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How It Works


	VERDICTSEARCH.COM USER GUIDE

	For print version of the User Guide click here to open PDF

	TABLE OF CONTENT		3

	GETTING STARTED FAST ON VERDICTSEARCH.COM		4

	LOGGING IN TO VERDICTSEARCH		5

	USING THE "MY PORTFOLIO" AREA		6

	CONDUCTING A SEARCH		8

	USING THE SEARCH RESULTS PAGE		10

	USING THE BILLING FEATURES		11

	VALUING YOUR CASE USING VERDICT REPORTERS		12

	WHAT IF I CANNOT FIND A CASE ONLINE		13

	USING THE VERDICTSEARCH RESEARCH SERVICE		14

	SUBMIT A VERDICT OR SETTLEMENT		15

GETTING STARTED FAST ON VERDICTSEARCH.COM:

Click on the Search tab.

Specify the type of search by entering any or all of the following:

    TYPE OF INJURY
      Enter a general or specific injury term.

and/or
    TYPE OF CASE
      Use the Case Guide, or enter a cause
      of action or case type.

and/or
    NAME
      Enter any or all of the following:

Expert Name

Attorney Name

Judge Name

Party Involved

Insurance Carrier

You can also select a state or states from the pulldown menu to narrow your search.

Click the "Search Now!" button at the top or the bottom of the page.

You may select as many of the above parameters as you like. Be aware, however, that selecting multiple parameters may narrow your search results and generate fewer cases.

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5	LOGGING IN TO VERDICTSEARCH

To log in, use an Internet browser and go to the homepage at www.VerdictSearch.com. Log in on the bottom right-hand column of the homepage by entering your username and password in the appropriate fields and clicking the "go" button. (See Figure 1) A successful login should bring you to the "My Portfolio" page, which serves as the startup page for subscribers who are logged in.
Figure 1: VerdictSearch HomePage

6	USING THE "My Portfolio" AREA


Figure 2: My Portfolio Page

	ON THIS PAGE: YOU CAN ACCESS RECENTLY VIEWED CASE REPORTS. REVIEW YOUR PORTFOLIO. SELECT AN EXISTING PORTFOLIO FOR THE CURRENT SESSION. CREATE A NEW PORTFOLIO FILE. PROCEED TO ADVANCED SEARCH. CREATE CLIENT BILLING.	The “My Portfolio” area is only accessible to subscribers with active accounts. (See Figure 2,3) If you are not signed in when you get to this page, you will be prompted to do so before you can access your information. Note that when you move cases to a portfolio, you are basically saving a search. You can update this search periodically by searching for similar cases with a current date range. If there is an overlap, the cases will be deduped when moved to the porfolio.


Figure 3: Recently Viewed Cases Reports page in the My Portfolio area
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8	CONDUCTING A SEARCH

From the main page after login: Click on the "Search" tab
	LIMITING SEARCH BY REPORT TYPE "Report type" refers to the way in which a case was disposed of, whether it was a verdict, settlement, arbitration, mediation or decision.

	LIMITING SEARCH BY STATE To limit your search by state, you can select a state name from the list available in each search area. If you are looking for cases in New York City only, search for cases in NY state, and then sort by venue. decision. Choose multiple report types or states by holding down the ?ctrl? key while clicking on multiple selections

	LIMITING SEARCH BY NAME Use this method if you are looking for a particular expert witness, judge, attorney, party or insurance carrier. To ensure that you include all cases that you are searching for, you can just enter the first initial and the full last name of the expert, attorney or judge. Don?t add a period after the first initial.

	ADDITIONAL DETAILS: Type of Injury / Case Type / Court Enter your search terms.This can be a full or partial name, a court name, an injury type, a case type or a cause of action. Keep in mind that you will get more results if you use fewer, more general search terms. We have provided lexicons for each of these categories to assist you with your search. When using the Injuries field, note that the search engine is searching the full injuries text of the case in addition to the injury lexicon terms. You can use the % wildcard in this field. (Example: fracture%) In the Court/Venue field, if you are unsure of the exact name of the court, you can enter in the County name. For instance if you enter ?New York?, you will get cases that have New York in the name of the court and also cases that are in New York County. {Please Note: that in searching by case type, a second case type is not required.This additional field is only designed to further narrow your case type search} Limiting Search by Plaintiff Information Sometimes it is useful to limit your search according to plaintiff information such as age or gender. Limiting Search by Date Enter a date range in the appropriate field if needed to narrow your search. You do not have to use the secondary case type field, but it is a way to narrow down a search. For instance if you are only interested in cases that involve Falls in a Nursing Home, enter Nursing Home for the Primary Case Type and Falls for the Secondary.

	TEXT SEARCHING Enter any word or phrase to search fields in our database.Your results will be limited to instances where the entered term(s) appear only in the text sections of a report.You may use standard Boolean operators such as ?AND? (both terms appear) or ?OR? (either term appears). In the Full Text Search: Use the % as wildcard. Do not use it at the beginning of a word or phrase ? this will make the search too broad, and take too long to bring back results. The $ used before a word will bring back all variations on the word. If you are searching for an exact phrase, you can click on the “Find Exact Phrase” or enclose the phrase in curly brackets {}. If you are searching for phrase that includes a wildcard, enclose it in parentheses. When you enter a phrase with no brackets, the search will be using the “AND” operator. You may get cases where you cannot see the words you are searching for.The search mechanism is searching through all text in addition to lexicon terms that are attached to the case. Please refer to “Advanced Search Tips” for other ways to pinpoint your search. {Please Note: If you are searching for a word or term that contains an apostrophe and are not receiving the results you want, enter the word or term as it appears before the apostrophe and then enter “%”. For example: to find “Babinski?s” enter “Babinski%”.} LAW FIRM SEARCH If you are searching for a specific law firm, enter the name of the firm in the Text Searching field. Because firm names are often abbreviated, you will receive more accurate search results by entering only the first part of the firm?s name enclosed in brackets. For example: {Davis Polk}.

