If you need to know how to find jury verdicts for a case valuation, the answer is to layer sources, because no single database holds them all. Work in this order: published appellate opinions that review damages awards, the court's own docket, verdict reporters (free and paid), and a final check that each verdict survived post-trial motions and appeal. Verdicts are not officially published, and most settlements are confidential, so every source is partial.
This article is for general information and is not legal advice. For guidance on a specific case, consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction.
Why verdicts are hard to find
A Legal Practice Tips column in the Oregon State Bar Bulletin states the problem plainly: verdicts and judgments are easier to locate than settlements because "the verdict or judgment amount is part of the court file," while settlements "tend to be confidential in nature." Even when a settlement is not confidential, the dollar figure usually is not in the file. (Oregon State Bar Bulletin, Feb./Mar. 2008.) That article is dated, and its list of vendors has changed, but the structural point has not.
Two consequences follow for jury verdict research:
- Verdict data is a sample of cases that went to trial, a small and unusual slice of all claims.
- Settlement data is mostly anecdote unless it comes from your own closed files.
Say that in the file memo. A valuation that treats three reported verdicts as a market price is weaker than one that labels them as outliers from trial.
How to find jury verdicts: the five-step order
The order matters: start with what you can cite, and end by testing what you found.
| Step | Source | What it gives you | Where it runs out |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Published appellate opinions on damages | Citable amounts, with the facts and the review standard | Covers only awards that were appealed and decided in a published opinion |
| 2 | The court's docket | The verdict form, judgment and post-trial orders | Online access and fees vary by court system |
| 3 | Verdict reporters | Trials that never reached an appellate court | Only as complete as what gets reported or collected |
| 4 | Post-trial and appellate history | Whether the number held | One docket pull per comp |
| 5 | Comp worksheet | A comparable set you can defend in a demand | Only as reliable as steps 1 to 4 |
Step 1: Start with appellate opinions on damages
The best free comparable you can cite is a published opinion in which an appellate court reviewed a damages award. It names the injury, the venue, the evidence, the amount, and the standard the court applied. A court has already done the comparing for you.
Review of excessive awards is built on comparison. In Gasperini v. Center for Humanities, Inc., 518 U.S. 415 (1996), the Supreme Court explained that to decide whether an award "deviates materially from what would be reasonable compensation," New York courts "look to awards approved in similar cases." Gasperini. In a state with a comparison-based standard, the appellate decisions listing prior awards are the comparable set.
How to find comparable verdicts in appellate opinions
Run these searches in whatever case-law database you use. Public options are covered in our guide to free legal research tools.
- Combine the injury with the review vocabulary. Terms such as "excessive," "remittitur," "shocks the conscience," "deviates materially," and "new trial on damages" pull opinions that discuss amounts.
- Name the injury precisely. "Cervical fusion," "rotator cuff," and "traumatic brain injury" retrieve better than "serious injury."
- Limit to your jurisdiction and, if possible, your court. Opinions from your own state or circuit are the ones a judge will take seriously. See how to research case law for the mechanics.
- Search both directions. Cases reducing an award show the ceiling. Cases affirming an award, or reversing for an inadequate one, show the floor.
- Read the facts, not the headnote. Age, wage loss, permanency, medical specials, and comparative fault drive the number, and the opinion usually discloses them.
CaseRead's research chat runs this kind of query against federal and state public law and, in the same pass, your firm's private vault. It surfaces opinions; the comparing remains your job.
Step 2: Pull the record from the court
If a trial occurred in your county, the docket has primary-source data a reporter only summarizes. Request the verdict form, the judgment, and any post-trial motions and orders. Federal dockets are searchable online (see how to search federal court dockets), and state systems vary widely in what they put online and what they charge.
The docket also tells you what verdict reporters often omit: whether the defendant moved for a new trial, whether the judge reduced the award, and whether an appeal was filed.
Step 3: Use a verdict reporter, free or paid
A verdict reporter collects reports of trial results, largely from attorneys who submit them; some publishers also send staff to read court files. Coverage depends on what gets reported or collected, so no reporter is complete.
| Source type | Examples | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free verdict site | MoreLaw.com | Free | The Oregon State Bar bulletin described it in 2008 as a free service maintained by a trial attorney, and the site still describes itself as free (October 2026); check its current coverage for your state |
| Bar and trial-lawyer publications | State trial lawyer association verdict alerts, bar journals | Often member-only | Typically regional and attorney-submitted |
| Law library access | Public and court law libraries | Often free on site | Libraries commonly license databases that individual firms find costly |
| Paid national and regional reporters | VerdictSearch (ALM), the verdict and settlement products inside Lexis and Westlaw | Subscription; confirm current pricing with each vendor | Searchable, but only as complete as the submissions |
For a free jury verdict search, combine MoreLaw, the court's docket and your law library's on-site databases. Before you subscribe to a paid reporter for one case, ask the library which of these it carries; for a single valuation, a library visit is often the cheapest route. Our legal research cost guide gives the general cost picture for the large platforms. Whatever personal injury verdict database you use, treat each entry as a lead until Step 4 confirms it.
