Civil Jury Cases and Verdicts in Large Counties . U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report Civil Justice Survey of State Courts, 1992: Civil Jury Cases and Verdicts in Large Counties (Note: This file does not contain data tables. The full text with tables is available from the Bureau of Justice Statistics Clearinghouse, 800-732-3277.) July 1995, NCJ-154346 By Carol J. DeFrances Steven K. Smith Patrick A. Langan BJS Statisticians Brian J. Ostrom David B. Rottman John A. Goerdt National Center for State Courts Highlights * Juries in the 75 largest counties disposed of 12,000 tort, contract, and real property cases during the 12-month period ending June 30, 1992. Jury cases were 2% of the 762,000 tort, contract, and real property cases disposed by State courts of general jurisdiction in the Nation's most populous counties. * Most of the cases decided by a jury were tort cases (79%). * The vast majority of plaintiffs (88%) in jury cases were individuals. * Among jury case defendants, half were businesses and less than a third were individuals. * Among jury tort cases, plaintiffs won in 74% of toxic substance cases, 60% of auto tort cases, 41% of product liability cases and 30% of medical malpractice cases. * In about half of all the jury cases, the jury found in favor of the plaintiff and awarded in the 12-month period an estimated $2.7 billion in compensatory and punitive damages. The median total award for a plaintiff was $52,000. * Punitive damages were awarded in 6% of the jury cases with a plaintiff winner. * During the 12 months, juries disposed of 360 product liability cases. Plaintiffs won 142 cases. Of the 142, punitive damages were awarded in 3 product liability cases. * Of the 403 medical malpractice cases with a plaintiff winner, punitive damages were awarded in 13 cases. In 4 of these 13 cases, the punitive damage award was over $250,000. Over a year-long period ending June 30, 1992, juries in State general jurisdiction courts in the Nation's largest 75 counties decided an estimated 12,000 tort, contract, and real property rights cases. Thirty-three percent of these cases were automobile accident suits, 11% were medical malpractice, and 5% were product liability and toxic substance cases. Plaintiffs won 52% of the cases and juries awarded these plaintiffs $2.7 billion in damages, of which 10% were punitive damages. The average time from the filing of the complaint to the jury verdict was 2.5 years. These are some of the main findings from a study of civil jury trial cases in State courts involving tort, contract, and real property rights claims--the three types that together comprise the vast majority of civil jury trial cases. The sample of civil jury trial cases excluded civil cases outside the three types, Federal trials, trials in State general jurisdiction courts outside the 75 largest counties, jury trials in State limited jurisdiction courts and bench trials (trials by a judge rather than a jury). Over the year-long period ending June 30, 1992, State courts of general jurisdiction in the Nation's 75 largest counties disposed of an estimated 762,000 tort, contract, and real property rights cases. Jury trials accounted for 2% or about 12,000 of these cases (table 1). (Estimates for the total number of tort, contract, and real property cases disposed of were derived from data collected by the BJS Civil Justice Survey of State Courts, 1992. This survey consists of two datasets. The first dataset contains a representative sample of the 762,000 tort, contract, and real property cases disposed by State courts of general jurisdiction in the Nation's 75 largest counties during the 12-month period ending June 30, 1992. Table 1 and the BJS Special Report, "Tort Cases in Large Counties" (NCJ-153177), are based on this dataset. The second dataset consists of a representative sample of the approximately 12,000 civil cases which were disposed by a jury trial during the same period. All remaining tables in this report are based on this dataset of jury cases.) Jury size and decision rules are determined by State law and vary across the States. For example, 28 States and the District of Columbia permit civil juries smaller than 12. Thirty-three States do not require a unanimous civil jury verdict. (See appendix table 1.) Cases that reach jury trial An estimated 79% of civil jury trials in the Nation's 75 largest counties involved a tort action, 18% were contract cases, and 2% real property rights cases (table 2). Automobile torts accounted for 33% of all jury trial cases, premises liability 