On January 31, 2024, the Appellate Division, Second Department threw out a defense verdict following a bifurcated jury trial of a motor vehicle accident. The plaintiff/pedestrian claimed that while crossing Brighton Beach Avenue at its intersection with Ocean Parkway (in Brooklyn), within the crosswalk the front bumper of the defendants' vehicle struck the right side of her right leg. The defendant driver raised the typical defense that the plaintiff/pedestrian walked into the side of his vehicle between his front bumper and front tire. Personal injury trials in Brooklyn, Staten Island, Long Island and Westchester counties are generally bifurcated so that in phase 1 of the trial the jury only decides the liability issues: whether the defendant is at fault and whether plaintiff shares some percentage of fault. If the jury finds the defendant at fault the trial proceeds to phase 2 which is the damages trial when the jury first hears the details of the injuries and the testimony of medical experts. 

A finding in favor of the defendant saves time because the jury will never hear any evidence about the plaintiff's injuries in what would be phase 2 of the trial. Generally, defense attorney's prefer bifurcated trials believing it may reduce or eliminate sympathy for the plaintiff when jury is deciding only issues of fault. There is a common sense exception to the general rule favoring bifurcated trials over unified trials that presented here. Before the trial started, the plaintiff's attorney unsuccessfully argued for a unified trial in light of the discrepancy between each parties version of how the accident occurred. Plaintiff's orthopedic surgeon submitted a sworn statement that "the location and pattern of plaintiff's tibial plateau and fibula fractures demonstrated that she was struck on the right side of her lower leg by the front bumper or front end of a vehicle while she was in front of it and that her injuries could not have been caused by walking into the side of a moving vehicle" as defendant claimed. Since the jury never had the opportunity to consider the injuries in phase 1 of the trial, the defense verdict was vacated and a new unified trial was ordered. Marisova v Collins-Brewster, 2024 N.Y. Slip Op. 00414