Female vs. Male Experts: Who Has the Head Start With the Jury?

Old stereotypes die hard.  No one knows that more than a woman in a male-dominated field – including the law, although that is slowly changing.

We’re sure we’re not the only ones who have noticed male expert witnesses in litigation vastly outnumber female ones.  But is there any real reason for this?  Are there times when juries might receive men better and other times they might prefer women?

That’s the question two researchers – both women, we’d like to note – set out to answer in a recent study published by The Jury Expert, an American Society of Trial Consultants publication.

For better or worse, they found gender stereotypes are alive and well when it comes to how juries see expert witnesses – a conclusion you might want to consider when both selecting and presenting your experts.

For example, these researchers reviewed a previous study that found jurors viewed male experts as better witnesses when the case involved traditionally “masculine” fields such as construction or finance, whereas women were perceived as better witnesses in cases involving “feminine” areas such as children or sexual assault. 

Perhaps not surprisingly, jurors were harshest on witnesses – particularly women – who violated societal expectations of gender-based behavior.  One study found “unlikeable” female witnesses were judged more harshly than “unlikeable” men. 

From our perspective, it is worth considering these findings as you work up and prepare cases for trial.  We’d recommend ensuring male witnesses will come across as authoritative and direct rather than meek, and suggest to female witnesses they should avoid appearing unnecessarily combative (frankly, we believe male witnesses should also strive to be pleasant rather than confrontational).  

It is also worth considering the field in which your expert will be testifying – finding the most-qualified and personable expert available is always the goal, but there may be a disconnect for some jurors if you bring in a man to talk about a topic more associated with women, or vice versa.

Of course, the jurisdiction and make-up of your jury also matter.  A jury in a liberal area or with several younger, well-educated members may appreciate an assertive female witness, whereas it might not fly in a conservative area with a jury comprising older white men.  We’ve monitored trials in the past where the defense successfully appealed to young female jurors by having older female witnesses talk about the challenges they’ve overcome to get where they are.  As with all things in trial, context matters.

We’d like to think society is moving past gender-based stereotypes, but your client is paying you to win a case, not make the world a fairer place.  As long as those stereotypes exist and affect how jurors see witnesses, you’d do well to pay attention to them.

If you’d like our help in preparing a witness appeal to your jury, we’d love the opportunity.  Please contact Senior Vice President Claire Luna at cluna@juryimpact.net or 714.754.1010 to find out more about our witness preparation process and how we can help you evaluate how your expert will come across to jurors.

Selling Experts in a Skeptical World

It’s no secret the American public is more skeptical now than ever.  Distrust of institutions – the federal government, media and medical authorities, to name a few – is at an all-time high.

With the public so skeptical of traditional authorities, Internet resources have become a frequent first stop when people are looking for answers – whether the question is something as routine as “Can I ignore my check engine light?” or as potentially life changing as “Do I have cancer?”

Just last week, we were fascinated to read about a new website called CrowdMed that outsources your medical diagnosis to the public.  You submit a description of what’s ailing you, and the site’s “medical detectives” will do the sleuthing to figure out your condition.  The surprising part is CrowdMed’s detectives don’t need to be doctors or nurses, and it brags that it doesn’t care about their formal credentials – all that matters is whether they can figure out the patient’s problem.

In the courtroom, we believe the public’s widespread skepticism has important implications for expert testimony.  In a world where, thanks to the Internet, everyone’s an expert and the influence of traditional authorities is eroding, why should a jury simply accept the word of your highly paid expert?  Why is your Harvard professor’s opinion more valid than that of any schlub who can navigate over to WebMD? 

Perhaps it’s time to rethink what makes a good expert witness.  Although affiliation with a prestigious institution and winning awards are always nice qualities in a witness, they matter less in a world where the public is skeptical of those institutions.  In fact, a nationwide survey we conducted last year revealed that only 6 percent said having a famous employer (such as Harvard or Stanford) was one of their most important factors in how credible they find an expert witness – the same number who chose how many awards the expert has received.

