Taming of the Juror

Teenagers are notorious for being rebellious and ignoring what authority figures tell them.  There are even online “survival guides” to help parents deal with defiant teenagers.  The problem is teenagers often still defy the rules, no matter what tactics are employed.

In our experience, there are some jurors who will behave just as defiantly as teenagers.  They may not disrupt the courtroom with outbursts or talk back to the judge, but they are likely to disregard the judge’s instructions in pursuit of what they think is right or fair.

This was borne out by a national survey we recently conducted of more than 800 respondents examining perceptions of the courtroom.  The results were alarming, and we found people with pro-plaintiff attitudes answered “yes” or “most fair” consistently to all of the following questions:

• Even if a judge tells you that it shouldn’t, do you believe sympathy for an injured plaintiff might affect how you decide a case?
• If the judge told you specifically not to consider lawyer fees, would you still consider lawyer fees when deciding on the amount?
• Even if you don’t believe the defendant is at fault, would you consider awarding an amount equal to the plaintiff’s medical bills as damages in the case? 
• Even if a judge tells you not to do outside research during trial, would you do it anyway?
• Would you decide a case based on the letter of the law, including the judge’s instructions, or based on whatever you think is most fair?

This correlation indicates that if a juror is prone to ignore the judge’s instructions regarding one aspect of the case, they’re much more likely to disregard the judge’s instructions on something else as well, making them especially worrisome.

One way to mitigate this issue is through voir dire.  When we looked more closely at the data, we were able to identify those who had the strongest tendency to ignore a judge’s instructions across the board, and many of them shared the following characteristics:

• 18-29 years old
• Not registered to vote
• Receives government assistance
• Student
• Democrat
• Single
• Rents rather than owns property

If you would like assistance in how to identify rebellious jurors or fine-tune the “fairness” message you present, please contact Senior Vice President Claire Luna at cluna@juryimpact.net or 714-754-1010.