Duke Law News & Events
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Jury Consultant Business is Booming: Professor Neil Vidmar spoke to the Dallas Morning News on the trend The Dallas Morning News observed in a June 6 article that jury consultants - experts who advise lawyers on which jurors to impanel and which to strike - have become as commonplace in the courtroom as expert witnesses.Duke Law School Professor Neil Vidmar agreed. "The jury expert business has simply exploded," Vidmar, who has written on medical malpractice cases and the American jury and recently published a book, World Jury Systems (2000), told the Morning News. "They used to only pop up in the most extreme criminal cases and everyone made fun of them as pseudo-scientists," said Vidmar, a Ph.D social psychologist. "Now, it's almost legal malpractice for lawyers not to hire them in big cases." Vidmar and others noted that problems arise when jury consultants rely on stereotypes such as race, gender, age, income or some other factor to decide if a juror will be fair and open-minded. "There are jury consultants who strike a juror because he is wearing a light blue or green sport coat instead of the dark blue or dark gray jacket, which they believe signifies strength or authority," Vidmar said. "But it could just be that all the guy's dark blue and gray suits were at the dry cleaner, and he would make a great juror for them." Related Links: |
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