Innovative Jury Strategies and the Power of Preparation — FCRA Focus Podcast
Effective Trial Language Part 3: Jargon
Podcast - Effective Trial Language Part 1: Noise
Key Lessons and Takeaways for Jury Trials
How Safetyism Is Driving High Plaintiff Verdicts - IMS Insights Podcast Episode 68
Overcoming Safetyism & the Plaintiff Media Machine - IMS Insights Podcast Epsiode 66
Podcast - The “Five P’s” That Will Help Shape Jurors’ Emotions
Jury Selection Strategy in Product Liability Litigation – IMS Insights Podcast Episode 64
The Value of Visual Storytelling & Early Jury Research – IMS Insights Podcast Episode 57
How Voir Dire Fits with Appellate Practice | Robert Swafford | Texas Appellate Law Podcast
Law Brief®: Trial by Jury - With Richard Lomuscio and Richard Schoenstein
David F. Johnson co-authored a paper entitled “Voir Dire (In a Post Covid World)” with Jason Smith of the Law Offices of Jason Smith for the State Bar of Texas’s Business Disputes Course, held in Austin, Texas, on September...more
It is 2022 and we are ready to be back in the courtroom. For the past two years, most civil trials have come to a grinding halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, lawyers, judges and litigants alike are eager to return to...more
Q: The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the skepticism some laypeople harbor toward scientists and medical experts. How can you overcome these jurors’ perceptions in science-based trials? A: Trial lawyers should spend more...more
If we rewind to about two years ago, as we were getting confirmations of a novel virus in China, few of us at the time would have had the imagination to envision the scope of disruption and devastation that would follow in...more
Every jury selection involves a variety of issues relating to how potential jurors could feel about the specific case. But there is one issue that is relevant in every current jury selection for an in-person trial: What is...more
Cryptocurrency Regulation and Enforcement at the US Federal and State Levels - The intensifying focus in recent months on cryptocurrency regulation and enforcement at both the federal and state levels demonstrates digital...more
With the emergence of new COVID-19 variants and vaccine hesitancy among some in the United States, a “return to normal” for in-person jury trials remains elusive. Courts that postponed jury trials until they could be held...more
The American civil jury trial was on life support before the pandemic. For a generation at least, the trend has been toward a reduced scope for a jury’s decision, an expansion in the power of judges to resolve things in...more
With mounting frustration over the duration and human cost of the Coronavirus pandemic, along with the sluggish pace of vaccinations in many parts of the country, President Joe Biden, this past week, threw down the gauntlet...more
Dispatch #1 from the Elizabeth Holmes Theranos criminal fraud trial, which opened yesterday with jury selection and saw the excusing of 9 of the initial batch of about 50 potential jurors for lack of vaccination...more
In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, we all had a sense that our country and the world were facing a potentially cataclysmic event with far-reaching, significant consequences to many aspects of our lives. As social...more
“We have a verdict!” The familiar cry from the court officer echoes through the empty hallways of the Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn as I sit alone trying to focus on accumulated emails. Scrambling to my feet, I...more
On March 4, 2021, the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania resumed in-person civil jury trials. This decision and the protocols surrounding it were based on guidance from public health officials as well as current...more
Virtual civil jury trials will be scheduled statewide in New Jersey starting April 5, 2021, with consent to proceed remotely not required as part of the state’s two-phase approach to virtual jury trials for all dockets and...more
We’ve now had quite some time to settle into the coronavirus and its social restrictions. If you are like me, you might have even developed a twitch every time you hear the phrase “New normal.” We know that we are living in...more
To the relief of many litigants whose trials have been delayed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the New Jersey Supreme Court issued an order authorizing civil jury trials to resume virtually. The order sets out two...more
Societal shocks tend to reverberate in the courtroom. The COVID-19 pandemic is no exception. For over 20 years, DecisionQuest has been conducting nationwide juror research through social crises like the Enron scandal, 9/11,...more
Requests for COVID-19-related trial delays can lead to strife between lawyers and judges—and crazy things can happen. We see this most recently in San Bernadino, California, where a civil jury trial has been interrupted in...more
The Illinois Supreme recently entered an Order allowing for immediate remote jury selection in an attempt to alleviate the COVID-19 pandemic’s enormous impact on the court system. See In re: Illinois Courts Response to...more
It is obvious that we live in a time of extraordinary polarization, and we are in the midst of an election that is bringing that schism into even starker contrast. Red and blue Americans differ in our demographics, our...more
Mark Twain once said: “Trial by jury is the palladium of our liberties. I do not know what a palladium is, but I am sure it is a good thing!” If Mr. Twain were alive today, he wouldn’t be quite so sure that jury trials...more
There’s something that judges will often tell potential jurors at the start of the voir dire process: “We know jury duty is an inconvenience, but it is a necessary duty.” But what if it is more than an inconvenience? What if...more
The Eleventh Judicial Circuit in Miami-Dade County held Florida’s first “remote trial.” Jury selection was conducted remotely through Zoom, and the actual trial occurred in the courtroom with social distancing and masks. This...more
We are, of course, still in the midst of the pandemic, and if the question is, “How are people feeling about that?” there is not just one answer. There isn’t even a good answer that can be accurately expressed as an average....more
Experienced trial attorneys know that jurors are not interchangeable empty vessels. Each juror enters the jury box with a wide range of experiences, beliefs and attitudes, and may be more or less inclined toward reaching a...more