Cool, I thought I finally get to perform my civic
responsibility and sit as a Juror. Although I knew where the building was
and I was pretty sure I knew where the library parking garage was over the
weekend I drove downtown to verify their locations. I realized then that
the courthouse was sitting in a spot where an OLD building used to be, it was
indeed the very first building implosion I ever saw in real life. Anyway,
with the location confirmed I was ready to get started on Monday morning.
Which I did, I was the first one there, the second fellow who showed up, while
I was sitting outside was a nervous fellow who was some form a military, I
could tell by the aviator glasses he was wearing. I wanted to tell him
that those went out of fashion not long after the movie Top Gun came out, in
1986!!! I didn’t though and I just amused myself watching him for the next couple
of hours.
We spent a couple of hours in the Jury Assembly area filling
out paperwork, watching some videos and receiving instructions. There was
a call for anyone who did not follow the instructions and waited to the last
possible moment to let them know they would be unable to serve. The
original summons, which I had in my pocket clearly stated that if we were not
going to be able to serve, to let them know right away. Well my boy from
earlier was all over that, and the person who was administering was not giving
them slack but after a while she did allow 4 people to skip serving. It
was probably for the best anyway, who wants a Juror on their case that is
thinking about everything but serving and on top of that is pissed off about
serving anyway - I do not want that person in my Jury box. It was also at
this time that we learned we were one group away from being selected for the
Grand Jury, an 18 month commitment.
So we went through Voir dire, which is a high flalukey way
to say Jury selection. They ask you many questions in an attempt to
determine if you would be favorable to the defendant or the prosecution.
That process took about 2 hours and I was scrutinized by the Judge and the
attorneys from both sides. I answered best I could and there were 8 follow-up
questions that were asked of me. Compared to the answers of some of
the other 20 folks I must have seemed harmless, and there were many startling
answers in this process from other potential Jurors. I was surprised how
many had similar situations as to the one the case was about. We
spent about noon going through that process, at which time we were all called
back into the court room, not in the jury box this time though. They then
read a list of names and those names that were call were moved into the Jury
box, I was called third and therefore I would be known from that point on as
Juror number three.
We were then dismissed for lunch and after that we settled
in for opening arguments. Both attorneys did a fine job, there were a
combined 9 objections during the opening remarks. I thought, wow this is
going to be a wild ride. Some of the objections were overruled and some
were sustained. I do not remember which side came out on top of that
first skirmish. Opening statements took about 2 hours and we were
dismissed for the day, we were to return two days later to get started.
There was an event going on the next day that had all the judges tied up
teaching high school teachers about the US district court system.
Day 2 of witness testimony was long and it was all doctors,
talking in medical terms about the spine. Since my Bride has had a back
surgery I consider myself quite knowledgeable about it, the engineer in forced me
to research a lot (back in the 90’s when she had the surgery) of information, I
even found out exactly how an MRI works. Anyway, there were a lot of the
terms and conditions related to disks in the back and neck I was at least
familiar with. There were lots of objections, some sustained, some
overruled. We heard from the plaintiff’s family, we heard from the
plaintiffs doctors and we heard from the plaintiff herself. Lots of
compelling testimony, that was for sure. This case was somewhat hard for
me to understand because some facts were already decided and agreed upon.
I can only assume there was at least one previous trial that determined those
undisputed facts, although I do not know that for a fact. What we did
know was that two particular facts were established.
Having those facts decided made me contemplate what we were
actually doing here, although we were told it was about decided what amount of
money would be awarded. That did not jibe, in my mind, with the witness
testimony. The witnesses were all doctors and family members and they
were talking about things that we were instructed were already determined and
undisputed. I am a habitual people watcher and the folks involved with
this trial, from the judge to the court reporter to the judge’s deputy and
including all the witnesses were providing plenty of fodder. Even a man
who was there every day out in the audience, no idea who he was but he looked
as if he could have been a Tibetan shaman who just came down from the Tibetan
plateau to observe the outcome of this trial in Jacksonville Florida.
