Med Mal News

NY Bill Would Allow Juror Substitutions After Start of Deliberations

A bill that would grant New York's civil courts the discretion to retain alternate jurors on the panel through deliberations cleared the State's Assembly Judiciary Committee on June 5. The bill, A10376/Sbb58-A, was submitted at the urging of Chief Administrative Judge A. Gail Prudenti's Advisory Committee on Civil Practice in an effort to put a stop to one source of judicial and litigant resource waste. A bill justification memo explained: “In cases of several weeks' duration, classically commercial, medical malpractice or products liability cases, a mistrial results in a tremendous waste of time and money for the litigants, the attorneys, and the Court, and frustration for the remaining jurors who have served throughout a prolonged trial in an effort to render a verdict.”

Currently, six primary jurors are impaneled, and alternate jurors are dismissed before deliberations begin. After that point, if one of the jurors cannot serve, the parties may agree to continue with just five members, but they are not required to do so. If the bill is passed, judges could opt to keep alternates in reserve in case of a juror's illness or inability to continue serving, but those alternate jurors would not be permitted to deliberate unless a regular panel member dropped out.

NY Bill Would Allow Juror Substitutions After Start of Deliberations

A bill that would grant New York's civil courts the discretion to retain alternate jurors on the panel through deliberations cleared the State's Assembly Judiciary Committee on June 5. The bill, A10376/Sbb58-A, was submitted at the urging of Chief Administrative Judge A. Gail Prudenti's Advisory Committee on Civil Practice in an effort to put a stop to one source of judicial and litigant resource waste. A bill justification memo explained: “In cases of several weeks' duration, classically commercial, medical malpractice or products liability cases, a mistrial results in a tremendous waste of time and money for the litigants, the attorneys, and the Court, and frustration for the remaining jurors who have served throughout a prolonged trial in an effort to render a verdict.”

Currently, six primary jurors are impaneled, and alternate jurors are dismissed before deliberations begin. After that point, if one of the jurors cannot serve, the parties may agree to continue with just five members, but they are not required to do so. If the bill is passed, judges could opt to keep alternates in reserve in case of a juror's illness or inability to continue serving, but those alternate jurors would not be permitted to deliberate unless a regular panel member dropped out.