17%, and medical malpractice 11%. Product liability and toxic substance cases were 5%. --------------------------------------------------- Table 1. Types of civil cases that go to jury trial in State courts in the Nation's 75 largest counties, 1992 All tort, contract Percent and real of cases property disposed cases by jury Case type disposed trial ------------------------------------------- All jury cases 761,919 1.5% Tort cases 377,421 2.3% Automobile 277,087 1.6 Premises liability 65,372 3.3 Medical malpractice 18,396 6.4 Intentional tort 10,879 2.7 Product liability 12,763 2.6 Toxic substance 6,045 2.8 Professional malpractice 6,827 3.2 Slander/libel 3,159 1.9 Other tort 26,891 2.6 Contract cases 365,263 .7% Seller plaintiff 188,761 .5 Buyer plaintiff 44,592 1.1 Fraud 15,917 2.0 Employment 8,064 4.0 Rental/lease 20,587 .4 Mortgage foreclosure 68,811 .1 Other contact 18,531 1.3 Real property cases 19,235 2.1% Eminent domain 4,595 4.3 Other real property 14,640 1.4 Note: Data available for 99.4% of all cases. Source: Data collected in the BJS Survey of Civil Cases in State Courts, 1992. -------------------------------------------------- Type of litigants: plaintiffs The vast majority (88%) of all jury cases involved individuals exclusively as plaintiffs (table 3). (Each civil jury trial case, regardless of the number of plaintiff types involved, was given one of four plaintiff designations: hospital, business, government or individual.) Businesses were plaintiffs in 11% of all cases; government agencies 2%, and hospitals 0.1%. Businesses were more likely to be the plaintiff in a contract (36%) than a tort (5%) case. -------------------------------------------------- Table 2. Civil jury trial case types in State courts in the Nation's 75 largest counties, 1992 Number of jury Case type cases Percent ------------------------------------------ All jury cases 12,026 100.0% Tort cases 9,532 79.3% Automobile 3,915 32.6 Premises liability 1,991 16.6 Medical malpractice 1,370 11.4 Intentional tort 448 3.7 Product liability 360 3.0 Toxic substance* 287 2.4 Professional malpractice 187 1.6 Slander/libel 66 .5 Other tort 909 7.6 Contract cases 2,217 18.4% Seller plaintiff 610 5.1 Buyer plaintiff 593 4.9 Fraud 317 2.6 Employment 311 2.6 Rental/lease 133 1.1 Mortgage foreclosure 6 .1 Other contract 246 2.0 Real property cases 277 2.3% Eminent domain 204 1.7 Other real property 74 .6 Note: Data for jury trial case types were available for 99.5% of all cases. Detail may not sum to total because of rounding. Data presented in tables 1 and 2 are drawn from different samples and therefore, exact case totals do not match. See foonote number 1 on page 2. *Data for toxic substance cases, a specific type of product liability case, were collected and reported as a separate category. ------------------------------------------------- Type of litigants: defendants The composition of defendants in jury trials differed from that of plaintiffs. (Each case, regardless of the number of defendant types, was given a single defendant designation among the four possible.) Half the cases had a business as the defendant. Specifically, a business was the defendant in all or nearly all of the following case types: toxic substance (100%), product liability (99%), buyer plaintiff (88%), and employment (80%) cases. Overall, less than a third of all cases had an individual as the defendant. Individuals were about half (53%) the defendants in auto tort cases. Among medical malpractice cases, hospitals comprised 64% of defendants. A government agency was the defendant in nearly 29% of intentional tort cases. Who sues whom? The most common type of civil jury case involved an individual suing a business (44% of all cases, 44% of tort cases, and 47% of contract cases) (table 4). Thirty-two percent of tort cases involved an individual suing an individual, compared to 12% of contract cases. In nearly half (46%) of real property cases, a business, government agency, or other organization sued a corporation. Jury verdicts Overall, juries found the defendant liable 52% of the time (table 5). (In civil cases, the plaintiff must prove the key elements of the case by a "preponderance of the evidence." This standard is less stringent than "beyond a reasonable doubt," the standard used in criminal cases.) The likelihood of plaintiff success varied by the type of civil case. Plaintiffs won in 63% of contract cases, 50% of tort cases, and 31% of real property cases. In greater detail, plaintiffs were most successful in toxic substance (74%), rental/lease