Several recent columns in the Daily Business Review have blamed juries, and plaintiffs lawyers, and imagined a plague of “nuclear verdicts” that in reality do not exist. The one reality the commentary has failed to consider is—that sometimes defense lawyers (or their clients) insist on trying cases with bad facts, or don’t do a good job trying their case. Sometimes they even employ tactics that offend or upset a jury and lead to a larger verdict.
In the 22 years that I have had the honor of representing clients in courts throughout Florida, I have rarely seen a jury get it wrong. They don’t always agree with me or my client’s position, but if I honestly reflect on any jury verdict I have received on behalf of a client—good, bad or otherwise—I can honestly say that I don’t think a jury has ever returned a “wrong verdict.”
