Courts across the country continue to struggle with the logjam that has been created by the pandemic. After months of no trials early in the spring, state courts in Seattle re-opened in August to hybrid civil jury trials where jury selection was conducted over Zoom, followed by an in-person trial. However, trials were shut down again in November when the state’s governor issued new guidelines to deal with the second surge of COVID-19. Zoom jury trials are an option that have been tried by some courts across the country, but in most cases, these have only occurred when all parties

We have all experienced the glitches and minor delays that come with videoconferencing platforms such as Zoom. No matter how good the internet connection, they are inevitable. In fact, they are so common that attorneys might overlook the effect that such glitches or delays have on the participants in the conference. Research shows that the impact is more profound than many might expect and should give attorneys pause as depositions, court hearings, and even trials have shifted to Zoom in order to prevent our justice system from coming to a grinding halt during the pandemic. Over the past few decades,

With the late Fall surge in COVID-19 around the country, many courts are again having to consider the option of conducting remote trials through a videoconferencing provider. Notably, some venues around the country have already conducted remote trials, with many touting them as tremendous successes during these difficult pandemic times. For example, Florida Circuit Chief Judge Jack Tuter said in a recent Law.com article, “You never could have convinced me back in March that we could have a jury trial on the internet….I would just think there’s just so many limitations, but it seems like for every limitation we had

I never thought when I had Colin Cowherd’s The Herd on as a much needed distraction from all the political news, that there’d be a litigation strategy gem. Cowherd was interviewing Matthew McConaughey about his recent memoir, Greenlight, when they had an interesting exchange about the process McConaughey uses when working with writers/producers on a new project. Here’s a bit of the exchange:  Cowherd began, “Years ago I thought about writing a screenplay, so I read a book about it called Save the Cat by Blake Snyder and he says to name the film before you start writing it; because

I wanted to begin this column with the observation that the election is finally over, but your perspective on that probably depends on your political affiliation. Setting aside the outcome, it is notable that more people voted in the 2020 presidential election than in any other presidential election in United States history. While Biden received the most votes of any presidential candidate in history, Trump received the second most in history. What we learned most from this election and the continuing aftermath is that we are a deeply divided nation that can look at the same facts and arrive at

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the impact of emotional economy on juror decision-making. Research tells us that the emotional state of jurors has distinct impacts on the way they process and apply evidence and testimony at trial. We also know that in times of a national crisis, like the one we are currently experiencing with the COVID-19 pandemic, people’s emotional states are heightened and amplified. What this means is that you can gain a distinct advantage at trial by understanding how emotional states impact cognition, decision-making, perception of evidence, and your client. Effective plaintiffs can win massive damage

Millennial and Gen Z jurors. If you are a defense attorney, your blood pressure might already be rising at the mere mention of the emergence of these jurors. After all, millennial and Gen Z’ers are often cited as one of the primary causes of the rise of so-called nuclear verdicts. The narrative generally goes that they are anti-corporate, too idealistic, and, in some cases, too young to have any realistic concept of money. Some of them have weird tattoos. Some of them have unnatural colors in their hair. Many of them cannot enjoy a night out without staring at

As some of our readers may already know, King County Superior Courts in Seattle, Washington have resumed civil jury trials with a novel strategy for minimizing potential COVID exposure: jury selection over Zoom, followed by an in-person trial with a variety of social distancing and other protective measures in place. The King County judges and court staff deserve a great deal of credit for what they have accomplished. I was an early skeptic due to all of the potential complications, but the process they have put in place works incredibly well, with only a few minor bumps in the road.

During a recent mock trial, when a juror expressed an opinion that was directly refuted by the evidence in the case and a few other jurors tried to tell him that he was wrong, two other jurors shut them down by asserting, “No, come on, let him talk; he has a right to his opinion.” This is not an isolated incident. Over the years, we’ve heard mock jurors express this sentiment, but over the last couple of years, it is much more obvious and impactful. While we’ve frequently written about the fact that jurors make sense of a case by

The concept of anchors for damage awards at trial is nothing new. The research on the importance of anchors goes back decades. Numerous studies have shown that the amount of money awarded by juries is significantly impacted by the amount requested by the plaintiff. For example, in controlled studies where the facts remained exactly the same in both conditions except for the amount requested by the plaintiff, jurors on average awarded significantly more when the plaintiff asked for more. Consequently, many plaintiff’s attorneys have understandably been quick to embrace the strategy of asking for extraordinary amounts. After all, when a