	SORTING SEARCH RESULTS As you enter your search terms, you can choose how to sort the results.You can sort by date, venue, case type, report type or verdict amount. To select a sorting method, click on the ?sort by? pulldown. It will be quicker to select an order on the advanced search page than having to re-order the search on the search results page.

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Figure 4 - Advanced Search

10	USING THE SEARCH RESULTS PAGE

ON THIS PAGE: RE-SORT RESULTS Select another sort option from the drop-down list and click on "Sort." VIEW A CASE To view full case report click on "view case" button. E-MAIL OR MOVE CASES E-mail checked cases or move them to a specified folder within your portfolio by using the drop down box. If you decide to e-mail these cases, you will be prompted through a pop-up window to select a recipient. To protect your privacy, VerdictSearch does not collect or store any e-mail information. REFINE A SEARCH You may find it more effective to begin by conducting a broader search, then narrowing the results by clicking "Refine Search" at the top of the Results screen. This will bring you back to the Advanced Search page and allow you to narrow your search by selecting additional parameters such as Report Type (Arbitration, Mediated Settlement, etc.), plaintiff's age or gender, or a specific court or county.


Figure 5: Search Result Page

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11	USING THE BILLING FEATURES

1. Click on the "Billing" tab. 2. Under "Add a New Client," enter a new client and client matter. Enter an hourly rate.To include notation about the client or matter, click on "View/Add Comments." This comment will NOT appear on the report generated. 3. Click "off" to turn the timer on. You will see "Timer: on" next to the billing tab. Then continue with your verdict and settlement research. When you are done, go back to "Billing Tab" and click "on" to turn the timer off. You will see "Timer: off" next to the billing tab. You can bill further research to this client and matter at any time simply by turning the timer back on. 4. Activity Reports: To obtain a report of all activity involving all clients and matters, click on "All Activity". In the small window that opens, enter the date range for the report, and click "Submit." For an editable log of all activity involving a specific client matter, click on "Activity Log." For a log of activity that you can show to a client, click on "Client Log." 5. Billing Reports: To obtain a report for billing purposes, click on "Client Report," enter the date range for the report, and click "Submit." 6. View the report on the web page that appears. To download a spreadsheet of a report click on "Print in Excel." (The report will download in .csv format, viewable by almost any spreadsheet program.) To print the report as it appears on the web page, simply click "Print Report." 7. Forget to turn on the timer? Forget to turn it off? Go to the "Activity Log" for a given client matter. To add a research session manually, click "Add a Time Entry," enter the amount of time, and click "add to log." To change an existing research session, click the "Edit" button next to the subtotal and enter the revised figure. Or click "Delete" to remove a research session entirely.


Figure 5: Billing Page

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12	VALUING YOUR CASE USING VERDICT REPORTERS

The value of a personal injury suit is what a jury would be likely to award after a trial. The only way to determine that is to research what juries have awarded in the past. As with any other type of research, certain rules should be observed to arrive at a realistic dollar amount based upon a realistic group of comparison cases.The following are recommended rules to observe when using jury verdicts to value a personal injury case:

COURT Jury verdicts from liberal jurisdictions are quite different from conservative jurisdictions, but it is critically important not to narrow your research too much and thereby miss similar cases from disparate jurisdictions. TIME As verdicts naturally increase with inflation in medical costs, etc., researching back more than five years will, as a general rule, result in lower award amounts. However, from a negotiating standpoint, this may mean that substantial verdicts from 10 or 15 years ago can make a powerful argument for a higher award today. SPECIFIC SEARCH DETAILS When looking for cases with similar injuries, avoid being too narrow. The more you limit a search, the more you deprive yourself of the ability to compare cases. A search for "herniated lumbar disc" will result in more reading for you, but will yield far more comparable cases than "herniated lumbar disc to a 35-year-old female accountant superimposed on pre-existing spinal degeneration." CAUSATION We recommend that you ignore causation when looking at jury verdicts, unless your case involves "aggravated liability," such as drunk driving or leaving the scene of an accident. What is the difference between a torn meniscus suffered in an auto accident and a torn meniscus suffered in a fall? Looking at a thousand jury verdicts with similar liability will yield nothing instructive, unless you are seeking an answer to something other than valuation.

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WHAT IF I CANNOT FIND A CASE ONLINE

VerdictSearch provides one of the most comprehensive online collections of verdict and settlement information nationwide. However, information on cases in certain jurisdictions may not yet be online and the depth of data varies considerably from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

If you are looking for more information from a jurisdiction not yet available on our site, please call our research department at 1-800-832-1900, ext. 3 and they will be happy to guide you.

Some of these jurisdictions (including California, Connecticut, D.C., Georgia, Michigan, Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio, New York, Rhode Island, and Texas) have been reporting verdicts and settlements for many years. While not all of that data is available yet via the VerdictSearch website, you can call our research department at 800-832-1900, ext. 3 to extend your search back as far as our archives extend. You can also feel free to ask for any other assistance in conducting a search.

Finally, please note that while VerdictSearch adds verdicts and settlements from across the country every day, the depth of data in some jurisdictions has not yet reached a level such that comprehensive research is available.

NEED MORE HELP?

Call Toll-Free Number 800-832-1900 for technical assistance, customer service, billing and all other inquiries.

By e-mail, all of the above inquiries can be sent to helpdesk@verdictsearch.com.

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USING THE VERDICTSEARCH RESEARCH SERVICE