en Wed, 21 Sep 2011 18:00:00 GMT Wed, 21 Sep 2011 18:00:00 GMT http://www.kkcomcon.com/CCOnlineJuryResearchUpdateByDate.htm Practical answers to questions about trying cases to juries based on jury research. Questions answered about judges, jurors, attorneys, evidence, instructions, experts, witnesses, graphics, persuasion, damages, race, gender and more. copyright 2006-2011, ComCon Kathy Kellermann Communication Consulting http://www.kkcomcon.com/art/CClogosm.jpg http://www.kkcomcon.com/CCOnlineJuryResearchUpdateByDate.htm Jurors sometimes withhold information during voir dire. In 1994, a prospective juror refused to answer several items on her juror questionnaire, maintaining that questions about her income, religion, television and reading habits, political affiliations, and health were "very private" and irrelevant. She was cited for contempt, which a federal magistrate judge later overturned (Brandberg v. Lucas,, 891 F. Supp., 552 (E.D. Tex., 1995)). Rose (2001) investigated questions potential jurors are asked in voir dire that they feel are either unnecessary or too private... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0911-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0911-1.htm Wed, 21 Sep 2011 18:00:00 GMT The American Bar Association reports that fewer than 10% of attorneys are minorities, with African Americans at 3.9%, Hispanics at 3.3%, and Asian Americans at less than 1%. The rate of entry into the legal profession for African Americans has slowed, and Asians are now the fastest growing minority entering the legal profession (Chambliss, 2004). Minority attorneys face jurors' biases. Cohen and Peterson... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0811-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0811-4.htm Wed, 17 Aug 2011 08:00:00 GMT Jurors with higher occupational statuses, higher levels of education, and higher incomes have higher social status. Social status disparities affect our communication activities and social behaviors, including jurors' behavior on juries. York (2006) interviewed jurors post-verdict... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0811-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0811-3.htm Mon, 15 Aug 2011 20:00:00 GMT Our reactions to events are determined not only by what actually happened, but also by what might have happened. Jurors think about what might have happened using "if only" statements: if only a driver had been going slower, if only a worker had been wearing goggles, if only the warning label had said so, if only a company had investigated the complaint. These "if only" thoughts are called counterfactual thinking. Sometimes it is easy for jurors to engage in counterfactual thinking and imagine events occurring otherwise, and sometimes it is hard to do so. The ease with which jurors can imagine alternative events affects their understandings and verdicts. Kahneman and Tversky... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0811-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0811-2.htm Fri, 12 Aug 2011 18:00:00 GMT Jurors prefer that witnesses speak in jurors' predominant language. Witnesses who testify in a foreign language are often perceived to be less credible than witnesses who testify in English. Do jurors who speak the language of a non-English speaking witness also judge that non-English speaking witness to be less credible? Hosch and colleagues (1996) explored jurors' verdicts... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0811-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0811-1.htm Mon, 08 Aug 2011 22:01:00 GMT Parties have a right to the judgment of jurors unclouded by bias, prejudice, or a fixed or preconceived opinion. Juror questionnaires are often opposed because they are argued to cause delay or are deemed unnecessary to identify bias. Flores (2011) compared potential jurors' disclosure of biases in oral voir dire to what they were willing to disclose on written juror questionnaires... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0711-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0711-4.htm Sun, 31 Jul 2011 20:00:00 GMT Juries are becoming increasingly ethnically diverse in the United States. How much do non-Caucasian jurors participate in deliberations in comparison to White jurors, and does participation depend on how many minorities are on a jury? Cornwell and Hans (2009) studied the participation levels of 2,306 actual criminal jurors who served on 311 juries in Los Angeles, Phoenix, New York and Washington, D.C.... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0711-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0711-3.htm Fri, 29 Jul 2011 10:00:00 GMT In the 1950s, Strodtbeck and colleagues (1956, 1957) conducted realistic mock jury research, using mock jurors chosen from the jury rolls, to determine which jurors talked most during deliberations. Jurors' participation levels varied widely, with jury deliberations typically dominated by only a few jurors. On average, three jurors accounted for more than 80% of the total speaking acts in jury deliberations, and most often these dominant jurors were upper-class men. In 1983, Hastie and colleagues also conducted mock jury research, and reported that male jurors initiated about 40% more comments than female jurors. In 2006, in an important study... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0711-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0711-2.htm Tue, 26 Jul 2011 10:00:00 GMT Jurors' verdicts in sexual harassment cases are usually studied absent any consideration of the race of the plaintiff and defendant. Bothwell and colleagues (2006) examined discrimination against Black plaintiffs in sexual harassment cases, to determine whether White jurors are more inclined to attribute what happened to a plaintiff's ignorance or carelessness, rather than to defendant misbehavior. In the research, 186 prospective jurors made individual decisions regarding liability and damages before and after deliberating in 56 juries... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0711-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0711-1.htm Wed, 06 Jul 2011 10:00:00 GMT Many trials are conducted with courtroom interpretation of testimony. Berk-Seligson (1987) analyzed 2,470 answers by 27 Spanish-speaking witnesses as interpreted into English by six interpreters to determine if the interpreter's rendition conveyed a different impression of the witness from the one originally conveyed by the witness testifying in Spanish. ... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0611-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0611-4.htm Tue, 21 Jun 2011 10:00:00 GMT The study of jurors' opinion formation and change over the course of trials rarely relies on data from real jurors, and instead is usually based on studies of mock jurors or student jurors. Two studies have explored the verdict preferences of actual jurors who served in many different civil and criminal cases about when they began leaning toward one side or the other, and when they made up their minds about who should prevail... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0611-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0611-3.htm Tue, 14 Jun 2011 08:00:00 GMT Witnesses differ in how powerless or powerful their speech style is, and their speech style affects their credibility. O'Barr (1982) investigated the courtroom speech style of witnesses, and identified two speech styles: powerless speech (i.e., low social power) and powerful speech. Powerless speech includes:... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0611-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0611-2.htm Tue, 07 Jun 2011 07:00:00 GMT The position of the juror who is a dissenter in deliberations is glorified in the movie Twelve Angry Men. But which jurors dissent, which hang the jury, and which simply acquiesce to the majority's wishes? Waters and Hans (2008) investigated jurors who dissent from the majority on juries, and distinguished dissenters who hang the jury from dissenters who acquiesce to the majority opinion to allow a jury decision against the dissenter's individual wishes... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0611-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0611-1.htm Wed, 01 Jun 2011 07:00:00 GMT In the sentencing phase of capital cases, jurors frequently hear about a defendant's history of child abuse and alcohol abuse. The defense offers this evidence in mitigation. Stevenson and colleagues (2010) investigated whether jurors used a defendant's child abuse and alcohol abuse as mitigating factors, aggravating factors, or ignored the evidence. Over 370 death-qualified jurors... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0411-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0411-4.htm Tue, 26 Apr 2011 07:00:00 GMT Cultures differ in norms of sexual conduct for men and women, and in what is perceived as sexual harassment. Schwartz and Hunt (2011) investigated how jurors respond to arguments about cultural differences using a hostile work environment sexual harassment case involving a Latina plaintiff.... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0411-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0411-3.htm Tue, 19 Apr 2011 07:00:00 GMT Jurors with no specific expert knowledge routinely need to evaluate complex and conflicting expert testimony. Vidmar (1995) conducted extensive post-trial interviews of jurors in five different medical malpractice cases to determine how jurors handled a "battle of experts"... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0411-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0411-2.htm Tue, 12 Apr 2011 07:00:00 GMT The insurance exclusionary rule in civil trials prohibits disclosure to jurors about whether a party is insured to prevent, among other things, jurors adjusting damages awards because a party is insured. Does silence about insurance during trial imply that jurors do not discuss the matter spontaneously during deliberations? Jurors are aware of insurance, and often raise the issue spontaneously. For example, Diamond and colleagues (1989)... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0411-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0411-1.htm Tue, 05 Apr 2011 07:00:00 GMT Jurors often receive instructions limiting the use of particular evidence offered at trial. Wissler and Saks (1985) investigated whether jurors are able to follow limiting instructions about a defendant's prior conviction. One group of jurors heard... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0311-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0311-4.htm Tue, 22 Mar 2011 07:00:00 GMT Experts are important witnesses in a high percentage of civil and criminal trials. Jurors use multiple criteria to judge the credibility of expert testimony... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0311-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0311-3.htm Tue, 15 Mar 2011 07:00:00 GMT Increasingly, courts are allowing jurors to submit questions for witnesses during trial. Hannaford-Agor and Connelly (2006) of the National Center for State Courts report that a national survey of 8,066 trials found that jurors were permitted to submit questions for witnesses in 14% of criminal trials and 18% of civil trials. Heuer and Penrod (1994) conducted a national field experiment to explore the effects of juror submitted questions for witnesses... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0311-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0311-2.htm Tue, 08 Mar 2011 07:00:00 GMT Witnesses are confronted frequently in cross-examination with complex and leading questions that contain multiple parts, negatives, double-negatives, advanced vocabulary and legal terminology. Witnesses have difficulty deciphering and answering such questions accurately. Ellison and colleagues (2010) investigated whether instructing witnesses about attorneys' cross-examination questioning techniques could improve the accuracy of answers witnesses provide. Numerous adult witnesses watched ... