Whether the jury that awarded a $14.5 million asbestos verdict had been told to award a specific number for noneconomic damages was the focus of arguments before the state Superior Court last week.
Nearly a year after a divided three-judge panel of the court tossed the verdict in Nelson v. Crane, plaintiffs attorney Steven J. Cooperstein, of Brookman, Rosenberg, Brown & Sandler, argued before an en banc panel Aug. 5 that the trial attorney telling the jury to award noneconomic damages greater than the stipulated $1 million for economic damages did not constitute suggesting a specific number, which is improper. According to Cooperstein, while the trial attorney’s statements were “poor rhetoric,” the attorney was merely telling the jury to award more for noneconomic damages than for economic damages.