Instead of just trusting the authorities, today’s skeptical jurors want to be convinced that an expert is credible – and nothing speaks to these jurors like experience and clear communication.  In our survey, the number one factor survey respondents said they look for in an expert testimony is years of experience (75 percent), followed closely the ability to explain things in simple terms (71 percent).

From our perspective, these findings should play into both how you choose your experts and how you present them at trial.  In medical cases, it might be better to choose a local doctor who’s been practicing in the community for 30 years and excels at talking to regular people than a big-name university hotshot with no bedside manner.  When presenting your witness at trial, don’t gloss over that person’s experience in favor of chairmanships and accolades – let that witness talk about the thousands of patients he or she has treated and the reasons why he or she enjoys that particular specialty.  And it may even be necessary to “re-train” experienced witnesses on the important of explaining things clearly with a minimum of jargon.

If you’d like our help evaluating your witnesses and helping them appeal to today’s juries, we’d be happy to lend our perspective.  Contact Senior Vice President Claire Luna at cluna@juryimpact.net or 714-754-1010 to find out more about our witness evaluation and witness preparation services.

There’s No Question: Allow Juror Questions

The Boston Globe reported recently that jurors hearing a federal public corruption trial submitted an astounding 281 questions of witnesses through the presiding judge.  Based on that news, the ABA Journal posed a “Question of the Week” to its readers about whether the practice of allowing jurors to submit questions should be permitted.

This ignited a heated and sometimes nasty debate between those in favor and those opposed to the practice.  Our two cents?  In most circumstances, we enthusiastically favor juror questions.  A few reasons why:

• Clarity – In our experience, most juror questions are simply seeking clarity on a confusing or incomplete aspect of a witness’ testimony.  We believe allowing questions helps ensure your witness has gotten his or her point across in a way jurors understand and keeps the jury from deciding a case based on misinformation.
• You can be too close to the case – When you’ve spent months or years working on a case, sometimes you can “lose the forest for the trees” and misjudge what will be important for jurors.  Juror questions act as a safeguard in case you and your witnesses don’t recognize what jurors will find really important and want to know more about.
• The Googling epidemic – Our research has shown repeatedly that jurors think it’s OK to use the Internet to do research about a case they’re hearing, especially if it’s just for educational or clarification purposes.  The problem, of course, is you have no idea what they’ll find.  By answering jurors’ questions during trial, you can head off their impulse to do outside research.
• Questions are valuable intel – You can tell a lot by jurors’ questions – what they’re skeptical about, what they don’t understand and sometimes even which way they’re leaning.  These questions are the only real-time, concrete feedback you can get during a trial, and this information can help you adjust your strategy or shore up weak aspects of your case before it’s too late.

Based on the Globe article and ABA Journal debate, it seems the most common objections to allowing juror questions are that it encourages jurors to become advocates for one side or the other before the they hear all the evidence, and it takes the control of how the case is tried away from the attorneys. 

For the first criticism, we think simple procedural safeguards can prevent inappropriate advocacy.  For example, jurors should submit individual questions only (to avoid jurors discussing the case with each other) and should write their questions down for the judge and attorneys to consider.  That way nothing inappropriate or unduly biasing gets read in front of the jury.

Regarding lawyers controlling how the case is tried, we believe the modest amount of control you will give up by allowing questions is more than compensated for by the significant advantages of knowing what jurors want to hear and supplying them with the facts they need to come to an educated decision.  Just because you came into the trial with a plan and a strategy doesn’t mean it’s written in stone.

From our perspective, one of the great advantages of conducting focus group research before trying a case is it allows you to learn ahead of time what questions a jury might have and proactively answer them before jurors even ask.  If you’d like to learn more about our focus group process, or our online research process for lower-exposure cases, contact Senior Vice President Claire Luna at cluna@juryimpact.net or 714.754.1010.