Valuing and Mediating Medical Malpractice and Catastrophic-Injury Cases in the Nuclear-Verdict Era

Jeff Trueman, Mediator Arbitrator | Jeff Trueman, Esq., LL.M, Mediator & Arbitrator

Full-time mediator and arbitrator with over twenty years of experience helping parties resolve litigated and pre-suit disputes concerning wrongful death, catastrophic injuries, employment, professional malpractice, business, and real estate disputes.

• Education & Credentials

Mr. Trueman holds an LL.M from the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine School of Law and was admitted to the Maryland Bar in 1998.

• Recognition & Leadership

Recipient of the Maryland State Bar Association’s Chief Judge Robert M. Bell Award for his efforts in “promoting the use of alternative dispute resolution in the Maryland judiciary, schools, government and communities” and the Bar Association of Baltimore City’s Paul A. Dorf Alternative Dispute Resolution Memorial Award.

He is a member of the National Association of Distinguished Neutrals and a Distinguished Fellow of the International Academy of Mediators, both invitation-only organizations.

• Professional Involvement

Adjunct professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law.

He serves as an employment panel mediator for the American Arbitration Association, a FINRA panel arbitrator, and a panel mediator for the Maryland Association of Realtors.

• Experience

Mr. Trueman has personally conducted more than 2,700 mediations and settlement conferences involving catastrophic injury and wrongful death claims, medical negligence and nursing home liability, commercial and real estate disputes, employment discrimination and harassment, construction defects and environmental torts, professional malpractice, and class actions. He previously served as Director of Dispute Resolution for the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, where he developed systems overseeing thousands of mediations and coached judges and senior attorneys. He practices from Baltimore, Maryland.

Paul J. Molinaro, M.D., J.D., Founding Partner | Fransen & Molinaro, LLP

Dr. Molinaro is a practicing physician and a mediator and arbitrator who handles matters where complex medical issues drive value and outcome. He has practiced medicine since 1993 and has litigated medical malpractice, medical device, personal injury, and general civil matters since 2006. He serves on court and private ADR panels across Southern California and nationally by video.

• Education & Credentials

Dr. Molinaro earned a Certificate in Dispute Resolution in 2024 from the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University’s Caruso School of Law. He received his Juris Doctor in 2005 from Chapman University School of Law and his Doctor of Medicine in 1991 from New Jersey Medical School in Newark. He completed a Family Medicine internship in 1993 through the University of California, Irvine, College of Medicine in San Bernardino, and holds a 1987 B.A. in Biology from Lafayette College. He is licensed by the State Bar of California, No. 242879, and admitted in all California federal district courts. He also holds a California medical license, a DEA registration, and a real estate broker’s license.

• Recognition & Leadership

Dr. Molinaro sits on the Board of Directors of the Southern California Association for Healthcare Risk Management and chairs its Sponsorship Committee. The Los Angeles Superior Court MVP program recognized him for completing thirty-two mediations in twelve months. He has presented “Introduction to Medical Malpractice,” “Personal Injury 101: Liability, Damages, and Resolution,” and “The Wizard of AI: Is this Yellow Brick Road a Path to the Standard of Care?” He has also appeared on The Litigation Psychology Podcast and The Mediate This! Podcast.

• Professional Involvement

He serves as a neutral through Alternative Resolution Centers, LA Resolve and LA MVP of the Los Angeles Superior Court, National Arbitration and Mediation, the Riverside County Bar Association Dispute Resolution Service, and the Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura County Superior Court civil mediation panels. He is a panel arbitrator for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan through the Office of the Independent Administrator, and founded MD JD Dispute Resolution for his private work. His memberships include the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles, the Riverside County Bar Association, and the Southern California Mediation Association.

• Experience

Dr. Molinaro has been a founding partner of Fransen & Molinaro, LLP in Corona, California since 2006, handling medical malpractice, medical device and prescription drug matters, personal injury, real estate, and general civil litigation. On the medical side, he practiced with California Emergency Physicians Medical Group from 1993 to 2008, in several urgent care facilities from 2008 to 2017, and at Brea Urgent Care since 2017. From 2010 to 2021, and again with Encompass in Folsom since 2023, he has served as a utilization reviewer and physician advisor, working with claims teams on complex medical management and on QME, PQME, and AME issues in disputed and litigated claims. He held emergency medicine staff appointments at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center and Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center between 1993 and 2007.

SESSION 1 – Valuing Medical Malpractice and Catastrophic-Injury Cases When Verdicts Have Lost Their Baselines | 2:30pm – 3:30pm

This session examines how the nuclear-verdict era has dismantled traditional case-valuation frameworks in medical malpractice and catastrophic-injury litigation, covering verdict trend data, plaintiff anchoring and Reptile Theory tactics, third-party litigation funding effects, damages-cap volatility, and life care plan economics. Attorneys will leave with a working methodology for building defensible settlement ranges and reserve positions when historical comparable-verdict analysis is no longer reliable. The session equips both plaintiff and defense practitioners to account for social inflation, behavioral-science-driven damages amplification, and jurisdiction-specific cap uncertainty in their current case inventories.

BREAK | 3:30pm – 3:40pm

SESSION 2 – Timing and Running the Early Mediation in a Medical Malpractice Case | 3:40pm – 4:40pm

This session covers how to identify the optimal moment to enter mediation in a medical malpractice case — pre-suit, early post-filing, or after targeted discovery — and how to execute that mediation effectively in a nuclear-verdict environment where delay compounds financial risk. Attorneys will learn how to prepare targeted intelligence packages, avoid the most common mediation failures, and work with mediators and insurers to achieve resolution before litigation costs spiral. Attendees leave with a practical framework for timing decisions, mediator selection, and settlement-authority mechanics that applies across plaintiff, defense, and in-house contexts.