You have spent days, weeks, and months working with your client, uncovering the facts of your case, and trying to identify how to win. Now, you need to figure out how to put your trial story together in a way that will be persuasive to jurors.
Very often, you have spent so much time with the case and the facts surrounding it that you start to get tunnel vision, or as I like to call it, “lawyer vision.” Normal humans don’t necessarily see the facts the way that you do as a lawyer.
One of the things that can help you move past “lawyer vision” is conducting a focus group. You’ll have the opportunity to see what the average person thinks about the facts of your case.
Focus groups can have some significant benefits:
- Case evaluation: You can gauge how potential jurors may perceive your case and assess the strengths and weaknesses of your arguments and evidence. This feedback enables you to refine your strategies and identify areas that may require further investigation or clarification.
- Jury selection: You can gain insights into the characteristics, attitudes, and biases of potential jurors. This information can help you make informed decisions during jury selection, increasing the chances of selecting jurors who are more likely to be receptive to your case.
- Witness preparation: Focus groups can be used to test the effectiveness of witness testimony and identify potential weaknesses or areas that need improvement. You can gather feedback on witness credibility, likability, and persuasiveness, allowing you to better prepare witnesses for trial.
- Case presentation refinement: Observing focus group reactions can help you refine your case presentation, including opening and closing statements, visual aids, demonstrative evidence, and arguments. You can identify which arguments and evidence resonate most with the focus group members, enabling you to tailor your presentation to maximize persuasive impact.
- Settlement negotiations: The feedback obtained from focus groups can assist you in assessing the potential value of their case and understanding the risks and merits associated with going to trial. This information can inform settlement negotiations and help you and your client make more informed decisions regarding settlement offers.
If you’d like to focus group your case, I’d love to be your facilitator.
Here’s what my process looks like:
- Schedule an initial zoom meeting with me to discuss the issues in your case and your goals for the focus group.
- Send me any discovery you’d like me to review before our meeting.
- We’ll pick a date and time for the focus group.
- I’ll create a focus group plan and present it to you so that we can refine it together.
- I’ll facilitate the focus group.
- The focus group will be recorded.
- I’ll provide you with a copy of the focus group recording, along with a detailed report analyzing the results of the focus group.
- We’ll schedule a zoom meeting to debrief about the results of the focus group.
Book your focus group here.
