Better understand the rise of nuclear verdicts, or defense verdicts, and how to avoid them, considering both the strategic and psychological factors at play.
According to professionals in the insurance industry and the defense bar, the number of nuclear verdicts, or verdicts that exceed $10M, is on the rise. Although the defense may prevail over plaintiffs more often at trial, when the defense loses, they lose big. And plaintiffs who could have obtained needed resources in settlement sometimes "roll the dice" at trial and get less, or nothing at all.
Do clients really want to engage in such high-stakes showdowns? Is there a better way to administer "justice?"
This webinar addresses these very questions. It is designed for attorneys and other professionals practicing in litigation, mediation, and negotiation who wish to better understand the rise of nuclear verdicts and how to avoid them, considering both the strategic and psychological factors at play.
The objectives of this course are to help you understand why nuclear verdicts are occurring more frequently in recent years; the strategic factors to consider, including retaining control over decision outcomes and playing the percentages; and the psychological factors to consider, including assessing your mediation and negotiation tactics and the accuracy of your predictions of litigated outcomes.
Attendees will come away with strategies for improving their approach to negotiation, mediation, and litigation to curtail instances of self-serving bias and overconfidence, which can increase the likelihood of a nuclear verdict, with an eye to avoiding this type of verdict wherever possible.
About Our Presenters
Jeff Trueman is a full-time mediator and arbitrator with 20 years of experience helping parties resolve litigated and pre-suit disputes concerning wrongful death, catastrophic injuries, employment, professional malpractice, and business dissolutions.
He is a Distinguished Fellow of the International Academy of Mediators and the National Association of Distinguished Neutrals, invitation-only membership organizations consisting of some of the most successful commercial mediators in the country and the world. Jeff is a recipient of the Maryland State Bar Association’s Chief Judge Robert M. Bell Award for his efforts in “promoting the use of alternative dispute resolution in the Maryland judiciary, schools, government and communities” and the Bar Association of Baltimore City’s Paul A. Dorf Alternative Dispute Resolution Memorial Award.
He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law and Pepperdine Caruso School of Law.
John Lowry is a recognized authority on negotiation with experience as a lawyer, business consultant, entrepreneur, negotiation coach, and university administrator. He teaches negotiation at the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University School of Law and in Vanderbilt University’s Master’s in Management in Health Care program.
As president of The Lowry Group, LLC (TLG) he provides negotiation training and coaching for governmental entities, insurance companies, law firms, health care organizations, and other businesses. He is the author of Negotiation Made Simple, published by HarperCollins in 2023, and is host of the Negotiation Made Simple podcast. John is also CEO of Thrivence, a management consulting firm in Nashville.
He earned his bachelor’s degree in speech communications from Pepperdine University and his J.D. from Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law. He also completed graduate work in public policy at California State University, Sacramento, while serving as a Jesse M. Unruh Assembly Fellow in the California Legislature.
Learning Objectives
- Understand and manage heuristics such as overconfidence, anchoring, and confirmation bias. These are only three of many mental shortcuts we make, but they occur most frequently.
- Understand the value of beginning the process early, which will positively influence the outcome - even if you litigate all the way to verdict. Assessments should come first; case valuations will follow. Rinse and repeat since the litigation landscape shifts often.
- Learn how the information you get about the other side's position will influence their response and your strategy. How you ask for a demand, for example, influences the response.
- Learn how your approach to bargaining influences what kind of information you learn about the other side; information is the real currency in negotiation.
- Assess who is on your team. Do you find yourself in an echo chamber that isn't helping you make the best settlement decision?
- Assess how well, or how extensively, you use your mediator. Is your strategy limited to getting the mediator to deliver the "tough" news to the other side or your own client?
More on Nuclear Verdicts on HB Litigation News:
Going Viral or Going Nuclear: Social Inflation’s Impact on Jury Verdicts
Social Inflation’s Impact on Jury Verdicts
FILED UNDER: Complex Business Litigation|Insurance Law
TAGS: Arbitration|Mediation
