Personal Injury Law

Reading Jurors

The Legal Intelligencer has a blog with a smart title any trial lawyer would love: ?Beware of the Smiling Juror.? In their heads, lawyers agree with the premise of the article which is: trying to read jurors is a complete waste of energy. But at trial, our hearts overrule our heads and we find ourselves interpreting more useless clues than we ever did on the dating circuit.

With respect to the smiling juror, the author writes:

Of course, we also have the ever-mysterious ?smiling juror.? Many of us may have encountered that person who looks right at us when we give our presentations with a grin on her face. That person can make us feel good because a smile is typically a friendly gesture by someone who likes us and agrees with us ? unless it is not. That beaming smile, as we all know, can also be a sign that this particular juror is happy to have the opportunity to stick it to us the first chance she gets.

Continuing with the heart/head metaphor, a plaintiffs' personal injury trial lawyer's head knows that the case is ultimately about whether the jurors believe the client is entitled to compensation? Does it help if the jury likes the client or the lawyer? Sure. Jurors are just like us. But, ultimately in many more cases than not, the jury comes to a fair resolution based on what they believe the evidence to be.

Full post as published by Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog on February 15, 2011 (boomark / email).