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0311-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0311-1.htm Tue, 01 Mar 2011 07:00:00 GMT Jurors differ in whether they believe damage awards are excessive, a litigation crisis exists, and tort reform is necessary. Such litigation crisis beliefs often influence both liability verdicts and punitive damage awards, though not always... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0211-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0211-4.htm Tue, 22 Feb 2011 07:00:00 GMT A defense claim that a confession is false is difficult for jurors to understand and accept. Costanzo and colleagues (2010) surveyed 461 surrogate jurors from 7 different cities in the U.S. about false confessions, the ability to discern true from false confessions, permissible interrogation tactics, likely rates of false confessions for different crimes, and expert testimony on police interrogations.... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0211-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0211-3.htm Tue, 15 Feb 2011 01:00:00 GMT Civil trials usually prohibit discussion of, and so are silent about, payment of attorneys' fees by litigants. Silence about attorneys' fees is not equivalent to jurors being unaware of them... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0211-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0211-2.htm Tue, 08 Feb 2011 01:00:00 GMT Lawyers frequently advise defendants against apologizing, because apologies can be interpreted as admissions of guilt, which could be leveraged into defendants paying more money in settlement and/or at trial. Robbennolt (2010) conducted research comparing plaintiffs' responses to apologies with attorneys' responses... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0211-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0211-1.htm Tue, 01 Feb 2011 01:00:00 GMT Jurors who favor the death penalty have different religious beliefs than those opposed to the death penalty. Miller and Hayward (2007) studied which juror religious beliefs are related to death penalty sentencing recommendations by having nearly 1,000 death-qualified mock jurors make sentencing decisions to a lengthy summary of an actual capital murder trial... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0111-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0111-4.htm Tue, 25 Jan 2011 01:00:00 GMT An oft-stated opinion is that civil jury verdicts are largely immune to appellate revision. Eisenberg and Clermont (1999) studied whether civil jury trial verdicts are revised less often on appeal than bench trial verdicts. All federal civil trial appeals between ... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0111-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0111-3.htm Tue, 18 Jan 2011 06:00:00 GMT Vinson and colleagues (2008) investigated how well juror demographics could predict punitive damage awards in three (real) high-stakes civil cases: a smoker's personal injury claim against a tobacco company; a class action lawsuit about a weight loss drug against a pharmaceutical company; a real estate developer's claim to rebuild a building destroyed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks against an insurance company... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0111-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0111-2.htm Tue, 11 Jan 2011 01:00:00 GMT Attorneys frequently ask witnesses leading and complex questions in cross examination that contain multiple parts, negatives, double-negatives, advanced vocabulary and legal terminology. Many of these questions demand a yes or no response. Ellison and colleagues (2010) explored the extent to which witnesses can answer leading and complex questions accurately... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0111-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0111-1.htm Tue, 4 Jan 2011 21:00:00 GMT In criminal cases, the defense sometimes argues that the defendant was arrested and tried because of his or her race. This race card strategy seeks to make race salient in order to sway attitudes and beliefs of jurors or judges so as to find the defendant not guilty. Hart and colleagues (2007) investigated the effectiveness of the race card strategy in jury trials... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1210-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1210-4.htm Tue, 28 Dec 2010 01:00:00 GMT The severity of sexual harassment is an important judgment affecting jurors' liability determinations and their damage awards. Wayne and colleagues (2001) found that jurors make an overall assessment about the severity of sexual harassment based on three factors... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1210-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1210-3.htm Tue, 21 Dec 2010 19:00:00 GMT Criminal defendants can show a range of emotions during trial: remorse, anger, even no emotion at all. MacLin and colleagues (2009) investigated whether a defendant's facial expression affects jurors' verdicts... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1210-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1210-2.htm Tue, 14 Dec 2010 10:00:00 GMT Settlement decisions are difficult to make. Cases go to trial and parties sometimes fail to achieve a more favorable result than could have been achieved by accepting an adverse party's demand or offer. Kiser and colleagues (2008) studied settlement decision error rates in 2,054 California cases that were tried before a jury or a judge... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1210-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1210-1.htm Tue, 7 Dec 2010 10:00:00 GMT Jury instructions are designed to instruct jurors in the law. Considerable research has examined how well jurors understand jury instructions. In a review of this research literature, Elwork and Sales (1985) found... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1110-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1110-4.htm Tue, 23 Nov 2010 10:00:00 GMT Each year approximately 10,000 children testify in the U.S., most often in criminal court about sexual abuse. Research has found that defense attorneys often ask child witnesses complex questions. Evans and colleagues (2009) investigated the effect of complex questions by the defense and prosecution on jurors' verdicts in felony child abuse cases... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1110-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1110-3.htm Tue, 16 Nov 2010 10:00:00 GMT Present day social norms cast a negative light on those who hold racist attitudes, and these norms influence how white Americans respond when placed in situations in which race is openly and directly addressed. In two studies, Sommers and Ellsworth (2000, 2001) found that when race is made salient in a criminal case... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1110-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1110-2.htm Tue, 9 Nov 2010 10:00:00 GMT Sexual harassment can occur via electronic media as well as comments made face-to-face. Berkley and Kaplan (2009) investigated jurors reactions to sexual harassment occurring face-to-face and by email... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1110-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1110-1.htm Tue, 2 Nov 2010 18:00:00 GMT Jurors in personal injury cases must quantify a plaintiff's pain and suffering when awarding noneconomic damages. Plaintiff attorneys typically request that jurors award these damages either by suggesting a lump sum or by using a per diem calculation. McAuliff and Bornstein (2010) examined whether a per diem request or a lump sum request produces the largest jury awards for pain and suffering... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1010-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1010-4.htm Tue, 26 Oct 2010 18:00:00 GMT Jurors anchor damage awards on amounts requested by plaintiff attorneys. Most often, the more a plaintiff attorney requests, the more jurors award, even if jurors are offended by the size of the plaintiff attorney's request. Chapman and Bornstein (1996) had different groups of jurors hear a request for damages for either $100, $20,000, $5 million or $1 billion for the very same case and injuries... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1010-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1010-3.htm Tue, 19 Oct 2010 17:59:00 GMT Many jurors expect to hear scientific evidence in criminal cases. Shelton (2008) surveyed a jury pool to learn what percentage of jurors expected to hear scientific evidence in different types of criminal cases... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1010-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1010-2.htm Tue, 12 Oct 2010 17:58:00 GMT The study of the influence of inadmissible evidence on jurors, and admonitions to disregard it, has spanned more than 30 years. Steblay and colleagues (2006) conducted a comprehensive review of this research, and examined 175 different tests of the effects of instructions to disregard inadmissible evidence that were reported in 48 different studies... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1010-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1010-1.htm Tue, 5 Oct 2010 17:57:00 GMT Daubert and other cases decided in the 1990s (e.g., Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, 1993; General Electric v. Joiner, 1996; Kumho Tire v. Carmichael, 1999) require that judges base admissibility decisions for forensic scientific evidence on its scientific validity as opposed to relying entirely on its general acceptance in the professional community. Research shows that judges do not fully understand the Daubert factors, admitting evidence that is scientifically flawed and excluding evidence that is valid... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0910-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0910-4.htm Tue, 28 Sep 2010 17:56:00 GMT Noneconomic damages are often valued through per diem requests to juries. A per diem request assigns a monetary value to a small unit of time (e.g., $15 per hour, $240 per day) and then multiplies that value by the number of units (e.g., hours, days, weeks, months) in which injury is or will be sustained to yield a figure for pain and suffering. Laughery and colleagues (2001) studied per diem requests to compensate a victim for pain and suffering for the remainder of the victim's life due to a consumer product accident... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0910-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0910-3.htm Tue, 21 Sep 2010 17:55:00 GMT Reasonable doubt instructions are the cornerstone of decision-making in criminal cases, and possibly the most important instruction provided to jurors. Ellsworth (1989) found that jurors were very clear on the notion that they had to be convinced "beyond a reasonable doubt" but, at the same time, none of the jurors were able to define what reasonable doubt meant. Kramer and Koening (1990) compared reasonable doubt understanding for jurors who had served jury duty and those who had been called but had never served... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0910-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0910-2.htm Tue, 14 Sep 2010 17:54:00 GMT Accents often make it hard for jurors to understand what witnesses, attorneys, and judges are saying. Difficulty in understanding non-native speakers of English affects jurors' assessment of those speakers' credibility. Lev-Ari and Keysar (2010) studied the impact of accent on speaker credibility in two experiments... