Should Trial by Jury Be Eliminated in Complex Cases

One way in which the public participates in the management of Risk is as jurors. Here, the function of juries in civil litigation is discussed and the argument is made that problems with juries in complex cases may be solved by means short of eliminating juries altogether

Runaway Judges? Selection Effects and the Jury

Reports about runaway jury awards have become so common that it is widely accepted that the US jury system needs to be ‘fixed.’ Proposals to limit the right to a jury trial and increase judicial discretion over awards implicitly assume that judges decide cases differently than juries. We show that there are large differences in mean awards and win rates across juries and judges. But if the types of cases coming before juries are different from those coming before judges, mean award and win rates may differ even if judges and juries would make the same decisions when faced with the same cases. We find that most of the difference in judge and jury mean awards can be explained by differences in the sample of cases coming before judges and juries. On some dimensions, however, there remain robust and suggestive differences between judges and juries.

Experimental Simulations and Tort Reform: Avoidance, Error and Overreaching in Sunstein Et Al.’s ‘Punitive Damages’

This article addresses tort reform claims made in Cass R. Sunstein, et al.\u27s Punitive Damages: How Juries Decide (2002)and related articles, research that was largely underwritten by the Exxon Corporation. Based upon a series of simulation experiments, those authors have made a general claim that juries are incapable of making coherent judgments about punitive damages. In this article I raise serious methodological problems bearing on the validity of the research, and, therefore, its ability to provide judges and legislators with useful information about juries and punitive damages

“Guardian of Civil Rights … Medieval Relic”: The Civil Jury in Canada

Bogart offers some explanations of why Canadian civil juries exist only at the margins by examining the availability of civil juries, empirical evidence regarding their use and cost in Ontario Canada and academic and policy debates concerning their role

Do consumer voices in health-care citizens’ juries matter?

Background There is widespread agreement that the public should be engaged in health-care decision making. One method of engagement that is gaining prominence is the citizens’ jury, which places citizens at the centre of the deliberative process. However, little is known about how the jury process works in a health-care context. There is even less clarity about how consumer perspectives are heard within citizens’ juries and with what consequences. Objectives This paper focuses on what is known about the role of consumer voices within health-care citizens’ juries, how these voices are heard by jurors and whether and in what ways the inclusion or exclusion of such voices may matter. Results Consumer voices are not always included in health-care citizens’ juries. There is a dearth of research on the conditions under which consumer voices emerge (or not), from which sources and why. As a result, little is known about what stories are voiced or silenced, and how such stories are heard by jurors, with what consequences for jurors, deliberation, decision-makers, policy and practice. Discussion and Conclusion The potential role of consumer voices in influencing deliberations and recommendations of citizens’ juries requires greater attention. Much needed knowledge about the nuances of deliberative processes will contribute to an assessment of the usefulness of citizens’ juries as a public engagement mechanism

Home-based businesses: Issues and problems with specific reference to Bloemfontein

There is a high occurrence of home-based businesses in Bloemfontein (Free State) and in other cities and towns in South Africa. With the new role of local authorities as 'developmental local government' and their responsibility for local economic development, home-based businesses may be revised and a fresh, integrated approach be followed to assist in writing a new policy for improving the ability of such enterprises to contribute towards the local economy in Bloemfontein. The Bloemfontein Town Planning scheme (no l of 1954) with its high standards of land use, is not the ideal management document of land use to stimulate home-based development. Contrary to this, Annexure F of the Black Communities Development Act that is still used to control development of land use in Mangaung, makes provision for the use of a portion of a residential property for business purposes without applying for the approval of the local council. Annexure F is therefore a far less sophisticated scheme, with less participation and rudimentary protection of rights

Jury Deliberation

Juries are tasked with the duty of deliberating and applying the law to the case at hand. But it is unclear whether juries deliberate or deliberate well enough. Factors which may affect jury deliberation are the motivation of jurors, characteristics of jurors, emotions during and after trial, bargaining, charges, and dissenters. This paper argues that jurors do engage in rigorous dialogue which eventually results in compromises, although whether this creates an unjust verdict is unclear

National Juries for National Cases: Preserving Citizen Participation in Large-Scale Litigation

Procedural evolution in complex litigation seems to have left the civil jury behind. Reliance on aggregating devices, such as multidistrict litigation and class actions, as well as settlement pressure created by “bellwether” cases, has resulted in cases of national scope being tried by local juries. Local juries thus have the potential to impose their values on the rest of the country. This trend motivates parties to forum-shop, and some commentators suggest eliminating jury trials in complex cases altogether. Yet the jury is at the heart of our uniquely American understanding of civil justice, and the Seventh Amendment mandates its use in federal cases. This Article makes a bold proposal to align the jury assembly mechanism with the scope of the litigation: In cases of national scope, juries would be assembled from a national pool. This proposal would eliminate incentives for parties to forum-shop, and it would make the decisionmaking body representative of the population that will feel the effects of its decision. The Article argues that we would see greater legitimacy for decisions rendered by a national jury in national cases. Moreover, it argues that geographic diversification of the jury would enhance the quality of decisionmaking. Finally, national juries would preserve the functional and constitutional values of citizen participation in the civil justice system

Avoiding the perfect storm of juror contempt

Concern over juror contempt and improper conduct is one of the factors that prompted the Law Commission’s early review of Contempt of Court. This article argues that any reform of the law of contempt in relation to juries and jury trials should be based on rigorous and reliable empirical evidence, not anecdotal evidence, exceptional cases or untested assumptions about juries. It reports the first findings of recent research conducted with juries at Crown Courts examining juror understanding of contempt, awareness of recent prosecutions of jurors, willingness to report improper conduct, as well desire for deliberation guidance and written judicial directions. Based on empirical evidence, this article argues for a three-pronged approach to minimising juror contempt in the new media age. It also argues that calls for the removal or relaxation of s.8 of the Contempt of Court Act are misguided and based on a myth that the current law prevents detailed jury research