Legal Definitions - defective verdict

A defective verdict refers to a jury's decision that contains such significant flaws or inconsistencies that a judge cannot legally use it as the basis for a final judgment in a case. These defects can arise from various issues, including procedural errors during the jury's deliberations or contradictions within the verdict's conclusions.

When a verdict is deemed defective, the judge typically has a few options: they might send the jury back for further deliberations to correct the issues, or if the problems are insurmountable, they may declare a mistrial, meaning the trial must start over with a new jury.

Here are some examples illustrating a defective verdict:

• Contradictory Findings: Imagine a civil lawsuit where a plaintiff sues a company for both negligence and breach of contract. The jury returns a verdict form stating that the company was negligent but simultaneously finds that the company did not cause any damages to the plaintiff, even though the entire case revolved around the damages resulting from the alleged negligence. This verdict is contradictory because if negligence occurred, and it was proven to cause harm, there must be some form of damages. A judge cannot logically enter a judgment based on such conflicting conclusions.

• Procedural Irregularity During Deliberations: Consider a criminal trial where, after the jury delivers a guilty verdict, it comes to light that one of the jurors used their smartphone to research legal definitions and prior similar cases, then shared this unauthorized information with other jurors during their private discussions. This external research and sharing violate the strict rules against jurors considering information not presented in court. The verdict would be defective because the deliberation process was tainted by improper outside influence, compromising the fairness of the trial.

• Incomplete Verdict: In a complex property dispute involving several specific claims and counterclaims, the jury returns a verdict form that clearly addresses some of the claims but leaves several others completely blank or ambiguous, failing to provide a decision on all the issues presented for their consideration. Since the jury did not render a complete decision on all the matters they were instructed to resolve, the judge cannot issue a final judgment that fully resolves the entire dispute. The verdict is incomplete and therefore defective.