TEXAS lawyer Chris
Bagby has come up with a less expensive way to get a feel for
how a jury will react to arguments.
Bagby started eJury
after being inspired by a Dateline television show that
featured coverage of a trial.
The concept gave him the idea of having lawyers pre-try
cases before online juries.
Turnaround time for completing a mock jury on the internet
can be as little as 48 hours for large metropolitan areas in
the US, and a week or two in rural areas where it takes longer
to reach the 50-juror threshold.
Virtual juries will make decisions without watching trial
simulation and without the peer pressure that can accompany
jury deliberations.
Typically, Bagby says, the company's e-jurors are asked to
review a set of facts and then answer questions.
Presentation of facts differs greatly depending on the
style of the drafting lawyer.
Sometimes the facts include photographs, scanned documents
and video clips.
The case concludes when a set number of e-jurors (50 in
most cases) have entered their verdicts.
Bagby says the process begins by compiling the results for
the lawyer.
Results include each verdict along with a corresponding
demographic profile of each e-juror.
Additionally, the lawyer receives a statistical summary
revealing the average findings of the group as a whole, as
well as several subcategories.
From this information the lawyer can detect the best and
worst jurors for a case.
After studying the answers to personal questions, the
lawyer also will learn the strongest and weakest points in the
case.
Charges for eJury are based on the amount of information
used by the submitting lawyer to present the case, $US300
(about $400) a page of facts that includes up to five jury
questions and up to five personal questions.
Prices last year ranged from $US600 to $US5500, the average
being $US1500.
Bagby says competition comes from traditional offline jury
consultants, who bring smaller groups of people together in
live setting for focus groups and mock trials.
Many of these consultants are seeking to add an online
component because their customers are demanding a cheaper
alternative.
I think we will see many companies, much like eJury, whose
main service offering is the online version, he says.
