In 2005, The Jury Expert was developed by the American Society of Trial Consultants to bring the latest research, skills, and strategy to the legal profession regarding how they try cases. In May of 2008, we transitioned to an online only publication and our growth has been exponential. Now, we have a new publisher that promises an even brighter future.

We are grateful to the ASTC Foundation for offering to serve as publisher of TJE. As the ASTC Foundation is a non-profit corporation whose mission is to help educate the legal community, The Jury Expert feels right at home.

Our new home offers a lot to readers of (and writers for) The Jury Expert. The ASTC Foundation is dedicated to the study and promotion of the United States judicial system by advancing a better understanding of litigation decision-making and communication. Through research and educational activities, the Foundation seeks to improve the quality of information used by judges, juries, lawyers and litigants to resolve cases and, by doing so, improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the justice system.
  
The ASTC Foundation is currently engaged in research on how to improve fact-finder comprehension, the jury selection process, and overall litigation and trial efficacy. The goal is to assist courts and various legal organizations that have been looking at reforms to cope with decreased state court budgets and resources coupled with increased case filings, litigation costs and case complexity.

One of the goals of the ASTC Foundation is to improve the justice system’s productivity and performance by studying these issues and making recommendations to the Courts and the legal community. To that end, the Foundation is doing a survey of trial lawyers, judges, paralegals and others involved in the litigation process. The survey results will help us to understand their attitudes and practices in order to better advise the legal community about these issues.

We hope you will take the following survey and send this survey link to your friends, associates and even opposing counsel in the legal profession so that we can collect a wide range of data for this initiative.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3TN9WQZ

In addition to completing the above survey, the ASTC Foundation is funding a national study led by The Jury Expert and staffed by trial consultant members of the ASTC that will look at various biases we all face in our day-to-day work in litigation advocacy. Nothing like this study has ever been done before and we hope it will educate and inform us about biases in order for attorneys and judges to make better decisions in jury selection, case planning and preparation. 

We are excited about our new publisher-home and the opportunities it affords The Jury Expert. Do us a favor and click that link to take the ASTC Foundation survey.

It will help us all and the results will be published here in The Jury Expert. Make sure your voice is reflected in the final report.