Step 4: Confirm the verdict survived
This is the step most verdict guides skip. A reported verdict is a snapshot of one day. Afterward, any of these can happen:
- JMOL or new trial. The defendant can renew a motion for judgment as a matter of law (see our guide to judgment as a matter of law) or move for a new trial. Under Rule 59(b), a new-trial motion must be filed no later than 28 days after entry of judgment.
- Remittitur. A judge who finds an award excessive can offer the plaintiff a reduced amount or a new trial. Under Hetzel v. Prince William County, 523 U.S. 208 (1998), a court that cuts an award as excessive on the evidence has no authority to enter the reduced judgment without giving the plaintiff that choice. Hetzel.
- Additur. In federal court, a judge cannot increase an award. Dimick v. Schiedt, 293 U.S. 474 (1935), explained that an increase by the court is "a bald addition of something which in no sense can be said to be included in the verdict." Dimick. That is a Seventh Amendment rule binding federal courts; state courts may handle additur differently (California authorizes it by statute in Code of Civil Procedure § 662.5), so check your state's law before relying on a state-court verdict that was increased.
- Appeal. Under FRAP 4(a)(1)(A), a notice of appeal in most federal civil cases is due within 30 days after entry of the judgment or order (60 days when the United States is a party), and a timely motion listed in Rule 4(a)(4)(A), such as a renewed JMOL or new-trial motion, restarts that clock. Our federal notice of appeal deadline guide covers the tolling rules. A verdict that was reversed or sent back for a damages retrial is not a comparable.
Do this for each comp. Pull the docket, read the post-judgment entries, and if there is a published appellate decision, run it through the same check you would use on any authority. Our guide on checking whether a case is still good law walks through it. For a published damages opinion, CaseRead's citing-case screen shows later treatment. For a verdict that never produced an opinion, the docket is the record to check.
Caps deserve the same care. Statutory damages caps vary by state. Never apply a cap you remember from another matter; read the current statute and any decision construing it for your state before you reduce a comp.
Step 5: Build a one-page comp worksheet
For each comparable, record the same fields so the set can be compared at a glance:
| Field | What to record |
|---|---|
| Citation or docket number | Court, case number, date of judgment |
| Source | Opinion, docket, reporter, or firm file |
| Injury and treatment | Diagnosis, surgery or not, permanency |
| Plaintiff | Age, occupation, wage loss |
| Specials | Medical expenses and lost earnings, separately |
| Award | Verdict, itemized if the form is itemized |
| Comparative fault | Percentage, if any |
| Post-trial history | Remitted, reversed, retried, affirmed, appeal pending |
| Why it is or is not comparable | One sentence |
The last two rows do the work. A comp with a clean post-trial history and a one-sentence reason is usable. A comp you cannot trace past the verdict report is a lead, not a comp.
When you turn the worksheet into a valuation for negotiation, the next step is the demand itself; see how to write a demand letter.
Your own firm's files are the best settlement data
Because outside settlement figures are scarce, the most reliable settlement data most firms have is internal: closed-file memos recording what a similar case resolved for, who the adjuster was, and what moved the number. Store them somewhere searchable. In CaseRead, those memos live in the firm's private vault, isolated from every other firm, so a research question can draw on your own prior outcomes alongside public law. Confidentiality still controls: keep client-identifying details out of anything you share.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I find jury verdicts for free?
Start with published appellate opinions that review damages awards, which are free in public case-law databases. Then try the court's own docket for the verdict form and judgment, free verdict sites such as MoreLaw, trial-lawyer and bar association verdict alerts, and your local law library, which often gives free access to paid reporters.
Are jury verdicts public record?
The verdict and judgment are generally part of the court file, which is why verdicts are easier to find than settlements. But verdicts are not officially published anywhere, and individual records can be sealed. Treat any verdict you cannot pull from the docket itself as a secondhand report to be verified.
Can I find settlement amounts for comparable cases?
Rarely. Most settlements are confidential, and the dollar figure usually does not appear in the court file. Exceptions include settlements a court must approve, such as a minor's claim or, in some states, a wrongful-death claim, and settlements reported voluntarily to a verdict reporter. Your own firm's closed files are often the best settlement data you will have.
Can the court reduce a jury verdict?
Yes. A judge can order remittitur, reducing an award found excessive, but the plaintiff must be offered the choice of a new trial instead. In federal court a judge cannot increase an award (additur) under the Seventh Amendment, though some state courts can. A verdict you find may have been cut, reversed, or retried afterward.
Does CaseRead have a jury verdict database?
No. CaseRead is not a verdict reporter. It searches public law and a firm's own document vault, so it can find published appellate opinions that review damages awards and screen those opinions for later treatment. It does not index verdict reports or settlement amounts.
Before you cite a comp
Every comparable in a demand or a mediation statement is a citation the other side can check. If a draft of yours cites appellate opinions for damages ranges, run the citations through the Hallucination Shield first: it is free, needs no signup, and checks up to 50 citations per run for whether each can be verified. It will not tell you whether the verdict you quoted survived appeal, so do that step yourself.
This article is for general information and is not legal advice. For guidance on a specific case, consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction.