Rule 1.955 On verdict

When a jury reaches a decision (called a verdict), the court clerk has to enter that decision into the official record right away. The clerk doesn't wait around or delay this step.

There are two situations where the clerk will not enter judgment right away. The first is when the verdict is a "special verdict," which means the jury only answered specific questions instead of giving a general win or lose decision. In that case, more steps are needed before a final judgment can be entered.

The second situation is when the judge has decided to hold off on entering judgment. This might happen if the judge wants to hear more arguments from the lawyers or think through some legal issues before making the case final. In both of these situations, the clerk waits for the judge to give the go ahead before entering judgment.