In 2002 the long litigation was completed with a jury verdict.

"A jury verdict such as this gives them a sense of hope."

Of those that do go to a jury verdict, more than 80 percent are decided in the doctor's favor.

Martinez' was the first case to go to trial and received a jury verdict of $135,000.

The settlement takes the place of the $45 million jury verdict.

As a trend, jury verdicts have increased over the years.

And he, too, said the other side was trying to avoid a jury verdict.

He said it was as if there had been no jury verdict at all.

He tried over 400 cases during his career and won more than 100 jury verdicts in excess of $1 million.

Because it raises such issues, the jury verdict may pose some hard questions for the American public to deal with.