A California civil jury fills out a CACI verdict form by answering its numbered questions in order, stopping wherever the form tells you to stop, writing dollar amounts on each damages line that applies, allocating percentages of fault if the form asks for them, and having the presiding juror sign and date the document before it goes back to the judge. The form is built to walk you through the decision in the right sequence, so the single most important rule is to follow its instructions literally rather than jumping ahead.
What You Receive in the Jury Room
The verdict form that reaches the jury room is one the judge has already settled on after reviewing both sides’ proposals. Attorneys select forms from the CACI “VF” series that match the causes of action in the case, customize them with the parties’ names, and submit any proposed special-finding questions in writing before closing argument.1Judicial Branch of California. Rule 3.1580 Request for Special Findings by Jury By the time you see the form, those fights are over. Your job is to answer what is on the page.
Most CACI forms are special verdicts, meaning you find the facts and the judge applies the law to those facts.2California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure Section 624 That is why the questions look narrow and factual rather than asking who should “win.”
Answering the Liability Questions in Order
CACI verdict forms use strict if/then logic. On VF-400, the single-defendant negligence form, question one asks whether the defendant was negligent. If the answer is no, the form tells you to “stop here, answer no further questions, and have the presiding juror sign and date this form.”3Justia. CACI No. VF-400 Negligence – Single Defendant Only a “yes” moves you to question two, which asks whether that negligence was a substantial factor in causing the plaintiff’s harm. Another “no” ends deliberation the same way.
Products-liability forms work the same way but add more factual steps. VF-1200 first asks whether the defendant manufactured, distributed, or sold the product, then whether the product had a manufacturing defect when it left the defendant’s hands, and then whether that defect was a substantial factor in causing harm.4Justia. CACI No. VF-1200 Strict Products Liability – Manufacturing Defect Each “no” stops the process. You only reach damages after answering “yes” to every liability question the form puts in front of you.
Do not skip ahead to the dollar amounts to see what you think the case is “worth” and then back-fill the liability answers. A damages figure written on a form where the jury answered “no” to a liability question is one of the classic internal inconsistencies that sends the jury back to the room.
Filling In the Damages Lines
Once liability is established, the form breaks damages into separate categories, and you fill in a dollar figure for each line that applies. California law requires that economic and noneconomic losses be kept apart, because the two are treated differently under the state’s joint-liability rules.5California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code CIV 1431.2 The usual lines are:
- Past economic damages, meaning lost earnings, lost profits, medical expenses, and other out-of-pocket losses the plaintiff has already incurred.
- Future economic damages, meaning the same categories projected forward.
- Past noneconomic damages, meaning physical pain, mental suffering, and other intangible harms already experienced.
- Future noneconomic damages, meaning pain, suffering, and related harms expected going forward.
Economic damages are “objectively verifiable monetary losses.” Noneconomic damages are “subjective, non-monetary losses” like pain, suffering, emotional distress, and loss of companionship.5California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code CIV 1431.2 Write a number on every line that fits the evidence, and leave a line blank only if the form permits it; a blank where a dollar amount belongs is another common defect that will send the form back.
Allocating Comparative Fault
If the defense argued that the plaintiff or someone else shares responsibility, you will see a comparative-fault form such as VF-402. The important instruction here is counterintuitive: calculate the total damages first, without reducing them for anyone’s fault.6Justia. CACI No. VF-402 Negligence – Fault of Plaintiff and Others at Issue You write the full amount of the plaintiff’s harm.
Later questions then ask whether the plaintiff (and any relevant nonparties) was also negligent and whether that negligence contributed to the harm. The final question asks you to assign a percentage of responsibility to every party and nonparty found to have contributed, and those percentages must total 100.6Justia. CACI No. VF-402 Negligence – Fault of Plaintiff and Others at Issue The judge, not the jury, does the arithmetic to reduce the plaintiff’s recovery by the plaintiff’s share of fault. Two mistakes to watch for: percentages that do not add up to 100, and reducing the damages number yourself. Either one makes the form internally inconsistent.
Punitive Damages
Punitive damages have their own section or a separate verdict form, and the standard of proof is higher. The plaintiff must prove by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant acted with malice, oppression, or fraud.7California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code CIV 3294 CACI No. 3940 defines those terms in plain language: malice is intentional harm or willful disregard of someone’s safety, oppression is subjecting someone to cruel hardship with knowledge of it, and fraud is deliberately hiding or misrepresenting an important fact.8Justia. CACI No. 3940 Punitive Damages – Individual Defendant – Trial Not Bifurcated
If you find that heightened standard is met, you then decide the amount. The instruction tells you to weigh three factors: how reprehensible the conduct was, the relationship between the punitive award and the actual harm caused, and the defendant’s financial condition. The form explicitly warns you not to inflate the award because the defendant has deep pockets and not to punish the defendant for harm done to anyone other than the plaintiff.8Justia. CACI No. 3940 Punitive Damages – Individual Defendant – Trial Not Bifurcated
How Many Jurors Must Agree
Civil verdicts in California are not unanimous. The California Constitution lets three-fourths of the jury render a verdict,9California Legislative Information. California Constitution Article I Section 16 which on a twelve-person panel means nine jurors must agree. That same nine-of-twelve threshold applies to every answer you record: each liability question, each causation question, each damages line, and each comparative-fault percentage. The same nine jurors do not need to agree on every question, but nine must agree on each one you fill in. If you cannot get nine votes on a particular question, tell the judge; the court can either send you back for more deliberation or declare a mistrial on the unresolved issues.
Signing, Delivering, and the Polling Step
When every required question is answered, the presiding juror signs and dates the form and notifies the bailiff that the jury has reached a verdict. The panel returns to the courtroom, the presiding juror hands the document to the bailiff, and the bailiff delivers it to the judge. The judge checks that every required question is answered, the signatures are in place, and the logic holds together, and the clerk then reads the verdict aloud.10California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 618
Either side can ask that the jury be polled. The court or clerk asks each juror individually whether the announced verdict is that juror’s verdict. If more than one-fourth say no, meaning fewer than nine agree, the jury is sent back to deliberate further.11California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure CCP 618 If nine or more confirm, the verdict stands and the jury is discharged.
If the Form Is Incomplete or Inconsistent
Judges review the form before the clerk reads it because errors happen often enough to plan for. If the verdict is informal or insufficient, meaning it skips a question, contains numbers that do not reconcile, or does not address every submitted issue, the jury can correct it with the court’s guidance, or the judge can send the panel back to the jury room to fix it.12California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure Section 619 Common problems include comparative-fault percentages that do not total 100, a damages figure entered on a form where the jury answered “no” to a liability question, and a blank line where a dollar amount should sit.
Catching these in the jury room is far easier than fixing them later. Before the presiding juror signs, read back through the form from question one, confirm that every answer you were required to reach is written in, confirm that nine jurors agreed on each one, and confirm that any percentage allocation adds to 100. If anything looks off, discuss and fix it before you tell the bailiff you are done.