Expert Witnesses Affect Jury Awards in Trucking Injury Cases, Study Finds

Expert witnesses in trucking accident cases appear to substantially affect to the size of verdict awards, a recent study by a US trucking industry association has found.

Researching the rise of so-called “nuclear verdicts,” those awards over $10 million, the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), part of the American Trucking Associations Federation, found that “[t]he presence of expert witnesses, both on the Plaintiff and Defense sides, may contribute to the size of verdicts in opposite directions.”

ATRI's 80-page report, “Understanding the Impact of Nuclear Verdicts on the Trucking Industry,” includes a comprehensive review of verdicts from 2006-2019, including analysis of interviews with defense and plaintiff attorneys, as well as insurance and motor carrier experts, in part to provide recommendations for pretrial preparations and litigation strategies.

Due primarily to the increasing size of verdict awards, insurance rates in the trucking industry have been rising. One of the respondents to the study noted that, for three consecutive years, ‘low-risk' motor carriers were experiencing “8% to 10% increases in insurance costs, while new ventures and average-to-marginal carriers are experiencing a 35% to 40% annual increase.”

ATRI's chart on the impact of expert witnesses in trucking accident cases clearly shows the dramatic impact of defense expert witnesses when the plaintiff calls none.

ATRI states in its report that their analysis “confirms that when an expert witness is called in favor of the defense and not for the plaintiff, there is a large decrease in the average size of the verdict, cutting the resulting mean verdict from $3.1 million down to $2.7 million. The decrease in verdict size could be applied as a strategy for mitigating verdicts.”

The report also analyzed the costs of various pretrial preparation methods and found that expert witnesses in these cases were averaging between $200 and $600 per hour each. Given their impact on verdict awards, expert witnesses seem to be worth the investment.

The report also finds that the average verdict award is increasing at a far greater rate than either annual average medical costs or annual healthcare costs, the authors conclude that non-economic damages associated with lawsuits are increasing, suggesting that emotional issues are more involved.

The analysis shows that defense attorneys tended to rely more heavily on fact-based (logos) strategies, calling for example trucking expert witnesses to explain braking distances and company policies, where as plaintiffs tended to use emotional (pathos) strategies emphasizing pain and suffering, describing the “tragedy of losing a spouse or child.”

The report argues that defense attorneys underutilize emotional strategies, although it fails to describe what type of emotional strategies and expert witnesses could be employed to defend trucking companies, or even truckers, against plaintiff's emotion-charged strategies showcasing the pain and suffering of the injured.