I'd like to think that this was true... but if you look at some of the idiotic civil judgments that have been recorded, such as the successful lawsuit against McDonald's over the burn case involving coffee served not just at industry standards, but at a temperature comparable to those produced by home coffee machines, you gotta wonder. And while I can't lay my hands on the judgment, I've run across at least one case of a successful negligence suit by a would-be thief injured in an an attempted house burglary. These incidents were both jury decisions, btw.
I agree that in places such as Singapore, China and other countries where there is, in effect, no independent judiciary system, your odds of getting justice are a lot lower (and probably tied more closely to your class status and annual income, though the phrase, 'how much justice can you afford?', is one that often comes up in (North) American contexts as well). And we have a crucial appeals court system which adds an important check-and-balance mechanism within the judicial system. But any given jury, on any given day, can go haywire. Just go through the Horror Stories forum archives to see some choice examples of U.S. jury decisions from Hell...
