Damages from the Accident

   With so much anti-plaintiff sentiment running around to balance out the anti-big company sentiment, sometimes the populist fervor runs in favor of the individual defendant, whose insurance backing is just barely allowed to creep into the trial. It is as if in various guises, plaintiff's insurance coverage of certain bills could come in, but defendant's insurance representation cannot easily get into the picture, other than an initial question or two in jury selection as to whether "you or anyone you know has been employed by "Ajax Insurance Company," hint-hint-hint."

   Sometimes, it happens that a jury returns a verdict that specifies all or much of an injured person's expenses for reimbursement by defendant, such as medical expense and loss of earnings. These itemized damages are known as "special" damages. Then they award little or nothing for pain and suffering. It may meet with mixed reception, depending on the state or jurisdiction, but in Bowers v. Sprouse, 492 S. E. 2d 637 (Va. 1997) the Supreme Court of Virginia threw out a jury verdict where the jury members voted to give plaintiff her expenses but nothing, at all, for pain and suffering, "general" damages. The trial court had not thrown out the verdict, it took the state Supreme Court to do so. That means an expensive, or at least time-consuming, appeal was required to get justice done. In response to the defendant insurers' attorneys' arguments that maybe the jury found the special damages doubtful because they were strenuously argued against by the defense, the Supreme Court said it didn't matter, something had to be given for pain and suffering.

   It should be noted that in another case, Bass v. Hermiston Medical Center, 922 P. 2d 708 (Or. Ct. App. 1996), a court said plaintiff's attorney would have to have requested an instruction to the jury that "general" damages have been established as a matter of law, in order to have standing to object to a verdict that fails to award any.

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