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TRIAL DYNAMICS
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How Well Do You Know Your Case?
How well do you think you know your cases? I don’t mean the deadlines for discovery or the legal rulings by the judge. I mean, how well...

Jessica Brylo
Apr 13, 20174 min read
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The Various Shapes, Sizes, and Costs of Focus Groups
Over the years, I’ve come to realize that a good majority of attorneys believe that there are only one or two variations of focus groups...

Jessica Brylo
Feb 16, 20135 min read
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Powers of Confirmation Bias: Juror Interview Clips
Confirmation bias is the tendency for a person to distort information to fit with existing beliefs. Any information that conflicts with...

Jessica Brylo
Nov 13, 20123 min read
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Power of the Self-Protective Mechanism
I was running some focus groups this past weekend on a negligence case where the main issues were causation and damages. Without breaking...

Jessica Brylo
Oct 5, 20122 min read
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Jurors United? Something to Consider During Jury Selection
The jurors in the Drew Peterson case are drawing some media attention. While it seems to be out of a movie (Runaway Jury, in fact), the...

Jessica Brylo
Sep 6, 20122 min read
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Keeping Jurors Awake and Interested
On my days off, I walk into my nearest courtroom and watch jury trials. I look for how long it takes me to figure out what the case is...

Jessica Brylo
Jul 26, 20122 min read
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Maximizing your Budget for Voir Dire
The more I am called in to help attorneys with jury selection, the more I realize their money may have been spent better elsewhere. Am I...

Jessica Brylo
May 7, 20122 min read
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Lessons from a Defense Verdict
A few weeks ago, I watched some very seasoned attorneys try a negligence case. I was only able to watch one day of testimony but spoke...

Jessica Brylo
Apr 15, 20123 min read
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From the Mouths of Babes [Jurors]
This post is a plug for focus groups – not necessarily done by me, although I welcome the opportunity always – but done by anyone who...

Jessica Brylo
Mar 9, 20122 min read
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Why Should You Keep Old Jury Lists?
This post is not strategy-related, but as a practical matter, I often run into an issue when working on focus grouping a case that can be...

Jessica Brylo
Feb 21, 20123 min read
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How to Use “Herd Mentality” to Your Advantage
As advanced as humans are, we are still primitively just mammals belonging to a herd. Animals and people stay in herds because it...

Jessica Brylo
Feb 6, 20122 min read
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What Do Jurors Care About?
Do you ever feel like jurors decided your case randomly or based on something other than the evidence you presented? It’s highly...

Jessica Brylo
Jan 12, 20123 min read
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Mistakes in “Polarizing” – Are You Hurting Your Case?
If you are a Plaintiff’s attorney and have not yet read Rick Friedman’s “Polarizing the Case,” I highly suggest it – and this post...

Jessica Brylo
Dec 7, 20112 min read
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Unreliability of Eyewitness Memory & How to Counteract It
If you’ve spent any time interviewing jurors, you know that eyewitness testimony holds great weight. And if you’ve spent any time...

Jessica Brylo
Nov 20, 20112 min read
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Watch for Inconsistencies
In my last post, I talked about trusting jurors. The flip side to that is that you need to be trustworthy. There are many elements that...

Jessica Brylo
Nov 9, 20112 min read
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Detecting Lies During Voir Dire
There have been many studies done on lie detection and the results are often disheartening. Most of us, including police officers, fare...

Jessica Brylo
Oct 22, 20112 min read
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A Look At the New Argumentative Theory of Reasoning
In one of my previous posts, a reader asked about a new theory called Argumentative Theory or Argumentative Reasoning. I thought it...

Jessica Brylo
Oct 10, 20112 min read
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How Well Can You Predict the Outcome of Your Case?
In my years of studying jurors, I have come to find attorneys just as intriguing. Attorneys know their cases extremely well. So well,...

Jessica Brylo
Oct 2, 20114 min read
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Lessons from the Deliberation Room
When you go through law school, socialize with other attorneys, and draft motions directed to attorneys and judges, you can easily lose...

Jessica Brylo
Sep 25, 20115 min read
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Acts vs. Omissions – A Small But Powerful Difference
You’re creating the story of your case for opening and trial. You have a situation where a business allowed an unsafe condition to exist...

Jessica Brylo
Sep 15, 20112 min read
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