Sep
6
Sleeping Jurors?
Posted by Tiffany Sanders J.D. | Posted in The Personal Injury Courtroom
Personal injury cases often hinge on the reaction of juries to the parties, and there’s been much controversy about the fact that judges can and often do alter awards entered by juries. While some experts–primarily those in the insurance industry and the personal injury defense bar–have claimed that jurors are unqualified to make determinations in large, complex cases, even they were probably be surprised by the data presented by Professor Nancy King of Vanderbilt University: many jurors fall asleep during trial.
King studied juror misconduct across the twenty-year period from 1796 through 1996, and discovered that sleeping jurors hardly disrupted the trial process these days. According to King, 69% of judges surveyed had encountered at least one sleeping juror during the past three years, and most did not grant mistrials. However, in 85% of the cases, the sleeping juror was dismissed from the case.
