A jury’s verdict is a critical milestone in the life of a civil action. But certain things must happen before the jury’s verdict is recognized as binding. The raw materials produced by the jury—its answers to the questions posed to it by the court—must be refined into a finished product. The party who prevails at trial must ensure (and the loser should insist) that the refinement takes place, and that the verdict be “perfected.” Any notion that the steps in the refinement process are mere minutiae was dispelled by the Court of Appeals in Duffy v. Vogel, 12 N.Y.3d 169 (2009), in which the court stressed the importance of perfecting a jury’s verdict, concluding that the failure of a trial court to poll the jury—the second of three elements of a perfected verdict—may require a new trial.
This article will examine the three elements of a perfected verdict, with special emphasis on the requirement that the jury be polled.
Elements of Perfected Verdict
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