Jurors typically don’t think like you do. What bothers you may not bother them; and what triggers them you may not have even thought of. They are “real folks,” unaffected by years in the law. They may have different sensibilities than you have about how things are, or, significantly, how things ought to be.
From a productive focus group session you will discover pure gold:
The earlier the better. If you know early in the case what will resonate with folks like your jurors, you can plan your discovery and depositions accordingly and be more efficient and confident in your litigation efforts.
It depends on the case. For some, a day of focus groups will give you what you need. Another case, however, may need 4-5 days of focus groups, spread out over time as the case develops. Talk with us and we will help you figure this out.
Win Your Jury teams up with experienced market research professionals to recruit, screen, and hand-pick our focus group participants. Because we invest so greatly on the front end of recruitment, our focus groups are matched demographically and attitudinally to the jury pool.
There are two broad types of focus groups for civil cases: the interactive focus group (also known as “concept focus group”) and the structured focus group. While moderator skill and experience are good for the latter, they are critical — and much more difficult to come by — for the success of an interactive group. A moderator’s role can be scripted for a structured research group. However, an interactive group by nature requires the acquired skill to generate and move along an open, non-leading, nonjudgmental, and completely neutral discussion. This is why a practicing therapist or psychologist often makes an effective moderator. By contrast, the skill of a great trial lawyer — advocacy — is a liability to moderating a focus group. A great advocate, especially if deeply involved in the case, usually can’t turn off that skill and avoid conveying unconscious “poker tells.”
Win Your Jury’s focus group sessions are very interactive. We don’t ask the trial lawyer to prepare a “cl-opening” (a combined opening-closing statement) for each side or other formal presentation. Instead, our moderator presents the case and story elements, methodically and piece-by-piece, generating a goldmine of discussion along the way. We have found that the trial lawyer learns a lot more about their views of the case through our interactive session than through a structured session or mock trial.
They may tell you what you don’t want to hear about your case. But that’s a necessary part of discovering a more effective story in your case, or a more effective way of presenting it — perhaps through reframing, or shifting the focus or point of view, or structuring the chronology.
If your case is going to trial, you absolutely must learn how jurors will think and feel about your case. That should be your standard for every trial.
As for the expert, ask yourself, “Do I absolutely have to hire and present this expert — this paid, professional testifier? Or is there a more credible messenger or another effective way of telling that part of the trial story?” In our focus groups, we have found that folks often dismiss expert testimony, concluding “you can pay anyone to say anything.”
Too expensive compared to what?
How does the cost compare to your case worth?
If you lose the case, because you did not learn before the trial of a landmine, or you focused on the wrong things at trial, will you regret not having invested in quality focus group research?
And what is the true cost of the time, effort, and resources your firm will lose by trying to do your own focus group (and hoping you get reliable qualitative information)?
Then do your own focus group. It’s better than going into trial blind. Our free checklist will help you from beginning to end in preparing for and running your own focus group.
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