Between testimonies it was amusing to just gaze out, and to see who was gazing
back at us.
Day 3 was more witness testimony and the plaintiff wrapped
up and the defendant started to argue their case. Lots of objections, some sustained, some
overruled. A lot of sidebars though out
the trial, they would bath the Jury box with white noise when they were having
sidebars, and it was very effective at not allowing us to hear anything. I found today more interesting with my fellow
Jurors, quite a diverse group we were.
There were only eight of us, three men, five women and we ranged from 25
to 68 years of age, four of us where black, and four were white. It was quite interesting to listen to where
the conversations went during our breaks.
The plaintiff was a 42 year old white woman from St. Augustine Florida,
who we learned through the mortality tables, had 40.7 years left in her lifetime. All the lawyers, except for one were white
men, the other was a white woman, who fidgeted with her lip A LOT!! With the end of day the testimony phase was
over and both sides had rested their case and completed any redirects.
Day 4 was closing statements and deliberation. Closing statements took about an hour and an
half for each side, and then a last word from the plaintiff’s lawyers took
another 30 minutes because he wanted to rebut some comments of the other
lawyers. Our deliberation took nearly 5
hours while we rode an emotional roller coaster from the top to the
bottom. The tangible expenses were easy
to quantify and easy to award. She had
spent (in evidence) $29,387.58 in the past three years (the accident happened
three years ago) on doctors, prescriptions and physical therapy. The testimony was that she would need at
least one anterior cervical discectomy at C4-5 and most likely one more at C5-6
due to a small herniation at that level.
Her side thought she would need three but each doctor indicated that
they had never seen three done on one person.
There were other projected medical costs as well and we just added them
up, $326,897.00 over the next 40.7 years, which included two $125,000 anterior
cervical discectomies, we were able to come to these numbers within one hour.
Then we had pain and suffering, which was defined as the
physical and mental distress suffered from an injury. Including; the aches, pain, temporary and permanent
limitations on activity, potential shortening of life, depression, and
embarrassment from scarring, which there was. We had to determine what that was
for the last three years and the next 40.7 years. This award was not tangible and was
completely subjective. The plaintiffs’ lawyers
gave us what they wanted her to get, 20 dollars an hour for 24 hours a day for
the next 40.7 years. That equated to 7.1
million!!! And that was a HUGE
number!! We all agreed that was not a
fair verdict for the insurance company. I
told the story of my Bride’s back surgery and once it was done there was little
pain and suffering after the initial surgery pain and a few months of physical
therapy. It took several hours during
which we applied several methodologies to determine the amounts, past and
future. After much consternation and lively
debate we finally decided on a verdict.
$200,000 for the last three years – she had been to over 200 doctor and therapy
visits. We then decided on the future,
we arrived at $2,000,000. The total
verdict was $2,556,284.58 and we were unanimous.
That was what we determined was fair, I am not going to go
into how we determined that, if you have ever served on a jury I suspect you
can understand why I am reluctant to discuss the Juror’s actions and decision
making process. We were then escorted
back into the court room and our verdict was read by the Judge. I was watching both side very carefully while
the verdict was read, their eyes were glued on the judge. To tell you the truth, I believe both sides
were OK with the outcome, just watching faces anyway. we were thanked and released by the judge and
we were escorted went back to the Jury room.
Within three minutes the Judge popped in and thanked us personally,
which I thought was nice. He also asked
if we had any questions about the case or the process. There were several, none of which I will
repeat and he did his level best to answer them all. I walked out of the courthouse with my fellow
juror’s, all of us were holding our heads high and feeling like we did the
right thing, I whistled a tune as I walked to my car thinking that was a week
VERY well spent!!
If you ever get a Jury summons, don’t complain, go and serve. Why, what happens if one day you are in the hot seat and you wind up with only Jurors who had nothing better to do?? I want people like me and you on that Jury, a fair and balanced group that show the diverse makeup of the community in which I live. SERVE with pride and without prejudice or complaint if summoned – that is what I say to you!!
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