Defendants "Stick Together"

As many of you know, we conduct research in some pretty tough jurisdictions.  Some jury pools are more skeptical than others, more conspiracy minded or more amenable to sympathy, but we have found a common thread across the nation is the perception among many disparate jury pools that medical caregivers cover up for their co-workers when there is a bad outcome.

Due to the frequency with which we encountered this predisposition during focus groups and mock trials, we added a question to a recent national survey of 400 participants.  The responses – with nearly 57 percent believing caregivers “always” or “frequently” engage in this behavior – demonstrate jurors are even more conspiracy minded than previously anticipated.

The “cover-up” preload doesn’t stop at hospitals.  As we have focused more on examining this widespread perception during research, whether discussing police officers, a school district or managers at a meatpacking plant, during focus groups jurors consistently believe there is a tendency for defendants to “stick together” when things go south.

So how do you combat this?  We tell clients it’s important to understand the difficulty in fully overcoming this widespread predisposition, and that in most cases you need to acknowledge it up front with jurors.  Even if you don’t anticipate opposing counsel will make direct accusations of cover-ups, jurors will likely walk in with the mindset that caregivers – especially in the context of them being defendants in a lawsuit – often cover for each other. Any opportunity to introduce third-party credibility, demonstrate that certain witnesses are no longer employed there and thus have no motivation to lie, or refer to national or state standards can be beneficial in mitigating cover-up suspicions.

For more advice on how to mitigate this perception for one of your cases, please call us at 714.754.1010 for a consultation.

Life is eternal – at least when it comes to our consultations

When we state in our proposals that focus group and mock trials include consultation for the life of the case, we mean it.  Our clients have told us this is one of our best selling points, and one that we may not emphasize enough.

Whether it’s been five days, five weeks or five years since we conducted research with you, we are happy to provide further analysis of any new data or fact that has come your way in the interim (for example, a defendant has settled out or a crucial piece of  evidence has been excluded), or produce a list of potential jury selection questions if trial has finally been set.  We do this because we care – we take a strong personal interest in each of our cases and oftentimes years after a focus group can still recite details of a key deposition or recall the language that  switched jurors to your side.

If you have worked with us before and would like to talk through previous research with us, contact us anytime.