KNOW WHAT MATTERS BEFORE TRIAL, NOT AFTER

We conduct mock trials, focus groups and attitude surveys for lawyers.  All of these services are described below.

At Jury Solutions, LLC, we help lawyers when they call on the eve of trial, helping them accurately and scientifically assess their true chances of winning or losing.  But you don't have to wait until the eve of trial.  We've been helping lawyers earlier and earlier in the litigation process because jury research is far more effective and cost-efficient when done early on.  Lay-person assessments can provide valuable feedback before the first deposition is taken.  In fact, the best way to use jury research is as a tool to plan out complaints, counter-claims and answers; determining the subject matter of in limine motions; identifying the most important witnesses to depose; and planning out your overall litigation strategy.  

ATTITUDE SURVEYS:

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An Attitude Survey is an easy way to get quick and reliable feedback about a case.  It is a tool that can be used at any point during the litigation life cycle, such as before taking on a new client, before mediation and before a mock trial and/or a real trial.

There are two steps to a survey.  We devise a simple written fact scenario that summarizes both sides of a lawsuit.  The summary outlines each side's legal claim with sufficient detail so that jurors can form an opinion.  We design summaries that have sufficient detail but can be read by a mock juror in about 20 minutes.  Then we follow up with an in-depth phone interview, asking each juror-participant his or her opinion about the case. 

Click here to read what other attorneys say about attitude surveys

How are survey results used?

Here's an example: Say a plaintiff's lawyer has taken on a case and has not yet invested too much time or money litigating the case.  An opportunity arises for mediation and settlement.  This is the plaintiff's first chance to convince the other side of case value and jury appeal.  But more and more, mediators and lawyers aren't interested in what their opponent thinks: They want to see concrete and objective data.  An Attitude Survey allows a litigant to do just that by demonstrating, in an organized and empirical way, what real lay persons think about the case.
 
Compare to the alternative:
Traditionally, lawyers have turned to jury verdict research to learn what certain claims are supposedly worth in certain geographical areas.  There is a major drawback to such an approach: Jury verdict research is simply too blunt of an instrument. Knowing a verdict amount for a type of injury or claim reveals nothing about the underlying reasons that explain why and how a jury arrived at a particular number. 

Verdict amounts are never driven by mere injury alone. For example, in a personal injury case, a claim derives value, not only from the plaintiff's injury (or defendant's culpability) but from the plaintiff's income, vocation, culpability, and post-injury behavior.  These are details that can't be tested from a generic data base of verdict results but they can be tested in an Attitude Survey.

Advantages:  Attitude Surveys are extremely quick and cost-effective, taking very little attorney time and money, and giving litigants a quick reality check about the "jury appeal" of their case.  It also gives litigants deeper insight early on to flag potential problems before they mushroom into fatal flaws during discovery.  Finally, if litigants belatedly realize they need objective feedback and they are on the eve of trial, surveys can give them quick insight into their strengths and weaknesses so settlement opportunities can be more realistically assessed.

FOCUS GROUPS

Focus groups function more like brainstorming sessions and jurors tell us what they think, and what information is most important to them and why.  These sessions are much more informal than mock trials and take much less time to prepare and facilitate.  Jurors still hear case summaries, view critical pieces of evidence and respond to individual questionnaires and group discussions. 

Focus groups can be easily done at any stage of the litigation process but to reap the greatest benefits, they should be done early on, before the first deposition is taken.  

Advantages:  The greatest advantage to an early focus group is that it will unearth problems that are lurking in your case - problems that will inevitably rear their ugly heads when it might be too late to fix them. Lawyers sometimes think that jurors' reactions come out of left field but they don't. Focus groups will tell you exactly where jurors' reactions are coming from, right from the getgo. Knowing this information early on will place you and your client on the same page, allowing you to maximize your goals during the Discovery process and helping you to forge realistic goals and strategies - not just on the eve of trial, but at every stage of the litigation process.  

Using focus groups to prepare a written voir dire questionnaire:  In every high profile case, written questionnaires are suggested to the court. (See Jury Selection: Using Written Questionnaires).  However, questions and answers are of no use if you don’t understand the significance of jurors’ answers. We always conduct mock trials in a way so that we are prepared for jury selection.  However, some clients don't have the time or desire to conduct a mock trial.  In that case, a pre-trial focus group can be a quick and economical way to gain critical knowledge before jury selection.

For example, in a product liability suit, a written questionnaire (with no back-up research) might reveal a juror’s belief that the product in question is dangerous.  Plaintiff’s attorneys might see that as a plus.  But a focus group might reveal that jurors who believe the product is dangerous also believe that the user was at fault, for not recognizing obvious dangers.  The point is, there is no strategic advantage to knowing a juror’s opinion if you don’t know whether that opinion will help or hurt your cause. 

MOCK TRIALS:

A mock trial is the most efficient and reliable way to synthesize a complex fact pattern so that it can be easily understood by lay persons.  It reveals transcendent strengths and weaknesses that unify a diverse group of jurors, no matter what their differences in background.  This is of paramount importance because, as experienced trial attorneys know, when case outcome depends on the “ideal jury,” chances are, that case is destined to lose.

More specifically, mock trials reveal:

• Which pieces of evidence are critical to jurors and why;
• The interplay of different legal issues and alternative legal theories, as well as the dominance of one issue over others;
• A realistic sense of case value and exposure;
• Jurors’ reactions to key witnesses; and 
• The likelihood of your client being able to win or lose after an actual trial. 

For all of these reasons, mock trial results can also bring about the best possible settlement.  If the case cannot be settled, mock trial results can be used to prepare for jury selection.  All of our projects are designed so we can discern connections between a mock juror's verdict and his or her particular background (demographics, attitudes and experiences).  Lawyers gain a distinct advantage during voir dire If we learn during the mock trial that the best or worst jurors shared certain characteristics in common.  This information can later be used during the actual jury selection, to shape voir dire questions and to also determine whether a prospective juror is apt to favor one side over the other.

Lawyers who succeed after a mock trial often report that they never felt so confident entering the courtroom because they truly knew what they were up against.

Good candidates for mock trials have some of the following features:

High-stakes:  If the client and representing lawyer feel that they can easily move on after a negative outcome, then the stakes probably aren’t that high.

High-cost:  In no other profession do people spend so much time and money on a single venture without first researching the likely pay-off.  When it comes to complex litigation, this happens all the time.  For these high-cost cases, financial risks can be reduced when a mock trial is included in the litigation budget. At Jury Solutions, research projects typically cost 1-2% of what a litigant stands to gain or lose.

Complex: When a case is a quagmire, lawyers often think a mock trial can’t do it justice. The fact is, these cases benefit the most.  The mock trial format requires lawyers to tell their story concisely. Because research shows that jurors inevitably simplify complicated stories, it pays to know the simple answer well in advance of trial.

Difficult or unrealistic client:  This is a litigant who resists his lawyer’s recommendations, cannot see how his behavior relates to his legal troubles, distrusts anyone who disagrees with him and is insulted by the prospect of settling, etc.  Sometimes these clients are hopeless but sometimes, a mock trial can open their eyes.