A common dispute between plaintiffs and defendants at any civil trial is how many lines should be placed on the verdict slip for the jury to put down dollar amounts for awards.
Typically, plaintiffs want as many lines as possible, one for each element of damages, such that a jury could possibly require a calculator to tally up all of the numbers in the end. In contrast, defendants push for a single, catch-all line for damages at the end of the verdict slip with the idea that one line will prevent the dollars from adding up.