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0910-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0910-1.htm Tue, 7 Sep 2010 17:53:00 GMT Jurors are given jury instructions, and may use those instructions as they see fit during deliberations. Some juries discuss the instructions extensively, while other juries do not. How much time do jurors spend discussing jury instructions? With the cooperation of the Wyoming courts... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0810-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0810-4.htm Tue, 24 Aug 2010 17:52:00 GMT Baldus and colleagues (2001) analyzed 317 capital murder cases tried by jury in Philadelphia from 1981 to 1997. The researchers compared death sentence rates of juries with 4 or fewer blacks (below the median number of blacks for Philadelphia) to juries with 5 or more blacks (above the median number of blacks for Philadelphia)... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0810-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0810-3.htm Tue, 17 Aug 2010 17:51:00 GMT Every day attorneys must make decisions to settle a case or take it to trial. These decisions are made with error, and research shows that this error depends on the type of case being litigated (e.g., medical malpractice vs. products liability, presence vs. absence of punitive damages, etc.)... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0810-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0810-2.htm Tue, 10 Aug 2010 17:50:00 GMT Civil plaintiffs and defendants are often thought to be equally capable of valuing and winning cases, and equally capable of making mistakes. Said differently, decision errors in case valuation are thought to be no different for plaintiffs and defendants because it is believed that: (1)plaintiffs and defendants are equally adept in predicting trial outcomes, (2) plaintiffs will win about 50% of the cases that proceed to trial, and (3) plaintiffs and defendants will be equally mistaken in their predictions of a trial's outcome. Researchers have investigated whether mistakes in case valuation, and the cost of those mistakes, are evenly distributed among plaintiffs and defendants... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0810-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0810-1.htm Tue, 3 Aug 2010 17:49:00 GMT Kiser and colleagues (2008) studied the role of 998 offers in plaintiff and defendant decisions to settle or go to trial in 847 California cases. These researchers found that when a 998 offer was made, mistaken decisions to go to trial increased, although... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0710-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0710-4.htm Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:48:00 GMT Jurors are instructed in criminal cases to presume a defendant innocent and place a burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt on the prosecution. Even after receiving jury instructions, jurors struggle with these concepts. With the cooperation of the Wyoming courts, Saxton (1998) gave questionnaires to jurors when they were discharged from service on actual trials... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0710-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0710-3.htm Tue, 20 Jul 2010 17:47:00 GMT Jurors often perceive circumstantial evidence as weak evidence, rather than an alternative way to prove a fact. Strawn and Buchanan (1976) found that, despite instructions to the contrary,... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0710-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0710-2.htm Tue, 13 Jul 2010 17:46:00 GMT The difference between direct and circumstantial evidence is difficult for jurors. Tiersma and Curtis (2008) tested how well California's 2006 jury instruction (CACI No. 202) allowed jurors to identify direct and circumstantial evidence... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0710-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0710-1.htm Tue, 6 Jul 2010 17:45:00 GMT Borckardt and colleagues (2003) examined how jurors perceive eyewitnesses to a car accident when trivial details in one of the eyewitnesses' testimony are discredited. Jurors were presented contradictory testimony from two eyewitnesses to a car accident... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0209-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0209-2.htm Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:44:00 GMT Which of the following two statements best reflects your attitudes? (1) People's misfortunes result from the mistakes they make. (2) Many of the unhappy things in people's lives are partly due to bad luck. Jurors who choose #1 are more likely to have an internal locus of control. Jurors with an internal locus of control believe... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0209-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0209-1.htm Tue, 3 Feb 2009 17:43:00 GMT Genove and Imwinkelried (1995) report that white-collar workers award lower damages than blue-collar workers for emotional injuries, but this pattern is reversed for physical injuries. Goodman and colleagues (1990) found that... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0109-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0109-4.htm Tue, 27 Jan 2009 17:42:00 GMT Social class affects how jurors understand evidence. For example, social class affects whether jurors believe a criminal defendant is carrying a knife as a weapon intended to injure another person, or carrying it out of habit or for general protection. Pennington and Hastie (1990) report how a juror's social class affects which interpretation is accepted for why a defendant... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0109-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0109-3.htm Tue, 20 Jan 2009 17:41:00 GMT Sometimes defendants are tried simultaneously for multiple crimes. Tanford (Tanford, 1985; Tanford and Penrod, 1984) studied the effects of trying a defendant on three charges in one trial, or trying the defendant separately on each charge... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0109-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0109-2.htm Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:40:00 GMT ForsterLee and colleagues (1993) examined how substantive pretrial instructions about compensatory damage awards affected jurors in a toxic tort case. Some jurors were pre-instructed and post-instructed as to compensatory awards, while other jurors were only post-instructed prior to deliberations. The timing of the instructions affected both the amount of compensation awarded and in jurors' differentiation among plaintiffs... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0109-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0109-1.htm Tue, 6 Jan 2009 17:39:00 GMT Voir dire is typically conducted in public in groups, and potential jurors often are asked questions most people do not like answering in private and when alone. Post-trial interviews with jurors reveal that jurors often fail to answer fully or truthfully... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1208-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1208-4.htm Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:38:00 GMT At times, defendants admit committing a crime, but argue that they should not be considered legally responsible because they have an excuse. Some excuses are more compelling than others, and some jurors are more compelled by the excuses than others. Heath and colleagues (2001) compared excuses... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1208-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1208-3.htm Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:37:00 GMT When deciding to have a civil case resolved through arbitration, a bench trial, or a jury trial, a common concern focuses on damages the decision-maker might award. The perspective of judges and lawyers is often thought to be different than that of lay citizens. Robbennolt (2002) compared jurors' awards of punitive damages with those of trial judges... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1208-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1208-2.htm Tue, 9 Dec 2008 17:36:00 GMT While the opening statement is not considered by the courts to be evidence, opening statements can be highly influential in jurors' decisions... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1208-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1208-1.htm Tue, 2 Dec 2008 17:35:00 GMT Jurors who are authoritarian have a desire for order and well-defined rules, conform to conventional norms, and exhibit a desire to punish individuals who deviate from those norms. Authoritarians are often hostile to "out-group" members which, historically in the U.S., has included Jews, communists, sexual offenders, members of the women's movement, and many other easily identified groups. Authoritarian jurors often favor... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1108-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1108-4.htm Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:34:00 GMT At times, damages requested by a plaintiff are very large, or even excessive. Social science research finds that even when the amount requested is large, or even excessive, jurors award more money (though perhaps not all that is requested)... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1108-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1108-3.htm Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:33:00 GMT In principle, all jurors are created equal. In practice, this equalitarian ethic is seldom realized. The fact of the matter is that dominance hierarchies develop and juries consist in predictable ways of leaders, participants and followers. Prior experience is one factor that affects these dominance hierarchies because it affects a juror's participation in deliberations... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1108-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1108-2.htm Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:32:00 GMT Jurors often are presented with some negative outcome (e.g., an injured plaintiff), and are asked to assess whether that outcome was foreseeable or preventable. Jurors frequently are unable to ignore the outcome information when reaching verdicts. Jurors "Monday-morning quarterback" and exhibit "20-20 hindsight." This "hindsight bias" is especially likely to produce liability judgments... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1108-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1108-1.htm Tue, 4 Nov 2008 17:31:00 GMT Attorneys can seek to discredit an expert witness in cross-examination by using (a) either leading or non-leading questions asked in (b) either a hostile or non-hostile style. Gibbs and colleagues (1989) investigated how effective different questioning styles are... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1008-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1008-4.htm Tue, 28 Oct 2008 17:30:00 GMT In criminal cases, jurors frequently are instructed in, and given a verdict form with, multiple verdict options in the form of lesser included charges. The most severe verdict option (e.g., murder) is instructed first, with lesser included options (e.g., manslaughter) decided afterwards. The sequence in which jurors make decisions influences the verdicts they reach... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1008-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1008-3.htm Tue, 21 Oct 2008 17:29:00 GMT Attorneys have considerable control over the verdict form provided civil juries. At times, a general verdict form is used, where the jury is called on to answer one or two global questions . At other times, the jury answers a series of specific questions relating to the material issues in the case. The type of verdict form jurors receive can influence their verdicts. Schmidt and Diamond (1998) examined the effect of verdict forms on liability judgments in a products liability case. Jurors given a general verdict form were nearly twice as likely... