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...

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...

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

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...

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,

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...

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...

Two recent studies have examined the role alcohol plays in jurors' perceptions of defendants and complainants in sexual assault cases...

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...

A camera's angle, or perspective, in a videotaped confession can have serious prejudicial effects to defendants in criminal trials...