November 11, 2020
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Topics: jury research, group voir dire, jury selection, Jeffrey T. Frederick, voir dire, trial consultant, questioning jurors, juror candor, looking good bias, juror, jury, improving voir dire, mastering voir dire, juries, majority response questions, mastering group voir dire, cyber juries, virtual juries
From Voir Dire to Verdict—Online Courtroom Project’s Demonstration Online Jury Trial Results are in!
July 16, 2020
From Voir Dire to Verdict—Online Courtroom Project’s Demonstration Online Jury Trial Results are in!
The Online Courtroom Project has just finished a comprehensive report on their two day online demonstration trial conducted on June 26th and 27th. With many courts struggling with significant case backlogs and balancing the health risks of holding in-person trials while continuing to provide access to our justice system, this report details how online jury trials can occur online. The report details the process of how we went about designing and testing an online trial, the obstacles we had to overcome, what happened over the two days, the observations of the judges and attorneys involved in the project, and recommendations for the courts and the legal profession on how to manage an online jury trial. Meant as preliminary user’s guide to help the justice system understand the nuts and bolts of this new arena, we hope to engage as many constituents of the courts to give them tools to deal with this new litigation world. Some of the highlights of the report include findings that:
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Topics: jury research, group voir dire, jury selection, Jeffrey T. Frederick, voir dire, trial consultant, questioning jurors, juror candor, looking good bias, juror, jury, improving voir dire, mastering voir dire, juries, majority response questions, mastering group voir dire, cyber juries, virtual juries
June 24, 2020
From Voir Dire to Verdict – View a Complete Free Live Demonstration Jury Trial, All Online!
On June 26th and 27th, the Online Courtroom Project will conduct a two-day demonstration trial entirely online to study the challenges and opportunities of applying technology solutions to today’s justice and court system.
With some courts reopening, an increase in new coronavirus cases, and public reluctance to show up for jury service, come join us as we tackle how the courts would handle an entire jury trial online complete with jury selection, witness testimony, evidence, opening statements and closing arguments, jury instructions and deliberations.
When: Friday June 26th, 2020 from 1pm – 5pm Eastern – Jury Selection and Opening Statements
Saturday June 27th, 2020 from 1pm – 5pm Eastern – Plaintiff and Defense Cases, Closing Arguments, and Deliberations
There are limited registration spots open, so register early! It will be recorded for later viewing.
https://civi.adobeconnect.com/ocpday1/event/event_info.html
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Topics: jury research, group voir dire, jury selection, Jeffrey T. Frederick, voir dire, trial consultant, questioning jurors, juror candor, looking good bias, juror, jury, improving voir dire, mastering voir dire, juries, majority response questions, mastering group voir dire, cyber juries, virtual juries
April 17, 2020
Jury Trials in the Age of Pandemics and Other Disasters/Disruptions
As of this writing, most jury trials have been halted. All but a handful of states have ordered nonessential personnel to stay at home. While many states and federal jurisdictions have set restart dates for the nonessential court functions (e.g., jury trials) in several weeks to several months, no one can confidently predict when and in what time sequence jury trials will resume across the nation. Not only is there uncertainty in the restart date(s), but numerous reports have warned of another wave or waves of COVID-19 outbreaks coming this fall and/or winter. All of these factors put jury trials in a fragile position in the near term and serve as a wake-up call highlighting the need for short-term solutions and for longer-term solutions (in response to potential illness outbreaks or local, regional, and national disasters/disruptions resulting from natural disasters and climate change).
First: I hope everyone reading this is safe and practicing appropriate COVID-19 hygiene.
Second: I hope we all do what we can to support those on the front lines of the epidemic; the medical workers, first responders, and grocery and pharmacy workers, among many others.
Now, Back To Jury Trials . . .
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Topics: jury research, group voir dire, jury selection, Jeffrey T. Frederick, voir dire, trial consultant, questioning jurors, juror candor, looking good bias, juror, jury, improving voir dire, mastering voir dire, juries, majority response questions, mastering group voir dire, cyber juries, virtual juries
January 17, 2020
News: “Oops!... I Did It Again”*: Dr. Frederick Comments on Using Big Data in Harvey Weinstein Jury Selection in New York Times Article
There have been many changes in how we approach jury selection (and case preparation) over the past decade. One change is the use of social media and big data in jury selection which I briefly discuss in an article on the jury selection for the Harvey Weinstein case appearing in the New York Times.
Read MoreFrom the New York Times . . .
