Big verdicts. Huge payoffs. The Little Guy gets ahead. These are great stories, and the media undoubtedly has an obligation to report them.
However, because of this focus on huge awards, people reading the stories often are misled about the reality of the value of cases. Consider:
In 85% of stories, the media reports on cases where the employees win. In federal court, plaintiffs win only about 32% of the time.
The average reported verdict $1,100,000 is much higher than the true average $150,000. For cases that settle after litigation has begun but before a verdict is reached, the media reports an average winning of approximately $3,640,000. The true average is about $125,000. Source