Damages Did you know… Most jurors consider themselves as slow decision makers who focus on details when deciding a case? Most jurors are long range planners and believe they have control over events in their lives? Most jurors engage in a wide range of hobbies, entertainment activities, and organizational memberships? Most jurors favor caps on […]
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Continuing Legal Education Magnus’ C.L.E. and C.E. Programs Magnus Research Consultants and Magnus Graphics have had a long standing tradition of providing continuing legal education programs to our attorney clients and continuing education programs to our insurance adjuster clients. Magnus has educational programs on a wide range of topics related to law and psychology, including
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Juror Attitudes Jurors’ Attitude About Money Magnus polls mock jurors about attitudes that may impact their views of a particular case. Jurors’ attitudes about money have obvious implications for their tendencies in awarding damages. Over the past ten years, Magnus has asked 5,198 mock jurors about their spending habits. We have found that 47% of
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Articles Witness Effectiveness An article by Dr. Melissa Pigott and Dr. Harris Friedman of Magnus, “Enhancing Fact Witness Effectiveness”, reviews social psychological factors related to persuasion, then applies these factors to techniques for witness preparation. Fact witnesses were the focus of the article due to a general absence of literature on preparing fact witnesses for
Working with a trial consultant Presentation Technology in Mock Jury Research Magnus’ clients often use visual aids to enhance their mock jury arguments. These aids include video taped depositions, animations, and PowerPoint(tm) presentations. We welcome our clients’ use of visual aids in mock jury research, however, several practical considerations must be taken into account. First,
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Why do research The Changing Practice of Law The practice of law is constantly changing and growing. Litigators must keep up with changes in the law, changes in their clients’ needs, and changes in fact finder (jury) impressions. The amount of information an attorney must process in handling a case is enormous. Ironically, while the
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Where to do research Venue Specific Research Many attorneys ask where their jury research should be conducted. The answer is, “in the trial venue.” The reasons jury research should be conducted in the trial venue are: jurors’ attitudes and life experiences vary from venue to venue; the salient issues in the case are different depending
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When to do research The Effectiveness of Premediation Jury Research Increasingly, attorneys commission jury research prior to making important settlement decisions. Conducting premediation attitude surveys, focus groups, and mock trials allows an assessment of the value of the case, including the strengths and weaknesses of both liability and damages theories, prior to evaluating a demand
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Mock Jurors Where Do We Get Mock Jurors? We are frequently asked, “where do you get your mock jurors?” While there are as many philosophies of mock jury recruiting as there are jury research practitioners, the only proper way to recruit mock jurors is the most difficult, time consuming, and expensive. This method involves random
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Methodologies Using Jury Research to Evaluate Witness Effectiveness Attorneys’ impressions of their own and the opposition’s witnesses are often different from jurors’ impressions of the witnesses. One way to determine whether an attorney’s impressions of witnesses are accurate is to include a witness evaluation in mock jury research. Witness evaluation can be accomplished in one
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