The award median for a personal injury case in Alabama is $25,000 and the national award median is $40,000. While the medians differ greatly, the plaintiff recovery probabilities - the number of plaintiff verdicts to total verdicts - are nearly the same with Alabama at 54 percent and the national at 55 percent, according to Jury Verdict Research®'s 2006 Alabama Verdict Survey.

The statistics are based on verdicts rendered in Alabama from 1999 through 2005. The study also includes a breakdown of specific injury and liability categories in the state of Alabama.

The following table outlines the overall award standings in Alabama as compared with the yearly award medians for the nation.

The median is the middle value among awards listed in ascending order. This value provides the most accurate gauge of the norm for a specific sampling of jury award data.

Jury Verdict Research® maintains the only nationwide database of more than 250,000 plaintiff and defense verdicts and settlements, resulting from personal injury claims. The data are reported, tabulated and analyzed to determine values, trends and deviations for 400 injuries and 300 liabilities. Jury Verdict Research® is a division of LRP Publications, Inc.