When filing an injury claim, many plaintiffs want to file in a location where they might be more likely to win. If there is a difference between geographic areas, it often comes down to who is in the jury pools and whether laws or judges are different.
In general, New York City is pretty friendly to plaintiffs, and Brooklyn is no different. Many residents can put themselves in the victim’s shoes in cases against companies, dangerous property owners, or bad drivers, making them more likely to rule for them. However, there isn’t really a difference among judges or laws in different boroughs.
Call our Brooklyn personal injury attorneys at The Carrion Law Firm at (718) 841-0083 today.
Filing Your Injury Case in “Friendly” Jurisdictions
Many injury victims want to file their case in the place that will give them the best chance of success. In some ways, there is a difference between jurisdictions that will cause a true difference.
One of the biggest factors in an area being plaintiff-friendly is the jury pool. When the jury is likely to be made up of people like you – or people whose mothers, brothers, or friends are like you – then it is more likely they will be empathetic to your case.
For example, the median household income in Brooklyn was $76,780 in 2022, and the homeownership rate was 29.5%. This points to everyday families being the bulk of the jury pool – the kinds of people sympathetic to older adults slipping on a sidewalk or teen drivers being hit by a reckless Uber driver.
A smaller impact can come from the “friendliness” of judges. Brooklyn is King’s County, whose trial judges form the 2nd District of the New York Supreme Court (the trial level court), all of which are elected. This means the same general population forming the jury pool is electing these judges, which might have a slight impact on who sits on the bench.
Are Brooklyn Juries and Courts Pro-Plaintiff?
The question of whether any particular place is friendly is tough to determine with data. There is no good data to suggest one borough, neighborhood, or city is friendlier to plaintiffs than another, and this concept is mostly based on history. In legal advertising, we must emphasize that past case outcomes are not indicative of future outcomes, but our Brooklyn personal injury attorneys have seen high-dollar cases succeed in Brooklyn.
How Do You Determine Whether an Area is Friendly to Plaintiffs?
One way of determining the current level of “friendliness” of certain courts is to talk to a lawyer actively practicing in the area. Our attorneys can use recent cases as a starting point to help determine how “friendly” a jury might be to a case like yours based on the specific facts of your case and the recent trends.
Statistics generally are not available when it comes to jury awards and settlements, given that many settlements are private. It is also often unreliable to look at statistics on jury awards, given that you cannot tell just from the number whether their case was strong or weak, whether the plaintiff or defendant was sympathetic or not, or whether the damages were higher or lower than what they were worth. Cases are also unique, so averages and statistics are not always helpful.
Otherwise, most ideas about jury friendliness are based on stereotyping and anecdotal evidence, which isn’t always reliable when it comes to deciding how to move forward with something as important as a personal injury case.
What Can I Expect from a Plaintiff-Friendly Jurisdiction?
When a jurisdiction is pro-plaintiff or plaintiff-friendly, it has both immediate effects and downstream effects:
Immediate Effects
If the judges and juries in an area are usually pro-plaintiff, that means you might be more likely to win your case. On top of that, it might mean that awards are often higher. In New York, where we have no cap on damages, this can make a sizeable difference.
However, it is important to come to your case with some realistic expectations. A bad case cannot be saved because it is filed in a friendly jurisdiction. Similarly, you shouldn’t expect a low-dollar case to suddenly be worth millions of dollars just because it was filed in one place over another.
Downstream Effects
What’s more important is often the effects that come down the road. One of the most important is that the higher chance of plaintiffs winning and getting high-dollar awards affects how settlements work.
If a defendant is more likely to lose at trial, then they are more likely to settle and get out of having to go to trial. This can make it easier for our attorneys to push for a settlement that covers your needs, saving both of you the time and effort of putting together exhibitions, having your lawyers prepare opening statements, and taking the case through a few days of trial.
Additionally, if defendants know they will lose, they might be willing to settle for higher amounts than in areas where they are more likely to win. This could mean it is easier to get full damages through a settlement, whereas you might have to go to trial to get that in other areas.
Can I Choose to File in Brooklyn or Somewhere Else?
The idea of choosing where you file your injury case is often called “forum shopping” or “venue shopping.” Judges and the legal system usually frown on this, and cases must be filed in a court that has “jurisdiction” and where “venue” is proper.
These legal rules are a bit complicated but break down into two issues. With jurisdiction, the court needs to have legal authority to hear your case. Usually, this means filing where the injury happened. For venue, you may be able to move your case for issues of convenience, but there are legal guidelines.
In general, though, you cannot freely choose where to file so you can pick your judge and jury.
Call Our Personal Injury Lawyers in Brooklyn Today
Call The Carrion Law Firm’s New York City personal injury attorneys at (718) 841-0083 for a free case evaluation.