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The Impact of Clinical Diagnosis and Plaintiff's Award Request on Mock Juror Damage Awards and Injury Perceptions.

ABSTRACT: A total of 250 participants read a case summary and partial transcript including the expert testimony of a neuropsychologist who evaluated the plaintiff for a suspected mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) in a personal injury trial. There were three diagnostic conditions (organic injury, psychogenic reaction, or malingering) to which participants were randomly assigned, along with two requested award amounts ($10,000 or $5 million). Both pre- and postdeliberation effects emerged for the diagnosis (largest awards for the organic mTBI condition) and for the award request (larger requests resulted in larger awards), with the effect size for award request being substantially larger than the clinical diagnosis. A significant interaction also emerged, whereby the effect of the clinical diagnosis was only present when the award request was large. Thus, factors that are potentially less relevant to pain and suffering (award request) may disproportionately impact mock juror decisions in personal injury trials relative to factors that should be more salient (the expert witness's diagnosis). However, the award request had no impact on mock juror perceptions of the injury's life impact, sympathy for the plaintiff, or perceived plaintiff credibility, but the diagnosis did influence these outcomes. Implications for civil litigation in mTBI trials are discussed.

SUBMITTER: Lecci L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6818234 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The Impact of Clinical Diagnosis and Plaintiff's Award Request on Mock Juror Damage Awards and Injury Perceptions.

Lecci Len L Martin Alexia A

Psychiatry, psychology, and law : an interdisciplinary journal of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law 20180320 4

A total of 250 participants read a case summary and partial transcript including the expert testimony of a neuropsychologist who evaluated the plaintiff for a suspected mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) in a personal injury trial. There were three diagnostic conditions (organic injury, psychogenic reaction, or malingering) to which participants were randomly assigned, along with two requested award amounts ($10,000 or $5 million). Both pre- and postdeliberation effects emerged for the diagnosis ...[more]

PMID: 31984036

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Project description:BackgroundWhile it has been posited that young people with language needs may be viewed more negatively (e.g., as more rude, less cooperative) than those without language needs, the impact of knowing about a person's language needs on others' perceptions has yet to experimentally tested.AimsTo examine whether the presence of a developmental language disorder (DLD) diagnosis in a defendant's information would affect mock juror ratings of guilt, sentence length, credibility and blameworthiness.Methods & proceduresA total of 143 jury eligible participants read a vignette of a non-violent crime. Half of the participants (N = 73) were told the defendant has a diagnosis of DLD, while half (N = 70) were not told.Outcomes & resultsPreregistered analyses found that DLD information affected ratings of credibility and blameworthiness, though not judgements of guilt or sentence length. Unregistered content analyses were applied to the justifications participants gave for their ratings: these suggested that participants who did not have the DLD information judged the defendant more on his personality and attitude, and drew more links to his (perceived) background, while participants who received the DLD information condition made more reference to him having cognitive problems.Conclusions & implicationsUnlike in previous studies of the impact of autism information, information about a defendant's DLD did not affect mock jurors' likelihood of finding them guilty, or lead participants to give longer sentences. However, our findings suggest knowing a person has DLD does affect others' perceptions of credibility and blameworthiness.What this paper addsWhat is already known on the subject There is already evidence that some conditions that affect communication, specifically autism, also affect juror perceptions. Research also shows that knowing whether or not a defendant has autism influences how jurors rate defendants. However, autism is not the only condition that is relevant to juror perceptions, as we also know that a high rate of young offenders have language needs, and many have language profiles like DLD. What this paper adds to existing knowledge There is little research on how behaviours associated with DLD impact others' perceptions. This study reports the impact of knowing about a defendant's DLD on juror perceptions, investigating whether knowing about DLD improves judgements on guilt, sentencing lengths, credibility and culpability. Beyond the content of youth offending, this study suggests behaviours associated with DLD lead people to form more negative judgements about youth with DLD. This is important because there is still a lack of awareness of DLD both in- and outside the criminal justice system. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? This study shows that knowing about a person's DLD has largely positive effects on others' perceptions of them. This implies that recognizing undetected language needs in young offenders, and supporting colleagues and members of the public to know what DLD is and how it affects people, is critical for youth with DLD to be judged fairly. This study will support the case for raising awareness of vulnerability within the youth justice population, and will assist in clinicians evidencing the need for our roles in justice settings.

Project description:ImportanceNo new tobacco cessation medication has been licensed in the US since 2006. Cytisine, a plant-based partial agonist of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, has demonstrated safety and efficacy in several randomized clinical trials and is currently available in many countries. However, the drug is not commercially available in the US. A New Drug Application to license cytisine as a smoking cessation medication in the US is being prepared for review by the US Food and Drug Administration, whose request for additional safety data will delay submission of the application by approximately 1 year.ObjectiveTo project the potential public health impact of cytisine, and delays in its availability, as a smoking cessation aid in the US.Design, setting, and participantsThis mathematical model estimated life expectancy gains from smoking cessation for people aged 18 to 99 years in the US, reflecting the civilian, noninstitutionalized population. The model also accounted for cytisine uptake and effectiveness, as well as potential relapse among people who stop smoking.ExposureCytisine availability as a tobacco cessation treatment immediately or after 1 year.Main outcomes and measuresThe main outcomes were the number of adults able to stop smoking and sustain long-term abstinence and aggregate life-years gained.ResultsThe base case includes an estimated 29.4 million US civilian noninstitutionalized adults who smoke cigarettes (age distribution, 18-24 years: 5.5%; 25-44 years: 37.3%; 45-64 years: 41.8%; ≥65 years: 15.5%). With a conservative assumption that 3.8% of these individuals would use cytisine in the first year of availability, immediate cytisine availability could lead 71 000 more people to quit smoking over 1 year and maintain long-term abstinence. This would produce more than 500 000 additional life-years compared to the status quo in which cytisine is unavailable and fewer people stop smoking. Each additional year of delay in the availability of cytisine might reduce population-level life expectancy by 10 000 years. The model results were most sensitive to changes in cytisine uptake and effectiveness.Conclusions and relevanceSmoking cessation generates large gains in life expectancy. This mathematical model demonstrated that immediate cytisine availability, even if used successfully by only a small fraction of people who smoke, could produce major public health benefits. Given the need for new tobacco cessation pharmacotherapy options, the magnitude of cytisine's potential public health benefits, and the morbidity and mortality associated with delay in its availability, a timely review of cytisine for approval in the US is warranted.

Dataset Information

The Impact of Clinical Diagnosis and Plaintiff's Award Request on Mock Juror Damage Awards and Injury Perceptions.

Publications

The Impact of Clinical Diagnosis and Plaintiff's Award Request on Mock Juror Damage Awards and Injury Perceptions.

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