A general verdict is the jury’s bottom-line decision stating which side wins, without any explanation of how the jury resolved the disputed facts along the way. In a civil case, if the plaintiff prevails, the verdict also states the total damages the defendant owes. In a criminal case, the jury simply says “guilty” or “not guilty” on each charge. Everything the jury weighed in the deliberation room, which witnesses it believed, how it calculated the award, stays private. The court receives a single conclusion.
What a General Verdict Is
When a jury returns a general verdict, it answers only the ultimate question: does the plaintiff or the defendant prevail? It does not list findings on individual facts, identify which testimony it credited, or break down the damages math. The foreperson fills in the prevailing party’s name on a short verdict form and, where applicable, a single dollar figure.
This all-in-one format gives juries wide latitude. They take the judge’s legal instructions, apply those instructions to the facts as they understand them, and merge everything into one answer. The tradeoff is transparency. Because the jury never spells out its reasoning, neither side gets a detailed roadmap of what worked and what didn’t. Courts accept that tradeoff because the alternative, asking the jury to answer dozens of discrete questions, carries its own problems.
General Verdict vs. Special Verdict
A special verdict inverts the general verdict’s approach. Rather than asking who wins, the court submits a list of specific factual questions. The jury answers each one in writing, and the judge then applies the law to those answers to determine the outcome. Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 49(a), the court can require a special verdict by submitting written questions calling for a brief categorical answer, by providing forms for the jury’s written findings, or by any other method the court considers appropriate.1Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 49 – Special Verdict; General Verdict and Questions
The practical difference matters. A general verdict keeps the jury in control of the result. The jury decides the facts and, in effect, how those facts map onto the legal standard. A special verdict confines the jury to factual findings while the judge handles the legal conclusions. Special verdicts give the court a clearer window into the jury’s thinking, which can make appellate review easier, but complex or overlapping questions can confuse jurors. General verdicts are simpler for the jury to complete and harder for a losing party to pick apart on appeal, since the internal logic stays hidden.
How the Jury Reaches and Delivers One
After closing arguments and the judge’s instructions, the jury retires to a private room to review the testimony and exhibits. The court provides a verdict form, typically a single page with blank spaces for the prevailing party’s name. If the plaintiff wins, the foreperson writes the total monetary award on a separate line. The form is deliberately simple to reduce confusion during an already intense phase of the trial.
In federal civil court, the verdict must be unanimous unless the parties agree otherwise, and at least six jurors must return it.2Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 48 – Number of Jurors; Verdict; Polling State civil cases sometimes allow non-unanimous verdicts by a supermajority, such as five of six or ten of twelve, depending on the jurisdiction. Criminal cases work differently: the Supreme Court held in Ramos v. Louisiana that the Sixth Amendment requires a unanimous verdict to convict a defendant of any serious offense in both federal and state courts.3Supreme Court of the United States. Ramos v. Louisiana, 590 U.S. 83 (2020)
Polling the Jury
Once the foreperson hands the completed form to the bailiff or clerk and it is read aloud, either party can ask the court to poll each juror individually. The court can also poll on its own. Polling confirms that every juror who needed to agree actually does. If the poll reveals a lack of unanimity or insufficient agreement, the court can send the jury back to deliberate further or order a new trial.2Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 48 – Number of Jurors; Verdict; Polling
Polling exists because the dynamics of a jury room can pressure a reluctant juror to go along with the majority. Requiring each juror to confirm the vote in open court gives anyone who felt coerced a final chance to speak up. Defense attorneys often treat polling as a routine safeguard and request it as a matter of course.
General Verdicts with Written Interrogatories
A middle ground exists between the simplicity of a general verdict and the granularity of a special verdict. Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 49(b), the court can submit written factual questions alongside the general verdict form. The jury answers those questions and also returns its overall verdict. The questions give the court a cross-check. If the jury says the defendant wins but also finds that the defendant breached a duty of care and caused the plaintiff’s injuries, something has gone wrong.1Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 49 – Special Verdict; General Verdict and Questions
When the answers to the interrogatories are consistent with each other but contradict the general verdict, the court has three options: enter judgment based on the factual answers despite the verdict, send the jury back for further deliberation, or order a new trial.1Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 49 – Special Verdict; General Verdict and Questions Without the written answers, the court would have no way to detect the inconsistency, and a logically flawed verdict could become a final judgment.
From Verdict to Enforceable Judgment
A verdict is not a judgment. The verdict is the jury’s decision; the judgment is the court’s official order that makes it enforceable. Converting one into the other requires a formal step called entry of judgment. When the jury returns a straightforward general verdict, the clerk enters judgment without waiting for the judge’s direction, preparing, signing, and recording it in the court’s official docket. When the jury returns a general verdict accompanied by answers to written interrogatories, the court must first approve the form of the judgment before the clerk enters it.4Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 58 – Entering Judgment
The date the clerk enters judgment on the docket is the critical date in the post-trial timeline. It starts the clock on post-trial motions (28 days for a motion for a new trial or a renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law) and on filing an appeal (30 days in most civil cases).5Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 59 – New Trial; Altering or Amending a Judgment Missing those deadlines usually means losing the right to challenge the result at all.
Challenging a General Verdict After Trial
A general verdict’s opacity can cut both ways. It is hard to challenge, but it is not bulletproof. Federal procedure gives a losing party several ways to attack the outcome after the jury has spoken.
Judgment as a Matter of Law
Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50, a party can ask the judge to override the jury’s verdict if no reasonable jury could have reached that conclusion on the evidence. The party must first raise the argument before the case goes to the jury. If the jury then returns an unfavorable verdict, the party can renew the motion within 28 days of judgment entry. The court will grant it only if the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, still lacks a legally sufficient basis for any reasonable jury to have found the way it did.6Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 50 – Judgment as a Matter of Law in a Jury Trial This is a high bar, and courts treat it that way.
Motion for a New Trial
A motion for a new trial under Rule 59 covers broader ground. The court can grant one for any reason that has traditionally justified a new trial in federal court, including errors in jury instructions, newly discovered evidence, juror misconduct, or a verdict against the clear weight of the evidence. The motion must be filed within 28 days of judgment entry. The court can also order a new trial on its own within the same 28-day window, provided it states its reasons.5Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 59 – New Trial; Altering or Amending a Judgment
Remittitur
When a jury awards damages the court considers excessive, the judge can order remittitur, a reduction of the award. Rather than ordering a full new trial on damages, the court gives the plaintiff a choice between accepting a lower amount or going through a new trial. The plaintiff must consent for remittitur to take effect. The reverse procedure, additur, is not available in federal court. The Supreme Court held in Dimick v. Schiedt that increasing a jury’s damage award without the plaintiff’s consent violates the Seventh Amendment.7Legal Information Institute. Dimick v. Schiedt, 293 U.S. 474 (1935)
Winning a general verdict also does not mean collecting money the next day. Under Rule 62, execution on a federal judgment is automatically stayed for 30 days after entry, giving the losing party time to decide whether to appeal or arrange a longer stay by posting a bond.8Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 62 – Stay of Proceedings to Enforce a Judgment Only after that window closes, with no stay in place, does the general verdict’s dollar figure start generating the collection remedies that make it worth anything in the real world.