The Winning Game Changer in Your Case

The Super Bowl is this weekend, and football teams and fans have seen some unexpected plays that have changed whether their teams made it into the playoffs.  Interceptions, long field-goal kicks and last-minute touchdowns have all put fans and players on the edge of their seat this season.  Even college football saw a miracle catch in November when Ricardo Louis of the University of Auburn caught a Hail Mary, 73-yard pass that bounced off a defender, and raced to the end zone for a 43-38 victory over Georgia State.

A single play can change the course of a game and give momentum to either side.  The same could be said for your case.  Oftentimes, there is one piece of evidence one side is holding onto that could change the way jurors look at a case.

The plaintiff may show a crucial note in the medical records that caregivers may have overlooked, or a company supervisor’s Facebook post that demonstrates a little too much affection for the physical attributes of the women who work for him.  Jurors could easily see these pieces of evidence as red flags that an injury could have been prevented or someone should have been aware of ongoing harassment.

If you are going up against a plaintiff’s game changer, we recommend emphasizing actions your client did take with the information they had at the time.  Educate jurors about the thorough investigation behind the complaint or the timeline of medical decisions caregivers made in response to a patient’s symptoms, despite a missing note in the medical records.  This will help establish a pattern of reasonable actions, mitigating the “red flag” perception.  And with the other example, note that this supervisor’s Facebook postings only became a matter of record after a lawsuit was filed, and none of his colleagues or supervisors were aware he treated women poorly.

However, there is also the strong possibility that what you believe is a game changer, jurors will care little about.  That’s why focus group research can be so important in identifying what jurors tell us are the pieces of information that stand out.  For example, participants in a recent focus group completely disregarded one piece of information we had predicted would be a key to the case – and then turned another fact we had previously assumed would have only minor impact into the defense’s best alternate causation story.

If you have a case involving some potential game changers and want our perspective on how jurors will evaluate them, please contact Senior Vice President Claire Luna at 714-754-1010 or cluna@juryimpact.net.