Five out of the six jurors must agree upon each part of the verdict. If the patient wins the lawsuit, the attorneys for the doctors and hospitals routinely ask the court to dismiss the verdict as unreasonable and excessive in amount. The losing party may then appeal the judgment to a higher court. If the losing party chooses to appeal, it must file a notice of appeal within thirty days after it has received the judgment. It then has six to nine months to have the record of the trial printed up and to prepare a legal argument claiming that somehow the trial was unfair.
Appellate courts take several months to make decisions on appeals.