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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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
Jurors often assign greater responsibility to corporate defendants than individuals for the same behavior...
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...
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...
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:...