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Section 52-216b – Articulation to trier of fact of amount of damages claimed to be recoverable permitted

May 11, 2021 | Civil Procedure, Connecticut

(a) In any civil action to recover damages resulting from personal injury or wrongful death, counsel for any party to the action shall be entitled to specifically articulate to the trier of fact during closing arguments, in lump sums or by mathematical formulae, the amount of past and future economic and noneconomic damages claimed to be recoverable.
(b) Whenever, in a jury trial, specific monetary sums or mathematical formulae are articulated during closing arguments as provided for in subsection (a) of this section, the trial court shall instruct the jury that the sums or mathematical formulae articulated are not evidence but only arguments and that the determination of the amount of damages to be awarded, if any, is solely the jury’s function.

Conn. Gen. Stat. ยง 52-216b

(P.A. 89-319.)

Cited. 216 C. 604; 217 Conn. 671; 221 C. 331. Cited. 31 CA 518; 38 CA 447. Standard for admission of future economic damages is that it must be reasonably probable that plaintiff will require certain treatment in the future as a result of defendant’s conduct, and in this case admitted statement was impermissible when based on possibility that plaintiff may require surgery in the future. 85 CA 383.