Observations From the Jury Room
...you learn something new every day! Yesterdays post included lessons one and two, today's post will continue with lessons three and four:
Lesson 3: Demonstrative evidence is very important. This case involved dry testimony about appraised values, “comparable sales” and square footage. The homeowner’s appraiser testified purely from a report without the assistance of demonstrative evidence. It fell flat for most jurors. On the other hand, the LAUSD appraiser’s testimony was presented with photos of the homes that were used in her appraisal report and colorful charts and maps, all of which kept our attention when she testified late in the day and which we frequently referred to in the jury room. Even the more rudimentary demonstrative evidence was helpful. Both attorneys made handwritten charts on butcher paper that helped clarify the testimony. These charts were posted on the bulletin board in the jury room.
Lesson 4: Most in the jury reached a conclusion early, largely on a gut reaction. We started our deliberations by asking everyone to provide “pros and cons” about the two witnesses. (It was obvious that virtually all jurors had paid close attention during the trial.) After that, as the end of the first day neared, one juror observed that there was one property common to both appraisals as a “comparable sale” and that if we used the square footage sale price for that property multiplied by the square footage of the Plaintiff’s home that the value was $400,000. Eight of the jurors quickly announced that this was their verdict. One juror almost provided the ninth vote which would have resulted in a verdict after only 2 hours of deliberations. I sensed that almost all jurors were critical of both appraisal reports but found the LAUSD appraiser to be more credible and were searching for a formula or rationale to reach a number in between the two appraisals but more in line with the LASUSD number. We agreed to break for the day and explore this methodology and others in the morning. The next day we tried other more complex formulas that involved throwing out some of the “suspect” sales from both reports and running our own numbers based on the “good” comparable sales. It turned out that no matter what formula we used we came out at a value that hovered around $400,000, which ultimately was our non-unanimous verdict (11-1). ($400,000 was $20,000 more than the LAUSD appraisal and $35,000 less than the homeowner’s appraisal).
I came away from my experience on the jury with a renewed faith in the jury system and impressed with how seriously jurors took their job and the careful consideration given by most. I highly recommend that the next time you see your jury summons that you don’t be so quick to begin thinking up excuses as to why you can’t serve. From the perspective of a trial lawyer, I found the experience invaluable.
