Tom McCutcheon – Attorney at Law
Q. I recently served as a juror in an automobile accident case. During the trial, the jurors were never told if the driver who caused the accident had insurance. When we started deliberations, we asked the judge if the driver who caused the accident had insurance and we were told that he could not tell us. I wanted to find for the lady who had been injured in the accident but was concerned about making the other driver pay for her damages out of his own pocket if he didn’t have insurance. Why couldn’t the jurors have been told whether or not the driver had insurance?
Caroline
Athens, AL
A. First, let me thank you for your willingness to serve as a juror. Serving as a juror requires sacrifice, but it is the only way our legal system functions properly. Secondly, let me thank you for your obvious attentiveness during the trial and your desire to learn more about our civil justice system.
Without hesitation, I can assure you that the driver who caused the accident had liability insurance. How can I be so sure? The reasons are numerous.
First, attorneys such as Tom and I who practice personal injury law represent our clients on a contingency fee basis. This means that if we do not recover money for our clients, we do not get paid. Practicing law is an honorable profession but it is also a business. Employees must be paid, the light bill comes, copier paper must be purchased, the phone bill has to be paid, and so on and so on. Although Tom and I do handle some cases for free, we have a business to run. If any attorney is trying an injury case to a jury, you better believe the other side has insurance coverage. Otherwise, the injured party and the attorney are just wasting time.
Secondly, if the other party is represented by an attorney, you can bet that they have insurance. With the average hourly cost of defense attorneys in the range of $200.00 per hour and the fact that it takes approximately a year to two years to get a case set for trial, it is not hard to imagine the fees generated by the defense attorney. For example, let’s say that it takes 2 years to get an automobile accident to trial. That is 104 weeks (52 weeks + 52 weeks = 104 weeks). Say the defense attorney works 5 hours a week on that file, that is 520 billable hours (104 weeks x 5 hours = 520 hours). Multiply 520 billable hours times the rate per hour, $200.00, and the total charge is $104,000.00. Heck, I am attorney and at that amount I couldn’t afford myself!
As a juror, you are led to believe that you receive complete disclosure of all the facts necessary to properly and fairly reach a decision. A juror, however, is provided only that evidence with the law allows the trial attorneys to present. The law in Alabama does not allow the attorneys or the judge to tell the jury whether the at-fault party has liability insurance. The rationale behind this decision is that law wants the jurors to make a decision based solely upon the facts pertaining to how the accident happened. The fear is that if the jury learns that there is insurance coverage for the accident, they may be more willing to compensate an injured party because it is the insurance company who is spending money and not the person who caused an accident
The next time you sit down in a jury box in a civil injury case, just remember it’s the insurance company sitting at the defense table and it’s the insurance company’s money on the line!
McCutcheon & Hamner, P.C.
2210 Helton Drive
Florence, Alabama 35630
Telephone: 256-764-0112
Facsimile: 256-349-2529
