Archive | Jury Consultants

Refocusing “on the Fly”

As the saying goes, the best laid plans… Change is part of our everyday existence as litigation consultants, especially in our world of keeping up with lawyers. We’re down in the chain of command, thus, when things change for our clients, they change for us. Just today, a lawyer calles about a change in his […]

Continue Reading

David and I have written about the need for flexibility in our world of work in prior posts.  Flexibility, and along with it, the willingness to change plans on a moment’s notice, are job requirements for everyone who works at Magnus.  I often find it difficult to explain to the “uninitiated” about why I never […]

Continue Reading

I Can’t Wait to Write a Survey

As a follow up to my previous post pertaining to things I love about my job, among my favorite work tasks is writing a survey. (Another of my favorite tasks is analyzing survey results, but I have written about that in a prior post.) Not only is writing a survey intellectually stimulating, the mere fact […]

Continue Reading

I recently posted about finding “the” answer.  Surveys are one of the primary ways we do that.  Surveys, in our world, take on different forms depending on the research methodology.  The number of sections, the number of questions, and the types of questions vary.  Most of our surveys involve paper and pen responses on “bubble […]

Continue Reading

The Answer

I saw a post on a Facebook friend’s page that said “You don’t have to know the answer, you just have to know how to find the answer.” That prompted a number of thoughts. First is the issue of “the answer.” Sometimes there is not a single answer. Sure, to basic mathematical questions there may […]

Continue Reading

Many people, some of Magnus’ clients included, look for the “easy way out” of many situations.  Often, there is an easy way out, for example, when a door is marked with an exit sign, or when a restaurant menu is placed in front of someone, or any one of the countless other situations we encounter […]

Continue Reading

10 Things I Love About My Job

I love my job! I truly do! My dear friend, Bob, has called me a workaholic since we met in 1980. I am a person who really likes to work! Being bored is not for me. I decided to think about the top 10 things I like about my job as a jury/trial consultant, which […]

Continue Reading

All non volunteer or pro bono jobs have extrinsic rewards – a paycheck.  Melissa and I are fortunate that our jobs also have intrinsic rewards.  That is, the personal rewards Melissa mentions of helping people – individuals and those collectively or in groups/companies – who are impacted by the lawsuits in which we are involved.  […]

Continue Reading

Foresight

I was listening to a segment on my local NPR station yesterday having to do with attempts to pass legislation that, among other things, will provide funds for much needed repair work on roads and bridges. The reporter said the United States spends less money on infrastructure than many other developed nations (in relationship to […]

Continue Reading

David’s post raises some good points, many of which have to do with the psychological phenomenon known as defensive attribution.  Defensive attribution occurs when an observer attributes the cause of a misfortune in ways that minimize their own fear of experiencing a similar fate.  Many people attribute other people’s negative experiences to a personal failing, […]

Continue Reading

Technology and Workplace Violence

In this, final, post about workplace violence that was inspired by my recent mediator re-certification training, I will discuss another reality of life in the modern world, workplace violence involving employees who work remotely. Workplace violence is not limited to in person interactions; in fact, cyber violence is commonplace. The pandemic that began in early […]

Continue Reading

It is somewhat overwhelming to consider the lengths to which “bad actors,” a/k/a criminals, in some situations, will go to in order to attempt to bully, harass, or perpetrate violence.  We at Magnus, are somewhat sheltered in our work environment.  But, to consider the ramifications of remote working, telecommuting, etc. and how that pandemic forced […]

Continue Reading

Rust Never Sleeps

The trigger for this post was my need to prepare some paperwork for a client recently. It had been a few months since I had done this particular paperwork and, I’ll admit, I felt rusty. Rusty in the sense that it wasn’t as smooth a process as I would have preferred. When I realized it […]

Continue Reading

I like David’s reference to a Neil Young song!  “Hey hey, my my.  Rock and roll will never die.”  What great lyrics!  However, to get to the point of David’s post instead of singing along with Neil Young, I will pose a rhetorical question: How does one hone trial skills without practicing?  Sitting around, resting […]

Continue Reading

Employers’ Duty of Care of Employees

The lecture I recently attended on workplace violence included information regarding employers’ duty of care of their employees, with the goal being to foster an environment of zero tolerance for violence. The first component of every employers’ duty in this regard is, of course, to have a written policy that prohibits all forms of on […]

Continue Reading

Employers’ responses to harassment or violence send strong messages as to whether behaviors are tolerated.  In the instance Melissa mentioned about being grabbed from behind, that was an act committed by the attorney/client when she worked in her first trial consulting job.  Because he was a client, she didn’t respond with violence and hit him, […]

Continue Reading

Calculated Risk

For a number of years, Melissa spoke to law students at Stetson University at the invitation of the late Professor Mickey Smiley. Professor Smiley did his students a favor, which I hope they later appreciated, of inviting successful trial lawyers, and at least 1 trial consultant, (Melissa) to speak to his trial skills class to […]

Continue Reading

Professor McKinley, “Mickey,” Smiley was a beloved law professor at Stetson University.  He passed away in 2016, following a lengthy tenure at Stetson.  Beginning in 1997 and continuing until Professor Smiley’s retirement in 2005, I had the honor of being an Adjunct Professor in the College of Law, where I lectured to students in his […]

Continue Reading

Workplace Violence

This is the first of a series of 3 posts concerning workplace violence. As part of my Continuing Mediator Education required to maintain my certification as a Civil Court Mediator in Florida, I attended a lecture on workplace violence that was taught by an employee of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department. Unfortunately, most of us […]

Continue Reading

It is disturbing that workplace violence, in any form, is enough of a problem that it was included on the agenda for Melissa’s mediator continuing education. This fact is enough to give one pause, and it makes me think how different things are in the world at large than in our small business.  I certainly […]

Continue Reading

Powered by WordPress. Designed by WooThemes