covers from 1987.
Combined Liens & Civil Judgments. Covers the 50 states and D.C.
Dollar Verdicts: Personal Injury. This 2 volume looseleaf reports awards for personal injury cases and is organized alphabetically by part of the body injured. Volume 1 covers abdomen to liver and volume 2 covers lung to wrongful death.
Medical Malpractice Verdicts, Settlements & Experts .As the title indicates, this publication focuses on jury verdicts for medical malpractice cases. It is accompanied by an annual index.
Damages in Tort Actions, 1982-date. KF1250D35 1982 at Classified Stacks. LexisNexis
Jury Verdicts & Settlements Combined. Contains summaries of jury and nonjury verdicts and settlements from all state reporters included in LexisNexis. Covers from 1984.
National Jury Verdict Review & Analysis from Jury Verdict Review Publications, Inc. Contains summaries. Covers from Sept. 1985.
National Law Journal Annual Verdict and Settlement Review. Describes large awards, trends, and awards reduced on appeal. Covers from 1990.
Verdicts, Settlements and Tactics. Contains summaries of cases from the 50 states. Indexed by topic categories (such as civil rights, dram shop liability, medical liability, toxic torts, wrongful life). Covers from 1988.
Employment Discrimination Verdicts and Settlements (BNA online resource) , This weekly newsletter focuses on employment cases dealing with job bias, age, disabilities, race/gender issues and more.
Combined Judgment and Lien Filings. Contains filings from 45 states (including Washington) and D.C. Combined Uniform Commercial Code Liens Filings. Covers lien filings from all states, D.C., and the Virgin Islands.
Combined JAS Jury Verdicts and Settlements. Contains summaries of civil jury verdicts, judgments, and settlements. Covers CT, DC, GA, MD, MA, MI, OH, RI, and VA, from 1987 or 1988.
Employment Law Jury Verdicts and Settlement Summaries. National scope. Contains summaries. Covers from 1987.
Jury Verdicts–National. Contains summaries of jury verdicts, settlements, and arbitrations.

2. Lexis and Westlaw Databases

Westlaw (ALMVS-JV) – combines all available jury verdicts since 1996 to present, can also search individual states by checking Westlaw Directory> Litigation > Verdicts
Lexis (Legal > Area of Law – By Topic > Litigation > Jury Verdicts) – you can search a combined file for all available states or choose individual states to research

3. On the Web

The National Association of State Jury Verdict Publishers provides links to most state-wide verdict and settlement reporters. In the same website, Jury Verdict Publications produces a line of monthly newsletters reporting verdicts, including Medical Litigation Alert, The National Jury Verdict Review and Analysis, the New England Jury Verdict Review and Analysis, and single-state equivalents for New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida. The company offers a free verdict search, with a premium access option, as well as subscriber access, or you can hire JVRA to do an assisted search for you.

Other online resources include:

MoreLaw.com – free public access litigation digest and directory service
National Law Journal’s Largest Verdicts – published annually in February, now available by VerdictSearch (see below)
VerdictSearch – subscription database with online verdicts
Rand Institute for Civil Justice – this “think tank” prepares reports on the trends in jury verdicts, summaries of which are available on their web site.

Other Research Guides

Albany Law School Law Library, Where to Find Jury Verdicts in Tort Cases: Some Sources
Cleveland Law Library Association, Expert Witnesses, Verdicts & Settlements
Georgetown Law Library, Jury Verdicts & Jury Instructions Research Guide
Hennepin County Law Library, Bibliography: Verdicts and Settlement Awards
Los Angles County Law Library, Jury Verdicts & Settlements
Appendix to Blanca Fromm’s “Bringing Settlement Out of the Shadows: Information about Settlement in an Age of Confidentiality,” 48 UCLA Law Review 663, 708 (2001). Hein Online UW Restricted
University of Minnesota Law Library, Researching Jury Verdicts and Awards

Verdicts (Jury Trials)

This section introduces, discusses and describes the basics of verdicts. Then, cross references and a brief overview about Jury Trials is provided. Finally, the subject of Trials in relation with verdicts is examined. Note that a list of cross references, bibliography and other resources appears at the end of this entry.

Verdicts