agreement (73%), and contract cases with seller plaintiff (71%); and least successful in mort-gage foreclosure (20%), eminent domain (21%), and medical malpractice (30%). (See Methodology for definition of case types page 11.) Jury awards Both tort and contract cases typically involve a compensatory award for economic (sometimes called special) damages, which include all financial losses that are the result of the defendant's conduct. Tort cases also can include a compensatory award for noneconomic (sometimes called general) damages, which include awards for pain and suffering and emotional distress. Distinct from compensatory damages are punitive damages. Punitive damages are almost exclusively reserved for tort claims in which the defendant's conduct was grossly negligent or intentional. Juries in large counties awarded altogether $2.7 billion in compensatory and punitive damages to plaintiff winners in 1992 (table 6). The median recovery for all cases was $52,000. -------------------------------------------------- Jury cases with total final awards of $1 million or more Tort, contract, and real property cases disposed by a jury trial in the Nation's 75 largest counties during a 1-year period resulted in a total final award of $1 million or more in each of 459 cases, or 3.8% of all 12,000 jury cases. In the vast majority of these $1 million or more cases (97%) a plaintiff, rather than a defendant in a counterclaim, received the award. Medical malpractice (23%) and automobile tort (21%) cases were the most prevalent types among cases with a jury award of $1 million or more. The types of defendants in these large award cases differed from those in torts with smaller awards. Medical malpractice-- * A hospital was the defendant in 72% of the $1 million-plus cases compared to 56% of the cases in which the plaintiff was awarded less than $1 million. Automobile tort-- * Businesses (53%) and government agencies (29%) together comprised over three-fourths of the defendants in $1 million-plus cases. * An individual was the defendant in 52% of the cases with an award under $1 million, compared to 18% of the cases in which the plaintiff was awarded $1 million or more. ------------------------------------------------ About a quarter (22%) of the final awards to plaintiff winners were in excess of $250,000. Half of the plaintiff winners in product liability cases were awarded total damages over $250,000. About 8% of plaintiff winners received final awards of $1 million. The largest proportion of these $1 million-plus awards was in medical malpractice cases (25%) followed by product liability cases (15%). In tort cases, individual plaintiffs were just as successful whether they sued an individual (53%) or a business (54%) (table 7). In contract cases, individual plaintiffs won more often when they sued an individual (69%) rather than a business (58%). Individual plaintiff winners received larger final award amounts when the defendant was a business rather than an individual. When a business was the defendant, the award amount exceeded $250,000 in 25% of cases. When an individual was the defendant, the award amount exceeded $250,000 in 8% of the cases. Punitive damages Juries included punitive damages as part of the overall award in 6% of the cases in which the plaintiff won. (In 25 States, before punitive damages can be awarded, the jury must find "clear and convincing evidence" and in 1 State "beyond a reasonable doubt" that the defendant's conduct was wanton, malicious, extremely or grossly negligent, or oppressive in character. Eight States require plaintiffs to remit a portion of their punitive damages award to the public treasury. Twelve States require bifurcation; that is, separate trials for compensatory and punitive damages. In nine States that require bifurcation, the award is determined by a jury and in the remaining three States, the amount is determined by a judge. Source: Thomas Koenig and Michael Rustad, "The Quiet Revolution Revisited: An Empirical Study of the Impact of State Tort Reform of Punitive Damages in Products Liability," in Justice System Journal, 16(2): 21-44, 1993.) Punitive damages accounted for about 10% of all money awarded to plaintiffs. (Four States--New Hampshire, Louisiana, Nebraska, and Washington--do not permit punitive damages to be awarded and one State--Massachusetts--permits punitive damages to be awarded only when authorized by statute. In States that do allow punitive damages to be awarded, many have enacted legislation to cap punitive damages at a specific dollar amount, such