It would be so nice if America could learn from the Euros regarding civil jury trials.
The differences have to do with how the legal systems are set up, and hence are actually cultural in the end, because a country builds legal systems according to their cultural beliefs.
That broad answer being said, many European countries do not hold trials by jury at all, such as the Netherlands for instance. Belgium holds them only for a few well defined crimes such as premeditated murder, kidnapping and freedom of the press lawsuits.
Non jury trials are run by professional judges (not elected) who are far less emotional when it comes to awarding damages and sentencing for other crimes also by the way. In many countries there is a limit defined by law to how much damages can be paid.
And very importantly, health and income loss matters are usually handled by insurance companies, most of which use fixed rates to compute damages awarded. And in many European countries, the loser in a lawsuit pays all lawyers fees, both for themselves and for the losing side. This discourages frivolous lawsuits where plaintiffs sue to see what might happen if they get lucky.
