Finished jury duty tonight! A whole day sooner than expected. They wrapped up the closing arguments a little after 5pm and then the judge asked us whether we wanted to start deliberations or come back tomorrow. We chose to stay and surprisingly we all agreed fairly quickly to judge in favor of the plaintiff. It was a sad case, that I saw no reason should of ever had to go to court. The only true winners by bringing it to court were the doctor expert witnesses that made a couple thousand each to testify. The case involved an auto accident that resulted in a neck injury. Interesting enough, 3 of the 6 jurors selected like myself had spinal fusion (neck surgery). Apparently both the plaintiff and the defense thought it would help their side. I felt it gave us some expertise in helping to find the truth. The accident happened over 3 years ago and the defendant had been paid $0 in medical expenses, though claimed fault. The claim was she was faking, but I and the rest of the jury saw it differently. We denied pain and suffering damages and any possible future medical bills, but awarded payment of all past medical expenses and lost back pay for a total of about $21,000 (she had been taken to collections). I teared up when I saw the plaintiff take a huge sigh of relief when she heard we were awarding payment for the medical bills. The truth was she never asked for pain in suffering money, it was her attorneys idea. I hope she can go forward now with her life. 3+ years is too long to have to go through that emotional and financial mess.
Posted on: Thu, 15 May 2014 03:08:23 +0000
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