as $350,000. Other States have capped punitive damages to a certain proportion of the compensatory damages. Source: Koenig and Rustad, 1993.) The median punitive award was $50,000 (table 8). Twenty-four percent of punitive damage awards were over $250,000, and 12% were $1 million or more. Punitive damages were awarded to plaintiff winners in 30% of slander/libel cases, 27% of employment cases, 21% of fraud cases, and 19% of intentional tort cases. Six percent of plaintiff winners in toxic substance cases and 2% in product liability cases were awarded punitive damages. Nearly 55% of the punitive damage awards in the 13 toxic substance cases were over $1 million. Employ- ment-related contract cases involving punitive damages always included an associated tort claim (for example, discrimination or harassment). Approximately $133 million in punitive damages were awarded in connection with employment-related cases. The $133 million damages awarded accounted for 50% of the total $268 million awarded for punitive damages. In 43% of the civil jury cases which awarded punitive damages to the plaintiff, the punitive amount exceeded the compensatory amount (table 9). In 22% of cases with punitive damages, the punitive award amount was at least twice as much as the compensatory award. -------------------------------------------------- Role of contributory negligence In 13% of civil cases in which a jury awarded compensatory damages to the plaintiff, the damages were reduced because the plaintiff had contributed to the negligence that led to loss or injury. The reduction totalled approximately $84 million. (This total does not include reductions in the 3 sites for which data on reduced awards were unavailable: Fairfax County, Va., Alameda County, Calif.,, and Marion County, Ind.) States differ in the role played by a plaintiff's own negligence in determining whether, or the extent to which, the defendant is liable for a plaintiff's damages. Based on these differences, States are classified below into one of four categories. (Whether a State was classified as modified comparative negligence, pure comparative negligence, pure contributory negligence, or mixed rule depended on general characteristics of its civil laws. If the focus were on specific types of civil cases, the classification might differ from what is shown here. States do not always use the same decision rules for each type of civil case.) Modified comparative negligence Nine states have a modified comparative negligence rule (the "50% bar to recovery" rule) which stipulates that the plaintiff can recover damages only if he or she is less negligent than the defendant. Arkansas North Dakota Colorado Utah Idaho West Virginia Kansas Wyoming Maine Eighteen states use a modified comparative negligence rule (the "51% bar to recovery" rule) in which in the plaintiff can recover damages only if he or she is not more negligent than the defendant. Connecticut New Hampshire Hawaii New Jersey Illinois Ohio Indiana Oklahoma Iowa Oregon Massachusetts Pennsylvania Montana Texas Minnesota Vermont Nevada Wisconsin Pure comparative negligence Thirteen states use a pure comparative negligence rule under which a plaintiff can recover damages to the extent that the defendant is responsible for the plaintiff's injuries. Alaska Mississippi Arizona Missouri California New Mexico Florida New York Kentucky Rhode Island Louisiana Washington Michigan Pure contributory negligence Six states use a pure contributory negligence rule that bars recovering damages from the defendant if the plaintiff's own negligent conduct contributed in any way to his or her own injuries. Alabama North Carolina Delaware South Carolina Maryland Virginia Mixed rules Four states have a blend of rules that do not fit into any single general category and are therefore, classified as having mixed comparative negligence rules. Georgia South Dakota Nebraska Tennessee Source: American Jurisprudence, 2nd edition (1989, supp. 1995), 57B:1131-1149. ------------------------------------------------- Compensatory and punitive damage awards for "defendants" In cases with claims and counterclaims, the distinction between plaintiff and defendant becomes less clear. Therefore, it is possible that one party originally named as a defendant countersues the plaintiff and actually wins damages. In 1.2% of all tort, contract, and real property cases concluded by jury trial in State general jurisdiction courts in the Nation's largest 75 counties during a 1-year period ending June 30, 1992, the defendant won in a countersuit. Defendants