Archive | Getting the Job Done

2020

Well, here we are. It’s 2020. Lots of celebrations, talk about the new decade, and the roaring 20s. But, many of us think of it with the term “hindsight” attached, as in “hindsight is 20/20,” meaning that when looking backward, things that were once unclear become clear. Monday morning quarterbacking is related. If we see […]

Continue Reading

As we enter into a new year and a new decade, many people enjoy reminiscing about the past, while others eschew the past and focus their sights on the unknowns that will occur in future times.  As business owners, David and I spend some time reflecting on our past successes and failures (and their have […]

Continue Reading

You have control over your reactions

David and I have attended hundreds of meetings with attorneys and their clients in the decades we have owned and operated Magnus Research Consultants. Usually, these meetings are non eventful. Their purpose is often to explain to the end client (the person involved in the lawsuit) the advantages of retaining a litigation consultant to assist […]

Continue Reading

Litigation is stressful!  Having been there ourselves, Melissa and I know about the stress, the lost sleep, the lost focus on “real work,” and the time required to be an active participant in one’s case.  I get it.  I also know the costs of sticking one’s neck out – even if one must do it […]

Continue Reading

Don’t Confuse Expenses with Investments

This post is prompted by a comment made by someone with whom we frequently work in our litigation consulting business. He remarked how he hoped clients would recognize the value of our work, and his work, and see it as an investment, not just another litigation expense or cost. As I explained to someone yesterday, […]

Continue Reading

The quote David mentions was made by Bob Howe, who is an investigator with whom I have had the pleasure of working during jury selection.  A mutual client retained Bob for an upcoming case but was initially undecided about whether to retain me.  It seems that, in today’s litigation world, the services of a private […]

Continue Reading

Know when to ask for help

We, at Magnus, recently ventured into new technological waters and various challenges surprised us. This is not about the specifics of that situation, but rather, a more global commentary on the need to be open to asking for help. In this situation, we, or rather our most excellent research assistant – tech person, got bogged […]

Continue Reading

Any post that includes lyrics from a Lynyrd Skynyrd song is an excellent post, in my opinion!  This being said, as David mentioned in a recent post, there are times to “do it yourself” and there are times to obtain expert advice and/or turn over a task entirely to someone who possesses greater expertise than […]

Continue Reading

Social Media Monitoring doesn’t end when the jury is seated

Background checks conducted of prospective jurors are becoming, or should be becoming, routine. We’ve written about this before, see https://magnusinsights.com/2019/01/juror-background-checks/. Though there are some constraints on these practices imposed by courts and each state’s bar rules, they are here to stay. When I say “background checks,” I am referring to searches of both public information […]

Continue Reading

I spoke with an attorney not long ago who told me that, if he were a judge, no one would be permitted to perform social media searches or background checks of prospective jurors.  It’s a good thing he is not a judge because the judges who preside over the court cases in which I am […]

Continue Reading

No one hires me for a happy event

Just as none of Magnus’ clients retain us for easy cases, none of our clients retain us for anything remotely happy. In order for Magnus to become involved with an attorney and his/her client, something terrible has happened. We have worked on cases involving tragic deaths, including murder and multiple fatalities in accidents; horrific burns; […]

Continue Reading

My mother once asked why I didn’t make a calendar of nice things instead of courthouses (which I did for 20 years).  She said she thinks only bad things happen in courthouses.  We then had a discussion about the good things that happen there such as weddings, and, most importantly, people seeking and getting justice.  […]

Continue Reading

Magic Bullets

A Point of View

David H. Fauss, M.S.M.

On January 2, 2020

Category: Getting the Job Done, Jury Behavior, Jury Consultants, Litigation Tips, Magnus, Magnus Insights, Psychology, Trial Consultants, Trial Consulting

I recently read an article about a “brand new, state of the art jury selection program to bring data science to jury selection.” That is not a direct quote, but a synopsis of the news story I read about the program. (Disclaimer: I don’t really know anything about this program other than what was in […]

Continue Reading

A well respected attorney with whom I have been acquainted for almost 30 years alerted me to this latest attempt to make jury selection easy enough for a trained monkey to perform.  Please do not think I am, in any way, disparaging monkeys.  I have nothing against monkeys, but I do have something against humans […]

Continue Reading

If someone isn’t nice to me, they won’t see me again, ever.

My time is valuable. It is valuable to me, if not to anyone else. (In that Magnus’ clients compensate my company, and thus, me, in relatively high amounts of money, I would argue that my time is perceived as valuable to someone other than me. But, I digress.) Because I value my time and my […]

Continue Reading

Fortunately, as we wrote in the prior related post, our clients are usually nice, professional, even kind and friendly.  We all know we’re working together for a common goal and egos usually stay in check.  But, there are exceptions. I used the example of a particularly toxic client we once had who, with our help, […]

Continue Reading

Hospitality

This post is about hospitality. Not the at home type, I think we’ve covered that before; but rather, the industry type. As trial consultants, we are road warriors. I don’t know how many nights we spend away from home, but I once calculated that Melissa, Melissa and I, or I, by myself, spent 75 nights […]

Continue Reading

Because my personal and work lives lack routine and involve many unknowns, I find it comforting to stay in the same hotels when I travel to certain cities.  In my hometown of Fort Myers, Florida, my “hotel” used to be my childhood home until 2010, when it was sold after my mother’s passing in 2009.  […]

Continue Reading

Most lawyers who hire me are nice to me

People are people, regardless of their profession. There are some people who are popular and well liked and there are others who are not well liked. Attorneys, of course, are people and, as such, there are some attorneys who are well liked and well respected by their colleagues and then, there are others, whom no […]

Continue Reading

Many of our clients are feared by their opponents, and sometimes, their own staff and litigation team.  I don’t know if the latter is a good thing, but I’ve seen it as an overall positive.  Being feared by the opposition is probably generally positive as long as the fear is because the attorney’s litigation skills […]

Continue Reading

Powered by WordPress. Designed by WooThemes