Medical malpractice defendants win cases brought to juries roughly 62 percent of the time, the Horsham, Pa.-based firm reported in its analysis, "Medical Malpractice: Verdicts, Settlements and Statistical Analysis."

While the plaintiff recovery rate was up slightly?from 34 percent in 1999 to 38 percent in 2000?the rate has remained below 40 percent throughout the seven-year period covered in the study (1994-2000).

(Jury Verdict Research defines "recovery rate" as ratio of plaintiff verdicts to defense verdicts and does not include cases of admitted liability in these ratios.)

Over the same seven-year period, however, the median size of jury awards nearly tripled, rising from $362,500 in 1994 to $1,000,000 in 2000.

Settlement values were also steadily rising over the five-year period from 1994 to 1999, but that trend seemed to reverse in 2000, according to statistics set forth in the study.

According to the report, the nationwide median settlement rose from $350,000 in 1994 to $592,074 in 1999, but fell 16 percent to $500,000 in 2000 (the same median recorded for 1998.)

In addition to overall nationwide median awards, recovery rates and settlement values, the 95-page report contains detailed statistics by type of defendant (doctor, hospital or both) and by type of liability situation (such as cancer misdiagnosis, childbirth cases and delay treatment cases, for example).

The report also shows jury award and settlement value medians by injury type, with injury types ranging from brain injury to emotional distress.

In addition, the report sets forth information on the distributions of awards and settlement values by size for the seven-year period. Such distributions give the percentage of awards that fall within different dollar ranges. For example, the study shows that 15 percent of jury awards were in the $250,000-$499,999 range over the period, while 5 percent exceeded $10 million.

Statistics on litigation timeframes are also presented in the report. According to the study, the median number of months from incident date to trial date and the number of months from filing date to trial date have each declined over the seven-year period studied.

For 1994 jury awards, the lag between incident and trial date was more than five years, and there was a three-year lag between filing date and trial date. Cases for which a jury reached a verdict in 2000 took less than four years to come to trial after a medical incident occurred and two years to come to trial after the cases were filed.

Copies of the study are available from Jury Verdict Research for $32.50 plus $4.50 shipping and handling, by logging on to www.juryverdictresearch.com, calling 1-800-341-7874, ext. 307, or by e-mail at [email protected].

Jury Verdict Research maintains a nationwide database of more than 193,500 plaintiff and defense verdicts, and settlements resulting from personal injury claims.