in tort, contract, and real property jury cases won $162 million in compensatory and punitive damages on counterclaims. Of these counterclaim cases won by defendants, 19% were seller plaintiff, 16% auto torts, 14% buyer plaintiff, and 12% fraud. Defendants who won on counterclaims and were awarded punitive damages comprised 4% of all cases where punitive damages were awarded. These defendants were awarded $55 million in punitive damages in jury trial cases. Two-thirds of these cases involved fraud. The largest punitive amount awarded in a counterclaim was $18 million to 11 defendants in a case involving negligence and a contract dispute. -------------------------------------------------- Product liability cases: Jury verdicts and punitive damages In State courts of general jurisdiction in the Nation's 75 largest counties, juries disposed of 360 product liability cases during a 12-month period ending June 30,1992. The 360 are about 3% of the 12,000 civil cases (tort, contract, and real property) disposed by a jury trial. Juries decided in favor of the plaintiff in 41% of the product liability cases and awarded a total of $103 million in compensatory and punitive damages to these 142 plaintiff winners. In 3 of the 142 plaintiff winner cases, punitive damages were awarded. The total punitive damages awarded in these three cases was $40,000. In 1991-92 juries rendered verdicts in 287 toxic substance cases in the Nation's 75 largest counties. Plaintiffs won 74% or 202 cases, receiving an average total award of over $500,000. In 13 cases punitive damages were awarded. Punitive damages totaled $26 million in the 13 cases. (The court records did not reflect whether the award was paid or whether an appeal was entered.) The BJS survey finding that relatively few product liability jury verdicts resulted in punitive damage awards is consistent with previous findings in studies of jury verdicts. Findings from three such studies are summarized below: * In a review of 24,000 jury verdicts in Cook County, Illinois and San Francisco County, California from 1960-1984, a RAND Corporation study identified 6 jury trials in which punitive damages were awarded in product liability cases. Source: Mark Peterson, A. S. Sarma, and M. Shanley, Punitive Damages: Empirical Findings (Santa Monica, Calif.: RAND Corporation, 1987). * Daniels and Martin (1990) reviewed more than 25,000 jury verdicts in 47 jurisdictions from 1981-85. They found 967 product liability cases, in which 34 were awarded punitive damages. Source: Stephen Daniels and Joanne Martin, "Myth and Reality in Punitive Damages," in Minnesota Law Review 75/1, 1990. * Using a variety of data collection methods, Koenig and Rustad (1993) located 355 punitive damage verdicts in product liability jury trial cases across the Nation from 1965 to 1990. Their search focused on personal injury cases and did not include cases with only economic losses. Of the 355 cases, 95 cases involved asbestos. Source: Thomas Koenig and Michael Rustad, "The Quiet Revolution Revisited: An Empirical Study of the Impact of State Tort Reform of Punitive Damages in Products Liability," in The Justice System Journal , Volume 16/2:21-44, 1993. ------------------------------------------------- Case processing time The mean case processing time from filing of the complaint to jury verdict was 30 months and the median was 24.7 months (table 10). Toxic substance and medical malpractice cases had a mean processing time of about 3 years. Product liability cases took on average 2.5 years from the filing of the complaint to jury trial verdict. County-specific data The volume of jury trials, percentage of plaintiff winners, final awards, and punitive damage award amounts varied across the individual State courts sampled in this project (appendix tables 2-3). Many factors contribute to these differences including State civil justice laws and the types of cases disposed by jury trial. Methodology Sample The sample used in this project is a 2-stage stratified sample with 45 of the 75 most populous counties selected at the first stage. The 75 counties were divided into 4 strata based on aggregate civil disposition data for 1990 obtained through telephone interview with court staff in the general jurisdiction trial courts. In stratum 1 (14 counties with the largest number of civil case dispositions), every county was selected. Stratum 2 consisted of 15 counties with 12 chosen randomly. From strata 3, 10 of the 20 counties were selected. Nine of the 26 counties in stratum 4 were included. At the second stage, for 