My experience with Jury Duty

[Renew Deal]

I was on Jury Duty in NY this week. It was at the Nassau County district court house. They were selecting jurors for a civil case. I was the last juror selected of 6 and I was made the foreman.

The case was a personal injury case. The plaintiff was a retired man (about 66) and his wife. The defendant was a 41 year old man.

The incident occurred in May of '99 on the Friday before Memorial Day. Here is the story:

The plaintiff's family comes home from the daughters graduation event in the mid afternoon on that Friday. The family is inside the house, but Little Jimmy (7 y.o.) is outside. Some kids who have picked on him before were outside. Little Jimmy picks up a chain and is swinging it around. He does not hit anyone with it. His grandmother or aunt come out to take the chain and go inside the house.

Then the dad of one of the kids (10 y.o) on the bike comes to the house. The dad is the defendant. He comes to the house and wants to speak to the grandfather. The grandmother got to him first. She talked to him about it and he was getting pissed. He was pissed because she was saying that she took care of it and it was no big deal.

The grandfather comes to the door and tells the defendant that he doesn't want his grandchild playing with the defendants kid. The defendant gets pissed and starts yelling. They were able to get the defendant to back out of the house.

They get outside. They are on the steps. There are 4 steps and a landing. The plaintiffs are standing on the 1st step from the top. The defendant was on the third step from the top. The defendant is pointing his finger in the wifes face and yelling at her. The grand father is worried that the defendant is going to hit her and he put his hand up in front of her face. The defendant grabs the plaintiff by the shoulder and throw him off the stairs. The grand father hits the ground and breaks a couple ribs.

The plaintiff, his wife and their daughter testified. They all testified how the grand parents weren't having sex anymore and how he isolated himself.

The defendants story is a little different. He said that he went there because his kid got hit in the back with the chain. There was no evidence of that presented. Then he says that the plaintiff was drinking beers and using ethnic slurs. His story wasn't believable.

There were also three expert witnesses. One was a doctor for the plaintiff. He had examined the old man. He had taken x-rays and done other work.

There were two doctors for the defendant. The first was a guy who looked at the same x-rays we had all looked at and said there is nothing there. Everyone could see the break except this guy. It was a joke. It turns out that he has testified like 100 times in the last 6 years. He gets paid $6000 a shot. The guy will say anything. Finally the last doctor comes up. He had checked out the plaintiff but had not seen the x-rays. I think the defense wanted him to present the case that broken ribs go away and the guy should be able to work even if he really had them. The doctor got to see the xrays. He said that he could clearly see at least one break and possibility more. That was that.. We got the case.

We had 7 questions to answer. We had to have five out of 6 jurors say yes to the questions for it to pass.

1. Was the defendant negligent? Yes 6-0

2. Did the defendants negligence substantially contribute to the injury? Yes 6-0

3. Was the plaintiff negligent? Yes 5-1. I was the 1. The others felt that the "reasonably prudent" thing to do is close the door when the defendant was outside. I felt that the negligence was only at the part of throwing the guy off the stairs. Not the whole incident.

4. Did the plaintiffs negligence substantially contribute to the injury? No 6-0

5. What was the percentage of negligence to the parties. It turns out that we didn't have to answer this because we said no to 4. We answered it by accident anyway. 80-20 defendant. We averaged out the number that the 6 of us put up.

6. How much pain and suffering and future pain and suffering money does the plaintiff deserve?

Pain and Suffering: $60,000
Future Pain and suffering: nothing

7. How much pain and suffering does the wife deserve? $10,000

We had no guidance on those numbers. And that's my story. Ask me anything.

[ps1074]

1. why nothing for future pain and suffering?

The grandparents aren't having sex anymore... Isn't this future suffering?

You could have given $10.000 for that :)

[Renew Deal]

2. I was for something.

But the others felt that this will help him get over it. I also think that's why the first number is a little big. We bundled it in there.

[MrBenchley]

3. Good for you!

Jury duty is an important thing for a good citizen to do.

[Wubbman]

6. Yes, well done

Jury duty is very important. Was jury selection, the trial, and deliberation only one day in length?

[texasdem99]

4. Thanks

Very interesting read. Even what seem to be the smallest of cases need careful analysis.

Enjoyed it very much, thanks.

[slackmaster]

5. You were the bosses, I have nothing worth asking

Thanks for your service to the community.

:toast:

I've been summoned to JD seven times starting at age 18. I'm 46. I've served on three trial juries, two civil and one criminal. In all cases we reached a verdict on every issue presented to us.

The civil cases were depressing as hell, wrongful death and medical malpriactce. The criminal case was very interesting and challenging. A young man had burglarized several offices of the California Department of Motor Vehicles. He climbed down through roof vents, disabled alarm systems, and cracked safes. The evidence was very technical and complicated. There were expert witnesses, cops, defendant's family, DMV employees, about 25 witnesses in all.

My employer paid me full salary for six weeks of about 75% jury duty. That was the same year one of our senior data processing managers was the foreman on the jury that convicted former San Diego mayor Roger Hedgecock of 13 felony counts, which were all later overturned on appeal. Roger is a conservative talk show host. He substitutes for Rush Limbaugh.

:argh:

Anyway, after my case the company changed its HR policy to pay for only 10 days of JD per year.

Sorry for the rambling, but every time I discuss JD I flash back on some interesting experiences. Glad yours went well!