Litigation Research Success Factors

SUCCESS FACTORS

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Success Factors in working with a Jury Consultant
1	Select your jury consultant carefully.	Ensure that the jury consultant you select has the qualifications to serve as a consulting expert. Check their credentials and ask for professional references and follow up by contacting them.
2	*Work with your jury consultant to develop a strategy for success.*	Trust their judgment and use their experience to good advantage. Bring your jury consultant into the trial preparation decision process at the earliest possible time.
3	*Give your jury consultant all the information they need.*	Inform the jury consultant about the case facts and legal issues so as to be certain that any consultant pretrial services will be truly representative of the anticipated trial. Not revealing “bad facts” about your case is perhaps the worst thing you can do when using a jury consultant.
4	*Give mock trial preparation a high priority and begin as early as practical.*	The attorney must construct the case information to be given to the focus group or mock jurors. This presentation must be comprehensive and fair to both sides. Additionally, the attorney must provide an appropriate jury verdict form and jury charge for the jury consultant to use in any mock trial deliberation. Start preparing these materials as early as possible. The jury consultant must have these materials before questionnaires or focusing protocols can be accurately developed to capture your mock trial responses.
5	*Monitor jury consultant activities.*	You should never relinquish control over the pretrial activities. Work with the jury consultant to be sure that your consultant does not color or distort any focus group or mock trial outcome through inappropriate inquiry activities. Ensure that consultant activities do not interfere with the mock juror’s deliberation process so as to “win the research” but sacrifice objectively accurate results.
6	*Be available to support the process.*	The attorney should attend and observe any focus group discussion or mock trial deliberation so as to support the jury consultant with immediate answers to focus group or mock trial participants’ questions. This is the best way to gain “first hand” experience with the participants’ responses to the case.
7	*Take full advantage of the information and services provided.*	Thoroughly review the jury consultants’ analysis results to gain maximum advantage from any focus group discussions or mock trial deliberations. Make time to work with your jury consultant to fully interpret and understand the results or outcomes of the pretrial research proceedings.

8	*Use mock trials to test strategy or evaluate case weaknesses and strengths.*	There is no other way to test and develop improved case strategies or obtain witness evaluations within a trial framework. Without a baseline of mock trial information and experience, there is no way to evaluate the likely outcome of your opponent’s trial strategy and tactics in a unique case situation. This will be your best opportunity to determine attitudes likely to be held by a jury and how best to present your case to the jury at trial.
9	*Measure the mock jury’s response to your strategy*	Thoroughly monitor your mock trial through the use of a questionnaire (or electronic response technique). If you do not collect and analyze data from the mock jurors regarding the detailed underlying elements of the case, then you miss a vital opportunity to gain insight into how jurors response to your case might be favorably controlled at trial.
10	*Use an experienced jury consultant to obtain an objective view of the case.*	An experienced jury consultant will have the requisite research expertise to construct the monitoring questionnaire. In addition, a professional jury consultant can provide an objective interpretation of the analysis and what it means for successful communication of the case to the jury.

11	*Use an experienced jury consultant in their most effective roles.*	When a jury consultant has performed pre-trial case research such as a focus group or mock trial, their primary roles are to: 2.make strategy recommendations to most favorably present the case of your client and attack the case of your client’s opponent 3.assist counsel to identify potentially plaintiff and potentially defendant jurors 4.play a material supporting role in orienting your key witnesses to how the jury is likely to view them and how to be most successful before the jury 1.provide an accurate forecast of the likely trial outcome 5.conduct a “shadow jury” during trial to gauge your case acceptance and maximize your effectiveness
12	*Have the jury consultant attend jury selection and assist with the choice of peremptory challenges.*	Jury consultants can assist you in selecting the jury, but they should not make the final decisions in the selection. Even though jury consultants may actually have experience in selecting juries and a research background from which to base their suggestions, counsel must conduct the trial and ultimately live with the jury in the case.
13	*Identify the outcome predictive juror factors.*	An experienced jury consultant will assist you by identifying the outcome predictive juror characteristics for each side of the case by specifically analyzing mock jurors’ characteristics versus their responses. This is accomplished by measuring the verdict outcomes of mock jurors and developing a composite recognition pattern of predictive characteristics for each side.
14	*Avoid leaders.*	The best jurors are not people who are strong leaders in their regular life or people who would become highly influential through experience with case matters, prior jury service, or social skills. You cannot predict how a leader will decide on your case, but you can predict that a leader will be persuasive and gather jury support for the leader’s view and case position. Perform your jury selection with a goal of composing a jury that can work as a group of peers in deciding your case.
15	*Use a Jury Questionnaire whenever possible.*	Jury questionnaires should contain: questions that identify all the outcome predictive characteristics found by pre-trial case research (demographics, experiences, attitudes, beliefs, practices, relationships, and associations) questions that mask the actual predictive questions when possible Questions which might be sensitive to ask in an open voir dire or which might require personal or private answers should be placed on a confidential jury questionnaire and protected by the court. Questions requiring response to lists of party, counsel and witness names should be put into a questionnaire for accuracy and to save voir dire time in court. Questions requiring a written response such as opinions or descriptions or history of education, work or experience should be placed in a questionnaire for accuracy, completeness, and to provide clues to the juror’s communication ability and attitudes or beliefs.

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