Juror #8 Henry Fonda style

I had big shoes to fill. Juror #8 in 12 Angry Men was Henry Fonda. I'd say I did my job.

After a full day of listening to witnesses, many questions, quite a few objections, and nearly constant "may we approach?" (when the attorneys had a questions for the judge or had to explain an objection or reason for why they were asking a certain question) it was finally show time! We the jurors had been assembled in the Juror room many times before but were never allowed to discuss the trial at all. You know how hard that is haha?!?! So we only had about 30min on the first real day to talk it out after the actual trial and figure out where we stood.

10:2

Anyways, here's the case: Mr. E is rearended by Mr. G. Mr. G admits fault. No one is critically hurt. Mr. E goes home and his neck and head start hurting, from whip-lash. Goes to the doctor, gets some pain medicine, gets a CT scan. Next day he goes again cuz his head is still hurting way bad. More meds etc. Two months later he starts complaining about serious pain in his right shoulder. Goes into the doctor to get it checked out, MRI showed cartilage deterioration in several different places. 6 months after the accident he gets arthroscopic surgery in his right shoulder. He's filing the law suit against Mr. G for the surgery cuz he said it was directly related to the accident. 

BUT. The defense brought up alot of evidence that the plaintiff side 'neglected'. Like Mr. E's pre-existing condition in his shoulders. Had been to the doctors several years previously complaining about his shoulders, and it was due to increasing his weight lifting as he was preparing for bow-hunting season. His line of work as well included lifting 75-150lbs daily to and from his truck. He was fired from his job but not for the initial reason that Mr. E testified to. His credibility was brought into question when the defense asked him if he'd ever been counseled or warned concerning his excessive personal cell-phone use during work and he responded never. The defense admitted as evidence into the court an official warning that both Mr. E and his boss had signed stating exactly that, that he was spending too much time with personal calls and not enough actually working. Caught. Several other stories that Mr. E told differed from the accounts he gave in his deposition from directly following the accident. AND Mr. E had been in TWO accidents following the one involving Mr. G. yet he was blamming Mr. G for having caused his need for surgery. 

So back to the Jury room where we began our deliberations. Two felt that they were not convinced that the accident HAD NOT caused the injury and that Mr. G should pay the full amount: $24,000. The majority of us felt that it was reasonable for Mr. G to pay the medical from the day of and day following the accident but given his lifestyle, previous medical history with his shoulder, and the accidents which followed, should not have to pay for the surgery. One felt that Mr. G shouldn't have to pay anything, that it was all a scam for Mr. E to get more money to pay off his bills.

So really we were at 2-9-1.

When we'd try and convince the two about why he shouldn't have to pay as much it just served to strengthen the one person's vote that he shouldn't have to pay anything. And when we tried to convince the one that he should at least have to pay for some of the bills it served to strengthen the other two's vote that he should be paying! haha kinda tricky..

Oh and by the way, we definitely had some of the characters from 12 Angry Men in our jury group haha.. the guy with the glasses who's well educated and had good points to bring up; the baseball guy who doesn't wanna be there, has his vote and isn't gonna change and just wants to get outta there; then you have the quiet guys who never had much to say and just followed the main stream. 

Then you had Juror #8: Henry Fonda. 

I brought up several good points that although it wasn't me against the 11 trying to talk them out of settling for the death penalty on such a clear-cut case, it still served to strengthen the argument and eventually led to the compromise and final amount.

Probably the best point I brought up, there were several but because they involved other evidence I haven't yet mentioned I won't bring up, was wondering when in all this process of additional accident, getting fired, and doctors visits and surgery was this suit filed. Haha it was classic 12 Angry Men, 'oh yah.. yah how about that? I hadn't thought about that..' haha. Luckily one of the girls had read on the door that the suit had been filed 642 days earlier. I did the math and then announced to the group that roughly the suit had been filed approximately 1 year after the surgery and 1 1/2yrs after the accident involving Mr. G. That seemed to suggest that Mr. E had incurred debt, both medical and for the accidents he'd caused, didn't know how to pay, and decided to file suit against Mr. G to try and get money. That helped to convince the other two that Mr. G shouldn't have to pay. We had convinced the one that Mr. G should at least pay for the medical expenses directly related to the actual accident.

So the majority of us were okay with an amount between $3600- $5000. The one was okay with 36 but the other was okay with 5 and didn't wanna move. When we were able to convince the 36 to come up to 4 we were still stuck and people started getting antsy. Lucky for them the voice of reason and compromise spoke and Juror #8 addressed the two obstinate Jurors. "We've discussed this trial extensively and we've come to an amount of $4000 and $5000. Let's each compromise just a bit more and meet at $4500." Done. No objections. Back to the court room and results are announced and case closed.

That's how you get work done baby.. Henry Fonda style