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1008-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1008-2.htm Tue, 14 Oct 2008 17:28:00 GMT The general safety practices of a company, even when unrelated to the case at hand, can influence jurors' products liability verdicts... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1008-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1008-1.htm Tue, 7 Oct 2008 17:27:00 GMT Almost 20% of the U.S. population age 5 and older speak a language at home other than English. Ewing and colleagues (2008) recently studied whether the language in which a plaintiff testifies influences the outcome in a personal injury trial... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0908-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0908-4.htm Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:26:00 GMT Hispanic defendants can be represented by attorneys of the same or a different race. Espinoza (2005) studied jurors' treatment of Mexican American defendants when they were represented by either a Mexican American or a European American attorney... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0908-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0908-3.htm Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:25:00 GMT Kassin and Garfield (1991) investigated whether jurors are influenced by crime scene videotapes. As part of the presentation of a murder case, some jurors viewed a crime scene videotape of close-ups of a bloodied young man who had been stabbed to death and left lying in the street. Other jurors did not see the crime scene video. Jurors viewing the crime scene video... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0908-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0908-2.htm Tue, 9 Sep 2008 17:24:00 GMT Jurors are often presented with some negative outcome (e.g., an injured plaintiff), and are asked to assess whether that outcome was foreseeable or preventable. Can jurors disregard outcome information, or does this knowledge bias their decisions?... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0908-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0908-1.htm Tue, 2 Sep 2008 17:23:00 GMT Jurors favor attractive defendants. A large body of research shows that attractive defendants are found guilty less often, and given lighter sentences when found guilty, than unattractive defendants (see, e.g., Burke et al., 1990; Mazzella and Feingold, 1994). The advantage of physically attractive defendants does not hold for all crimes... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0808-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0808-4.htm Tue, 26 Aug 2008 17:22:00 GMT Legal negligence rules hold auditors responsible for plaintiff losses only when the quality of the audit that is provided fails to meet standards of care. The standard of care is a minimum standard, and meant to be independent of the severity of the consequences of audit failure... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0808-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0808-3.htm Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:21:00 GMT Ideally, jurors asked to render a verdict in a criminal trial make judgments of guilt or innocence based solely on the trial evidence, which is presumably diagnostic of guilt or innocence. Information diagnostic of guilt or innocence includes eyewitness accounts, physical evidence, and the existence of an alibi. How does information not diagnostic of guilt or innocence - a defendant's physical attributes or character - affect verdicts? Can such non-diagnostic evidence dilute information diagnostic of guilt?... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0808-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0808-2.htm Tue, 12 Aug 2008 17:20:00 GMT Parkinson (1981) studied the speech of male prosecutors and defense attorneys from courtroom transcripts. Successful prosecutors were... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0808-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0808-1.htm Tue, 5 Aug 2008 17:19:00 GMT Jurors are often questioned together as a group during voir dire. On occasion, jurors are questioned individually outside the presence of other jurors. Nietzel and Dillehay (1982) explored the effects of questioning jurors as a group or individually in 13 capital cases prosecuted in Kentucky... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0708-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0708-4.htm Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:18:00 GMT Juries convict African-American defendants more often than White defendants for many crimes. Instances exist, however, when African-American defendants are treated less harshly by juries than White defendants. Poulson (1990) found that... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0708-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0708-3.htm Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:17:00 GMT The law treats the determination of negligence and the awarding of damages as independent issues. Are jurors able to separate the issues of liability and damages in comparative negligence cases? Zickafoose and Bornstein (1999) conducted two studies examining how a plaintiff's partial negligence affects jurors' damage awards... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0708-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0708-2.htm Tue, 8 Jul 2008 17:16:00 GMT Eyewitness testimony is fallible. Mistaken eyewitness testimony is the leading cause of false convictions, accounting for more criminal convictions of innocent people than all other causes combined (see, for review, Wells et al., 1998). Lawyers' cross-examination skills often cannot overcome jurors' belief in an eyewitness... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0708-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0708-1.htm Tue, 1 Jul 2008 17:15:00 GMT When judging the legality of a search, any items that are discovered during the search should be irrelevant. Under the law, search legality is based only on information that police have prior to conducting the search, and whether or not such information meets the legal standard to conduct the search. Casper and colleagues (1988) examined jurors' attitudes toward police officers who had improperly searched an apartment... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0608-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0608-4.htm Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:14:00 GMT Judges exhibit their leaning in cases, and jurors take their cue from their judge. Even subtle differences in how judges read jury instructions can influence verdicts. Researchers (Blanck et al., 1985; Blanck et al., 1990; Hart, 1995) have investigated how judges' expectations for the outcome of a trial predicted both (a) the judges' verbal and nonverbal behavior, and (b) the verdicts returned by juries... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0608-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0608-3.htm Tue, 17 Jun 2008 17:13:00 GMT Automobile accident claims constitute a significant proportion of the personal injury bar's work, insurance defense work, and the state jury trial caseload, comprising 50% of all tort filings and 42% of all tort jury trials in state courts of general jurisdiction (Ostrom and colleagues, 1996). While a plaintiff's broken bone can be demonstrated through X-rays, whiplash (soft tissue or connective-tissue) injuries do not show up on common medical tests. Hans and Vadino (2007) surveyed 600 prospective jurors concerning their attitudes... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0608-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0608-2.htm Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:12:00 GMT Warnings on products can affect jurors' allocation of responsibility for injuries incurred while using those products. First, the mere presence of a warning affects the allocation of responsibility... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0608-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0608-1.htm Tue, 3 Jun 2008 17:11:00 GMT Jurors come to court with beliefs about the allocation of responsibility for product injuries. These a priori beliefs anchor jurors' judgments in product liability cases. Laughery and colleagues (1995) report jurors' a priori allocation of responsibility for injuries involving... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0508-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0508-4.htm Tue, 27 May 2008 17:10:00 GMT While negligence is at the heart of personal injury claims at trial, negligence is not always at the heart of decisions to settle. Harris and colleagues (2006) examined settlement decisions in medical malpractice litigation, and studied the importance of the witness potential of the defendant physician, the witness potential of the plaintiff, and the reputation of the plaintiff's attorney... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0508-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0508-3.htm Tue, 20 May 2008 17:09:00 GMT Voir dire, especially in federal courts, is often limited to demographic information such as residence, age, marital status, occupation, spouse's occupation, children's ages and occupations, and prior jury service. At times, questioning is expanded beyond this demographic information to jurors' experiences, attitudes, habits, and tendencies that are case-related (and sometimes more generally). Moran and colleagues (1990) examined the effect of minimal versus extended voir dire ... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0508-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0508-2.htm Tue, 13 May 2008 17:08:00 GMT Demographic factors such as gender, age, occupation, marital status, education, and income generally have only a minor influence on verdicts. Hastie and colleagues (1983) examined the backgrounds and verdict inclinations of over 800 prospective Boston jurors... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0508-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0508-1.htm Tue, 6 May 2008 17:07:00 GMT Prospective jurors are often asked directive questions in voir dire. Directive questions tell jurors the answer and ask for affirmation, rather than asking for jurors' thoughts. Examples of directive questions include:... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0408-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0408-4.htm Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:06:00 GMT Some people involved in litigation have prior criminal convictions. Attorneys can ignore this information or "inoculate" against it by raising the issue and refuting it in some way. One strategy is to raise the issue of a person's prior record in voir dire and ask jurors to overlook the prior record as they decide the current case. Reinard and Arsenault (2000) investigated whether asking jurors in voir dire to overlook a defendant's prior criminal record was an effective means of encouraging jurors not to focus on the prior record... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0408-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0408-3.htm Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:05:00 GMT Prior jury service, either civil or criminal, has a modest influence on verdicts in criminal trials. Himelein and colleagues (1991) studied 143 criminal trials... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0408-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0408-2.htm Tue, 8 Apr 2008 17:04:00 GMT Exposing inconsistencies in a witness' testimony can affect verdicts, but not always. Berman and Cutler (1996) investigated the exposure of inconsistencies in testimony through cross-examination of a prosecution eyewitness... