Why Is Insurance Not Disclosed To Juries During Trials?
With few exceptions, Vermont juries are never told that the personal injury claim they are deciding has insurance. That is because there is a rule of evidence that excludes this information because it is thought that it may affect the juries’ determinations and cause higher verdicts.
However, others believe that if the jury thinks that payment of their verdict will come out of the pockets of the individual defendants, this will potentially reduce the amount of verdict. Juries are left to wonder where the money to pay the verdict will come from even if they ask the judge during deliberations. The allowance of this information to the jury requires the court system to engage in a “legal fiction” to the advantage of insurance companies and to the disadvantage of consumers.
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