At RISKWORLD 2023: Three Sessions Explored Ways to Limit the Toll of Nuclear Claims

Nuclear claims are no longer limited to big cities or specific states. Every jurisdiction now has the potential to host cases with eight- or even nine-figure verdicts, a trend driven by increased litigation funding, the need for tort reform, and social inflation exacerbated by attorney advertising and anti-corporate sentiment.

As national VP of liability service for CorVel Ed Burtnette explained, all of the above factors are moot until they’re seized upon by plaintiffs’ lawyers.

Early in the 2023 RIMS conference -- held April 30 to May 3 in Atlanta, Georgia -- Burtnette led a short session entitled ‘Avoiding Nuclear Verdicts in Liability Cases’ in which he looked at ways plaintiffs’ lawyers are driving nuclear claims and how carriers and their attorneys can counteract them.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys, Burtnette explained, have turned to appealing to jurors’ outrage rather than to their sympathy: ‘What’s happening in these kinds of cases is that plaintiffs’ attorneys are getting the jury upset … They’re trying to get the jury to get angry. They’re no longer going for sympathy anymore.’