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0408-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0408-1.htm Tue, 1 Apr 2008 17:03:00 GMT Wells and colleagues (1979) explored how the type of question an attorney asks in cross-examination - leading or non-leading - affects whether jurors believe a witness... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0308-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0308-4.htm Tue, 25 Mar 2008 17:02:00 GMT Criminal defendants who take their cases to trial face high conviction rates, regardless of who defends them. Harlow (2000) reviewed criminal cases in U.S. district courts and the 75 largest counties in the U.S... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0308-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0308-3.htm Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:01:00 GMT Often, White jurors are more lenient to White defendants, and Black jurors more lenient to Black defendants. These "in-group" racial preferences can dissipate or reverse when jurors want to distance themselves from, rather than align themselves with, a defendant... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0308-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0308-2.htm Tue, 11 Mar 2008 16:59:00 GMT In Twelve Angry Men, one strong juror sways a strong majority of 11 other jurors to change their minds. In reality, a minority of jurors effectively influences the majority only rarely... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0308-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0308-1.htm Tue, 4 Mar 2008 16:58:00 GMT A witness can testify directly that "After I heard the shot, I made a phone call" or can imply making the call through the indirect statement that "After I heard the shot, I went to the telephone." A witness can testify directly that "I rang the burglar alarm" or can imply ringing the alarm through the indirect statement that "I ran up to the burglar alarm." The actions of phone calling and alarm ringing are affirmed in the direct testimony, and only implied in the indirect testimony. Harris and colleagues (1978) studied the effects of direct and indirect statements in courtroom testimony, and found that... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0208-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0208-4.htm Tue, 26 Feb 2008 16:57:00 GMT Takakawa (1999) had members of a jury pool in Hawaii listen to direct examination of witnesses, including speakers of Standard English and Hawai'i Creole English. Jurors judged speakers of Standard English as most credible. Stephan and Stephan (1986) found that non-Hispanic jurors judged Spanish speaking and Thai speaking defendants... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0208-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0208-3.htm Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:56:00 GMT Jurors learn by listening in voir dire. The questions attorneys ask and the answers other jurors provide can educate jurors about due process rights. Middendorf and Luginbuhl (1995) explored whether jurors learned more about due process rights by a judge explaining those legal guarantees or an attorney asking other jurors about those rights in voir dire... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0208-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0208-2.htm Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:55:00 GMT When jurors are asked questions in voir dire, silence is generally understood by the court as a negative response. However, jurors remaining silent in group voir dire are not jurors without bias. A substantial number of jurors do not reveal important information in open court... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0208-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0208-1.htm Tue, 5 Feb 2008 16:54:00 GMT Some jurors are thinkers and enjoy such activities as effortful thinking, sudoku, logic puzzles, and playing chess. These "thinking" jurors pay close attention to and scrutinize carefully what is said to them. These jurors have what is called a high need for cognition. Other jurors are less motivated to engage in effortful thinking. These jurors have a low need for cognition... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0108-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0108-4.htm Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:53:00 GMT Expert psychological testimony can be clinical or actuarial. Clinical expert psychological testimony is based on a clinician's opinion stemming from years of experience within the field. Actuarial expert psychological testimony is based on standardized assessment measures. Krauss (2000) explored whether jurors were more influenced in their decision-making... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0108-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0108-3.htm Tue, 22 Jan 2008 16:52:00 GMT Hahn and Clayton (1996) compared reactions of male and female jurors to either a male or female defense attorney cross-examining a witness in an assault and robbery case. The attorney variously used an aggressive or non-aggressive presentation style... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0108-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0108-2.htm Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:51:00 GMT Male jurors, though not female jurors, respond differently to male and female attorneys. Pfeifer (1988) compared reactions of male and female jurors to a male and female prosecutor... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0108-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0108-1.htm Tue, 8 Jan 2008 16:50:00 GMT Unlike criminal cases where pretrial publicity is usually about the defendant (rather than the prosecutor), pretrial publicity in civil cases might be about either the defendant or the plaintiff. Borstein and colleagues (2002) explored the effects of pretrial publicity in a personal injury case concerning the leakage of a chemical... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1207-6.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1207-6.htm Mon, 31 Dec 2007 16:49:00 GMT ttorneys make promises to the jury in opening statements about what the evidence will show. Sometimes the evidence fails to fulfill one or more of these promises. Pyszczynski and colleagues (1981) investigated the effects of a promise made in an opening statement of a criminal trial that went unmet in the presentation of evidence... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1207-5.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1207-5.htm Tue, 25 Dec 2007 16:48:00 GMT http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1207-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1207-4.htm Tue, 18 Dec 2007 16:47:00 GMT The defense can give its opening statement immediately after a prosecutor's opening, or reserve its opening until after the prosecutor's case has been presented to jurors. Wells and colleagues (1985) explored how the timing of a defense attorney's opening statement affected jurors' perceptions and verdicts... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1207-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1207-3.htm Tue, 11 Dec 2007 16:46:00 GMT Landsman and Rakos (1994) tested whether judges, due to their training and experience, are better than juries at ignoring biasing or inadmissible material. In this research, 88 judges and 104 jurors rendered liability verdicts on a products liability case... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1207-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1207-2.htm Tue, 4 Dec 2007 16:45:00 GMT One way to respond to criminal charges is by claiming that a defendant was induced to engage in illegal behavior by law enforcement. Borgida and Park (1988) found that jurors... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1207-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1207-1.htm Sat, 1 Dec 2007 16:44:00 GMT While the issue of race in the courtroom often focuses on jurors and defendants, this issue also extends to attorneys. Boliver (1999) examined how the race of jurors and attorneys influences verdicts in a child abuse/neglect case... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1107-6.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1107-6.htm Thu, 29 Nov 2007 16:43:00 GMT When a female defense attorney defends a man accused of rape, jurors are more likely to believe the case against the defendant is not as strong. Villemur and Hyde (1983) found that in rape trials... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1107-5.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1107-5.htm Tue, 27 Nov 2007 16:42:00 GMT Increasingly, judges are instructing criminal juries about presumption of innocence, burden of proof and reasonable doubt before presentation of evidence, rather than waiting until after the evidence has been presented. The timing of judicial instructions can have a significant impact on verdicts. Kaplan and Wrightsman (1979) examined how the timing of judicial instructions affects jurors' verdicts in criminal cases... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1107-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1107-4.htm Tue, 20 Nov 2007 16:41:00 GMT Some cases, courts and jurisdictions rely on juries smaller than 12 persons. At times, litigants give permission to continue a trial with fewer jurors than originally selected. Jury size affects jury decisions, and whether a smaller or larger jury is preferred in any given case depends on the nature of the case, the strength of the evidence, the degree to which deliberation is desired, and a host of other factors... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1107-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1107-3.htm Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:40:00 GMT Recently, Hannaford and colleagues (2002) examined the causes of juror deadlock in 336 non-capital felony jury trials conducted in state courts in Los Angeles County (CA), Maricopa County (AZ), Bronx County (NY), and the District of Columbia (DC) between June 2000 and August 2001. Thirteen percent of these cases hung on one or more of the charges. Juries that hung on at least one charge... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1107-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1107-2.htm Tue, 6 Nov 2007 16:39:00 GMT Corporate defendants preparing for trial face a hostile environment from jurors. Corporate defendants must battle not only the charges against them, but also jurors' negative attitudes about corporate America. Vinson and Perlut (2003) report jury research conducted in actual cases, and describe jurors' attitudes that corporate defendants must overcome at trial... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1107-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1107-1.htm Thu, 1 Nov 2007 16:38:00 GMT Jurors often award greater damages against corporate defendants than individuals for the same behavior. Is it because a corporate defendant has deeper pockets (i.e., more financial resources) than individuals? Hans and Ermann (1989) asked two groups of mock jurors to decide the same civil lawsuit, with the only difference between the cases given to the jurors being that one group of jurors heard the defendant was a corporation (The Jones Corporation), while the other group of jurors heard the defendant was an individual (Mr. Jones)... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1007-6.