Screen shot of proceedings in Griffin v. Albanese Enterprise Inc. Click here to watch the proceeding.

Jacksonville, FL— In another time, August’s roughly $354,000 award in a Florida battery trial may not have made a ripple in the news. Though the case's details were grim, an exotic dancer beaten by a pair of bouncers after being thrown partially clothed onto a cold nighttime street, the trial and its result would likely have been buried among the thousands of verdicts delivered by juries across the country before the coronavirus pandemic.

But this $354,000 verdict, handed down over Zoom video conference, made national headlines for what it represented. In a state especially ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic and where jury boxes have sat empty for months, that $354,000 award, believed to be the nation’s first binding verdict in a fully remote, state court jury trial, represented a pioneering return of civil jury proceedings during the coronavirus age. 

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In medical malpractice trials, lawyers must walk a fine line between giving jurors enough information to understand the terminology that’s key to the case, while not overwhelming, or worse, boring them. As part of a wide-ranging interview with CVN, Searcy Denney’s Ed Ricci and Matt Schwencke discussed their approach to med mal trials, including their multimedia-supported education of jurors that set up a $4.9 million verdict for a man that lost his leg after being treated for a blood clot.

Florida Fourth Circuit Court Judge Bruce Anderson and attorney Matthew Kachergus appearing over the Zoom video platform during what is believed to be the nation's first fully remote civil jury trial to reach a binding verdict.

Jacksonville, FL— Jurors Monday awarded more than $354,000 to a Florida woman for the beating she suffered at the hands of a Jacksonville strip club’s bouncers, handing down what is believed to be the nation’s first binding verdict in a fully remote, state court civil jury trial. Griffin v. Albanese Enterprise, Inc.