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Bronx Cheer
Inner-City Jurors Tend to Rebuff Prosecutors And to Back Plaintiffs
They Identify With the Poor And Dislike the Powerful, Say Lawyers on Both Sides
No Negligence, but Pay Up
BY ARTHUR S. HAYES Factors at Work Convinced it couldn’t lose, the
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL It’s possible the underlying city didn’t try to settle the case.
NEW YORK – Perhaps the Bronx reason has something to do with Mr. Bibuld’s boss, Leonard
County Courthouse should post a race–New York’s borough of the Olarsch, didn’t think a judge
warning: People who get sued Bronx is mostly black and would even let it go to a jury. In
here run an increased risk of suf- Hispanic–but some observers a file folder, he jotted down:
fering staggering losses. term income and social class “Dismissal case. This cannot be
Or maybe it doesn’t need to more important. “If it’s a poor scope of employment.” Another
put up any signs: Tom Wolfe white plaintiff vs. a wealthy attorney, who turned the case over
spread the word in his novel minority defendant, the victim to Mr. Bibuld early last year, told
“Bonfire of the Vanities,” in empathy is still there,” says Allen him, “It’s an easy case; don’t
which he declared, “The Bronx H. Isaac, a Manhattan litigator worry about it.”
jury is a vehicle for redistributing who defends corporations and Surprising Award
the wealth.” landlords here. But last April, a Bronx jury
Bronx juries, the data show, Paul Bibuld, a lawyer with awarded the plaintiff about $9
find the defendant liable in a lop- New York City’s Corporation million. The trial judge cut the
sided 72% of civil cases, com- Counsel, which frequently repre- award to $2.8 million, but the city
pared with a national average of sents the defendant in personal- still took a big hit. The plaintiff’s
57%. Damage awards in this injury suits in the Bronx, knows lawyer contends that the verdict
New York City borough average the phenomenon firsthand. He and award were justified. The
$1.2 million, double those in recalls defending a case in which case is under appeal.
mostly suburban and affluent the city was sued after an off-duty Similar results are evident in
Westchester County to the north, policeman shot a friend, suppos- such cities as Washington, St.
according to the New York Jury edly while the cop was cleaning Louis, Philadelphia and Chicago.
Verdict Reporter. his gun. The evidence suggested, Juries in suburbs of these cities
But lawyers are learning however, that the two men had side more often with civil defen-
through research and experience been roughhousing in the cop’s dants.
that the Bronx-jury phenomenon apartment when the gun went off. In St. Louis, for example, data
isn’t unique. Juries in many other City lawyers determined to their for 1989 show that plaintiffs won
urban areas also tend to favor civil satisfaction that the gun wasn’t 80% of the verdicts in personal-
plaintiffs and go easy on criminal being cleaned when it fired–rul- injury trials in the city but only
defendants. Lawyers think such ing out any credible argument that 48% in the suburbs. The gap was
juries identify with people whom the cop was acting within the still evident in 1991, but narrow-
they perceive as victims, to the scope of his employment and that er–a 62% plaintiffs’ success rate
detriment of police, prosecutors therefore the city could be held in the city, 53% in the suburbs.
and deep-pocket civil defendants. liable. Judy A. Riley, managing editor of
Jury Verdict Reporting Service in Ms. Cohen says two black too strong. ‘But we’re in the
St. Louis, believes plaintiffs lost jurors said corporate defendants Bronx.’ they say.”
ground in the city for three rea- should pay even if they do noth- Forum Shopping
sons: Gentrification over the past ing wrong. Two others, she adds, The belief that Bronx juries
10 years put more affluent whites said paying the plaintiff would be favor plaintiffs is so strong, says
on juries, rule changes made it good public relations for the com- Bronx County Judge Hansel
tougher to avoid jury duty, and pany. The defendant read the McGee, that some accident vic-
insurance companies mounted an writing on the wall and settled the tims try to claim the borough as a
advertising campaign against case rather than go to trial. Based proper place for their suits by
high damage awards. on her study, Ms. Cohen says, moving in with a relative who
In Chicago’s Cook County in “We can’t conclude that all inner- lives here–a tactic that’s clearly
the first eight months of last year, city blacks have this phenome- fraudulent. Judge McGee adds
juries awarded winning plaintiffs non. But I think it should be that some plaintiffs who do live in
an average of $675,012, com- investigated further.” the Bronx try to stretch the rules
pared with $194,021 in eight While behavioral scientists by filing suits here even if an acci-
mostly white suburban counties, conduct such studies, New York dent took place elsewhere. The
according to the Chicago Jury lawyers tailor their trial strategies only recourse for defense attor-
Reporter. with the urban jury in mind. Mr. neys before a personal-injury case
Differing Views of Justice Isaac, the civil-case defense goes to trial is to scrutinize the fil-
Why the disparities? Lawyers lawyer, says one of the keys to ings to make sure venue is proper.
