Discover effective, modern strategies for jury selection and overcome outdated, ineffective practices.
Jury selection is among the most important and determinative parts of trial practice yet most lawyers fear and loathe it. Mainly, that’s because even litigators seldom end up trying a case, so they don’t have much experience with it. Worse than that, law school either didn’t teach the right way to talk to and de-select jurors or taught it wrong. And even worse than that, there is so much legacy nonsense floating around from older lawyers who keep passing down bad practices for generational ineffectiveness. Join trial consultant Rich Matthews for an overview of the correct tactics and strategies to use in jury selection - or as he calls it, The Ten Dos and 10,000 Don’ts of Jury Selection. The speaker will tour an overall approach to shaping your panel and priming them to be open to your and your client’s case.Agenda
The Right Mindset- Meeting Jurors Where They Are
- Understanding Their Agenda . . . and Yours
- Juror Characteristics That Matter
- Purpose of Questioning Prospective Jurors
- Juror Questionnaires
- Verbal Voir Dire
- The Mini-Opening Statement Before Voir Dire (Where Available)
- The Anatomy of a Good Question
- The Autopsy of Common but Lousy Questions
- Common but Ineffective Lawyer Techniques to Avoid
- The Courage
- The Cement
Speaker(s)
Richard P. MatthewsJuryology
- Principal trial consultant of Juryology, located in San Francisco
- Combines research with psychology with artistic craft to get the best results from jurors
- Expertise includes separating jury issues from the legal issues; crafting the themes and frames that will shape juror perception of a case; writing openings and closings like an actual human actually speaks to other actual humans; witness preparation; and all things related to jury selection from juror questionnaires and voir dire questions to exercising cause and peremptory challenges
- Innovated the use of focus group results at mediations and in negotiations to achieve better settlements in a shorter time than clients had experienced without them
- Achieved successful results for both plaintiffs and defendants in the civil world, and prosecutors and defendants in criminal cases
- Appeared on national television and in major publications offering commentary on high profile trials
- Serves on the California Bar’s Litigation Section’s Committee for comment on proposed revisions to California’s standard jury instructions, lending his juror expertise to improving the understandability and clarity of jury instructions
- J.D. Degree, University of Oregon School of Law
