CTL,
I now confess my sin. In my misspent youth I watched TV. Among my favorite shows were”Perry Mason”(#2 on the ABA list of best lawyer shows), “Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law” (#12) and “Judd for the Defense” (#22). I also saw the original version of “Twelve Angry Men” (excellent psychological study and very Chareidi – not one woman in the whole movie) as well as take-offs on “The Odd Couple” and “All in the Family”.
In any case, TY for the correction. However, my understanding is that a judge can/will only overturn a verdict if he thinks that it is way out of line. On the other hand, there is jury nullification.
As for your semantic disagreement, lehavdil elef alfei hevdalim, Rav Aviner says that a rav who answers a question according to what has already been written in books is not paskening but relating the halacha. “Paskening” means giving a ruling on a new question.
So now for $544,072.11 (the value of 64,000 1958 dollars in today’s money) question. Do you agree with Joseph or me?