Alicia Hickok

Alicia Hickok co-leads the appellate team and focuses her practice on appeals in both state and federal courts, including ten of the federal Courts of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court. She has a wealth of pretrial experience as well, particularly including matters involving commonwealth or local government or agency actions and corporate governance.

View the full bio for Alicia Hickok at the Faegre Drinker website.

Articles by Alicia Hickok:


Itemize Damages or Waive Appeal? Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court Will Consider Whether Failure to Request an Itemized Verdict Waives the Right to Challenge an Award on Appeal

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In many personal injury cases, including products cases, the most significant exposure is pain and suffering or similar damages that cannot readily be measured in dollars. Juries are usually constrained by specific testimony or documentary evidence in awarding lost income, medical expenses, or other losses that can be measured specifically, but awards for pain and suffering and similar damages are constrained only by jurors’ subjective views (and usually permissive standards of legal review such as whether the award “shocks the conscience”).

Not surprisingly, when large verdicts are appealed, the damages arguments often focus on the excessive amounts of pain and suffering or similar awards. But a recent order from Pennsylvania’s highest court carries a warning for defendants, as the Court agreed to consider whether a failure to demand an itemized list of each category of damages on the verdict sheet waives defendant’s right to challenge the award.

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