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1007-6.htm Tue, 30 Oct 2007 16:37:00 GMT Prosecutors and defense attorneys present religious appeals and testimony about a defendant's religious activities at trial to influence capital jurors' sentencing. Religious appeals have been used in several high profile trials. In the trial of Andrea Yates, the mother in Texas who drowned her five children in her bathtub, the prosecutor told the jury "It was wrong in the eyes of God and it was wrong in the eyes of the law." In the trial of Susan Smith, the mother who killed her two sons and invented a carjacking story to cover up the crime, the defense attorney told the Biblical story of Jesus saving an adulterous woman from being stoned. Miller and Bornstein (2006) recently explored the effects of religious appeals in capital sentencing decisions... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1007-5.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1007-5.htm Tue, 23 Oct 2007 16:36:00 GMT The wording of a question affects witnesses answers to it. Changing only the verb, an adjective, or even just the article in a question is sufficient to affect a witness' answer. First, using differentially intense verbs (e.g., smashed, collided, bumped, hit, contacted) in a question asking about an event (e.g., a traffic accident) alters a witness' answer... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1007-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1007-4.htm Tue, 16 Oct 2007 16:35:00 GMT Question wording influences the answer witnesses provide. A response about the number of times a certain action or event occurred is not independent of the wording of the question used to elicit the answer. Loftus (1975) reports a study finding that people's estimated frequency of use of headache products are dependent on (1) possible answers that are included as part of the question, and (2) the adverb used in the question... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1007-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1007-3.htm Tue, 9 Oct 2007 16:34:00 GMT When jurors first start deliberations, most have an opinion about the guilt or innocence of a criminal defendant. Garvey and colleagues (2004) recently analyzed reports of 3,000 jurors in criminal trials in four major metropolitan areas to determine the primary influences on a juror's first vote... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1007-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1007-2.htm Tue, 2 Oct 2007 16:33:00 GMT Witnesses can offer more or fewer details in their testimony, and these details can be trivial or central. Research suggests that when witnesses offer testimony that is more detailed, even when the details are trivial, they are perceived to be more credible... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1007-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1007-1.htm Mon, 1 Oct 2007 16:32:00 GMT At the end of trials, judges give jurors a set of instructions that explain the laws that are applicable to the case and that direct jurors to reach a verdict in accordance with those laws. Greene and Johns (2001) investigated the extent to which jurors understand judicial instructions in negligence cases... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0907-6.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0907-6.htm Fri, 28 Sep 2007 16:31:00 GMT Because of the nearly unrestricted use of leading questions, cross-examination provides opportunity to influence jurors through questions designed to impart information to the jury. Kassin and colleagues (1990) tested whether jurors' perceptions of an expert witness can be influenced by leading cross-examination questions... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0907-5.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0907-5.htm Tue, 25 Sep 2007 16:30:00 GMT Deposed witnesses are not always available for trial, and so the testimony is read by a reader selected by the attorney presenting the witness' testimony. Jurors judge more than the content of the read testimony - they also judge the reader. Kassin (1983) found that opinions of a witness are influenced by the demeanor of the deposition testimony reader... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0907-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0907-4.htm Tue, 18 Sep 2007 16:29:00 GMT Sexual harassment knows no gender. Men can harass women or other men, and women can also harass men or other women. Wayne and colleagues (2001) explored how jurors perceive cross-sex and same-sex harassment for both males and females accused of harassment. Over 400 jurors made decisions in a hostile work environment case... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0907-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0907-3.htm Tue, 11 Sep 2007 16:28:00 GMT Judges and juries often reach similar decisions, although there are times these decisions differ. Eisenberg and colleagues (2006) analyzed thousands of trials from a substantial part of the nation's most populous counties... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0907-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0907-2.htm Tue, 4 Sep 2007 16:27:00 GMT In 1966, Kalven and Zeisel found that judges agreed with criminal verdicts 78% of the time. In 2005, Eisenberg and colleagues examined a new database of criminal trials and found essentially the same rate of judge-jury agreement. Eisenberg and colleagues report, however, that judges and juries differentially convict... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0907-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0907-1.htm Sat, 1 Sep 2007 16:26:00 GMT Studdert and colleagues (2006) recently analyzed the prevalence, characteristics, litigation outcomes, and costs of medical malpractice claims that lacked evidence of error. Trained physicians reviewed a random sample of 1,452 closed malpractice claims from five liability insurers to determine whether a medical injury had occurred and, if so, whether it was due to medical error... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0807-6.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0807-6.htm Thu, 30 Aug 2007 16:25:00 GMT Under the law, gender discrimination claims can be made by both women and men, although women traditionally are perceived by jurors as "typical" plaintiffs in such actions. Jurors' own gender can influence their perceptions of the validity of gender discrimination claims. Elkins and colleagues (2001) examined whether a "same sex" bias existed in the evaluation of gender discrimination claims, that is, whether male jurors evaluated claims of male plaintiffs more positively, and female jurors evaluated claims of female plaintiffs more positively... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0807-5.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0807-5.htm Tue, 28 Aug 2007 16:24:00 GMT Jurors who speak up and are opinionated are more likely to be excused than jurors who speak little or in a less opinionated manner. Wigley (1999) had 640 jurors in actual cases, of whom 225 were ultimately excused, complete psychological tests before going through voir dire... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0807-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0807-4.htm Tue, 21 Aug 2007 16:23:00 GMT Jurors are expected to provide candid and honest answers in voir dire. Attorney-conducted and judge-conducted voir dire is not equally effective in eliciting this self-disclosure... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0807-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0807-3.htm Tue, 14 Aug 2007 16:22:00 GMT Jurors often have strong attitudes about sex, abuse, and the protection of children that affect their ability to be fair and impartial in sex abuse trials. In 1997, Vidmar observed 849 prospective jurors in 25 Canadian criminal trials involving charges of sexual abuse, noting the percent of jurors self-reporting the inability to be fair and impartial in these types of cases... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0807-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0807-2.htm Tue, 7 Aug 2007 16:21:00 GMT Legally, the severity of a plaintiff's injury is irrelevant to decisions about liability. Although injury severity is directly relevant to the issue of compensation, an effect on the prior determination of liability would constitute an extralegal bias. Bornstein (1998) conducted two studies examining whether the severity of a plaintiff's injury affected jurors' verdicts of liability... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0807-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0807-1.htm Thu, 2 Aug 2007 16:20:00 GMT Jurors' attitudes about the death penalty are important to the outcome of capital cases and jury selection assistance has a demonstrable impact on sentencing recommendations. Nietzel and Dillehay (1986) report a study that examined the outcomes of 35 capital trials where a jury consultant was used in 17 cases, and no jury consultant used in the other 18 cases... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0707-6.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0707-6.htm Tue, 31 Jul 2007 16:19:00 GMT Horowitz and Bordens (1990) studied the effects of bifurcated versus unitary trials in a mass toxic tort case that was based on the facts of Wilhoite v. Olin Corp., CV 83-5021 (N.D. Ala. 1985). In this research, over 760 jurors heard, in some form, a four-hour videotape that presented issues of causation, liability, compensatory damages and punitive damages. Some jurors participated in a unitary trial, hearing all the issues at one time before rendering a verdict. Other jurors participated in a bifurcated trial, rendering verdicts after causation, liability and/or compensatory damages, before proceeding to punitive damages... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0707-5.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0707-5.htm Tue, 24 Jul 2007 16:18:00 GMT Attorneys often have witnesses undergo simulated direct- and cross-examination to prepare for deposition or trial testimony. Witnesses additionally can be trained in communication skills. Boccaccini (and colleagues, 2004; 2005) studied the effectiveness of testimony simulation and communication skills training from both witnesses' and jurors' points of view... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0707-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0707-4.htm Tue, 17 Jul 2007 16:17:00 GMT Jurors evaluate more than the evidence at trial. Jurors also judge the appearance of a criminal defendant. Conti (2004) conducted two studies to determine whether jurors stereotype criminal offenders as having facial hair... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0707-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0707-3.htm Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:16:00 GMT Judicial instructions to ignore inadmissible evidence typically do not eliminate the impact of that evidence on jurors. Consistent with this common research finding, Steblay and colleagues (2006) report that... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0707-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0707-2.htm Tue, 3 Jul 2007 16:15:00 GMT Two recent studies examined jurors' response to psychological testimony. One research study explored whether jurors focus on the content of the testimony or on the experts' credentials. The second research study explored jurors' expectations for the content of that testimony... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0707-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0707-1.htm Sun, 1 Jul 2007 16:14:00 GMT Plaintiffs frequently argue that their personal injuries are caused by product defects. In such cases, jurors' attitudes about product manufacturers are critical. Hans and Lofquist (1992) interviewed, post-trial, 141 jurors who had served on cases involving businesses and corporations, and representing a broad spectrum of business issues including worker injuries, asbestos and product liability cases, consumer injuries in the workplace, and automobile accidents in which a business vehicle was involved... