HOW TO DO FOCUS STUDIES FOR YOUR CASES CORRECTLY

HOW TO DO FOCUS STUDIES FOR YOUR CASES CORRECTLY

Over many years of my law practice one of the most valuable things I regularly used was focus studies for my cases. I made a study about conducting them, hired difference jury consultants, with often differing ways of conducting them, and generally spent time learning all I could about the correct way to conduct them for the most valid results. I also learned how too often “vanity” studies  were done by lawyers who thought they knew how to run them and ended up with “false…

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HOW YOU ASK THE QUESTION INFLUENCES THE JUROR’S ANSWER

HOW YOU ASK THE QUESTION INFLUENCES THE JUROR’S ANSWER

Those of you who  read this blog know my appreciation of the website The Jury Expert.  http://www.thejuryexpert.com/ Mykol Hamilton and Kate Zephyrhawke published an article at the website: “Revealing Juror Bias Without Biasing your Juror…” which is worth reading. Their research and that of others demonstrates that the form of the question lawyers ask jurors can, and often does, pressure people into underestimating their own bias. They point out that such questions can drive the juror bias mentally underground by exerting social desirability pressure…

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GERRY SPENCE WITNESS EXAMINATION EXCERPTS

GERRY SPENCE WITNESS EXAMINATION EXCERPTS

 In 1985, a man was shot dead on a rural road in Lincoln County, Ore. A teenage boy and his mother were indicted for the crime. Gerry Spence took on both cases for the defense pro bono and faced off against a young prosecutor named Joshua Marquis in the juvenile’s trial; the attorneys did not take a shine to each other. So contentious was the trial that they both ended up before the Oregon State Bar. A special report in…

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