Archive | Trial Consultants

First impressions (do matter)

First impressions matter. They really do! Social psychologists who study impression formation and cognitive psychologists who study presentation order effects, such as the primacy effect, agree that information presented early has a greater impact than information presented later. Impression formation has been heavily researched in social psychology since the 1940s, when Solomon Asch conducted a […]

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In thinking about what to write for this post I immediately had a flashback to a time Melissa and I were scheduled to interview a young man who had recently graduated with a master’s degree in psychology and had a wealthy family background. I guess stereotypes were working in his favor, that is, until he […]

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Analytics

Melissa and I had lunch with a long time client recently during which he brought up a “new” thing he hears from his clients. That is, give us the “analytics” on the case. Analytics is a concept that gets lots of airplay in various contexts. The business world has long focused on numbers to indicate […]

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It is interesting to me that what is old to me is new to other people. And, it is also interesting that words have different meanings to different people. I have been analyzing scientific data since 1977. Analytics are, therefore, what I do; it is what I did in college and grad. school and what […]

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Like “Bull,” but without the Bull

At the time of this writing, there is a popular television show that is loosely based on the life of a well known celebrity who used to work as a jury/trial consultant. The title of the show is “Bull,” and based on what I have seen, the show contains more “bull” than truth. However, because […]

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“Bull” has been fun for Melissa and me in the sense that it provides awareness of the existence of jury consultants. It’s not like we’ve been hiding though. There was at least one episode of “L.A. Law” portraying a trial consultant in a not too favorable manner. And, then there was OJ. Much of the […]

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Dr. Susan Broome

I am a social psychologist who, for the past 30 years, has been employed as a trial/jury consultant. Along the way and across the years, I have worked with many people, including several colleagues who have become long term friends. One of the most influential colleagues with whom I have ever worked is Dr. Susan […]

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Some people in life teach you things they don’t even appreciate they are teaching. Sometimes this is done by example. Melissa observed that Susan purchased bouquets of fresh flowers each week, which brought some color to her home in the dreary winter world of Boston. Melissa started doing this when we lived in Atlanta, which […]

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Cleaning the Closet

When we have lulls in “real work,” we have a to do list that keeps us from getting bored. At the top of that list recently was cleaning out the equipment closet. The equipment closet is where we store an array of items required for our work. You might think, by looking in our closet, […]

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As David mentioned, we have invested many thousands of dollars on equipment since Magnus’ inception in 1993. I have many fond memories of our huge video cameras that reminded me of those used by TV camera crews. Those old cameras, when new, cost a small fortune, at least as far as I was concerned. When […]

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Feed the lawyers

In a previous post, David and I discussed the challenges we have faced with some of our clients, who did not think we should provide food and beverages to the mock jurors and other research participants who work with us on a case. Sad, but true. Somewhat more surprisingly, we have had other clients who […]

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I will never forget having to contend with the feed the lawyers issue, but as with the mock jurors, I remember at least 2 scenarios. One involved governmental entities which, as with the mock jurors, would not pay for meals, for anyone. This happened more than one time and, on one occasion, the creative client […]

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Trials and Photography

I was writing a report recently and recommended that a client “focus” the jurors’ attention on a certain point. Given my 40+ years of photographic experience, I decided to test myself with this post to see if I can come up with analogies and metaphors between photography and litigation/trials. Focus is the starting point because […]

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David’s comparisons of photography and trials is an interesting perspective on two, very different, things. I will continue using his analysis with my interpretations of these areas of David’s interest by saying, from the outset, that photography and trials have one thing in common: they are not very interesting to people who are not photographers […]

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Feed the mock jurors

Conducting mock jury research, or other research involving human participants, involves many things unrelated to collecting data. Food and drinks are an important part of the work we do on behalf of our clients. Not only do we compensate our research participants for their time and effort in attending our mock juries and focus groups, […]

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I’ve previously written about my experiences as a photographer and having inconsiderate clients who did not think to provide me with a dinner on a job that lasted 6 to 8 hours (see Feed the Photographer February 2019). The amazing thing to us, with regard to the mock jurors, is how something like lunch or […]

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Facing Aging

If you are wondering what this topic of Facing Aging has to do with our trial consulting world, I’ll state right off the bat, not much. Except that, when we’re living with these issues among family and friends, it does impact our lives. It hits very close to home! And, some of the issues impact […]

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My friends and I have reached the age when we are facing many maladies, both physical and mental. When various friends of mine lament about their ailments, I remind them that we either get older or we don’t. There are only two alternatives and one is death. With the other, getting older, there exists the […]

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Tell no one what we do

An oddity of my job as a jury/trial consultant is not being able to share the details of my work with family, friends, or anyone, ever. All of the cases in which Magnus consults are high stakes matters, regardless of whether they are civil or criminal trials. Everyone who is employed by Magnus, including David […]

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In the past two weeks, news about several cases on which we have worked have appeared prominently in the news. The cases, and the results of their trials, were newsworthy. This is, no doubt, common for trial consultants and it is, admittedly, exciting to be involved in high profile or noteworthy cases. Yet, from the […]

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