Advance in technology offers lawyers on the spot evaluation of their case – and themselves – just days or hours before trial
BOSTON, Mass. — JuryTest.net, the leading provider of online mock trials since 2002, launched on-demand access to its suite of online case presentation and evaluation tools. Adding to its industry leading services, which combine audio presentations with visual evidence, JuryTest on-demand now provides unprecedented convenience and cost-savings to law firms and insurance clients.
The JuryTest system enables attorneys to record, edit and analyze case presentations any time of day or night. By creating the first “lawyer-driven” on demand system and removing technician and consultant costs, JuryTest has also brought the cost of pre-trial research to less than 1/20th the cost of traditional mock trials – and makes juror feedback available within minutes, rather than days or weeks.
“This brings the cost to about a twentieth of traditional mock trials, and lets lawyers do this on their schedule when the need the information most, day, night or weekend,” said Adam Rosen, JuryTest CEO.
“This totally changes the decision landscape on pre-trial research,” said Rosen, who said previously barriers of time, cost and inconvenience traditionally precluded pre-trial jury research in all but multi-million dollar cases.
“Instead of planning mock trials months before trial, JuryTest let’s lawyers learn about the strengths of their presentations right in the thick of their preparation, even the day before trial, which is exactly when they need it,” said Rosen, a lawyer and clinical psychologist.
About JuryTest.net
JuryTest enables lawyers create internet mock trials with the ease of making a phone call and a few clicks online. “We’ve removed the expensive facilities, consultants and jury costs, while retaining the realism of presentations in the lawyers own voice,” said CEO Adam Rosen. JuryTest is the only provider of on-demand focus groups and the first to permit assessment of not only case facts but lawyer presentation style. JuryTest is used by lawyers and insurance companies nationwide to develop settlement and trial strategy and has recently used to assess litigation risk from Hurricane Katrina. JuryTest case evaluations usually cost $1,000 – $3,000, depending primarily on case-length and number of jurors.
About the Company
JuryTest.net – Mock Trials Online at a Fraction of the Cost. Founded in 2002, JuryTest.net combines telephone and internet technology to create multimedia mock trials at a fraction of the cost of live, facility based focus groups. After a lawyer records a case argument using the JuryTest recording line (1.888.JURYTEST), the recording pops up in the lawyer’s casefolder on the JuryTest website, where the lawyer can add documents, photographs or witness video and select questions for jurors to address. Jurors are drawn from any venue in the country and lawyers can compare types of jurors with one-click sorting tools.
JuryTest CEO, Adam Rosen, a lawyer and psychologist, said cases may also be presented using video or text, but reports that the telephone / audio-visual presentations are by far the most popular.
“JuryTest gives lawyers complete control over this process, so they can get case feedback whenever they want using technology they are very comfortable with, basically a telephone and a web browser,” said Rosen.
JuryTest tools have also been used by major insurers to assess whole classes of litigation, including assessing litigation risk and settlement strategy in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
JuryTest was born of Rosen’s experience selling traditional mock trials in cost-conscious litigation environments, where he found resistance due to cost and time requirements. “Everyone wanted the jury feedback and loved it when they could get it, but they typically couldn’t justify a $40,000 mock trial unless they had a million plus case on their hands.” Rosen said that clients also found the weeks of planning for a mock trial that was often one large project a busy lawyers and litigation managers did not want to add to their schedule. “JuryTest solves the cost and convenience issue in one stroke,” says Rosen.
JuryTest has converted many former users of in-person mock trials:
Dennis Anti, a partner at New England’s Morrison, Mahoney and Miller used JuryTest to replace the regular use of in-person focus groups, which typically took weeks to plan and often took him out of the office for a full day. “[JuryTest] is extremely convenient and shows us what jurors are confused or concerned about and helped us get those issues clarified before we stepped into the courtroom,” said Anti.
David Baria, former president of the Mississippi Trial Lawyers association learned that jurors had doubts about his case and the injuries of his client, who looked too fit to the JuryTest jurors: “The juror reactions told me I really needed to present my client differently and show his impairments in court, rather than just have experts talk about them from the stand,” said Baria, who said the information helped him obtain a verdict in excess of a million dollars.
Patti Conrad, a long-time supervisor at one of the nation’s largest medical malpractice insurance companies, has used JuryTest to estimate case value, make settlement decisions and to persuade mediators and adversaries at mediation of settlements more in line with the JuryTest results.
Rosen said JuryTest’s role in promoting settlements may be one of its most unexplored values. “It reduces inherent inaccuracies in the case evaluation process, promotes consensus and helps all parties avoid the pain of unnecessary litigation,” said Rosen. “You couldn’t do this when it was a $40,000 6-week proposition,” said Rosen, “but it’s really a different world on the internet.”
About The Founder
Adam Rosen, J.D., Ph.D., Jury Consultant, is an attorney and practicing clinical psychologist on the faculty of Harvard Medical School. As a jury consultant, he conducts research for clients nationwide, helping clients develop litigation strategy based on juror reaction.
Rosen created JuryTest to broaden the availability of pre-trial focus group research beyond the narrow confines of multi-million dollar litigation. Rosen also offers consultation on planning JuryTest case presentations and implementation of JuryTest results in mediation and at trial.
Rosen said that online tools like JuryTest may be changing the landscape about pre-trial jury research.
“Clients love it because it can be done on a moment’s notice and the feedback is on their computer desktop often the next morning, or sooner.”
“In the hey day of the $40,000 mock trial,” said Rosen, “lawyers used to ask ‘can we really afford the time and money to research what jurors think of this case?'”
“Now,” according to Rosen, due to the changes in the speed, cost and convenience of this information “the question may be more and more ‘can we really afford not to find out what jurors think of our case?'”
[tags]JuryTest Online Mock Trials, Pre Trial Legal Research[/tags]
