Winning Attorney Says Juror Sympathy Led to $19M Damages Finding, a Record for Westmoreland County
The jury arrived at its liability finding within the first few minutes of its two-hour deliberation, according to attorney Michael Calder.
March 22, 2022 at 12:37 PM
3 minute read
An attorney who recently scored what appears to be a Pittsburgh collar county's largest-ever civil verdict said getting the jury's support came down to presenting a plaintiff with whom the jury could sympathize.
In a region where verdicts rarely surpass six digits, Rosen & Perry's Michael Calder said that some of the Westmoreland County trial jurors said after the trial they had fought to value the damages as even more than the $19 million they ultimately handed down. The jury arrived at its liability finding within the first few minutes of its two-hour deliberation, according to Calder.
Calder called his client—a now-30-year-old man who was paralyzed in a swimming pool accident—"the most sympathetic young man I've ever met in my life, let alone my legal career." Calder said the jury resonated with stories of the efforts Fraser's family undertook to take care of the plaintiff following the accident.
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