ABSTRACT
A man suffers from tinnitus and other hearing impairments caused when a tire that a custom auto shop had sold him exploded as he was checking its bolts. The man sued the auto shop in products liability. At trial, one of his expert witnesses, an audiologist, presented to the jury a digital sound fi le that, the audiologist testifi ed, corresponded to the tinnitus sounds the man claimed to hear. The sound fi le was based on the data that the audiologist had obtained by testing the man’s hearing. Jurors took turns putting on headphones and listening to the sounds. Ultimately they awarded the plaintiff over a million dollars in damages for permanent acoustic injury and pain and suffering, largely for his tinnitus ( Janson v. J.D.O.R.A.P., Inc. 2011).
