Courtroom Views is pleased to welcome special guest Amy Singer, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of Trial Consultants, Inc. Dr. Singer is a nationally recognized authority in the field of litigation psychology, a discipline which she helped to pioneer. In addition, Dr. Singer has also authored a number of books and articles on litigation strategy, including Trials and Deliberations: Inside the Jury Room, published by West.
CVN: Dr. Singer, thank you for joining us today! There are so many different tools to deal with juries: shadow juries, virtual shadow juries, mock trials, and jury simulations, as well as some techniques that you have trademarked yourself, such as Mini Focus(tm) Groups and SimulJury(tm).
Dr. Singer: And there's even more than that. We also do voir dire consultation, change of venue studies, supplemental juror questionaires, and post-verdict interviews.
CVN: We are hoping you will shed some light on which tools are best for which kinds of cases -- especially whether any of these techniques makes sense for medium or smaller cases, where there may not be ten million dollars, or even one million dollars at stake.
Dr. Singer: Of course. When there is more at stake, you take fewer chances, but we've rarely seen a jury trial so small that the litigants could not cost-effectively improve their odds.
CVN: Well let's start with the jurors themselves. In March of this year, you told CNN that the weak economy might affect the kind of people who end up on juries.
Dr. Singer: Yes, absolutely. You will see drastic and dramatic changes in your juries. Folks that have been affected by the economy, including but not limited to losing their jobs, foreclosures, job hunters, small retail business owners will be gone!!
CVN: At CVN we have noticed much higher verdicts this year as opposed to last year -- in all kinds of cases: Tobacco, Asbestos, Products Liability. With the banking crisis and the BP Oil crisis, and continuing weakness in the economy, are juries possibly less sympathetic to corporations right now?
Dr. Singer: It certainly depends upon the corporation. For example, if a corporation can show that they are very "green" (such as Honda) will fare better then those that are not as environmentally concerned. The other variable is the reputation of the corporation and how they are treating their employees and the public in this economy. If your corporation is in the banking industry or tied to subprime mortgages, I feel sorry for you! We always ask what stocks, mutual funds, etc., potential jurors have and how they have been affected.
CVN: Is technology changing how litigants can handle juries?
Dr. Singer: Yes. Wired jurors tend to come from Gen X and Gen Y, which make up 52% of the jury pool nationwide!!
They have different expectations of how trials should be presented. For example: they are impatient,and get bored easily.They have difficulty remaining focused and attentive. It is very difficult to keep them engaged without high technology that mimics the Internet and You Tube. Don't forget that with Googling and finding the websites they want to view, they have constant control of their environment. As a result of their "lack of control" of receiving evidence they are intolerant of not getting "to the point."
These individuals are cynical...they do not come from the "handshake generation" as I refer to my generation of baby boomers.
Furthermore, they can not insulate themselves from outside influences even with specific jury instructions not to investigate, post research, experiment or even use their cell phones, or computers!! The reason why they do not follow instructions is because they are passive aggressive and suffer from oppositional defiant disorder. It is like wrangling a bunch of cats...
We could have an entire interview just about this.
CVN: We very much look forward to that! One final question: What is really, truly the correct way to pronounce "voir dire?" Rhymes with...
Dr. Singer: I like voir dire as pronounced voir dear.. voir dire (rhymes with crier, sounds stressful to me). Of course, either way is correct.
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