DOI: 10.3886/icpsr06232.v1
title: Jury Verdicts Database for Cook County, Illinois, and All Counties in California, 1960-1984
title: Version 1

description: This data collection contains information on jury verdict 
 civil cases in Cook County, Illinois, and all counties in California. 
 The RAND Corporation's Institute for Criminal Justice began this study 
 in the early 1980s in response to widespread public interest in the 
 magnitude of dollar verdicts returned in civil cases. The goal was to 
 record salient information found in court reporter publications to 
 allow for a wide range of future research. Two such publications were 
 chosen because of their favorable reputations and because they both 
 dated back to 1960: the "Cook County Jury Verdict Reporter" of 
 Chicago, Illinois, and "Jury Verdicts Weekly" of Santa Rosa, 
 California. The collection of data for this study was conducted in two 
 phases. Phase I included cases from 1960-1979, and Phase II coded cases 
 from 1980-1984, including a small number of cases from 1985. In both 
 phases, only cases in which a jury reached a definitive outcome 
 (including deadlocked or hung juries) were included. In Phase I, only 
 San Francisco County cases from the California reporter publication 
 were included. In Phase II, all California counties were included. For 
 all cases in Phase I, a Main Form was completed that included 
 jurisdiction, court type, dates of incidents and trial, information 
 about parties involved, trial occurrences, outcome of trial, awards, 
 and fees. In addition to this Main Form, at least one of nine different 
 case-type forms was completed: Common Carrier-Passenger Form, Dram Shop 
 Form, Injuries on Property/Attractive Nuisance Form, Malpractice Form, 
 Miscellaneous Form, Products Liability Form, Street Hazards/Highway 
 Construction Form, Traffic/Pedestrian/Rider Form, and Work Injuries and 
 FELA Form. These forms contained questions regarding the behavior of 
 each party in the case and other characteristics and facts relevant to 
 the case. A Jury Verdicts Form was completed for all cases in Phase II. 
 This form picked up general case-level and defendant-specific data such 
 as dates and length of trial, case outcome, original number of parties 
 involved, and collapsing of multiple defendants into one case. For each 
 plaintiff, a Plaintiff Information Form was filled out containing 
 general plaintiff information such as losses claimed and the coder's 
 assessment of the degree of the plaintiff's comparative negligence. 
 This form also indicated which of the loss forms was coded for this 
 plaintiff (only one loss form was completed for each plaintiff): Death 
 Action, Personal Injuries, or Money Damages. Each form contained basic 
 information about the outcome of the case, specific damages claimed by 
 the plaintiff, and loss-specific data. Additionally, an Ancillary 
 Action Form was completed for any associated claims that were 
 adjudicated at the time of the main case, such as counter-suits by 
 defendants. The questions on this form were the same as those on the 
 main Jury Verdicts Form. Finally, this study includes an Integrated 
 Jury Verdicts Database (Part 33) containing data from both phases to 
 permit easier analysis of data from all years. This database contains 
 five sections: (1) the basic trial information, which includes the 
 trial dates and lengths, reporter source, and jurisdiction, (2) the 
 main case information, which includes more detailed data about the case 
 such as number of parties involved, case type, types of losses claimed, 
 and total compensatory and punitive awards, (3) information about the 
 first ancillary action, (4) information about the second ancillary 
action, and (5) a listing of all the forms used.
description: San Francisco cases found in "Jury Verdicts Weekly" 
 published from 1960 to 1979, and all cases published from 1980 to 
 mid-1985, one out of every four traffic, pedestrian, or common carrier 
 cases in the "Cook County Jury Verdicts Reporter" published from 1960 
 to 1979, plus all other cases in those issues, and one out of every 
 four traffic or common carrier cases in the "Cook County Jury Verdicts 
 Reporter" published from 1980 to mid-1985, plus all other cases in 
those issues.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Phase I Main Form Data
DS2: SAS Data Definition Statements for Phase I Main Form Data
DS3: Phase I Common Carrier-Passenger Form Data
DS4: SAS Data Definition Statements for Phase I Common Carrier-Passenger Form Data
DS5: Phase I Dram Shop Form Data
DS6: SAS Data Definition Statements for Phase I Dram Shop Form Data
DS7: Phase I Injuries on Property/Attractive Nuisance Form Data
DS8: SAS Data Definition Statements for Phase I Injuries on Property/ Attractive Nuisance Form Data
DS9: Phase I Malpractice Form Data
DS10: SAS Data Definition Statements for Phase I Malpractice Form Data
DS11: Phase I Miscellaneous Form Data
DS12: SAS Data Definition Statements for Phase I Miscellaneous Form Data
DS13: Phase I Products Liability Form Data
DS14: SAS Data Definition Statements for Phase I Products Liability Form Data
DS15: Phase I Street Hazards/Highway Construction Form Data
DS16: SAS Data Definition Statements for Phase I Street Hazards/Highway Construction Form Data
DS17: Phase I Traffic/Pedestrian/Rider Form Data
DS18: SAS Data Definition Statements for Phase I Traffic, Pedestrian, Rider Form Data
DS19: Phase I Work Injuries and FELA Form Data
DS20: SAS Data Defintion Statements for Phase I Work Injuries and FELA Form Data
DS21: Phase II Jury Verdicts Form Data
DS22: SAS Data Definition Statements for Phase II Jury Verdicts Form Data
DS23: Phase II Plaintiff Information Form Data
DS24: SAS Data Definition Statements for Phase II Plaintiff Information Form Data
DS25: Phase II Personal Injury Form Data
DS26: SAS Data Definition Statements for Phase II Personal Injury Form Data
DS27: Phase II Death Action Form Data
DS28: SAS Data Definition Statements for Phase II Death Action Form Data
DS29: Phase II Money Damages Form Data
DS30: SAS Data Definition Statements for Phase II Money Damages Form Data
DS31: Phase II Ancillary Action Form Data
DS32: SAS Data Definition Statements for Phase II Ancillary Action Form Data
DS33: Integrated Database
DS34: SAS Data Definition Statements for Integrated Database
description: All civil cases ending with trial by jury in Cook County, 
Illinois, or California.