Those are just a few of the topics we cover in this issue. The Jury Expert continues to surprise me because of our trial consultant authors who constantly think of new ideas and topics to cover. I am grateful to the authors in this issue and in past issues for making this publication look so good!
One of the things I especially love about trial consulting is the opportunity to work with other curious people. We all want to understand 'how' potential jurors come to their conclusions even when they can't articulate the 'why' for us. The strategies we use to identify the 'how' is what I think of as the 'art' of trial consulting. Most of our projects are based on between 12 and 48 mock jurors–so we can't really predict outcomes using statistical software. The sample sizes (12-48) are simply too small. That's why you'll hear us talking about themes, attitudes, beliefs, values and trends that emerge as mock jurors struggle with your case story.
Our research is qualitative. We apply our knowledge of the science (as it continues to emerge) and draw on our experiences in the trenches to further help in understanding the results of pretrial research. And that's really what The Jury Expert is all about–the art and the science of litigation advocacy. Our goal is for you to see no fluff in our pages–just good solid information presented in plain English by experienced consultants who share their hard-earned wisdom issue after issue after issue.
Whether it's how to talk about taboo topics, using emerging technologies, ways to use trial consultants effectively, thinking about the importance of context, or understanding generations–we want to bring you specific, practical and fresh information. Let me know if you want something addressed in a future issue!
Rita R. Handrich, Ph.D.
Editor, The Jury Expert