38 of the jurisdictions, all tort, contract, and real property rights cases disposed by jury verdict between July 1, 1991, and June 30, 1992, were selected. In the other 7 jurisdictions, a random sample of about 300 cases or half the jury trial cases (whichever yielded more cases) were included in the sample. The final sample consisted of 6,504 tort, contract, and real property jury trial cases. Sampling error Since the data in this report came from a sample, a sampling error (standard error) is associated with each reported number. In general, if the difference between two numbers is greater than twice the standard error for that difference, there is confidence that for 95 out of 100 possible samples a real difference exists and that the apparent difference is not simply the result of using a sample rather than the entire population. All differences discussed in this report were statistically significant at or above the 95 percent confidence level. Data recording and unobtainable information For each sampled case, a standard coding form was manually completed by court staff on-site to record information about the litigants, case type, pro-cessing time and award amounts. Information for which data were not available or collected included the cost of litigation for the parties involved, as well as for others, actual disbursement of awards, the type and extent of the personal injury, if any, and the number of cases that were appealed. Final award and punitive damage amounts Two ways of calculating averages are used to describe final award and punitive damage amounts to plaintiff winners. Means are sensitive to a few very large or small award amounts in a distribution. The median, the middle value in the range of award amounts, is not influenced by extreme values. Median final award and punitive damage amounts are nearly always smaller than corresponding means. Civil case type definitions: Torts--Claims arising from personal injury or property damage caused by negligent or intentional act of another person or business, Specific tort case types include : automobile accident; premises liability (injury caused by the dangerous condition of residential or commercial property); medical malpractice (by doctor, dentist, or medical professional); other professional malpractice (e.g.. by engineers, architects); product liability (injury or damage caused by defective products); toxic substance (injury caused by toxic substances); libel/slander (injury to reputation); intentional tort (e.g., vandalism, intentional personal injury); and other negligent acts. Contracts--Cases which include all allegations of breach of contract. Specific case types include: seller plaintiff (sellers of goods or services, including lenders, seek payment of money owed to them by a buyer, including borrowers); buyer plaintiff (purchaser of goods or services seeks return of their money, recision of the contract, or delivery of the specified goods delivered); mortgage contract/foreclosure (foreclosures on real property, commercial, or residential; because the title to real property is transferred to the lender if the claim is successful it could be included under real property cases); fraud ( financial damages incurred due to intentional or negligent misrepresen-tation regarding a product or company; also considered a type of tort claim, but because it arises out of commercial transactions, it was included under contracts); employment claim (claim involving employment or hiring process, including claims of employment discrimination; workman's compensa-tion claims, handled primarily through administrative process, are not included); rental/lease agreement; and other contract claims (including partnership claims, stockholder claims, and subrogation issues). Real property--Any claim regarding ownership of real property (excluding mortgage foreclosures, which are included under contracts). Specific categories used include: eminent domain (condemnation of real property to obtain for public use); other real property (any other claim regarding title to or use of real property). -------------------------------------------------- The Bureau of Justice Statistics is the statistical agency of the U.S. Department of Justice. Jan M. Chaiken, Ph.D., is director. BJS Special Reports address a specific topic in depth from one or more datasets that cover many topics. Carol J. DeFrances, Steven K. Smith, Patrick A. Langan of BJS and Brian J. Ostrom, David B. Rottman, and John A. Goerdt of the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) wrote this