Sunday, November 6, 2011

What Are Jury Interrogatories?



Your case is now on trial and you have spent weeks listening to testimony about your case. Now, for the quite first time you hear the words "Jury Interrogatories." What do those words mean?

In New York, in order for a jury to determine your civil lawsuit, no matter whether medical malpractice or an accident case, the jury need to be presented with precise questions in order to come to their verdict. In a medical malpractice case, the jury need to answer regardless of whether the defendant physician departed from superior and accepted medical care. If the answer is yes, then the jury goes to the next question no matter whether that departure was a substantial factor in causing your injury. This is identified as 'causation'. If the answer is yes, then the jury will continue answering all the questions involving departures from great care as well as the concerns on whether those departures had been substantial variables in causing you injury.

Soon after the liability concerns have been answered affirmatively, the jury is instructed to proceed to the questions that address compensation. Depending upon what form of compensation and damages you are claiming, the jury will be asked to award an quantity of revenue to compensate you for your past pain and suffering as nicely as your future discomfort and suffering. In several cases there will be a claim for lost earnings and the jury will be asked to award an quantity consistent with the evidence for your lost earnings. The same applies for medical costs as nicely as future medical expenditures. They are a lot of other components of damages that arise in a medical malpractice or accident case in New York.

When you have separate individual concerns that have to be answered in order to reach a verdict, this is known as an itemized or unique verdict. This way, if the case goes up on appeal the appellate court will be able to sift via those specific things that the jury decided and whether the evidence supports that particular jury verdict.

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