Mistrial

What Is A Mistrial In A Civil Injury Case?

A mistrial is the judge’s declaration that the trial is over without a valid result. It can happen during jury selection, in the middle of the evidence, or after deliberations begin. Whatever the timing, the effect is the same: the jury is discharged, there is no verdict to enter, and the case returns to the court’s calendar to be tried again unless the parties settle or the claim is otherwise resolved.

North Carolina courts generally leave the decision to the trial judge’s discretion. The judge weighs whether a curative instruction, such as telling the jury to disregard something it heard, can fix the problem. If it cannot, a mistrial is the safer course than a verdict that would likely be set aside later.

Why Does A Judge Declare A Mistrial?

The causes fall into a few familiar groups. Each one is about fairness: the judge has concluded that a verdict reached under these conditions would not be reliable.

What Happens When A North Carolina Jury Is Hung?

A hung jury is the most common cause of a mistrial. North Carolina courts generally require a unanimous verdict in civil cases unless the parties agree otherwise. N.C. R. Civ. P. 48 allows the parties to stipulate that the jury will consist of fewer than 12 people, or that a verdict or finding of a stated majority of the jurors will be taken as the verdict of the jury. Without that kind of agreement, one or two holdout jurors can prevent a verdict on an issue.

When jurors report that they are stuck, the judge usually asks them to keep deliberating for a reasonable time before giving up. If the deadlock is real, the judge declares a mistrial and discharges the jury. The plaintiff keeps the claim, the defendant keeps its defenses, and the case can be tried again before a different jury. The first trial is still useful: both sides have heard the witnesses under oath and seen how the evidence landed.

How Is A Mistrial Different From A Motion For New Trial?

Timing is the key difference. A mistrial ends the trial before there is a verdict. A motion for new trial comes after a verdict and judgment and asks the judge to set the result aside; under Rule 59 it must be served within 10 days after entry of the judgment. A mistrial needs no post-trial motion because there is no judgment to attack.

A party can also ask for a mistrial during trial. When something prejudicial happens, the lawyer objects and moves for a mistrial on the spot. Making that motion promptly matters. A party who stays silent and waits to see the verdict may have a harder time raising the problem later.

How Can Contributory Negligence Lead To A Mistrial In North Carolina?

North Carolina is one of the few places that still applies pure contributory negligence: if the injured person’s own negligence was a proximate cause of the injury, recovery is barred entirely. The defendant has the burden of proving that defense under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-139. Because so much rides on that single issue, jurors can split sharply over whether the plaintiff was even slightly careless, and that kind of split is a common path to a hung jury.

A worked example: a Charlotte driver is hit at an intersection and sues. The defense argues she glanced at her phone just before the crash. After two days of deliberation, ten jurors believe she was not negligent and two believe she was. Without a Rule 48 stipulation the jury cannot return a verdict, and the judge declares a mistrial. The case is set for retrial, and both sides now know exactly which evidence persuaded the jurors and which did not. Many cases settle at this point because the risk of a second trial is clearer.