for both plaintiffs and defendants winning in the Bronx is to pick “I get motions on top of motions
say urban poor and working-class jurors “who know the value of a to change venue,” Judge McGee
minorities have a different sense dollar, and when they swear to says.
of justice than wealthier jurors. God to be objective, they really Although the verdict on the
To the poor, lawyers contend, the mean it.” Such jurors tend to be behavior of urban juries in civil
powerful and the affluent seen older religious people, former tar- cases is nearly unanimous, there’s
alien and often inimical, and so gets of lawsuits, property owners some dispute about how far these
such jurors tend to side with and people who work with juries go in giving criminal defen-
plaintiffs, whom they see as fel- money, such a bookkeepers. dants the benefit of the doubt.
low victims. Mr. Isaac says most other Bronx District Attorney Robert
Cynthia Cohen, a research Bronx jurors will look you Johnson contends that minorities,
psychologist and jury consultant straight in the eye, tell you they themselves frequent victims of
in Los Angeles, learned how deep can be scrupulously fair and real- crime, are tough on defendants.
the sympathy for plaintiffs can ly believe it. “But subconscious- Minority-dominated grand juries,
run among African-Americans ly,” he says, “they’re not fair and he says, often fail to bring charges
when she conducted mock civil objective.” against police officers accused of
trials in Philadelphia two years Despite careful jury selection, shooting blacks or Hispanics. Mr.
ago. Working for a civil defen- lawyers for deep-pocket defen- Johnson, who is black, says that
dant that she declines to name, dants expect to lose often; so they the news media have focused on
she gathered 40 blacks and 20 concentrate on preparing the trial the few cases involving members
whites to play jurors. After hear- record for appeals. Plaintiffs of minority groups in which an
ing the facts of the personal- lawyers virtually count on win- acquittal seems shocking and that
injury claim brought by an indi- ning. Mr. Bibuld, the lawyer for such cases don’t represent a pat-
vidual plaintiff, 84% of the blacks the city, says some plaintiffs’ tern.
said they believed the defendant’s attorneys button-hole defense However, Mr. Johnson’s pred-
story. Yet after questioning the lawyers in the courthouse hall- ecessor, Paul T. Gentile, dis-
blacks further, she found that ways and, seeking leverage to get agrees. Mr. Gentile, a white
90% would have awarded money a hefty settlement, “love to who’s now in private practice,
to the plaintiff–even though they remind you that you’re in the says that Bronx juries have
thought that the defendant wasn’t Bronx.” He adds: “They may become skeptical of police testi-
negligent. even concede that their case is not mony and that corroboration from
non-police witnesses has become the more apt you are to have a fair
nearly essential in prosecuting a verdict,” says Abraham
case. “When I first began in the Abramovsky, a Fordham law
D.A.’s office 20 years ago, the school professor.
strongest evidence you could Plaintiff’s lawyers also ask
bring was police testimony,” Mr. why jurors from more middle-
Gentile says. “Now, if the only class communities should be
evidence you can bring is police applauded just because they are
testimony, it’s the weakest case.” more likely to favor defendants
Finding a Deeper Story and grant smaller damage awards,
A Bronx jury generated head- perhaps out of fear of rising insur-
lines last summer when it acquit- ance premiums and property
ted a defendant whom numerous taxes. Such speculation shouldn’t
witnesses had seen pumping two affect a calculation of how much
bullets into the back of an an injured party is due, they say.
unarmed man on the steps of the “I think the awards in
Bronx County Courthouse–in Westchester County are unjustifi-
broad daylight. The jurors ably low,” says Joseph Irom, a
seemed to look past the immedi- plaintiff’s attorney. “Bronx is one
ate facts to the story behind the liberal county,” he concedes, “but
shooting: The victim, who sur- nobody cares about the reac-
vived, had shot and killed the tionary county [Westchester],
defendant’s son, then harassed the where you can’t win a case.”
defendant for months. The
District Attorney’s office had Original on A1, A6
failed to revoke his bail despite
complaints of harassment.
The shooter in the case at trial,
several jurors said in interviews,
was the real victim, and they
viewed his actions as self-defense
even though the legal definition is
much narrower than their own.
They acquitted, they said, in the
interest of justice.
Criminal-defense lawyers
defend Bronx juries. They con-
tend most suburban, middle-class
jurors, though swearing other-
wise, are inclined to believe that a
criminal defendant is guilty. But
Bronx jurors, defense lawyers
argue, truly require prosecutors to
prove guilt beyond a reasonable
doubt, and they tend to have a dis-
tinct–and legitimate–idea of
what’s reasonable.
“The fact that they will look at
police testimony with greater
scrutiny makes them more analyt-
ical. The more analytical the jury,
