The Cost of Pain and Suffering
So last week I was performing my civic duty by going in for jury selection. This was the first time that I had ever been even selected so I really didn’t have any idea of what to expect. Since I had already postponed my jury selection once, I was unable to do so again, so my call number was one of the lower ones, pretty much ensuring that I would have to go in.
So when I got to the county courthouse, I found out the details of what would be going on. I would be going through jury selection on a civil trial. Fortunately, I had also brought a book that day since I was doing a lot of waiting. When our group was finally called into the courtroom, the judge, attorneys, and their clients were all there and the judge described the case to us.
There were about 40 or so potential jurors also seated in the room waiting to see what would happen next. The clerk went and randomly drew names to see which 18 I believe would be seated. The case was related to a car accident that occurred over two years ago. The plaintiff was basically suing the defendants over the accident. The defendants were already found liable, so I’m guessing they got a police ticket at the accident.
After the 18 jurors were seated, the lawyers for both sides went through the process of questioning the jurors about the case. They asked all sorts of questions were even the smallest detail could relate to the case. Whether a person knew the doctors who performed surgery, whether a person had been treated at the same hospital, and so on. This went on for around an hour before the lawyers went to the back to select the eight jurors to listen to the case.
One thing that I thought was interesting was the purpose of the jury was to basically determine how much money the plaintiff would receive in the end. The jury would be putting a monetary value to what they believed was the price that the plaintiff paid in pain and suffering. The amount that the jury could come up with could be anything since it was completely up to the jury to decide. Maybe the plaintiff’s pain and suffering was only worth $100, or maybe it was worth $1 million. It would’ve been interesting to have been a juror on the trial to be one that decides how much someone’s pain and suffering is worth. Not only do you control how much is paid, but the jury can possibly put the defendant into bankruptcy with a large enough number. Since I wasn’t seated/selected, I have no clue how the case ended, whether the selected jury came up with a big number, or a small number.
I’m not quite sure I agree with all the litigation that’s involved in the country nowadays where people sue others left and right to try and make a quick dollar. However, this could easily change if I were involved in a situation where I need to sue someone else. Is someone’s pain and suffering really worth a huge amount of money? Hard to say. What if the jury came up with a small value, would their pain and suffering be any less than if the jury had ended up with a large number? Maybe I should’ve been a lawyer instead of an engineer, especially since I didn’t think the defendant’s lawyer was really doing that good of a job from what I could tell. 