Three Things A Jury Isn’t Allowed To Know
Michael Babboni
Law
Being injured due to someone else’s carelessness or negligence isn’t just unfair; it is illegal and can be addressed by civil law. However, this kind of injury isn’t considered a criminal act, so the people responsible don’t typically face criminal charges or jail time, but if found culpable by a jury in a trial, they will literally have to pay for what they’ve done, either out of their own pocket or those of the insurance company they hold a policy with.Many people expect from watching or reading about trials that a jury will make a decision based on the evidence presented to them. Once they get ready for their day in court, it may surprise many people that not everything you might consider to be evidence that can help your case is admissible in court as evidence. Here are three of the things that your lawyer will not be allowed to disclose to a jury for their final decision in your case.
Insurance & Policy Limits
To prevent a jury from being prejudiced against a defendant by thinking, “It doesn’t matter, this person doesn’t have to pay for anything anyway,” insurance companies, insurance policies, and policy limits are not discussed during the trial.
The court effectively “pretends” that the person who will pay is the individual, not the insurance company the defendant holds a policy with.
Ticket Recipients
Suppose a car accident happens as the result of reckless driving, speeding, or some other act of driving negligence. In that case, the police, if they have enough evidence to satisfy them, will issue a ticket for breaking a traffic law. As surprising as it may be to hear this, in the case of personal injury trials involving vehicular incidents, a jury is not allowed to know that a person received a ticket.
The only exception to this is if a person is charged and pleads guilty, and the guilty admission is on record. Otherwise, pleading “no contest” and paying the ticket means no admission in court.
Crash Reports
This is probably the most surprising omission from the point of view of a plaintiff. When collisions occur where another driver is at fault for causing the incident, the police write a “crash report.” This goes into great detail about the nature of the accident scene and even includes any potential statements that the participants may have made at the time, including admission of fault.
However, a crash report cannot be entered into evidence in the case of a personal injury accident trial. This is done because the police want to discourage lying as much as possible over the course of their own investigation. So crash reports are considered official police documents but can’t act as evidence in court. That doesn’t mean admissions of guilt, especially if caught on a camera, can’t be used; it just means the official crash report and all of its accident data can’t be entered.
If you’ve been injured due to someone else’s carelessness, talk to a personal injury attorney about getting the compensation you are owed.