Harvey Weinstein Jury Selection: Bias, Big Data and 'Likes'
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Topics: jury research, group voir dire, jury selection, Jeffrey T. Frederick, voir dire, trial consultant, questioning jurors, juror candor, looking good bias, juror, jury, improving voir dire, mastering voir dire, juries, majority response questions, mastering group voir dire
January 9, 2020
News: Dr. Frederick Comments on the Harvey Weinstein Jury Selection in New York Times Article
I hope that everyone has had a good holiday season and looks forward to a busy and prosperous 2020! While not exactly the cover of Rolling Stone, you can see my creative use of “Whoa” (a scientific term) in an article on the jury selection for the Harvey Weinstein case appearing in the New York Times.
From the New York Times . . .
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Topics: jury research, group voir dire, jury selection, Jeffrey T. Frederick, voir dire, trial consultant, questioning jurors, juror candor, looking good bias, juror, jury, improving voir dire, mastering voir dire, juries, majority response questions, mastering group voir dire
November 26, 2019
Dr. Frederick’s ABA Books on Jury Selection Part of 40% Off Cyber Monday Sale
Cyber Monday Sale – 40% Off + Free Shipping
Shop and save one day only with promo code CYBER19 on books, eBooks, and on-demand CLE products.
Cyber Monday - December 2nd
If you are interested in my books, it is easy to follow the following links below. BE SURE TO USE THE PROMO CODE “CYBER19” ON MONDAY, DECEMBER 2ND , TO RECEIVE THE 40% DISCOUNT.
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Topics: jury research, group voir dire, jury selection, Jeffrey T. Frederick, voir dire, trial consultant, questioning jurors, juror candor, looking good bias, juror, jury, improving voir dire, mastering voir dire, juries, majority response questions, mastering group voir dire
November 12, 2019
News: ABA Journal’s Modern Law Library Features Dr. Frederick Discussing Voir Dire and Jury Selection
Dr. Frederick discusses the four major goals of voir dire and jury selection and offers a number of practical tips that will help attorneys be more effective in the voir dire and jury selection process in a recent podcast from ABA Journal’s Modern Law Library. Numerous tips are presented in several critical areas, including understanding the nonverbal communication of jurors (both visual and auditory cues), how to phrase questions to get the information you want, and how to conduct voir dire questioning in ways that maximizes juror participation, honesty, and candor, among other topics.
From Modern Law Library . . .
The jury selection process can be one of the most challenging aspects of jury trial, and it is often the least-known trial lawyer skill. During this important process, trial lawyers should focus on identifying potential jurors who harbor some bias or have beliefs that would make them less beneficial than others.
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Topics: jury research, group voir dire, jury selection, Jeffrey T. Frederick, voir dire, trial consultant, questioning jurors, juror candor, looking good bias, juror, jury, improving voir dire, mastering voir dire, juries, majority response questions, mastering group voir dire
September 27, 2019
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Topics: jury research, group voir dire, jury selection, Jeffrey T. Frederick, voir dire, trial consultant, questioning jurors, juror candor, looking good bias, juror, jury, improving voir dire, mastering voir dire, juries, majority response questions, mastering group voir dire
June 12, 2019
Using Social Media News Posts in Jury Selection (and More)
It is becoming fairly commonplace for trial consultants, attorneys, and other entities to search for potential jurors’ social media presence. However, limiting internet investigations of potential jurors to traditional “Google searches,” Westlaw or similar databases, and searches of social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, among others, misses an underutilized, but important resource—news media postings on social media. Whether your case is criminal or civil, monitoring and storing relevant posts in their entirety is a must. This applies to both highly publicized and the not-so-highly publicized case. (Those in the latter category—hang tough. We will get there.)
Some Basics About News Media Posting on Social Media
We will consider primarily news media Facebook posts as they tend to be more informative and the usernames are more easily matched to potential jurors. However, some limited information can be derived from tweets (e.g., opinions/comments), if the potential juror’s twitter username is known. When a news source posts to its Facebook page, there are several types of information potentially available. First, there are the “reactions” to the post itself (Facebook currently offers five “reactions,” i.e., like, love, wow, angry, sad, and haha/laughing). Second, there are “shares” of the post to other Facebook users with those users having the opportunity to comment/reply and register a reaction. Third, there are the comments and replies to comments associated with the post. Finally, readers can register their reactions to both the comments and replies. Consider the following example involving a recent post on The Virginian-Pilot Facebook page regarding the filing of a lawsuit over the death of an inmate.
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Topics: jury research, group voir dire, jury selection, Jeffrey T. Frederick, voir dire, trial consultant, questioning jurors, juror candor, looking good bias, juror, jury, improving voir dire, mastering voir dire, juries, majority response questions, mastering group voir dire
