Is the recession affecting jury verdicts?

Jury verdicts in civil cases can range from small, barely noticed awards to enormous amounts of money that make headlines.

But are awards diving during the recession? Well, the jury's still out.

At least one study shows that overall median jury awards have declined 40 percent, when adjusted

However, reports from the Jury Verdict Research Co. show that median damages in corporate cases - particularly those involving wrongful termination - have risen 18 percent.

Experts on both sides - trial lawyers and tort reformists - say the economy could be one reason for the discrepancies, but that jury trials are always unpredictable.

The lower judgments, capped in many cases by state and federal law, are necessary to keep "trial lawyers from pursuing meritless cases," said Darren McKinney, spokesman for the American Tort Reform Association. "If the fines could be greater - particularly those for punitive damages, or pain and suffering - then lawyers would pursue every case, whether it made good sense or not. The lower verdicts for those tort trials show that the laws are working."