How Much Money Did The United Airlines Guy Get

Story highlights

• Danny Cevallos: Dr. David Dao and United Airlines both had good reasons to settle the instance now
• United needed Dao to agree to settle to stop the flurry of bad publicity, Cevallos says

(CNN)On Thursday it was announced that United Airlines had reached an undisclosed settlement with Dr. David Dao, the passenger dragged off a flight just a few weeks ago, bloodied and semiconscious, and seen in a video that generated a flood of negative publicity for the airline.

It must take been a kajillion dollars, right?

Non necessarily.

Although, according to Dao'due south attorney, he suffered a concussion, a broken olfactory organ, injuries to his sinuses requiring surgery and lost two forepart teeth, the most pregnant question in terms of assessing damages is whether he will endure long-term health consequences.

Valuing a plaintiff's injuries is not an exact science. No 2 cases are identical. If you strip away the disturbing viral video of Dao's ordeal, and evaluate the case strictly past his injuries just, this instance might non accept had a lot of budgetary value for the plaintiff in case of a trial.

What about the embarrassment of being watched past millions of people? Doesn't that accept value? It does. In attack cases, a jury can consider the humiliation and indignity suffered by the plaintiff and compensate him. The affair most these damages is that they are uncertain, and difficult to value.

In the weeks post-obit the Dao video, at that place were some who idea Dao should have but gotten off the aeroplane. If some of those voices institute their style onto a jury, they might not have awarded Dao much for embarrassment. In fact, some might have foisted some blame onto Dao for not disembarking willingly.

In injury cases like this, quantifiable medical injuries are normally the primary gene in assessing value. Indeed, Dao sustained medical injuries, but the extent of them may non be the kinds that are probable to produce a significant payout.

Cleaved teeth are certainly painful, simply that menses of pain could be limited to the time betwixt the injury and when the dentist fixes them. The price of those teeth is too an ascertainable amount. Ten thousand dollars might be a reasonable value of some dental implants, but it's the kind of injury that is largely stock-still once the process is over. Similarly, a broken nose that heals on its own is painful, but probably not for the rest of one's life.

The real driver in high damage awards in personal injury cases is long-term pain or impairment. For example, herniated discs and torn rotator cuffs are not gruesome, obvious injuries, similar broken teeth or noses. Withal, they tin can lead to long-term handling and surgeries, permanent inability and a lifetime of hurting.

His concussion is probably the injury with the most potential damages—or to the lowest degree. Some concussions are hard to even diagnose. A concussion is considered a mild traumatic encephalon injury, and it can be associated with impaired cognitive function, headaches, fatigue, low, anxiety and a host of other symptoms that can concluding indefinitely.

This is also why personal injury cases usually take a few years to resolve. Assessing the extent of sure injuries requires waiting to meet how bad they get, and whether they go any better. That'due south why Dao's case was unconventional, and not actually nearly the injuries. The parties didn't await to see how Dao'due south recovery and treatment defined his injuries over time. They settled within weeks. This case was more than well-nigh United's public relations headache, than Dao's bodily headaches.

Yet, Dao didn't have every bit much leverage as it may have seemed he did. His injuries alone didn't strike fear in United'due south lawyers—airlines litigate passenger injuries all the time. Instead, United desperately needed Dao to agree to settle to end the flurry of bad publicity.

But with each passing day, as United suffered the bad press it wanted to avoid, the amount United would pay to avoid that bad press decreased significantly. Had Dao waited a year, the one affair he had to offering—catastrophe the bad PR—would no longer exist worth anything to United. Heck, I accept to imagine there were lawyers in United's campsite that suggested hunkering down, waiting it out and playing hardball until few remembered the incident—every bit tends to happen with viral videos.

That'southward why Dao'southward attorneys did the correct thing in settling quickly. It likewise indicates that United probably paid well north of a million dollars. Why? Because by settling early, Dao takes a gamble by giving up the opportunity to build the value of his instance the traditional mode: a couple years of medical records documenting the nature and extent of his injury and handling. The settlement amount had to be a number that Dao felt comfy accepting, even if his injuries take a plow for the worse in the future.

That's good for him, simply not an indication of what other plaintiffs might get if they file cases against airlines. Dao'south case is one-in-a-meg. For the rest of the would-be plaintiffs out in that location, United will probably see you in court.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2017/04/28/opinions/united-airlines-settlement-cevallos/index.html

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