Deliberations
This blawg covers jury matters of all kinds and their implications for trial lawyers, from new case law, social science research, current trials, and the blogosphere. The site includes a section collecting sample juror questionnaires to assist lawyers preparing for voir dire.
Author: Anne Reed is a trial lawyer and jury consultant. She is a partner at Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren in Milwaukee.
Blawg Related Categories: Criminal Justice • Death Penalty • Sentencing/Post Conviction • Trials & Litigation • Juries • Partner • Blawg 100
Recent Posts from Deliberations
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Values And Voir Dire
Most trial lawyers hope their jurors will be alert, attentive, honest, and fair. Some lawyers, though, need more: they need jurors who can be noble. Defense lawyers in death cases come first to mind, but…
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Update: Scrushy "Juror E-mails" Forged?
Remember how the corruption conviction of HealthSouth's Richard Scrushy and former Alabama governor Richard Siegelman was called into question when it looked like the jurors were researching the case on line and E-mailing their findings…
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What Is The Sound Of One Juror Clapping?
How do you know the trial isn't going well? When a juror applauds your opponent's closing rebuttal, that's a pretty good clue. The California Court of Appeal described the scene: During his rebuttal argument, respondent's…
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What Can A Mock Trial Tell You?
That's the title TRIAL Magazine gave to my article in their July 2008 issue. That link is to a .pdf copy uploaded here, so you don't need to be an AAJ member to read it.…
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Your Client, The Jury, And You
One of my law partners was called for jury duty awhile back. He returned with a striking story, a sort of Tale Of Two Lawyers. Defense counsel, he reported, sat with his client at counsel…
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"Stop Thinking Like A Lawyer!"
"Most of your most cherished beliefs about juries are wrong." So begins jury consultant Patricia Steele of Varinsky Associates in her article "To Deal Better With Juries, Stop Thinking Like A Lawyer!" She should know…
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Respect
There are two juror stories in the legal blogs today, each illuminating in a different way the level of respect we give to jurors. "We listened, we thought, we argued, we went on" First is…
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It's About Race. It's Not About Race.
It's a familiar moment in many mock trials or focus groups where the key players on each side are of different races, but race wasn't explicit in whatever interaction led them to be opposing each…
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The Secret Message In Every Bumper Sticker
I love the bumper sticker question in voir dire. I've met lawyers and seen journalists who are surprised by it, or think it's intrusive, but when you think about it, it's a no-brainer. If a…
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"Blind Strikes" Okay In Second Circuit, And Elsewhere
Yesterday brought another opinion holding that the "blind strike" method of selecting jurors is constitutional, permitted by the rules, and otherwise just fine. If you don't practice in courts where the "blind strike" method is…