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Litigation & Arbitration,
Civil Procedure,
Civil Litigation

Oct. 27, 2023

“New-clear” verdicts – don’t blame the jurors

It’s easy for the defense to see large verdicts as the result of vindictive, angry jurors. But this ignores the fundamental concepts that most jurors don’t have an agenda, have no idea how to decide a case, and truly want to do the right thing.

Large verdicts are on the rise. There is a notion by the defense that this is a result of plaintiff’s lawyers tapping into jurors’ anger to “mind twist” them into massive verdicts. They label these “Nuclear Verdicts” – claiming somehow these verdicts are driven not by the evidence, but through irrational emotions and juror outrage.

This concept that large verdicts are driven by bad decisions assumes that the bad decision makers are the jur...

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