Jury duty stories #4 (the end)

[gordonzola]

The jury selection process was a little mysterious to me. I didn’t expect to make the jury but even more, I didn’t expect the guy who had been run over in a crosswalk to make the jury. Or the woman with the two near-death car accidents. Or the guy with the pending lawsuit against an insurance company. Or that tattoo artist just because of her head-to-to-toe tattoos. We elected her foreperson.

The first thing they did was get rid of the Asians. True, one was pulling the asshole-in-public schtick and another spoke Cantonese, but it was notable.

The whole trial, the judge kept warning us not to talk to anyone about the case, but that after the case was over, we could talk to anyone, including the lawyers. Oh joy! So here we spent 6 days working for $15/day and the lawyers get to use us at no extra charge as test market subjects. It was informal, and I don’t think everyone kept to it, but after our deliberations , as we were waiting to get taken back to court, I got everyone to agree that we’d ask the lawyers for $200 if they wanted to talk to us about our verdict. It’s not like they are working for free.

We gave the plaintiff about $218,000 total. We were unanimous on the past and future medical care issues which made up the bulk of the award and close to unanimous on the pain and suffering etc. claims. It’s a very hard thing to quantify really and even though I was one of two people pushing for more, I actually did respect everyone in that room. Though I actually have bountiful optimism about people in general, I didn’t expect that going in necessarily.

As we were leaving, the plaintiff’s family thanked us and the plaintiff lawyer handed us all letters implying that the defense would try to approach us and get us to sign statements that he could use to appeal the verdict on the grounds of jury misconduct. I wonder if he had more than one letter stashed away depending on what our verdict might be. No one has contacted me yet.

The weirdest thing about the trial? On TV the plaintiff and defendant always sit at different tables with a gap between them. But the whole way through they sat mere inches from each other, so close that they occasionally brushed each others arms. I know it’s a Civil court, but I would have a hard time being civil in that close proximity either with the person who ran me down or a person suing me for half a million dollars.

Comments

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

yeah, except that they legally won't tell you if the defendent has insurance.

[7leaguebootdisk.livejournal.com]

Oh, sure, but the lawer would not have taken the case unless he knew there was a way to get the money, and believe me, he can ask exactly how much the defendant has, and it is one of the first things asked.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

oh, I believe that. But if the guy has say, $50,000 worth of insurance or $500,000 we don't know. I don't know if the defendant has a house for example, but pretty much every jury in America feels good about taking insurance company money and not as good about taking regular-folks money. Undoubtedly that's why we can't know.

I don't believe we can assume he has that much insurance.

[7leaguebootdisk.livejournal.com]

He should, and if he has either assets or income, he most certainly should, who wants to lose their house or have a 25% (before tax) wage garnishment for years, or simply leave someone hurt with no compensation? It is not that much money to boost your premium from the minimums (which are far too low).

[chitinous.livejournal.com]

In the car crash case I served on last year, the defendent's lawyer was in-house counsel for an insurance company, so even though we weren't told outright, it was pretty obvious that he was insured.

[chitinous.livejournal.com]

defendAnt.