ABA Family Legal Guide

How the Legal System Works

The Civil Trial: Step by Step

Verdicts

What else must the verdict contain?

If the jury concludes that one of the parties is liable to the other, it must go on to decide what remedy is owed to the party who was wronged. In most ordinary personal injury suits, this remedy will take the form of money damages. If the jury makes a finding that the defendant should pay damages to the plaintiff, the court will direct the defendant to pay. The judge may decide to separate this portion of the trial from the liability portion. In appropriate cases, such a bifurcated trial can simplify the issues by saving the jury from having to listen to instructions and arguments about the proper damages until after it has determined whether the plaintiff is entitled to any damages at all.

Damages are supposed to put plaintiffs back in the financial position they would have been in if they hadn't been wronged in the first place. It is, of course, more difficult to calculate the proper award when the defendant's wrongful act caused more than out-of-pocket expenses: How much money does it take to compensate one for pain, suffering, loss of life's enjoyment, or damages to one's reputation?

In some circumstances, when the defendant's behavior is thought to be especially outrageous, the plaintiff may also ask the jury to find that punitive damages ought to be paid in addition to compensatory damages. For example, in the O. J. Simpson civil case, the jury awarded the Brown and Goldman families millions of dollars in punitive damages because they found that Simpson had caused the deaths of their family members. Punitive damages are designed to punish the defendant and to discourage others from engaging in similar conduct.