March 2017 – Page 2 – The Red Well

“Alexa??? Hears Everything and Jurors See Everything

March 18th, 2017|

Recently there was quite a stir over the possibility that Alexa, Amazon’s highly successful and useful home device, could be listening to everything everyone says (it’s too late, she has already heard what you have said), and that it could actually be used as evidence in a criminal trial. After all, “she” must be listening, since she is voice activated. This is an interesting realization. So, Alexa hears everything: she is always “aware.” It reminded me also that in a jury trial, a jury “sees” everything, is always looking, always assessing, always evaluating, and potentially judging what they see. Jurors certainly listen

Don’t do this at work, beards, ear worms, narcissists, & discarding advances in knowledge

March 17th, 2017|

Here’s another this-and-that post documenting things you need to know but that we don’t want to do a whole post about–so you get a plethora of factoids that will entertain your family and entrance your co-workers. Or at least be sort of fun to read and (probably) as awe-inspiring as the stack of vegetables and fruit illustrating the post. Just don’t do it: How bringing up politics ruins your workplace You probably know this already since many people say their Facebook feeds are a toxic combination of politics and rage these days. So. Bringing up politics up at work is

Trial Consultants & Dentists

March 16th, 2017|

Okay, what do trial consultants and dentists have in common? I was prompted to think about this recently when I met a dentist who is participating in the Jim Moran Institute/Florida State University Small Business Executive Program with me. He and I were discussing how people dread going to the dentist. It is one of those universal fears. Maybe fear is the wrong word, but dread fits for most people. They fear or dread the pain, and the noise, or maybe it is the huge needles. I know it is one or more of those things for me. And, apparently,

5 Tips for Complying with EDTX Standing Orders on Jury Research

March 15th, 2017|

Our last post addressed the standing orders in the Eastern District of Texas pertaining to jury research and good-old-fashioned Googling. Some have expressed frustration; others have simply abandoned their hopes for gathering feedback or intel on prospective jurors. This post will focus on the standing orders pertaining to pretrial research. In my opinion, none of them grossly limit a trial team’s ability to conduct focus groups, mock trials, community attitude surveys, or any other sort of pretrial research. You simply have to be aware of the orders and conduct your research within the parameters. But first you may be asking yourself, “Why do the orders exist

So…how do you see or hear “smart??? in voir dire?

March 15th, 2017|

After we published that “molecular genetics overlap” post showing curiosity is found in smart people—one of our readers asked exactly how you “see” smart during voir dire. The question was posed on Twitter but the answer is not exactly expressed in 140 characters—so we’re doing it here. Among other things, we made these comments in that post: All we need to do is look to see who is smart and we will then know we can select curious jurors (while considering whether our client’s case benefits from higher levels of intelligence and curiosity). And, as we often say to our

A Millennial Could Be Your Next Jury Foreperson

March 15th, 2017|

Millennials – the generation born between roughly 1980 and 2000 – are showing up in large numbers to perform their civic duty. In fact, this year alone we’ve had several trials in which the post-hardship jury pool was nearly 50% or more Millennial after hardships. More importantly, in two very recent trials, a Millennial served […] The post A Millennial Could Be Your Next Jury Foreperson appeared first on Litigation Insights.

Still Think Persuasion is About Talking While Showing Bullet Points?

March 13th, 2017|

by Ken LopezFounder/CEOA2L Consulting We recently asked three top trial lawyers about what makes them so successful in the courtroom. They are quite a successful trio. One of them is Bobby Burchfield of King & Spalding, whose bio notes, “Mr. Burchfield has never lost a jury trial.” That's an especially impressive track record as he's been in practice more than 30 years. So what does winning take? Well, as we saw in previous clips from the same interviews, these trial lawyers believe, as we do, that storytelling is at the heart of building a successful case. Furthermore, as all demonstrative evidence

Identifying deception when the witness wears a face-covering veil

March 13th, 2017|

In 2014, we wrote about research investigating how people felt when a witness wore a veil such as some forms of a hijab or a niqab. Here were some of the findings we described in that research. We’ve written a number of times about bias against Muslims. But here’s a nice article with an easy to incorporate finding on how to reduce bias against your female client who wears a Muslim head-covering. (In case you have forgotten, we’ve already written about head-coverings for the Muslim man.) The graphic illustrating this post shows the variety of head-coverings Muslim women might wear

Facts [still] don’t matter: the 2017 edition

March 10th, 2017|

When we began this blog in 2009, the reality that facts don’t matter was one of the first posts we wrote. We wrote again about this reality back in 2011. And we’ve written about it several times since then so…here we go again! In this new era of fake news and fake news allegations, we’ve seen a surge in the number of “fact checkers” employed by the media to verify accuracy of statements made by people in this country’s leadership. Some think the publicizing of fact checking can be effective against the spread of misinformation. New research (conducted during the

Identity Crisis of Trial Consultants, Part 3: Jury v. Bench Trials or Arbitration

March 9th, 2017|

This is the final post in the series on the identity crisis of trial or jury consultants. In this post, I want to comment on the term “Jury Consultant.??? Over the 25+ years of being in this field, in response to my self introduction, I have heard 2 other things. The first is, “…In my type of law, I am usually only involved in bench trials??? (those decided only by a judge, not a jury). The other is, “My cases are all handled by arbitrations.??? Guess what, judges and arbitrators are people too! They make decisions in ways similar to