How to Prepare a Case Using a Mock Jury

A lawyer pursuing a lengthy and complex case has a hard road ahead. It can be difficult to know, come trial, what arguments to favor and how to present them. That's why many lawyers look to a mock jury for some valuable pre-trial practice. The purpose of a mock jury or a trial consultant is to let a lawyer or team of lawyers try out different approaches to their case, testing different arguments and lines of reasoning to see what works, what doesn't, and how a case will play out in a court.

The jury can be one of the most unpredictable parts of the case process. Juries or a trial consultant are randomly selected groups of individual men and women, so, in the abstract, it can be difficult to say to a certainty how a given group will respond to a case. This is why a mock jury can be a great help to lawyers -- a mock jury lets litigators try out different approaches to get a good idea of what results to expect.

So you can see that a mock jury is a lot like a focus group. Lawyers using the service select their jury personally and then gauge the group's reaction to a number of trial elements, including opening statements, closing statements, witness testimonies, and videos. Depending on a lawyer's needs, he or she can assemble a mock jury as small as six people and as large as twenty.

There are different forms of a mock jury or a trial consultant -- those conducted in-person and those conducted online. An in-person mock jury can be somewhat expensive, but if the case is large and complicated enough then the ends will certainly justify the means.

An online mock jury is newer, less expensive, and just as effective. These form of mock juries allow lawyers to perform their arguments through their computers rather than presenting to groups of people in-person.

All together, the online mock jury is a more convenient way of performing mock jury trials. The approach allows for the selection of people from far and wide to serve as virtual jury members. Once selected, virtual jurors will review a lawyer's trial submissions and respond electronically.

A mock jury is an incredibly useful tool in any lawyer's case, especially a high stakes case. Just as an athlete needs to scrimmage, an attorney involved in a large, complex and engrossing legal case needs to run through his or her arguments to find the very best approach. For this, a mock jury can be a valuable aid.