Courts in many jurisdictions have been ordering Summary Jury Trials as a way to “encourage” attorneys to settle their cases. A number of Magnus’ clients have been through this process and have reported their experiences to us. In the Summary Jury Trial process, the Court assigns a “trial” date to the parties and sets up […]
Court Ordered Summary Jury Trials Versus Mock Trials Read More »
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
Juror Attitudes About Money and Damages Read More »
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,
Working With a Trial Consultant on Mock Jury Research Read More »
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
Why Trial Teams Commission Jury Research Read More »
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
Where Jury Research Should Be Conducted Read More »
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
When to Commission Jury Research in a Case Read More »
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
Where Mock Jurors Come From and Why It Matters Read More »
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
Jury Research Methods for Evaluating Witnesses Read More »
Witnesses Are You Getting the Most You Can From Your Witnesses? Many of our clients have indicated that they rarely use the services of jury experts to prepare witnesses for depositions or testifying at trial. Magnus Research Consultants believes this is a potentially dangerous practice because it has been our experience that litigators and trial
Witness Preparation: Getting More From Your Witnesses Read More »
