Plaintiff Trial Lawyer Tips

UNDERSTANDING AND APPLYING THE PSYCHOLOGY OF JURY DECISIONS

February 25, 2026 Paul Luvera Comments 0 Comment

UNDERSTANDING AND APPLYING THE PSYCHOLOGY OF JURY DECISIONS Trial lawyers need to understand the basic principles of psychology that are involved in jury decision-making. Professor Victoria Finkelstein, J.D. A member of the faculty at Willington University published an article about some of the basic psychological factors involved in our decision-making as human beings that are fundamental. Here are some examples we need to understand in our jury trials. Primacy Effect The first information people receive on an issue tends to…

ARBITRATION IS A DEFENSE WEAPON

February 4, 2026 Paul Luvera Comments 0 Comment

Why do businesses and corporations want arbitration and not trials? There are a number of reasons, which include some of the following: Lower damage awards No jury & arbitrators are statistically more conservative Elimination of class actions. Most arbitration clauses require individual claims & bar class or collective actions. This converts one systemic wrong → hundreds of small, uneconomic claims, avoiding massive exposure → scattered, manageable costs. Repeat-player advantage Corporations appear in arbitration repeatedly, are familiar to arbitration providers, and…

GERRY SPENCE JURY SELECTION EXAMPLES

December 31, 2025 Paul Luvera Comments 0 Comment

Gerry Spence and I met a couple of years before he created his Trial Lawyers College in Wyoming. We became friends, and he invited me to be one of the teachers for the first year he started the Trial Lawyers College. Unfortunately, I was involved in a 4-week trial in Oregon and couldn’t attend. However, I was asked by Gerry to teach at the program for the next 20 years. Each summer, I would travel to Dubois, WY, where Thunderbird…