Washington–If you are a plaintiff in a civil suit and you want the best odds of winning at trial, you’re better off trying your case to a judge than a jury. But if you’re seeking the best shot at a jackpot award, then you should certainly go with a jury.

That’s one conclusion to be gleaned from a statistics-laden Department of Justice analysis of nearly 16,000 tort, contract and property cases tried in state courts in the nation’s 75 largest counties in 1996.