Personal Injury Law Keeps Jurors In The Dark
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When a jury in a personal injury lawsuit this first introduced to the case, they're told that the name of the case is John Smith vs. Mabel Jones. The jury expected to hear that the name of the case is John Smith vs. Allstate Insurance Co. or John Smith vs. Nationwide Insurance Co.
Most people assume that an insurance company is the defendant in all automobile collision cases.
When the jury learns that the insurance company is not the defendant they're confused. In North Carolina, the law requires that all automobiles be insured. So why wasn't the insurance company named as a defendant in this lawsuit? The jury is concerned that this case is somehow an exception to the law that insurance be available to pay the verdict.
The truth is that the insurance company is the real party in the case. The insurance company will pay every dime of the verdict that the jury has rendered against Mabel Jones up to the limit of its policy.
The law allows the insurance company to " hide " behind its insured in court. Not only is the injured party not allowed to name the insurance company as a defendant, they're not even allowed to refer to the insurance company at trial.
The whole purpose of the law is to keep the jury from knowing that an insurance company will pay the judgment set by their verdict. Is this fair?
The obvious answer is, no, it is not fair to the injured victim of negligence.
Jurors who do not know that the insurance company will pay the verdict, cannot help but be influenced by concerns of what their verdict would do to the individual defendant. Will the nice lady sitting alone with her lawyer at the defense table lose her home because of their verdict? These concerns certainly affect the verdict, which jurors would have otherwise returned. In some cases, jurors return a verdict of " zero " because of concerns about what an adverse verdict would do to the defendant.
Insurance companies laugh at this deception all the way to the bank.