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Palm Beach County Courthouse,
Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, West Palm Beach, Florida
See Other Courthouse
The current Palm Beach County Courthouse
was built in 1994. The beautifully constructed building, made
of pink marble, has a commanding presence in downtown West
Palm Beach. Spectacular views of the Atlantic Ocean and Intercoastal
Waterway are afforded from the top floors of the courthouse.
Fusion of Liability and Damages
Numerous scientific studies have shown that, contrary to the
intent of the legal system, jurors often "fuse"
liability and damages decisions. Plaintiffs who are more comparatively
negligent often have their damages reduced by jurors, producing
a double discounting effect. Similarly, severely injured plaintiffs
cause jurors to find defendants more blameworthy. The psychological
phenomenon known as the "hindsight bias"explains
the liability/damages fusion. Hindsight bias is the "I
knew it all along" rationalization which occurs when
an outcome of an event is known (the scenario in all civil
lawsuits). When an event has a known outcome, jurors misperceive
that they could have predicted it. It is jurors' inability
to ignore the parties’ negligence when determining damages
that produces the fusion effect.
Contact the Litigation Consultants at
Magnus to learn more about the fusion effect.
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