What Are Jury Interrogatories?

Your case is now on trial and you've spent weeks listening to testimony about your case. Now, for the very first time you hear the words "Jury Interrogatories." What do those words mean?

In New York, in order for a jury to decide your civil lawsuit, whether medical malpractice or an accident case, the jury must be presented with specific questions in order to come to their verdict. In a medical malpractice case, the jury must answer whether the defendant doctor departed from good and accepted medical care. If the answer is yes, then the jury goes to the next question; whether that departure was a substantial factor in causing your injury. This is known as 'causation'. If the answer is yes, then the jury will continue answering all the questions involving departures from good care as well as the questions on whether those departures were substantial factors in causing you injury.

After the liability questions have been answered affirmatively, the jury is instructed to proceed to the questions that address compensation. Depending upon what type of compensation and damages you are claiming, the jury will be asked to award an amount of money to compensate you for your past pain and suffering as well as your future pain and suffering. In many cases there will be a claim for lost earnings and the jury will be asked to award an amount consistent with the evidence for your lost earnings. The same applies for medical expenses as well as future medical expenses. They are many other elements of damages that arise in a medical malpractice or accident case in New York.

When you have separate individual questions that must be answered in order to reach a verdict, this is known as an itemized or special verdict. This way, if the case goes up on appeal the appellate court will be able to sift through those specific things that the jury decided and whether the evidence supports that particular jury verdict.