Jury Verdicts & Jury Instructions Research Guide

Introduction

This Research Guide will provide information on sources which are available in the Georgetown University Law Library that may be useful to locate jury verdicts and jury instructions. It will include information on both print and electronic resources.

Jury Verdicts/Settlements

Verdict, as defined by Black's Law Dictionary, is "a jury's finding or decisions on the factual issue of a case. Loosely, in a nonjury trial, a judge and resolution of the issue of a case." (8th edition)

As trial decisions are not officially reported, a legal researcher cannot rely on the regular case reporters to find verdicts and settlements. This guide lists the major sources of verdicts and settlements.

1. Major Print Publications

• National Jury Verdict Review & Analysis KF1247.8 .N36
  This is a monthly nationwide review of state and federal civil jury verdicts with professional commentary and trial analysis.
• Law Reporter KF294.A8 A3
  The Association of Trial Lawyers of America reporter of personal injury and tort cases.
• What's it Worth? A Guide to Personal Injury Awards and Settlements KF1257 .H3
  This annual publication is a guide to current personal injury awards and settlements.
  
• Stein on Personal Injury Damages (2nd ed.) KF446 .S7 1991, 3rd edition available only on Westlaw
  This treatise includes a digest of awards organized alphabetically by parts of the anatomy injured, practice aids, and a checklist for establishing damages.
• Dollar Verdicts: Personal Injury KF8913 .D64 1998
  This 2 volume looseleaf reports awards for personal injury cases and is organized alphabetically by part of the body injured. Volume 1 covers abdomen to liver and volume 2 covers lung to wrongful death.
• Medical Malpractice Verdicts, Settlements & Experts KF2905.3.A59 M45
  As the title indicates, this publication focuses on jury verdicts for medical malpractice cases. It is accompanied by an annual index.
• Employment Discrimination Verdicts and Settlements (BNA online resource)
  This weekly newsletter focuses on employment cases dealing with job bias, age, disabilities, race/gender issues and more.

2. Lexis and Westlaw Databases

• Westlaw (ALMVS-JV) - combines all available jury verdicts since 1996 to present, can also search individual states by checking Westlaw Directory> Litigation > Verdicts
• Lexis (Legal > Area of Law - By Topic > Litigation > Jury Verdicts) - you can search a combined file for all available states or choose individual states to research

3. On the Web

• MoreLaw.com - free public access litigation digest and directory service
• National Law Journal's Largest Verdicts - published annually in February, now available by VerdictSearch (see below)
• JuryVerdict Settlements - from the National Association of State Jury Verdict Publishers, this links to all the jury verdict publishers by state, it's a subscription based service
• VerdictSearch - subscription database with online verdicts
• Rand Institute for Civil Justice - this "think tank" prepares reports on the trends in jury verdicts, summaries of which are available on their web site.

Jury Instructions

The American Bar Association has published a number of books on model jury instructions by topical practice area. We have the following in our collection.

Model Jury Instructions in Criminal Antitrust Cases KF1657.C7 M63 2009
Model Jury Instructions : Copyright, Trademark and Trade Dress Litigation KF8984 .M63 2008
Model Jury Instructions : Patent Litigation KF3155 .M63 2005
Model Jury Instructions : Business Torts Litigation KF8984.A65 M64 2005
Model Jury Instructions in Civil Antitrust Cases KF9066.A5 M63 2005
Model Jury Instructions : Employment Litigation KF8984.A65 E57 2005

To find other books on jury instructions, search on Gulliver for subjects: "Instructions to Juries (State)" or Instructions to Juries United States" for federal publications.

Both Lexis and Westlaw have a folder of databases on jury instructions. There is a lot of overlap, but check each service to see what's covered.

• Lexis (Legal > Area of Law - By Topic > Litigation > Jury Instructions)
• Westlaw (Directory > Litigation > Jury Instructions)

1. Model Civil Jury Instructions by Federal Circuit

• First Circuit
• Third Circuit
• Fifth Circuit
• Seventh Circuit
• Eighth Circuit
• Ninth Circuit
• Eleventh Circuit

2. Model Criminal Jury Instructions by Federal Circuit

• First Circuit
• Third Circuit
• Fifth Circuit
• Sixth Circuit
• Seventh Circuit
• Eighth Circuit
• Ninth Circuit
• Tenth Circuit
• Eleventh Circuit

3. For a list of State jury instructions available on the web, consult:

• Revisiting Jury Instructions: Jury Instructions Update (Jan Bissett & Margi Heinenon LLRX.com)

Research Guides

• Putting a Price on it: Researching Jury Verdicts and Settlements (Jan Bissett for LLRX)
• Jury Verdicts, Settlements, Judgments and Liens (Marian Gould Gallagher Law Library, University of Washington School of Law)
• Expert Witnesses, Verdicts & Settlements (The Cleveland Law Library Association)

Studies/Surveys on Jury Trials and Verdicts

• American Judicature Society - Jury Center
  This site features an indepth look at juries, as well as a substantial bibliography of articles, surveys and studies on the jury decision making process, history of the jury system, size of jury, voir dire and more.
• National Center for State Courts - Center for Jury Studies
  This organization researches jury management and the jury process, publishing resources on these topics are well. Thier Jury InfoCenter is full of material on grand juries, jury decision making, jury management, jury selection and jury trial innovations.
  
  

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