If you’ve stumbled across this article from Google, I would strongly recommend you read the following article first: What is the Settlement Value of an Oregon Employment Law Case? With emphasis on the theme of that article, I want to share an interesting (and coyly headlined) piece, “Latest Jury Verdict Research,” written by Manpower North America’s Chief Legal Officer, Mark Toth.
According to the article:
- The median award for all types of employment claims rose a whopping 60% in the past year, from $204,000 to $326,640.
- Employers won only 39% of discrimination lawsuits in the past year, tied for the worst win rate in the past decade. The lowest win rate (33%) was in age discrimination cases and the highest (52%) was in disability discrimination cases.
- Age discrimination cases had the largest verdicts, followed by disability, sex and race.
- Manufacturing/industrial had the biggest verdicts, followed by government, service/retail and then transportation.
- Employers are better off in federal court, where they won 43% of the cases, versus only 37% in state court. In addition, the median federal award was 39% lower than the median state award ($164,925 versus $270,000).
- The median settlement amount was the highest in the past decade at $90,000 — a 20% jump over the previous year.
As with any data set, I am always curious to review the details. I plan on getting a copy of the study and will share whatever summaries and insight I can. These numbers seem to rebut some rumors I have been hearing about employment law cases losing value in a down economy.
Another interesting observation is that the summary of this data fails to mention retaliation, whistleblowing, and sexual harassment cases.
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