The science of jury selection

[LetMyPeopleVote]

I am not a litigator but I originated a nice corporate law/breach of contract/securities fraud case that had some good damages and a solvent defendant. I referred the case to a top plaintiff's firm and got to see the jury selection process up close. The plaintiff firm hired a top jury consultant and spent a ton on jury selection. The jury consultant and the plaintiff firm did two full mini trials with juries selected to mirror the population and then questioned the mock jurors to see which arguments the mock jurors found compelling. It was an interesting experience, and it is going to be fun watching the jury selection process for TFG's trial. This segment on the Katy Phang show was amusing.

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The case that I originated was my type of case and I had drafted most of the pleadings and a couple of summary judgment motions that were pending at the time of trial. I knew that the jury consultant had a shadow jury that was going to watch the trial and give the trial team feedback on the trial. I was out for High Holy Days during the first part of the jury selection (the litigators were comfortable that I was not needed for this part of the trial). I got to the court room after attending services the prior day to find out that the judge had ruled in our favor on the main summary judgement motion and that the only issue to be tried was attorney fees. The other side stipulated to attorney fees and we spent 6 years in appeals until we settle the case on great terms. I ended up doing some corporate work for the jury consultant.

A criminal trial is different from a civil trial and I doubt that there were any mock trials but many of the same principles apply. I suspect that TFG's attorneys have a jury consultant who will be looking at the social media postings of the potential jurors during the selection process.

The jury selection process will be fun to watch. Again, the methods used in civil case are different than what will be used in TFG's criminal case but some of the science will apply. Both the prosecution team and TFG's teams will have a profile that they want in the jurors sitting in this case

[Emile]

1. Jury selection shouldn't take longer than 6 or 7 months

seeing how the wheel of justice is moving now.

[walkingman]

2. I hope you are kidding 😁 but judging from our history it wouldn't surprise me.

[doc03]

3. In this country today I don't know how you can find

a jury without one closet Trumper slipping in.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. Trump's defense used a jury consultant to research and help them select jurors

A jury consultant hired by the former president's legal team watched potential jurors for signs of bias while researchers conducted social media searches to vet them.

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https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trumps-defense-used-jury-consultant-research-help-select-jurors-rcna148605

The New Yorkers who could decide Donald Trump’s fate were vetted in real time on Friday by the former president’s defense team.

As the potential alternate jurors were being questioned by prosecutors seeking to convict Trump of illegally paying hush money to a porn star, and by defense attorneys trying to keep him out of jail, a jury consultant hired by Trump's legal team was watching the candidates closely for telltale signs of possible bias while simultaneously feeding the defense attorneys her impressions.

Meanwhile, other jury consultants say, it is likely that a team of researchers working with the jury consultant were doing social media and other online searches to fill out the picture of every potential juror and sending that information to Trump’s lawyers in the courtroom.

“All this has to happen relatively quickly,” said veteran jury consultant Jo-Ellan Dimitrius of Dimitrius & Associates, who has been following the case and identified the firm working for Trump as Magna Legal Services.......

Using jury consultants for vetting has become a fairly common practice.

“In my experience, there’s usually a consultant sitting behind the lawyers with a laptop who is feeding information to the lawyer doing the questioning of jurors,” Dimitrius said. “They usually have the home office doing the social media checks and other searches because the primary role of the consultant in the courtroom is to listen and watch the jurors and give feedback to the lawyers.”