report. Neil LaFountain, NCSC, also assisted in this project. Carma Hogue at the Bureau of the Census designed the sample. Data collection was carried out by the Bureau of the Census, the National Association of Criminal Justice Planners, and the NCSC. Jacob Perez provided statistical assistance. Tom Hester and Tina Dorsey edited the report. Marilyn Marbrook, assisted by Jayne Robinson and Yvonne Boston, administered production. July 1995, NCJ-154346 ------------------------------------------------- This report is the second in a series based on data collected from the BJS Civil Justice Survey of State Courts, 1992. The first report, entitled "Tort Cases in Large Counties," NCJ-153177, is available from the BJS Clearinghouse at 1-800-732-7377. ------------------------------------------------- Appendix table 1. Civil trial juries: Size and verdict rules in State courts of general jurisdiction Jury Civil juries State/courts size decision rule ---------------------------------------- Alabama Circuit 12 Unanimous Alaska Superior 12 5/6 rule Arizona Superior 8 3/4 rule Arkansas Circuit 12 3/4 rule California Superior 12(a) 3/4 rule Colorado District 6 Unanimous Connecticut Superior 6 Unanimous Delaware Superior 12 Unanimous District of Columbia Superior 6(b) Unanimous Florida Circuit 6(c) Unanimous Georgia Superior 12 Unanimous Hawaii Circuit 12(d) 5/6 rule(e) Idaho District 12 3/4 rule Illinois Circuit 6(f) Unanimous Indiana Superior 6 Unanimous Circuit 6 Unanimous Iowa District 8 7/8 rule or Unanimous(g) Kansas District 6/12(h) 5/6 rule or Unanimous(i) Kentucky Circuit 12 3/4 rule Louisiana District 12(j) 5/6 rule, 9/12 rule Maine Superior 8 3/4 rule Maryland Circuit 12 Unanimous Massachusetts Superior 12 5/6 rule Michigan Circuit 6 5/6 rule Minnesota District 6 5/6 rule or Unanimous Mississippi Circuit 12 3/4 rule Chancery 12 3/4 rule Missouri Circuit 12 3/4 rule Montana District 12(k) 2/3 rule Nebraska District 12 5/6 rule or Unanimous(l) Nevada District 12(m) 3/4 rule New Hampshire Superior 12 Unanimous New Jersey Superior 6/12 5/6 rule New Mexico District 12 5/6 rule New York Supreme 6 5/6 rule County 6 5/6 rule North Carolina Superior 12(n) Unanimous(o) North Dakota District 12/6 Unanimous Common Pleas 12/8 3/4 rule Oklahoma District 6/12(p) 3/4 rule Oregon Circuit 12 3/4 rule Pennsylvania Common Pleas 12 5/6 rule Rhode Island Superior 12 5/6 rule South Carolina Circuit 12 Unanimous South Dakota Circuit 12 5/6 rule Tennessee Circuit 12 Unanimous Chancery 12 Unanimous Texas District 12 5/6 rule Utah District 8 3/4 rule or majority Vermont Superior 12 Unanimous District 12 Unanimous Virginia Circuit 5/7(q) Unanimous Washington Superior 6(r) 5/6 rule West Virginia Circuit 6 Unanimous Wisconsin Circuit 6(s) 5/6 rule Wyoming District 6(t) 5/6 rule Federal Court District 6(u) Unanimous Notes: (a) Or fewer by agreement of the parties. (b) 6-member jury unless a jury of 12 is demanded. (c) Eminent domain cases require a 12-member jury and an unanimous verdict. (d) May stipulate that the jury consist of any number less than 12 or that a verdict on finding of a stated majority of jurors is taken as the verdict or finding of the jury. (e) Can stipulate to 6-member with 5/6 rule. (f) 6-member jury unless 12 are requested. (g) 7/8 rule applies after 6 hours of deliberation. (h) 12-member jury if damages are greater than $5,000, otherwise 6. (i) 5/6 rule applies with 12 jurors, otherwise must be unanimous. (j) Parties may stipulate to a 6-person jury. (k) 4-member jury if both parties agree. (l) 5/6 rule after 6 hours of deliberation. (m) Parties may stipulate to 4-8 jurors rather than 12. (n,o) Except in actions in which a jury is required by statute, the parties may stipulate that the jury shall consist of any number less than 12 or that a verdict or a finding of a stated majority of the jurors shall be taken as the verdict or finding of the jury. (p) 12-member jury if damages are greater than $2,500, otherwise 6. (q) A 12-member jury may be allowed by the judge. (r) May demand a 12-member jury. (s) A party may request, or the court on its own motion may require a greater number, not to exceed 12. (t) 6-member jury unless demand made for 12. (u) 6-member jury unless a jury of 12 is demanded (local rules). Even absent stipulation, if the court finds it necessary to excuse a juror, a valid verdict may be returned by the remaining 11. Source: David B. Rottman, et al. "State Court Organization, 1993." National Center for State Courts. NCJ-148346, January 1995 ------------------------------------------------- End of file