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0607-6.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0607-6.htm Thu, 28 Jun 2007 16:13:00 GMT Juries are sometimes provided a lesser charge on which to convict a criminal defendant in addition to a primary charge sought by prosecutors. Koch and Devine (1999) examined how a lesser included charge affects convictions by criminal juries... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0607-5.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0607-5.htm Tue, 26 Jun 2007 16:12:00 GMT A key feature of the American legal system is that the litigants control the production and presentation of evidence. Two impacts on evidence presented at trial happen as a result of this key feature. First, the evidence heard at trial is a selective and non-representative sampling of facts offered to suit the interests of the litigants. Second, investigators frequently generate evidence by combing through large bodies of information for relevant facts. Broad investigations may turn up circumstantial evidence that appears to be highly probative of a claim, but which is actually coincidental. Having multiple opportunities to search for evidence increases the chance of finding seemingly supportive evidence by chance alone, even when the claim being forwarded is actually false. Two recent experiments conducted by Koehler and Thompson (2006) examined whether jurors appreciate that multiple searches may generate seemingly supportive evidence by chance alone, and whether the evidence they hear at trial is a selective and unrepresentative sample of the underlying facts... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0607-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0607-4.htm Tue, 19 Jun 2007 16:11:00 GMT Plaintiff and defendant attractiveness matter in sexual harassment cases. Research shows that jurors consider sexual harassment more likely when either the plaintiff is attractive or the defendant is unattractive, regardless of the gender of the litigants... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0607-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0607-3.htm Tue, 12 Jun 2007 16:10:00 GMT Attorneys frequently try to ingratiate themselves to jurors, judges, and courtroom personnel to increase their personal likeability and improve trial outcomes for their clients. Tactics used to bond with jurors range from exaggerating confidence in the venire, offering extreme courtesy towards jurors, joking with the panel, feigning concern about the health and welfare of jurors, and making mutual acquaintances known. Attorneys face a dilemma in their ingratiation efforts. If ingratiation is too subtle, then it will go unnoticed and no liking will be generated for them or their clients; on the other hand, if ingratiation is laid on too thick, the ingratiation can backfire with jurors questioning and suspecting, rather than liking, attorneys. Brodsky (2006) tested how much ingratiation is too much during the voir dire process for three different panels of jurors... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0607-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0607-2.htm Tue, 5 Jun 2007 16:09:00 GMT Character witnesses offer general positive information about a defendant's personality and good character, and can be impeached through cross-examination that allows prosecutors to introduce specific bad acts in which a defendant has engaged. Recent research by Hunt and Budesheim (2004) studied the effects of positive character evidence when offered alone, and when followed by a prosecutor cross-examining about specific bad acts... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0607-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0607-1.htm Sun, 3 Jun 2007 16:08:00 GMT The advent of the modern mass tort trial has pitted individualized justice against judicial concern for efficiency, leading to the aggregation of cases. Horowitz and Bordens have examined the effect of aggregating plaintiffs on liability decisions and damage awards in mass toxic tort litigation... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0507-6.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0507-6.htm Thu, 31 May 2007 16:07:00 GMT Two recent studies have examined the role alcohol plays in jurors' perceptions of defendants and complainants in sexual assault cases... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0507-5.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0507-5.htm Tue, 29 May 2007 16:06:00 GMT A doctor who testifies at trial can be a doctor who sees patients, a professor, a researcher or even a professional expert witness. Jurors find some types of doctors more credible than others. Recently, Boccaccini and Brodsky (2002) interviewed almost 500 potential jurors... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0507-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0507-4.htm Tue, 22 May 2007 16:05:00 GMT A camera's angle, or perspective, in a videotaped confession can have serious prejudicial effects to defendants in criminal trials... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0507-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0507-3.htm Tue, 15 May 2007 16:04:00 GMT Hastie and colleagues (2002) examined how dollar amounts requested by a plaintiff influence jurors' damage awards... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0507-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0507-2.htm Tue, 8 May 2007 16:03:00 GMT Jurors have expectations about battered women who kill, and their verdicts are influenced by the extent to which a defendant matches or deviates from those expectations. Russell (1999) found that jurors expect a battered woman to exhibit certain physical, social, behavioral and psychological characteristics... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0507-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0507-1.htm Tue, 1 May 2007 16:02:00 GMT Companies conduct cost-benefit analyses for many reasons, including to help improve safety. These cost-benefit analyses affect juror decision-making when introduced at trial... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0407-6.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0407-6.htm Fri, 27 Apr 2007 16:01:00 GMT Three recent studies examined how jurors' perceptions of the elderly affect verdicts in cases of elder abuse and elder neglect. One study looked at the health of the elderly person, another at the age of jurors, and another at the gender of jurors... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0407-5.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0407-5.htm Tue, 24 Apr 2007 16:00:00 GMT Incriminating evidence can be presented first, in the middle, or last in a trial. Costabile and Klein (2005) recently studied the timing of evidence presentation on juror verdicts in 4 separate experiments... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0407-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0407-4.htm Tue, 17 Apr 2007 15:59:00 GMT Time spent in deliberations focusing on the defendant's actions and on the jury instructions affects decisions to award punitive damages... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0407-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0407-3.htm Tue, 10 Apr 2007 15:58:00 GMT Deliberations often lead to larger punitive awards than what jurors would award individually. Schkade and colleagues (2002) examined the size of punitive damage awards, finding that a severity shift occurs in deliberations... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0407-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0407-2.htm Tue, 3 Apr 2007 15:57:00 GMT Safer sex health educators encourage women to carry condoms. This health practice is legally hazardous to women who are victims of sexual assault. Hynie and colleagues (2003) studied whether knowing that a female victim of a sexual assault was carrying a condom influenced perceptions of her sexual intention and subsequent judgments of the sexual assault... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0407-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0407-1.htm Sun, 1 Apr 2007 15:56:00 GMT Recent research by Boccaccini and Brodsky (2002) finds that jurors expect criminal defendants who testify to be at least a little nervous, and are most likely to believe defendants... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0307-6.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0307-6.htm Fri, 30 Mar 2007 15:55:00 GMT Jurors discuss many topics when deciding on damages, including topics that parties to the litigation are not allowed to mention. Mott and colleagues (2000) interviewed 269 jurors from 36 civil cases concerning their deliberations, the strategies their juries used, and the factors considered in arriving at a collective damage award. Jurors reported discussing... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0307-5.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0307-5.htm Tue, 27 Mar 2007 15:54:00 GMT Voir dire is used to identify jurors that cannot be fair and impartial in a particular case, and can be conducted with the entire jury pool present, or with jurors brought in one-by-one. Urbszat (2005) recently conducted three studies examining the effectiveness of voir dire in identifying jurors with bias or prejudice... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0307-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0307-4.htm Tue, 20 Mar 2007 15:53:00 GMT Landstrom and colleagues (2005) studied jurors' reactions to live and videotaped eyewitness testimony. Three weeks after seeing a staged accident, 12 witnesses testified about the event. Jurors viewed the witnesses' testimony either live or on video. Live observers of the witnesses' testimony rated the witnesses' appearance in a more... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0307-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0307-3.htm Tue, 13 Mar 2007 15:52:00 GMT Overland (2003) examined whether plaintiff-oriented and defense-oriented jurors in personal injury cases against corporate defendants can be distinguished from each other based on their demographics and attitudes. Overland's research examines data from over 2600 jurors in mock trials conducted around the country in preparation of actual personal injury trials involving either automobile defects or prescription medicine side effects... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0307-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0307-2.htm Tue, 6 Mar 2007 15:51:00 GMT The definition of reasonable doubt provided to jurors can influence their verdicts. Horowitz and Kirkpatrick (1996) examined five definitions of reasonable doubt when the evidence against the defendant was either strong or weak... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0307-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0307-1.htm Fri, 2 Mar 2007 15:50:00 GMT Jurors do not always distinguish between highly qualified and less qualified experts, even when the difference in these experts' credentials is brought to their attention. Research by Cooper and colleagues (1996) looked at how the credentials of expert witnesses affect their persuasiveness... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0207-6.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0207-6.htm Tue, 27 Feb 2007 15:49:00 GMT When mistakes are made in social situations, the appropriate response is to apologize. When professionals make mistakes while providing services, an apology has the potential to expose professionals to litigation and findings of liability. When a mistake is made, can a professional offer a statement of remorse, rather than an apology, without incurring liability and damages? A statement of remorse is an expression of sadness about an event that lacks any admission of responsibility or fault (e.g., "I am sorry for the unfortunate death of Xavier", "I am sorry you had a myocardial infarction"). Bornstein and colleagues (2002) examined the effects of defendant remorse on monetary damages... