grammatical number - Jury was divided or Jury were divided?





Are collective nouns always plural, or are certain ones singular?
Is “staff” plural?



What is correct? The jury was divided or The jury were divided? I am told that the latter is accurate because all of the jury do not have the same opinion in the particular case. Then, how does the subject verb agreement fit in 'The jury is still out' ? I mean, 'The jury is out' would allude to a situation were the opinion on a matter is (are?) still divided.




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