A verdict form is the official document a jury uses to record its decision and deliver it to the court at the end of a trial. Once the judge accepts a completed form, it becomes the basis for the final judgment, and the trial phase of the case ends. The form converts whatever happened behind the closed doors of the jury room into a written record that carries legal force.
What that document looks like, how many jurors have to sign off, and what happens when something on it doesn’t add up all depend on the type of case and the court it’s in.
The Main Types of Verdict Forms
Courts don’t use a single standard form. The format depends on the complexity of the case and how much the judge wants to see of the jury’s reasoning.
General Verdict
The general verdict is the simplest and most familiar. The jury announces a single bottom-line conclusion: guilty or not guilty in a criminal case, or one party wins over the other in a civil case. In a civil lawsuit where the plaintiff wins, the form includes a blank for a lump-sum damages award. The jury does not explain how it reached its decision. That makes things straightforward for jurors, but it also makes it harder for a judge or appeals court to figure out where the reasoning went wrong if the result seems questionable.
Special Verdict
A special verdict changes the jury’s job. Instead of declaring a winner, the jury answers a series of written factual questions and leaves the legal conclusion to the judge. A special verdict form in a negligence case might ask whether the defendant failed to exercise reasonable care, whether that failure caused the plaintiff’s injury, and what dollar amount would compensate for the harm. The judge then applies the law to those findings to determine the outcome.1Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 49 – Special Verdict; General Verdict and Questions
One wrinkle worth knowing: if the court leaves a factual issue off the special verdict form and nobody objects before the jury begins deliberating, that issue is treated as waived. The court can resolve it, and if it doesn’t, the issue is deemed decided in whatever way supports the final judgment.1Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 49 – Special Verdict; General Verdict and Questions
General Verdict With Written Questions
This hybrid form asks the jury to do both: reach a general verdict for one side and answer specific factual questions. The written answers serve as a check on the overall verdict. If the answers line up with the general verdict, the court enters judgment normally. If the answers contradict the verdict or contradict each other, the judge can send the jury back to deliberate further or order a new trial.1Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 49 – Special Verdict; General Verdict and Questions
Partial Verdicts
In criminal trials involving multiple charges or multiple defendants, the jury doesn’t have to resolve everything at once. If jurors agree on some counts but remain deadlocked on others, they can return a partial verdict covering the counts they have decided. The court accepts the completed portions and can declare a mistrial on the rest, which the government may later retry. The same applies when multiple defendants are tried together: the jury can return a verdict for any defendant it has reached agreement on while continuing to deliberate about the others.2Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure Rule 31 – Jury Verdict
What’s on the Form
Layouts vary by jurisdiction and case type, but most verdict forms share a recognizable set of elements.
- A case caption at the top identifying the court, the case number, and the names of the parties, so the verdict is tied to the correct proceeding.
- A separate section for each legal claim or criminal charge addressed at trial. A civil case with claims for breach of contract and fraud would have the jury answer questions about each claim separately.
- The specific questions the jury must answer or findings it must make, matching the judge’s instructions.
- In civil cases, blanks for the jury to write in dollar amounts. These are often divided into categories such as past medical expenses, future lost income, and pain and suffering, so the judge and the parties can see how the award was allocated.3Ninth Circuit District & Bankruptcy Courts. Model Civil Jury Instructions – 5.2 Measures of Types of Damages
- A signature line for the foreperson to certify that the form reflects the jury’s decision, usually with a date.
How Many Jurors Have to Agree
The required level of agreement depends on whether the case is criminal or civil and whether it’s in federal or state court.
Criminal verdicts must be unanimous. That’s true in every federal criminal trial2Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure Rule 31 – Jury Verdict and, since the Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Ramos v. Louisiana, in every state criminal trial for a serious offense as well.4Constitution Annotated. Amdt6.4.4.3 Unanimity of the Jury
Federal civil cases also require a unanimous verdict by default, though the parties can agree to accept a less-than-unanimous result.5Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 48 – Number of Jurors; Verdict; Polling State civil courts have more flexibility. A number of states allow verdicts based on a supermajority, such as five of six jurors or ten of twelve, rather than requiring full agreement. The specific threshold varies by state and sometimes by the type of civil claim.
Filling Out and Delivering the Form
Once the jury retires to deliberate, one of its first tasks is electing a foreperson. The foreperson runs the discussion, calls for votes, and fills in the verdict form as the group reaches agreement on each question or count.
The mechanics are plain. The foreperson writes in the agreed-upon responses: a dollar figure for damages, “liable” or “not liable,” “guilty” or “not guilty.” Every blank must be completed and every question answered. Skipping a section or leaving an ambiguous answer creates problems that can derail the entire verdict, so jurors are typically instructed to review the form carefully before signing.
When the jury finishes, the foreperson signs and dates the form, and the jury signals the bailiff that it has reached a decision. The jury returns to the courtroom and the form goes to the court clerk. The judge reviews it privately before anything is read aloud, checking for blank fields, contradictory answers, or other defects that would make the verdict legally insufficient.
If the form passes review, the clerk or the judge reads the verdict in open court. At that point, either the judge or either party can request that the jury be polled. Polling means the clerk asks each juror individually whether the announced verdict is their personal verdict. If the poll reveals that the required number of jurors do not actually agree, the judge can send the jury back to deliberate further or order a new trial.5Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 48 – Number of Jurors; Verdict; Polling
When Something on the Form Doesn’t Add Up
Inconsistencies happen, especially on complex special verdict forms with dozens of questions. What happens next depends on the type of form and the nature of the problem.
For a general verdict paired with written questions, the rules lay out a clear hierarchy. If the answers are consistent with each other but conflict with the general verdict, the judge can enter judgment based on the answers alone, send the jury back, or order a new trial. If the answers contradict both each other and the general verdict, the judge must either send the jury back to reconsider or order a new trial outright.1Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 49 – Special Verdict; General Verdict and Questions
Timing matters. To preserve the right to challenge an inconsistency later, the objection generally has to be raised before the jury is dismissed. Once the jurors walk out of the courtroom for the last time, the options narrow sharply. Most courts treat the failure to object before discharge as a waiver, meaning the issue can’t be raised on appeal.
Challenging the Verdict After Trial
A completed verdict form isn’t always the last word. The losing side has two primary tools to challenge the result, both on tight deadlines.
The first is a renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law, sometimes still called by its older name, judgment notwithstanding the verdict. It asks the judge to throw out the jury’s verdict and enter judgment for the other side on the ground that no reasonable jury could have reached that result based on the evidence. To use this option, the moving party must have raised the same argument before the case went to the jury. The motion must be filed within 28 days after judgment is entered.6Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 50 – Judgment as a Matter of Law in a Jury Trial; Related Motion for a New Trial; Conditional Ruling
The second is a motion for a new trial, which argues that something went wrong during the trial itself, such as improper jury instructions, newly discovered evidence, or a verdict that is against the clear weight of the evidence. This motion also carries a 28-day deadline from the entry of judgment.7Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 59 – New Trial; Altering or Amending a Judgment The two motions can be filed together, and often are. Missing the 28-day window is fatal to both.