Juries

Susan Macpherson Discusses the Role of Trial Consultants

Watch top trial consultant Susan Macpherson discuss her role in the trial process.

h/tip Jurors Behaving Badly

 

Monitor and Research Jurors Online for $295 with Jury Scout

Don't have time to research your jurors online or monitor their Internet activity?  Well, the trial consultants at Magna Legal Services are here to help.  For $295 they will do both.  According to the firm's web site, its Jury Scout will:

create detailed profiles for each individual juror based on their online habits, which include but are not limited to: frequency of updates (in terms of photos, status, and comments), the number of social network profiles each juror has, whether their blogs and profiles are protected (i.e., locked down), the number of online aliases, how much personal content is revealed within public forums, opinions on current events and religion, and if said juror is prone to signing online petitions. By creating a personalized matrix of information for each juror, Jury Scout can predict whether they will pose a threat to the case.

At present, many attorneys and trial consultants perform similar services. However, this is the first time I have seen a trial consulting firm actually specifically advertise such services.  The Jury Scout has also generated news in the media. 

Thompson Reuters News & Insight: For $295, a window into jurors' posts and tweets

In the future, I expect that other firms will have similar advertisements.

New Publication on Juror Decision-Making

Brad Bradshaw has a new book on juror decision-making entitled, The Science of Persuasion: A Litigators Guide to Juror Decision-Making.

Here is a brief description of the book:

This new book is your thorough guide to the way jurors make decisions, and how you can use that knowledge to convince them that your story of a case is the correct version. The author--who holds a Ph.D in psychology, for which he researched persuasion and juror decision-making--walks you though every stage of the trial and offers comprehensive information on what jurors are thinking when, and how to influence them in the most effective ways.

Here is a brief description of the author

Gregory (Brad) Bradshaw is the president of Bradshaw Litigation Consulting, LLC. He has a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Kentucky where his research included persuasion and juror decision-making. Dr. Bradshaw is a minimalist, a cancer survivor, and a marathon runner, who has been reducing cases to their simplest terms since 2001. Nothing is more important to him than his friends and family.

Push Poll or Juror Research?

This is the question before federal judge Myron Thompson who is presiding over the prosecution of Milton McGregor in Montgomery, Alabama.   McGregor, whose trial starts June 6th, is charged with using campaign contributions and other means to try to buy votes for a gambling bill.

According to the prosecutors handling the case, members of the defense team are attempting to taint potential jurors through a telephonic poll.  Here is a recent editorial in the Montgomery Advertiser on the issue.    

Now there is concern that push poll techniques are being used not in a political sense, but possibly as a way to influence potential jurors in the upcoming federal corruption trial involving allegations of bribes to influence gambling legislation before the Alabama Legislature.

Federal prosecutors raised concerns last week that defense was using polls to try to influence the public, and thereby potential jurors.

According to prosecutors, pollsters for Victoryland owner Milton McGregor's lawyers have been using a poll to influence potential jurors in favor of McGregor by asking loaded questions. For instance, prosecutors said people were asked if their opinion of McGregor would be affected if they knew the defendant "is a charitable man who has provided support and funding to schools and nonprofit causes throughout Alabama" or if they knew he was active in his church.

Such loaded questions certainly sound like a push-poll technique.

If push polls are being used by the defense, U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson should come down on defense attorneys like a load of bricks. As bad as push polling is in political campaigns -- one state has outlawed them -- they are even worse if used to try to skew potential jurors. Allowing them prior to trials would undermine the public's faith in the judicial system and make it extremely difficult to find unbiased jurors... to continue reading go here.

The prosecution has filed a motion asking the court to dismiss any potential juror who has been polled.  The defense's response is available here.  Judge Thompson is expected to rule on the prosecution's motion soon. 

Jury Consultants Could Not Prevent Rajaratnam's Conviction

This Wall Street Journal article discusses the role and impact of jury consultants in the recent trial of Raj Rajaratnam.

The Defense Worked--to a Point

Two jury consultants hired by Raj Rajaratnam to help choose the panel that would decide his fate got everything they wanted—except the result.

On the first day of jury selection in a New York federal court in early March, the consultants sat with color-coded sheets of papers at the defense table. They tapped away at computers as they tried to select a jury that would give the hedge-fund star a fair shake in his insider-trading trial...

Trial Consultant (Karen Fleming-Ginn) Interviewed on NPR

While this NPR interview of trial consultant Karen Fleming-Ginn, PhD focuses on the Blago jury, it nevertheless provides an interesting and informative discussion of jury selection as a whole.  

Blagojevich Team Got Jury Selection Right

A single juror apparently meant the difference between one felony conviction and many more for former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich.

Jury selection can be part art, part science and part luck. In some cases, especially big ones, jury consultants are called in to analyze potential jurors...to continue reading go here

Shadow Juries

Here is an interesting article about attorneys and trial consultants using shadow or mock juries to determine the strengths and weaknesses of their case.  Shadow juries can also be useful in predicting case outcomes.

'Shadow' jurors give lawyers idea of what verdict to expect

Before the jury dissecting the weeks of evidence presented in the crime-camera civil trial came back with  a $16.3 million verdict, attorneys for the plaintiffs suing computer giant Dell Inc. and city officials thought they had an idea of what jurors might decide.

They already had the verdict of a "shadow jury," a hand-picked group of regular folks who had followed every day of the trial and, after testimony was over, deliberated individually...

To continue reading click here.