Urbanicity, Income and Jury Verdict Amounts in Civil Litigation

This paper reports on investigation and research explaining possible factors that affect the final award amount given by juries in civil cases. The two key variables examined are urbanicity and median household income. Data on civil trials collected through the United States Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics’ The Civil Justice Survey of State Courts provided the primary data set for the study. The data set includes 156 counties and is a nationally representative sample of bench and jury trials. Urbanicity ratings, as well as median household income, were reported for each county. Pearson’s correlations indicated no statistically significant relationship between urbanicity ratings and final award amount or between median household income and final award amount for cases decided by a jury. Evaluations of the linear relationship between final award amount and urbanicity using Pearson’s correlation indicated no significant correlation between final award amount and urbanicity ratings. This study concludes that juries were not as susceptible to external influences or factors such as their location and income when awarding the plaintiff of a civil case.