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0207-5.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0207-5.htm Fri, 23 Feb 2007 15:48:00 GMT Jurors often assign greater responsibility to corporate defendants than individuals for the same behavior... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0207-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0207-4.htm Tue, 20 Feb 2007 15:47:00 GMT Jurors' attitudes about lawsuits and the state of the justice system in America often predict their verdicts. An extreme plaintiff-leaning juror believes victims should always be compensated, regardless of fault. An extreme defense-leaning juror believes people are too quick to sue, that damage awards are excessive and must be curtailed, and is against awarding money solely on the basis of pain and suffering. Hans and Lofquist (1994) studied jurors' litigation crisis attitudes... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0207-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0207-3.htm Tue, 13 Feb 2007 15:46:00 GMT Oppenheimer (2003) analyzed every employment law jury verdict in California in 1998 and 1999, a total of 389 cases, and concluded that women and minorities have low success rates. In the 389 jury trials studied, juries found for plaintiffs just over... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0207-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0207-2.htm Tue, 6 Feb 2007 15:45:00 GMT Many studies have been done over the years to determine if bench and jury trials yield similar or different results. Judges and juries often agree. For example:... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0207-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0207-1.htm Thu, 1 Feb 2007 15:44:00 GMT Frequently, jurors are asked to vote for manslaughter rather than murder due to a defendant's emotions overcoming the defendant's reason at the time of a killing. Spackman et al. (2002) examined factors jurors take into consideration when determining whether a defendant's emotions serve as mitigating circumstances to reduce a murder charge to a verdict of manslaughter... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0107-6.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0107-6.htm Tue, 30 Jan 2007 15:43:00 GMT In consent-defense rape cases, a complainant's status as a victim is at issue: Is she a victim of rape, or did she consent to sex? Certain complainants are more likely to be seen as rape victims, and certain jurors are more likely to see them that way. Women with certain attributes are more likely to be accorded rape victim status. Christie (1986) reports that a woman most readily accorded rape victim status has 5 attributes:... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0107-5.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0107-5.htm Fri, 26 Jan 2007 15:42:00 GMT The jurors in the Scott Peterson trial recommended the death penalty, and afterwards commented that Scott Peterson looked "cold and unemotional" during the trial. Did Scott Peterson's demeanor affect jurors' recommendation of a death sentence? Two recent research studies report that emotionally impassive defendants are convicted more often and punished more severely. Heath and Grannemann (2004) studied how the amount of emotion displayed by a defendant influenced conviction rates... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0107-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0107-4.htm Tue, 23 Jan 2007 15:41:00 GMT The increased lifetime risk of death from asbestos exposure for particular air concentrations is a calculable quantity, and is often considerably less than the risk of death from other substances such as smoking, saccharin in soft drinks, chest X-rays, aflatoxin in peanut butter, and radiation from living in a brick house. Two studies conducted 12 years apart by different researchers - Slovic et al. (1990) and Johnson (2002) - reached similar findings on the value of a defendant offering such risk comparison information in an asbestos trial... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0107-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0107-3.htm Tue, 16 Jan 2007 15:40:00 GMT Stealing thunder is when an attorney reveals potentially incriminating evidence first (before the other side can) for the purpose of reducing its negative impact on jurors or other decision-makers. Stealing thunder is a highly effective tactic for handling negative information. Recent research by Dolnik et al. (2003) investigated what, if anything, might limit the effectiveness of stealing thunder as a persuasion tactic... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0107-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0107-2.htm Tue, 9 Jan 2007 15:39:00 GMT Typically, we think that racial diversity on juries is valuable because it offers the perspective of a minority group member. Recent research by Sommers (2006) suggests that racial diversity also encourages majority group members to re-think their perspectives... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0107-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0107-1.htm Tue, 2 Jan 2007 15:38:00 GMT Men and women serve as expert witnesses every day in America's courtrooms on topics ranging from automotive engineering to reasonable standards for elder care. Some topics of expertise are culturally associated with males, while others are culturally associated with females. Some topics of expertise seem very complex, while others appear less complex to jurors. Two recent studies examined the credibility of male and female expert witnesses on culturally-associated and complex topics... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1206-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1206-4.htm Tue, 26 Dec 2006 15:37:00 GMT Jurors are often instructed by a judge to disregard inadmissible testimony after objection by an attorney. Wilson (2004) recently tested, in two studies, whether an attorney's objection increases the likelihood that the objected-to testimony influences jurors' verdicts. The first study found that jurors overweight testimony that follows an objection, and that... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1206-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1206-3.htm Tue, 19 Dec 2006 15:36:00 GMT A recent study by Kulik et al. (2003) explored the effects of judges' personal characteristics (gender, race, age, and political affiliation) and case characteristics on the outcomes of federal cases of hostile environment sexual harassment. Results revealed... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1206-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1206-2.htm Tue, 12 Dec 2006 15:35:00 GMT The O.J. Simpson trial spawned extensive discussion of "playing the race card." Racial issues arise in America's courtrooms every day, and attorneys must decide whether to raise the racial issue or leave it unstated. A recent study by Sommers (2006) examined the effect that asking about racial biases in voir dire had on determinations of guilt of a black defendant... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1206-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1206-1.htm Tue, 5 Dec 2006 15:34:00 GMT The use of expert witnesses in courtroom proceedings has become commonplace in the American judicial system. Some jurors are more favorable than others toward the use of expert witnesses. Recent research by Griffith et al. (2005)... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1106-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1106-4.htm Tue, 28 Nov 2006 15:33:00 GMT ury selection is an art based on science, with attorneys striking jurors they believe to be closed and resistant to the arguments they will be presenting. Jurors' beliefs about emotion, and the relationship between emotion and reason, have been found to affect determinations of guilt in a criminal trial. A recent study by Spackman et al. (2006) found that jurors' beliefs about emotion and reason influenced their determination of whether a defendant was guilty of murder or manslaughter... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1106-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1106-3.htm Tue, 21 Nov 2006 15:32:00 GMT In a recent study by Poser et al. (2003), 197 mock jurors awarded damages after they received instructions on noneconomic damages. One third of the mock jurors received instructions in which loss of enjoyment of life was not identified as a distinct element of noneconomic damages. Another third... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1106-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1106-2.htm Tue, 14 Nov 2006 15:31:00 GMT In recent research, Bornstein (2004) found that the type of expert testimony presented in a personal injury case influenced individual verdicts... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1106-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1106-1.htm Tue, 7 Nov 2006 15:30:00 GMT In a simulated products liability trial, Adams (2006) recently tested the effects of bifurcating decisions regarding compensatory and punitive damage awards... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1006-4.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1006-4.htm Tue, 24 Oct 2006 15:29:00 GMT A common question to jurors in voir dire in criminal, and some civil, cases is whether they or anyone close to them has been the victim of a crime. Jurors who are crime victims are often struck on the theory they are likely to side with the prosecution (or plaintiff). In recent research, Culhane (2004) examined whether being a victim of a crime influenced the verdicts of... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1006-3.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1006-3.htm Tue, 17 Oct 2006 15:28:00 GMT Influence styles differ in their power. A low power influence style is hesitant, indirect and unassertive, while a high power style is assertive, dominant and direct. A recent study by Trafalis (2006) found that the influence style that worked best for a female attorney depends on the female attorney's attractiveness and the gender composition of the jury she is trying to persuade... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1006-2.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1006-2.htm Tue, 10 Oct 2006 15:27:00 GMT Some judges are highly nonverbally involved in a trial, while other judges exhibit minimal levels of nonverbal involvement. In a recent study by Burnett and Badzinski (2005)... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1006-1.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr1006-1.htm Tue, 3 Oct 2006 15:26:00 GMT The law requires jurors to judge the facts on the basis of what a defendant knew at the time of a traffic accident, not on the basis of information knowable only in hindsight (i.e., after the fact). Recent research has demonstrated that computer animations of traffic accidents... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0906.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0906.htm Tue, 5 Sep 2006 15:25:00 GMT Gruesome evidence can influence juror verdicts, though the content of the gruesome evidence - verbal or photographic - matters. In a recent study by Bright and Goodman-Delahunty (2006)... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0806.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0806.htm Tue, 1 Aug 2006 15:24:00 GMT Judges frequently admonish jurors to disregard hearsay evidence,and the strength of that admonishment varies. In a recent study by Lee et al. (2005)... http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0706.htm http://www.kkcomcon.com/ojru/rojr0706.htm Tue, 4 Jul 2006 15:23:00 GMT