Redefining the American Dream

Last week The Onion published a satirical article suggesting the new “American Dream” is a substantial out-of-court settlement.  Funny?  Yes.  Timely?  Sure, although Martin Luther King Jr. probably wouldn’t have been happy about this development.  But true?  Absolutely – and more so than you might realize.

Last year, in our national survey of more than 1,200 jury-eligible respondents, six percent of Americans admitted they “actively look for opportunities in their daily lives to file a lawsuit.”  While not a particularly riveting number on its own (we actually expected it to be higher, given the feedback gleaned during some of our focus group research), once we dug deeper into the data we found some demographic groups are much more inclined to look at a slip-and-fall or a scalding coffee spill as the key to a big payout and thus an easier life.

Breaking down the demographics showed us those most likely to be on the lookout for lawsuit opportunities in their daily lives were:

• Male (10 percent agreed)
• Have children at home (11 percent)
• Live in an urban versus suburban or rural area (13 percent)
• Hispanic (14 percent), followed by Asian and African-American respondents at 9 percent each
• Younger than 40 (15 percent)
• Currently serve in the military (an astounding 44 percent)

We also noted those who agreed with this question were also much more likely to display plaintiff-leaning tendencies in their responses to other questions in this survey, such as believing a hospital is responsible for any negative outcomes under its roof – regardless of whether there was negligence involved.  Adding this question to jury questionnaires or verbal voir dire can thus be a helpful tool to quickly identify the most plaintiff-oriented jurors in your venire, as well as those most comfortable awarding money even if they aren’t convinced the defendants did anything wrong.

This analysis also demonstrates our ability to mine the data we collect and identify trends that may be useful to you as you analyze the jury pool for an upcoming case.  If you’d like to talk with us about our observations and research findings for a specific area of the country or about a specific issue, please contact Senior Vice President Claire Luna at cluna@juryimpact.net or 714.754.1010.