Judgment notwithstanding verdict

Judgment notwithstanding the verdict, or J.N.O.V. for short (Lat. Judgment Non Obstante Veredicto) is the practice in American courts whereby the presiding judge in a criminal or civil case may overrule the decision of a jury and reverse or amend their verdict. More often requested in civil cases, this remedy permits the judge to exercise discretion to alter a judgment which cannot stand as a matter of law. A losing attorney's motion for a J.N.O.V. is rarely granted by judges, and only in cases, for example, where a jury awards civil damages that are grossly excessive, grossly inadequate, or wholly unsupportable by law. In criminal cases in the U.S., only the defendant (and not the prosecution) may move for a J.N.O.V.

See the Seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution which provides that no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law. This amendment, part of the Bill of Rights, was adopted in reaction to the practice of the British colonial courts which would often overrule verdicts handed up by colonial jurymen.