American Demographics: Marketing the Verdict

January 31, 1993 – American Demographics reports that trial lawyers increasingly apply market research tools—focus groups, surveys, and mock juries—to test case themes, showing that juror demographics, values, and phrasing can sway how evidence is perceived. The article highlights Behavioral Science Research’s PercepTrac system, which records minute-by-minute reactions from mock jurors and, according to its developer, predicts verdicts about 80% of the time; in a Florida road-widening condemnation dispute, avoiding the term “a taking” and using plain language improved the municipality’s position. It notes Bickel & Brewer’s in-house mock courtrooms and cites scholars Valerie Hans, Neil Vidmar, and Theodore Eisenberg, who say these methods are most useful in close, polarizing cases with heterogeneous juries and less useful when the evidence is strong.

“You want to use those tools most effectively so people will hear the facts and remember them.” — William A. Brewer III, American Demographics