Preventing Runaway Verdicts in High-Stakes Cases by Making It Easier for Juries to Decide the Most Difficult Issue
Recording of a 90-minute CLE video webinar with Q&A
This CLE webinar will offer personal injury trial counsel tools to help prevent runaway verdicts in high-stakes cases. The panel will explore the challenges that jurors have in deciding damage awards, the non-evidentiary and extra-legal methods they use to award damages, and what new research says about the themes and jury characteristics of high-damages jurors. The panel will offer ways counsel can plan better in the discovery process to provide jurors with more substantive methods to come to a reasonable number.
Outline
- Challenges jurors face in deciding noneconomic damages awards
- Nonevidentiary, extra-legal components to large damage jury awards
- Research findings about juror decision making
- Recommendations for defense counsel
Benefits
The panel will discuss these and other important issues:
- Do jurors who appear pessimistic about the future tend to give higher awards?
- How much sympathy should the defense show for a plaintiff to prevent a runaway verdict?
- How can counsel gauge juror beliefs about the plaintiff's resilience?
Faculty
Richard Gabriel
President
Decision Analysis
Mr. Gabriel is one of the preeminent trial consultants in the country. Since 1985, Mr. Gabriel has been a leader... | Read More
Mr. Gabriel is one of the preeminent trial consultants in the country. Since 1985, Mr. Gabriel has been a leader in the field of jury research, jury selection and litigation communication with experience in nearly 2,000 trials in both the civil and criminal arenas across the country. CBS News has said that Mr. Gabriel is “by reputation, one of the best trial consultants in the country.” He has assisted counsel in the Aaron Hernandez acquittal as well as the Casey Anthony, O.J. Simpson, Phil Spector, Enron, Whitewater, Kwame Kilpatrick, Heidi Fleiss, and numerous other high-profile civil and criminal matters. Three cases he has participated in have resulted in United States Supreme Court decisions. Mr. Gabriel is the author of Acquittal: An Insider Reveals the Stories and Strategies Behind Today’s Most Infamous Verdicts about his high-profile trial work, which was optioned by Warner Brothers and developed for CBS by Jerry Bruckheimer Productions. He is also the co-author of Jury Selection: Strategy and Science, as well as contributing to Bennett’s Guide to Jury Selection and Trial Dynamics. Mr. Gabriel was a regular columnist for Lawyers USA on trial strategy and has authored numerous articles on litigation communication, social science, and jury research for numerous State Bar Journals and other legal publications including the American Bar Association, the Daily Journal, The Jury Expert, Notre Dame, and Loyola Law Reviews. He has also written feature articles for CNN.com and HLN.com on noteworthy trials and political/social issues. Mr. Gabriel appears regularly on CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox, MSNBC, CNBC, and NPR as a commentator on high-profile trials.
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Emily Shaw
Senior Trial Consultant
Decision Analysis
Ms. Shaw is an award-winning researcher specializing in jury decision-making. She graduated with honors from the... | Read More
Ms. Shaw is an award-winning researcher specializing in jury decision-making. She graduated with honors from the University of Chicago and earned her Ph.D. in Psychological Science from the University of California, Irvine. Ms.Shaw has studied juror perceptions of evidence, credibility, conformity, lie-detection, race and implicit bias. She has published her jury studies in top journals such as Law and Human Behavior. Ms. Shaw has presented her jury findings at conferences across the country and has earned awards as both a researcher and a speaker. She has worked in trial consulting since 2015, including cases involving personal injury, medical malpractice, employment disputes, wrongful death and fraud. Ms.Shaw is experienced in leading focus groups and mock trials, designing surveys and analyzing data.
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