[techweenie]

Warning. If you want to hold on to your emotional outrage, do not read the facts.

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State judges often toss out large monetary jury awards

HOUSTON (AP) - Texas judges are increasingly throwing out multimillion-dollar jury awards, the Texas Journal of the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

Although Texas judges long have had the power to override a jury, they rarely used it until recently.

"These decisions are proliferating," said Bob Filteau, a lawyer who does both plaintiff and defense work. "Judges appear to be assuming more and more control over jury findings."

In some recent examples:

Last week, Harris County state District Judge Harvey Brown said a jury didn't have sufficient evidence for a $10.5 million award against a brokerage firm accused of lying to a client.

In another Harris County case last week, state District Judge Caroline Baker told attorneys she is granting motions to either get rid of or severely reduce a jury verdict that would have awarded $9 million in a failed housing development case.

A Travis County judge this summer reduced a $36 million award in a whistleblower case to $2.7 million.

Bexar County judges have canceled a $1.65 million fraud verdict in a case against an attorney and a $168,000 jury verdict in a medical-malpractice case where a man claimed he was treated for cancer but never had the disease.

The increased use of the judges' powers is attributed to several factors.

In recent years, many state Supreme Court decisions have given district judges ammunition to erase verdicts they believe are wrong. Since the high court has shown a pro-business slant, judges feel empowered to make more pro-business decisions, confident the decisions will be upheld on appeal. ex

Legal experts point to a key 1994 case where the state Supreme Court overturned an El Paso jury's $1 million punitive damage award for a man who became impotent when he broke his pelvis in a work accident.