Dr. Angela Ashley "knows more about the human brain in her thumbnail than all of us in this courtroom put together!" Keenan Nix says in his closing argument against Papa John's. 

How does a jury shown no more than $225,000 in past medical expenses—no future lost wages, no future medical expenses—return an $11 million verdict in a traumatic brain injury trial?

In a catastrophic injury trial on damages alone, a life care plan is often the pivot on which an award turns. In the face of a defense offer that is more than most jurors will see in their lifetimes, for example, a well-prepared plaintiffs’ life care plan can convincingly detail the reasons a much larger award is needed.   

Stock image. 

West Palm Beach, FL—A diving gear company prevailed Friday against claims it was responsible for the drowning death of a renowned underwater cinematographer.  Skiles v. Lamartek Inc., et al., 2012-CA-013132. 

Michael Trentalange delivers his closing argument at trial against R.J. Reynolds over the lung cancer death of Jane McCabe. Jurors Thursday awarded McCabe's children $5 million in compensatory damages and found Reynolds liable for potential punitives. 

Update 5/20/16: Jurors imposed a $6.5 million punitive award against R.J. Reynolds for its part in the death of Dorothy McCabe, a former nurse and addiction counselor who smoked for more than 50 years.

The verdict, when combined with the $5 million in compensatories the jury handed down Thursday, brings the unreduced damage award to $11.5 million in the case. 

The original story follows below. 

Tampa, FL—A jury Thursday awarded $5 million to the children of a former addiction treatment counselor who died from cancer after smoking for more than five decades, and it found R.J. Reynolds liable for potential punitive damages for its role in her death. McCabe v. R.J. Reynolds, 2007-CA-017632.

James Scarbrough delivers his closing argument on behalf of MARTA at trial over the death of Jeffrey Usher, who died after his motorcycle struck a MARTA paratransit vehicle. 

Atlanta—A Fulton County Superior Court jury Wednesday cleared the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority of fault in the death of a motorcyclist who collided with a MARTA paratransit vehicle. Lynn v. MARTA, 2015CV259595.